The Top 12 of 2011: #4 - Yuck

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: The reference points are all there, and have all been mentioned time and time again, but when you dig past the surface, deeper than the 90s grunge meets post-punk noise, that my loves is when the fun really starts with Yuck. Yuck, the LP, is full of well-crafted, thoughtful songs, full of sweet, sweet sounds and furies. The catchier songs like "The Wall," "Georgia," and "Operation" (among others) are daggum next to impossible to resist, mixing chunky noise with an almost playful, pop-centric tunefulness. Of course, they also do that whole wall of sludgey mess drone thing pretty well, as is the case with the molasses and grit pie that is album closer "Rubber." I wasn't sure what to make of Yuck initially, but the more I listened (and oh mercy, did I listen a whole lot), the more I all sorts of fell for these upstart-types.

mp3: Shook Down (Yuck from Yuck)