CHIRP: The Chicago Independent Radio Project

Shawn Campbell writes

CHIRP Radio Best of 2011 (Shawn Campbell)

Throughout December CHIRP Radio presents its members’ top albums of 2011. Our final list is from CHIRP Radio President and Founder Shawn Campbell.

(Click here to get the complete list of CHIRP Radio members’ picks.)

1. Seapony – Go With Me (Hardly Art)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   Who needs groundbreaking when you have a record this lovely and breezy? As a sucker for a great pop song, I fell under the spell of Seapony the first time I heard them, and probably listened to this album more than any other in 2011.
2. Wax Idols – No Future (HoZac)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   Wax Idols meld multiple decades of sound into their hyper-catchy garage rock. There’s a bit of 60s girl group, some 70s postpunk, 80s tough grrrl rock, all blending together nicely in a record that reveals a little more with each listen.
3. Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 (Capitol)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   This old school blast from the Beastie Boys made me tremendously happy. Clever enough to be satisfying, dumb enough to be fun.
4. Disappears – Guider (kranky)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   There’s always been something enticingly ominous about Disappears, and Guider delivered more of that dark, driving energy. In fact, it almost feels like the second half of a double album with last year’s Lux – there’s not a lot of evolution, but there’s an equally strong set of songs.
5. Gold-Bears – Are You Falling in Love? (Slumberland)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   While I liked this year’s Pains of Being Pure at Heart record, Gold-Bears grabbed the fuzzy C86 spot in my heart that The Pains’ self-titled album held in 2009. Catchy songs buzz and soar, teenage heartache abounds, and there’s just a little more oomph behind it all.
6. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar (Atlantic/Canvasback)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   Giant, swirling walls of guitar and a tremendous sense of intensity, that great build-up and release, made The Big Roar perhaps the best shoegaze album since the heyday of My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive.
7. Wild Flag – Wild Flag (Merge)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   I loved the fact that one of the most anticipated records this year was from a group of women in their 30s and 40s – and that, at the end of the day, all the excitement was completely merited with a strong set of rock songs and a really great energy.
8. Tashaki Miyaki – 12” EP (Self-Released)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   Fuzzy, druggy pop songs, heavy on the reverb, half girl group, have Velvet Underground – a formula I’m virtually powerless against when the songs are good. And these are good. Bonus points for the cover of Buddy Holly’s “Heartbeat.”
9. Mickey – Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreamer (HoZac)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   What’s not to love about scuzzy glam garage from Chicago? Replace a few ‘s’s with ‘z’s, a few ‘y’s with ‘ee’s, in titles like Bright Lights Big City, Kids in Love, and Baby We’re Gold, and this album could sit proudly next to the likes of Sweet and Slade.
10. Stone Darling – All I Wanna Do 7” (Self-Released)
    BUY: Insound / iTunes
    I don’t particularly like including a single on my best-of list, but this song haunted me for the second half of the year. Gorgeous harmonies, lush and lovely, and no, not a lost Mazzy Star track.

Honorable Mentions

• Beach Fossils / What a Pleasure EP / Captured Tracks
  
  A Classic Education / Call It Blazing / Lefse
  
  Swiftumz / Don’t Trip / Holy Mountain
  
  Charles Bradley / No Time for Dreaming / Daptone
  
  Evans the Death / Threads 7” / Fortuna Pop!