Yet More Best-of-2011 Awards from Rock Turtleneck

Following up on our previous awards post, Rock Turtleneck has a couple more awards to hand out in recognition of the excellent and otherwise in 2011.


Best reissue: The Rolling Stones, Some Girls

It felt like just about every record I've ever loved was reissued this year in various Deluxe and Uber-Deluxe incarnations - Nevermind, Achtung Baby, Lifes Rich Pageant - but the best was the Rolling Stones' gritty 1978 return to form Some Girls. The album itself is probably the best Stones record outside of their Beggar's Banquet-Exile on Main St. golden era. As Keith Richards said in his book LIfe, Some Girls was a reaction to the punk movement, but by guys who could really play their instruments.

But whereas the demos and outtakes on the Nirvana, U2 and R.E.M. reissues were by and large underwhelming, The Stones' bonus disc was a true revelation, because it was full of Some Girls-quality songs that just didn’t have quite the same rundown Summer-of-Sam flavor as the official album, such as the Dateline NBC-worthy true crime murder ballad "Claudine."

Best Record by a Septugeneraian: Paul Simon, So Beatuiful or So What

Edie Brickell’s lesser half is still delivering great music at age 70. A handful of songs on So Beautiful or So What were as good as Graceland, and that's saying something. Best of all was the closing title track, which combined time-honored wisdom with Big Easy cooking instructions in the best stanza of the year:
I’m going to make a chicken gumbo
Toss some sausage in the pot
I’m going to flavor it with okra
Cayenne pepper to make it hot
You know life is what we make of it
So beautiful or so what




Best Record of 2011 That Actually Came Out in 2010: Mumford and Sons, Sigh No More

Sigh No More was probably the record I listened to and enjoyed most all year long. If I had to place my bets on one current young band destined for R.E.M.-level greatness, it would be Mumford & Sons. 

These London lads also put in the best musical performance I saw on TV all year, their amazing trilogy with the Avett Brothers and a crazy old coot named Bob Dylan. (For some copyright reason this video is reversed so all the lefties are really righties. But you'll get the idea.)

Buy on iTunes:

Some Girls (Deluxe Edition)

So Beautiful or So What

Sigh No More