Baby, two thousand and eleven showed my eyes and ears a good time
Yes indeed, the inevitability of reflection is upon us all once again. As we have now drawn the curt ains and familiar scenery of 2011, it is impossible not to mention the disgustingly inappropriate but totally understandable spermatozoa stains splattered all over that 2011 curtain. It has been quite a year indeed. Adele proved herself to be the voice of 2011 with her album 21 selling more than 3.8m copies. Here, here Adele! I get it, you wrote a rather good album, but I think now it’s about time that instead of fingering our eardrums with you heartache and heart burn, maybe you could turn to alternative methods of emotional release. Keep a dia ry for example. Recreational shopping maybe. Buy a gag! Watch an episode of Golden Girls. Anything, please!
Agony aside, 2011 can be remembered as year of #swag; Bjork amalgamated nature and music with the release of the first ever record/app (rapp). Ryan Gosling! What more needs to be said? Concerns over Lars Von Trier’s sanity grew after expressing his empathy of Hitler. I fear his next publicity stunt will involve rusty scissors and self-castration. Oh wait?! It was also the year our dear Amy truly did sing her swan song and proved to us all that love really is a losing game. So in memory of the Lioness herself and to an unexpected year, here are our top five aural and visual pleasures of TWO THOUSAND AND ELEVEN – a year not to be forgotten.
5 SBTRKT 
4 Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo
Enough said!
3 Bon Iver - Bon Iver
It would be impossible for this beauty of a record not to feature on the RLF best of ELEVEN. It seems only yesterday my eyes were eagerly fixated on the Manchester Apollo stage searching for a glimpse of the bearded dre am bo at, Justin Vernon. Bon Iver simply goes beyond all the conventions of For Emma, Forever Ago and what is produced is a record that has not only made its mark in 2011, but has made it mark in the history of music.
2 James Blake - James Blake
Blake was listed as one of Radio 1’s acts to watch for 2011. That being said, Jessie J was listed number one. Need I say more? However, Blake surely was a necessary artist on that list and holy Ghandi has that boy stepped up to the mark. The story goes that Blake was some weedy boy coming out of his teens, writing minimalistic tunes in his mothers attic, blah blah blah. Fast forward two years later, and now we have this leading man with the stage presence of Obama and the maturity of Betty White. I caught a glimpse of Blake at Bestival last September. I left the venue soiled.
Visual
It’s not often bass makes an appearance on the walls of Red Light Fever, but to ignore SBTRKT and side man Samphers contribution to British underground sounds would be as unforgivable as Fergie pissing herself on stage. Girl, ever heard of TENA? To lay it to you straight, SBTRKT is like a cocktail of underground fury. You’ve got a dash of dubstep, added with pinch of garage, a squeeze of funk, shake it up with a heavy bass, voila. Number five.
Enough said!
3 Bon Iver - Bon Iver
It would be impossible for this beauty of a record not to feature on the RLF best of ELEVEN. It seems only yesterday my eyes were eagerly fixated on the Manchester Apollo stage searching for a glimpse of the bearded dre am bo at, Justin Vernon. Bon Iver simply goes beyond all the conventions of For Emma, Forever Ago and what is produced is a record that has not only made its mark in 2011, but has made it mark in the history of music. 2 James Blake - James Blake
Blake was listed as one of Radio 1’s acts to watch for 2011. That being said, Jessie J was listed number one. Need I say more? However, Blake surely was a necessary artist on that list and holy Ghandi has that boy stepped up to the mark. The story goes that Blake was some weedy boy coming out of his teens, writing minimalistic tunes in his mothers attic, blah blah blah. Fast forward two years later, and now we have this leading man with the stage presence of Obama and the maturity of Betty White. I caught a glimpse of Blake at Bestival last September. I left the venue soiled.1 Lykke Li - Wound Rhymes
Despite an infinitely successful year, I am not hesitant in my proclamation that I believe this girl to still be grossly underrated. Li sure has come a long way since her irritatingly indie sweet Youth Novels, but I just need to put a few things straight. Although a Youth Novels patriot, I am no indie Cindy so reservations were nonetheless present upon the purchase of Wounded Rhymes. I wasn't chasing the familiar little girl sounds to make me dance dance dance nor did I care if she was or wasn’t a little bit in love. I was infinitely thirsty for something infinitely darker. Fortunately for me dark was what the girl intended, and dark was what she delivered. It’s almost as if Li has poured her own blood into the craft. Each song may tell of the superficial realities of love and heart break, but ultimately there is something so much more crafted in each sound, each lyric. Something cosmic. For that reason, Lykke Li is our number one lady and number one record of the year. Her best however, is yet to come.
5 We Need To Talk About Kevin -
I have a fairly strong threshold when it comes to disturbing cinema, and there are only a handful of films that have truly pushed me to the point where I am prepared to scrape the area of my brain that retains my memory, and rid myself of such atrocities. This was such the case with We Need to Talk About Kevin. It was an unexpected shocker and I came out of the cinema feeling flat and hollow, that same awful feeling you have when accidently walking in on your mother fornicating your father. Yes, Kevin truly is an unpleasant experience, but an experience worth having if not just to see Tilda Swindon at her very best.
I have a fairly strong threshold when it comes to disturbing cinema, and there are only a handful of films that have truly pushed me to the point where I am prepared to scrape the area of my brain that retains my memory, and rid myself of such atrocities. This was such the case with We Need to Talk About Kevin. It was an unexpected shocker and I came out of the cinema feeling flat and hollow, that same awful feeling you have when accidently walking in on your mother fornicating your father. Yes, Kevin truly is an unpleasant experience, but an experience worth having if not just to see Tilda Swindon at her very best.4 The Skin I Live in -
In the past ten years Almodavor’s films have been in many ways tame in comparison to his earlier productions. However restoration has indeed been made with The Skin I Live In and once againe we are greeted with a beautiful and disgusting visionary story that lives up to the boldness of Almodavor’s earlier cinema. Trannies, sinister syrgery, suicide, gagged old women, raping tigers, beautiful BEAUTIFUL women. 3 Drive -
2 Weekend -
It’s not often I’m forgiving when it comes to cinema but it was simply impossible not to fall in love with Weekend. Yes it was nothing short of a predictable gay British love story but there was a genuine connection made between characters and audience alike that went way beyond the constraints of a potentially tedious romantic drama. It’s honest, it’s graphic, it’s real, it’s RLF’s number two.Melancholia; the film that almost wasn’t for Red Light Fever. After several failed attempts at seeing this babe of modern cinema, I managed to catch the final screening of Melancholia at FACT. It’s particularly difficult to describe any such film of Trier’s, let alone Melancholia. All I can conclude was that by the end of the final sequence there was a puddle of saliva on my lap and the distinct smell of shit in the theatre room. There’s a reason why Dunst won best actress at Cannes, and it’s not only because of her ability to squat and piss in a wedding dress.
but what for two thousand and twelve... ?