James

My last journal entry was a review of the hidden gems of 2010. Now, one year on I am once again looking back at the past year in music. I haven't listened to as much new releases as last year, mainly setting them aside to wallow in my music collection and revisit albums which I hadn't yet grown to love. Let's us start off with what this year was like for me.
At the end of 2010 I was the lowest of the low. I had lost all of my friends that year and I basically had nobody left. It was the worst stage of the loneliness that has plagued me for a while now and I was in a very dark place. If 2010 was the year where I burnt all my bridges, 2011 was the year I built more. Better bridges, like the previous bridges were ramshackle wooden bridges and the new ones are made of a strong corregated iron....I'll stop now, might be milking this metaphor a bit.
From the very beginning 2011 was a hell of a lot better. I was pleased with my prelim results, I got high for the first time and most of all I got a hell of a lot closer to a girl I knew and we soon became the inseperable, best friend types....I was invited to a st patricks day party where I got drunk for the first time, that was where I met my new friends. After a few meetups I was a fully fledged member of their group and I haven't looked back, my dark days were over - I was happy again.
Until I broke away the denial and realised me and the aforementioned girl were not friends. I liked her. I really liked her. I worked up the courage to tell her and everything f*cked up from there. She didn't feel the same, we drifted apart, she got a boyfriend, they broke up, we don't even acknowledge eachother anymore. Six months down the line I still feel the same. Everytime I try to get over it just comes back and hits me again, twice as hard as before. There was a moment when I satrted to like someone else, then she came out of the closet to me whilst drunk. So I decided against that and just about then me and the original girl had the first conversation in months and now I am as bad as ever.
Tagging my whole year with "unrequited love" would be an exaggeration. It was a large part of it but it's still been quite an amazing year, but with overviews I find it hard not to focus on the negatives. My dad got married, that was fun. But then my grandpa was dreadfully ill in hospital for a while. I turned sixteen, I can buy scratchcards but the idea of being an adult is terrifying. Thinking about time right now makes me head hurt at the moment. The fact is, in a year and a bit i'll be getting ready for university. It's like I am getting ready to be born again, there's a countdown and once it reaches the bottom I have to restart everything that I have achieved in the last six years. It feels as if I am goin back to the first day of primary school, not knowing anybody and suddenly expected to maintain all thse new responsibilities. I can get a job, I can get married, I can concieve a child. It's crazy. i still feel like a child myself.
Overall, 2011 has had it's ups and downs. It's been the best year of my life up until this point. I pray 2012 be even better.


2011 has been a strange year musicwise. It seems as the years go by the music scene gets more peculiar. It's like a huge melting pot of different styles, a giant pot of soup that is cooking. Constantly adding new ingredients and seasoning. As previously mentioned I have been unbelieanly out of the loop these past few months but before that I had kept up to date and I have been catching up this last week.

In terms of big music news we had The Stone Roses reunion. I was originally going to TITP too but decided not to go because of lack of funds. I will no doubt regret it when I hear next year about how the minds of thousands were blown by a phenomenal performance but until then I am not too bothered. Amy Winehouse passed away, I was never a fan but it was a tragic loss of a beautiful voice. It made me see what awful attitudes people had towards death when I heard the uproar after her passing. My facebook feed was flooded with horrible comments like "F*cking junkie scum deserved it" and "Just another drug addict of the streets". It says a lot for the respect people have for the artist's in the spotlight when human lives are being trivialised like that. In 2010 some of the greatest musicians of all time were taken from us - Mark Linkous, Alex Chilton, Jay Reatard. I feel sad whenever I hear about deaths but thankfully none of my favourite artists left us this year. Also Steps reformed and Westlife disbanded.

Me, when Westlife broke up

Me, when Steps got back together.

In terms of releases, this year has once again overwhelmed me with the eclectic masses of new music. A quick look at the Rate Your Music charts and the end of year lists on Pitchfork, Tiny Mix Tapes and The Quietus makes it clear that PJ Harvey's "Let England Shake" is an album that many publications consider a great achievement. I personally don't think it deserves to be considered the best album this year. It's enjoyable enough but if you observe Polly Jean's previous albums and how they have been rated for their respective years it's ridiculous. Dry was rated the fiftieth greatest album of the year and I find it a lot better than Let England Shake. Dry is an album of such honesty, intensity and rawness, it just blows me away every time. Let England Shake is warm, welcoming and most of all, it's filled with catchy pop songs. They're both fantastic and my preference will most likely say more about my tastes instead of the quality of the albums. What it says more than anything else however, is PJ Harvey's diversity as a musician. In a career which spans almost two decades, she's been almost impossible to nail down, evolving her style from album to album.

My choice for the album of the year would be ****ed Up's David Comes To Life (Only #240 on the RYM charts for 2011). Hardcore punk has a bad reputation. Most music snobs consider it simple, barbaric and lacking in substance. With David Comes To Life, ****ed Up prove them wrong in one of the most ambitious albums Hardcore Punk has ever seen. It's a concept album, telling the story of David and Veronica as they fall in love and likewise, drift apart. I happen to love Damian Abraham's screams. 2011 has been a great year for illustrating that great punk is not dead and brilliant modern punk albums do exist. Along with the energy of Iceage's New Brigade, the lyrical flare and storytelling of La Dispute's Wildlife and the heavy crust stylings of Amebix's Sonic Mass - ****ed Up have made for a great year in modern punk music.

****ed Up, in a rare fully clothed moment.

Getting late, I will do a list of honourable mentions tomorrow <3