Sparky's Favorite CDs of 2011

Sparky's Favorite CDs of 2011

Happy New Year!

I've stated it in years past, and I'll say it again... I really hate making year end lists! I play what I like and I like what I play, so everything that I play is a favorite in one way or another! At different times, in different ways, these discs are all my favorite. But I suppose I have to bite the bullet and put my "favorites" in some sort of an order.

Of course I haven't heard everything released in 2011 (I doubt if anyone actually could), and I don't have everything released in 2011 (maybe yours got lost in the post?). If I don't have it, it's not on the list. Sorry. Some tracks that I really love, I haven't heard the entire CD from whence they came, so I'm sorry if those are omitted from this list too.

One caveat, every artist here is an independent artist - I proudly admit they're the only kind of artist I listen to.

So here you go, my favorites of 2011*:

Top Ten ShockPop Favorite CDs of 2011:
1) The Red Button - As Far As Yesterday Goes
2) Skeleton Staff - Psychomorphism
3) The Big I Am - Collecting Skies
3-a) The Handcuffs - Waiting For The Robot*
4) Laurie Biagini - A Go-Go Girl In A Modern World 
5) Snippet - Slowly Slowly Catchee Monkey
5-a) Vegas With Randolph - Above The Blue*
6) Dark Ocean Colors - Dark Ocean Colors 
7) Tan Sleeve - Too Big To Fail 
8) Maxi Dunn - The Neglected Gambit 
9) Richard Snow & the InLaws - Am I Really That Boring?
10) Captain Wilberforce - Ghost Written Confessions 

Bubbling Under the Top Ten ShockPop Favs of 2011:

(any of these can be a top favorite at any time, and often are!)
Beachy Head Music Club - Oblong
Wim Oudijk - Tree
Dean Ford - Deaf. Dumb. In Love
Kurt Baker - Rockin' For A Living
Cult of Wedge - Tape Recorders Changed Everything
Gary Ritchie - Hum, Sing... Repeat
Army Navy - The Last Place
Keith Fellows - The Mandelbrot Set
Meyerman - Who do you think you are?
8X8 - The Anatomy Of An Apricot
David Stephenson - High Lonesome
The Dolphin Post - secondhand hearts
LAF - Random Play All

Favorite ShockPop EPs of 2011:
Jay Stansfield - The Jay Stansfield EP
PT Walkley - The Ghost Of Chivalry
The Foreign Films - Bill Majoros is The Foreign Films
Toxic Melons - Melon Jam
LL Cosmonaut - Why X5* 

Top Five "Just Good People" Favorite CDs from 2011:

(JGP tracks are freely played on ShockPop all the time, they're really crossover hits and make the SP Top Ten really a Top Fifteen!)

1) Joe Crookston - Darkling & The BlueBird Jubilee
2) The Big I Am - Better Days
3) John Evans - Eagle
4) Big Smith - Kin
5) Putnam Smith - we could be beekeepers 

Bubbling Under the JGP Top Five:
Biscuithead & the Biscuit Badgers - The Greatest Show on Toast
Keith Fellows - Exempli Gratia
Boys In The Well - Mostly Honest
Bombadil - All That the Rain Promises
Jude Cowan - Lamb & Tyger

Well, there you go!

I hope 2012 is healthy, happy and prosperous for one and all!

~Sparky~

*NOTE: See this is why I hate doing Year End Lists! Greatly embarrassed, I just noticed that I left off the list a few absolutely fantastic 2011 releases (see *)! I've slipped in a couple as "ties" at numbers 3 and 5, but more are now coming to mind... and I have the actual CDs at hand! How bone-headed is that?! It's all my fault and I apologize for these horrible oversights! I think in a month or two I'll have to post a addendum to the list to give me time to right these wrongs and give deserved accolades to all those I have slighted! Sorry again, mea culpa! ~Sparky~