NJS[BLOG]

You know, I don’t like putting albums in any particular order since each one is listened to at different times for different reasons and can be, depending on the moment, the exact right choice for me then. So instead of my tried and true list of top albums for 2011, I thought I’d make the task more interesting – and less daunting – than the last three years by going with a different approach. You can view videos of my favorite tracks from the 11 albums I enjoyed most in 2011 by using the YouTube playlist above. Or, learn more about each album by clicking its cover art below! (Choices are in for 2012, you see.)

Fashion!  Models!  The apocalypse?

Featuring a crystal skull.  One hopes that it was the vodka-filled kind.

It’s Ladytron.  And a new music video from Ladytron at that!

It could be the chill in the air right now and the general disappearance of all things green and alive, but I’m really into Zola Jesus again and her new album Conatus is delightful. This comes from there:

ZOLA JESUS “VESSEL” MUSIC VIDEO from FUTURE PRIMITIVE FILMS on Vimeo.

Definitely one of those songs that I like that Kate would describe as noise, but I do love it so…

I’m writing this from the living room in Maryland, where the power is resoundingly out this afternoon.  One conclusion that can be drawn from this incident is that, unlike 1993, there is very little reason to have a computer without internet connectivity in 2011.  I can’t even remember the last time I wrote while offline – how will I link?!

Pages 84 – 89 (review pages):

• WatchIT!TV, a full-size, 16-bit PC expansion card that allowed for analog television tuning – and the author’s awesome VCR recording pass-through
• “Information plugs us into the world of computerized productivity, but the open space of books balances our computer logic with the graces of intuition.” – The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality
• Wired began using Music Access to provide samples of reviewed albums by 900 number at a cost of 95¢/min
• Ambulance: An Electronic Novel, which came packaged on 2 high-density floppies and required 2 MB of RAM
• touch tone dialer (?)
• page 89’s ad for OMD’s new album – and that is all that needs to be said

Played back to back while walking this evening during some of the best weather of this summer: