The Top 12 of 2011: #12 - Canary Oh Canary

In years past, I've tended to fret and stress and just about hyperventilate about the whole "so many records to catch up on, so little time" situation that is the creation of those end of year/best of lists. In order to alleviate some of the fretting (and the frown lines!), I've decided it was time to streamline the whole process and make it something beautifully simple. I chose a dozen records that I've really loved this past year, and ranked them. The rankings, friends, come courtesy of the ole iPod. It's practically scientific, y'all! What the iPod says goes. At least, this time anyway.

Why I Decree It To Be So: Canary Oh Canary's "beautifully brutal shoegaze gazing longingly yet truculently into the eyes of post-punk is a sound you need to hear. At times brutish and harsh, the songs on the band's EP Last Night in Sunway Knolls command attention. There is a darkness to these songs, a prowling forbidding wrapping every which way around songs like the epic, shape-shifting "Embrace" and the title track, shadows even lurking behind the more theatrical "Face In A Magazine"." (more here)