2011: From Bon Iver to Monty Burns | New music | The Arts Desk

 

For about an hour in Hammersmith last October it seemed that all 2011's new music had coagulated into some kind of supernova and was exploding on stage. There were two drum kits, nine musicians, and a nerdy, lanky man singing like an alien. The support act had told us to expect something special and was it ever: Bon Iver’s extraordinary live reimagining of their bucolic, eponymous album took in folk, prog, soul, metal and avant garde. It also pretty much embodied my review year.

Decibel for decibel Justin Vernon's folkies were now up there with Queens of the Stone Age who'd brought the Roundhouse down in May, or the Manics who'd relived their garage-rock days in Brixton in January. And if the Welsh rockers were earnestly exhilarating, QOTSA took their thrills to an alternative high with mainman Josh Homme (pictured above) acting like a shaman to an audience of punks, rockers, and stoners.

2011 opened for me, however, quietly, with two particularly magical CD releases from female singer-songwriters. PJ Harvey later won a second Mercury award with her very worthy Let England Shake. However, as good as Harvey's record was, Joan As Policewoman's husky homage to Seventies' soul, the underrated The Deep Field, was even better. The Mercury award nominations (in July) also included two remarkable odes to two small fishing villages. Fom Devon, Joseph Mount’s Metronomy brought us the seductive The English Riviera (my CD of the year) and from Fife, elf-like King Creosote teamed up with composer John Hopkins for the sublimely evocative Diamond Mine.

via www.theartsdesk.com