Notable Mentions

The trouble with doing a "Best Of Decade So Far" list, is that things that deserve to be in there keep on getting released after you've already started counting down. Instead of revising the entire list every time I heard some music I liked, I'm just adding in ten albums that would have been in there if I'd heard them before I started in September...

#10: Blink-182 - Neighborhoods


I wasn't impressed with Blink-182's last album - in which they decided to grow up, and write music that did not centre around dick and fart jokes. The band's comeback album released earlier in the year is also a "mature" effort, but is much stronger all around.

#9: Korn - The Path Of Totality


Korn do a dub-step/metal crossover album and think they've invented something entirely new. Considering dub-step just sounds like industrial metal with the metal taken out, what they've really created is something that Nine Inch Nails were working on 20 years ago. Whilst not as groundbreaking as they'd like to believe, it still has some good music in there, though.

#8: Mastodon - The Hunter


One of the strangest bands to gain mainstream success, Mastodon return with more of their trademark prog metal.

#7: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds


The second of two albums released this year from new projects' featuring the recently departed Gallagher brothers. 'High Flying Birds' is the better of the two in almost every possible way.

#6: Jane's Addiction - The Great Escape Artist


The first Jane's Addiction album since 2003, following their successful fourth reunion tour. I'd take the chance to see them live now, because you never know when they're going to get pissed off with each other again. The role of bass player is shared between Chris Chaney (who played on 'Strays' and the subsequent tour), and David Andrew Sitek, but three songs ('Broken People', 'Words Right Out Of My Mouth' and 'Ultimate Reason') were co-written by the bass player the band originally wanted to record with them... none other than the musician that has had the most words written about him on this blog of any other, Duff McKagan.

#5: Orianthi - Fire E.P.


After the pop-rock of her previous album 'Believe', Orianthi released this five track E.P. exclusively on iTunes earlier in the year as a taster for the album she's currently working on with Dave Stewart. This is far harder in style, and I'm hoping next year will see her emerge as more than just "the guitarist for Michael Jackson's shows that never happened".

#4: SuperHeavy - SuperHeavy


Speaking of Dave Stewart, here he is again with the band he formed after hearing all of the different styles of music being played in a street in Jamaica. His first phonecall was to Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones (dooming the band to be known as a Rolling Stones side-project), and they later brought in Damian (son of Bob) Marley, Indian pop/Bollywood composer legend A.R. Rahman (he wrote 'Jai Ho' which most people probably remember for the awful Pussycat Dolls version), and one of the greatest young female singers the world has to offer, Joss Stone (she's also gorgeous... just thought I'd mention that). Doesn't sound like it should work, does it... but make no mistake, SuperHeavy is one of the most inventive, original, catchy and surprising albums of 2011. The combination of styles, and the mixture of young and old artists actually perfectly compliment each other, so you get tracks like the single 'Miracle Worker', the ragga of 'Energy' and the very Indian 'Satyameva Jayathe' all in a row. It might not be my favourite album of the decade, or even the year... but it's certainly the most unexpected.

#3: Nas/Damian Marley - Distant Relatives


It was after listening to 'SuperHeavy' that I decided to look into the back-catalogue of Damian Marley, and found this gem from 2010. Taking their common African heritage as an inspiration, he and rapper Nas produced a collaborative album which showcases both of their particular talents in hip-hop and reggae. I should probably whisper it when I say this is better than Jay-Z and Kanye West, shouldn't I.

#2: Puscifer - Conditions Of My Parole


Maynard James Keenan and a long list of collaborators bring you 'Conditions Of My Parole', the second full length studio album from Puscifer (basically an outlet for any idea Maynard has that wouldn't fit onto a Tool or A Perfect Circle album). It's hard to actually pin down exactly what kind of music this is, but one thing's for sure, it's a great one. When checking out Puscifer, please bypass 'V Is For Vagina' completely and go straight for this (and the iTunes only E.P. - 'C Is For (Please Insert Sophomoric Genitalia Reference Here)'.

#1: Evanescence - Evanescence


Amy Lee returns with the lastest incarnation of Evanescence (this time featuring Terry Balsamo, Tim McCord, Troy McLawhorn and Will Hunt), to release a self-titled album that's far more confident than either of it's two predecessors. Not as unashamedly commercial (or compromised) as 'Fallen', and not as experimental as 'The Open Door', they seem to have found an even balance between the two that lets them just get along with writing some great tunes. Back in 2003, no one would have guessed that not only would this band (a seemingly flash-in-the-pan answer to Linkin Park) still be successful in 2011, but they'll also be ten times better than they were then. Once band members started leaving and Amy gained the drivers seat, she took a "music first" approach that they really should have taken in the first place, and decided to release albums when they thought they had something good enough to release instead of saturating the market with clones of their first album. It's working for them for the most part - though 'What You Want' is notably, well... shit, the rest of the album more than makes up for it.