A Place Called Hope
Ad astra per aspera.
Wait for iiiiit!
And I know you have all been waiting so patiently. But here you have it, my favorite albums of 2011.
Disclaimer: These are not the album’s that will receive the most recognition. Certainly Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and even Adele put out amazing tracks this year, like you all know. But these are albums that were playing in my head most over the past 365 days (or more because I’m late to the listing party).
Other notes: All Sons and Daughters “Brokenness Aside” is quite possibly the best and most complete worship album I have ever heard. Explosions In The Sky makes an amazing post-rock (instrumental) album! The Decemberists had control of my iPod for months after its release. I ran many miles to The Joy Formidable and Foster The People with their line “I run, they run, everybody run, run”. Florence + The Machine outdid their first album and “Ceremonials” has some amazing lyrics and imagery that keeps me playing it over and over, singing my heart out. My top five would include Dawes, Over the Rhine, The Horrible Crowes, Florence + The Machine and The Naked and Famous.
Here are the rest:
Active Child - All That I See
All Sons and Daughters - Brokenness Aside
The Belle Brigade - The Belle Brigade
Brett Dennen - Loverboy
City and Colour - Little Hell
The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
Cold War Kids - Mine Is Yours
Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong
The Decemberists - The King Is Dead
Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer
Explosions In The Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
Feist - Metals
Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials
Foster The People - Torches
Friendly Fires - Pala
Givers - In Light
The Horrible Crowes - Elsie
The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
The Kills - Blood Pressure
Little Dragon - Ritual Union
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
The Milk Carton Kids - Prologue
The Naked and Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You
Over The Rhine - The Long Surrender
Peter, Bjorn and John - Gimme Some
Seryn - This Is Where We Are
Wye Oak - Civilian
Yuck - Yuck
As if that wasn’t enough I made a Spotify playlist of my top 50 songs. You’ll find a track from each artist listed here as well as other favorites. http://open.spotify.com/user/elexithymia/playlist/5XyIIeSt8guJejADbBBFvE
R.E.M disbands and Gavin DeGraw keeps putting albums out. It literally may be the “end of the world as we know it”.
Oh I used to be disgusted
And now I try to be amused
Since their wings have gotten rusted
You know, the angels wanna wear my red shoes
But when they told me ‘bout their side of the bargain
That’s when I knew that I could not refuse
And I won’t get any older, now the angels wanna wear my red shoes
Oh, I won’t get any older, now the angels wanna wear my red shoes
Spill the beans…
Yesterday my super cool Barista roommate taught me all about coffee beans. You see, this is the greatest time of year to be a coffee drinker. Starbucks puts out their best coffee concoction. No, I’m not talking about the highly anticipated Pumpkin Spice Latte. I’m talking about regular joe. Anniversary Blend. Which I learned is a mixture of Sumatra beans, from Africa, and Indonesia beans. What makes Anniversary Blend so good?! Aged coffee beans!! Here’s what they do: they harvest the beans, put them in burlap sacks and then toss them onto the beach. Where they rotate the bags every week for 3 to 5 years. Make sure you grab yourself a cup, or a bag or however much you can get your hands on. It’s the best thing Starbucks has to offer.
This is me. Notorious for being cold. Secretly I am wearing two sweatshirts inside of Starbucks while I am sucking down a piping hot Americano listening to music with lyrics about fire and sun, trying to psych my insides to thinking I’m really back in Texas. Oh glorious, hot and sweaty Texas.
The roommate brought this back from City Museum in St. Louis. That’s right, a light up bouncy ball and Lego crayons. She knows what makes me happy!
This afternoon, while hard at work with my client, I watched two episodes of “Say Yes to the Dress”. This made me want to do three things: 1. Try on wedding dresses. 2. Punch the consultants on the show. 3. Eat an entire gallon of ice cream. One of these things could happen today.
