The Countdown Continues with No. 5, PJ Harvey

Continuing today, and culminating with REVERBERATIONS number one album of the year, we’ll be counting down the top twenty-five records of 2011. I’m referring to this countdown as Twenty-five Faves because I have no pretenses about telling you what’s “best.” Sure, I think my taste is better than yours. But nobody died and made me Lester Bangs. And Lester could be arrogant, but I kind of think he would come down on the favorite side of the fave/best dichotomy. His criticism was nothing if not personal. 

I've reviewed the majority of these selections. In the event that I have I'll simply recycle the original reviews, sometimes with a little new commentary. If it's a selection I haven't reviewed previously, I will dash off a new, brief, introductory review just for perspective.

Joining:

25. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for my Halo (Matador)
24. Fountains of Wayne - Sky Full of Holes (Yep Roc)
23. Bass Drum of Death - GB City (Fat Possum)
22. Coathangers - Larceny and Old Lace (Suicide Squeeze)
21. Meg Baird - Seasons on Earth (Drag City)

20. White Fence - Is Growing Faith (Woodsist)

19. Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams (Sub Pop) 

18. Steve Cropper - Dedicated (429 Records) 

17. Thee Oh Sees - carrion crawler/the dream ep (In the Red) 

16. Sonny and the Sunsets - Hit After Hit (Fat Possum) 

15. Tom Waits - Bad as Me (Anti)

14. Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know (Ribbon) 

13. Pete and the Pirates - One Thousand Pictures (Stolen Recordings/U.K.)

12. Jolie Holland - A Pint of Blood (Anti)

11. Wild Flag - s/t (Merge)
10. Vaccines - What Did You Expect From the Vaccines (Columbia)

  9. Jack Oblivian - Rat City (Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum)

  8. Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer (Merge)

  7. New York Dolls - Dancing Backwards in High Heels (429 Records)

  6. Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin' (Columbia)

 

 

At No. 5 we have PJ Harvey and Let England Shake (Vagrant). This is a timeless piece of work from one of the finest artists or the present era. REVERBERATIONS reviewed Let England Shake in March. Here's that review:

http://stevemahoot.blogspot.com/2011/03/pj-harvey-let-england-shake-vagrant.html


Be sure to enjoy the video featuring PJ and Bjork's rendition of "Satisfaction." It's a stunner.