11....
The Kills released Blood Pressures and from that Baby Says and Future Starts Slow are belters.
St Vincent released Strange Mercy and from that Chloe in The Afternoon is the standout.
The King of Limbs by Radiohead gave us Feral.
Wild Flag and their self titled sole album was a cracker - Romance gets the call here.
Arctic Monkeys gave us Suck it and See, She's Thunderstorms the highlight.
Build a Rocket Boys by Elbow - Lippy Kids, is just gorgeous.
Anna Calvi and her self titled debut was probably my 2nd favourite album of 2011 - Suzanne and I, the best from it for me.
But 2011 saw the release of an album that sits in my top 3 of all time and maybe at the very top of the pile....an album that is just a towering achievement by the artist i consider the greatest of all time.
Masterpiece, magnus opus, high watermark - i can't throw enough superlatives at this album.
LET ENGLAND SHAKE - PJ HARVEY
The problem is picking just one song from this incredible set of songs.
But one songs it has to be.....
I give you - ALL AND EVERYONE by PJ Harvey.
Death was everywhere,
In the air
And in the sounds
Coming off the mounds
Of Bolton's Ridge.
Death's anchorage.
When you rolled a smoke
Or told a joke,
It was in the laughter
And drinking water
It approached the beach
As strings of cutters,
Dropped in the sea and lay around us.
Death was in the ancient fortress,
Shelled by a million bullets
From gunners, waiting in the copses
With hearts that threatened to pop their boxes,
As we advanced into the sun
Death was all and everyone.
Death was all and everyone.
As we advance in the sun
As we advancing every man
As we advancing in the sun
Death hung in the smoke and clung
To four hundred acres of useless beachfront.
A bank of red earth, dripping down
Dead is now, and now, and now
Death was everywhere
In the air
And in the sounds
Coming off the mounds
Of Bolton's Ridge.
Death's anchorage.
Death was in the staring sun,
Fixing its eyes on everyone.
It rattled the bones of the Night Horsemen
Still lying out there in the open
As we, advancing in the sun
As we, advancing every man
As we, advancing in the sun
Sing "Death to all and everyone."
Reading the lyrics alone make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up....the song slays me, absolutely slays me.
ALL AND EVERYONE - PJ HARVEY