Best of 2011: Top music a diverse hit parade

Cities Aviv impressed in 2011 with his debut long-player, "Digital Lows," and an assortment of singles.

John Paul Keith's "The Man That Time Forgot" focuses on the musician's life spent on the road and onstage.Chris Herrington

The past 12 months provided an interesting and more than symbolic glimpse into the current state of music and the music business.

In looking back at the best releases of the year, no set pattern revealed itself. Instead, the entries came from local bands and acts from far-flung locales; there were titles from familiar names and forgotten heroes; the records were put out by major labels, indie imprints or simply arrived from the netherworld of the Internet.

What follows is a list — in no particular order — of the top local albums from 2011, as well as a sampling of some favorite records made outside Shelby County.

Five from Memphis

John Paul Keith, The Man That Time Forgot (Big Legal Mess): It's the sort of glib, easy analogy that critics love, but it doesn't make it any less true: John Paul Keith sounds like the love child that Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds never had. A fleet-fingered guitar hero with an impeccable sense of musical history, a classic songwriting talent who prizes wit and lyrical economy, Keith's work is manna for roots-rock enthusiasts. His second album (this time recorded without the added 145s backing band designation) cuts even closer to the bone, focusing on the vagaries of a scrappy life spent on the road and onstage. Songs like "Never Could Say No" and "I'm Afraid to Look" as well the telling title track offer a moving meditation on Keith's love-hate-love relationship with his creative calling.

Cities Aviv, Digital Lows; "Coastin,'" "Araw," "Planet," "Wet Dream" singles (Fat Sandwich Records): Prolific ex-punk rocker turned new-breed rapper Cities Aviv (aka Gavin Mays) did it with both quantity and quality in 2011. The summer release of the full-length Digital Lows, mostly collecting his numerous singles, was followed by a succession of 7-inch tracks. One of the leaders of the "Young Alliance" movement — a loosely affiliated crew of 901 hip-hop up-and-comers — Cities has cemented his reputation with a deceptively nuanced flow and a selection of creative sonic backdrops (which include a wide array of sample sources, from Depeche Mode to Gil Scott-Heron). If the buzz he generated this past year is any indication, Cities is poised for a major breakout.

Jack Oblivian, Rat City: (Big Legal Mess) Former Oblivian Jack Yarber has finally completed his decade-long evolution from garage-rock debaucher to Memphis musical iconoclast and chameleon. Continuing a trend, his latest effort, Rat City, emerges as the most sonically polished and musically diverse album in his catalog. It's also a brilliantly realized collection of songs that move in manifold directions, from street-corner pop to sticky Southern rock. Songs like the Stooges-esque "Crime of Love," the Stones-y dance floor-filler "Mass Confusion" and the Moog-flecked funk of "Old Folks Boogie" capture Yarber's kaleidoscopic vision in a nearly perfect package.

Packy Axton, Late Late Party (Light in the Attic): Nearly 40 years after his passing, Charles "Packy" Axton is finally getting his due. The wayward child, the prodigal son, the lost soul of Stax Records, the cherub-cheeked saxophonist was a member of the Mar-Keys, the son of label co-owner Estelle Axton and a rebel figure who quietly helped shape the direction of Memphis music. Though his life was cut short in 1974 at age 32, this compilation of his post-Stax recordings is a much-needed reminder of his musical gifts, a sampling of instrumental singles cut under various guises: as the Packers, the Pac-Keys, the Martinis, and L.H. and the Memphis Sounds. A natural studio alchemist, Axton's efforts would pull together the various strands of Bluff City music, from future Hi Rhythm section stalwarts the Hodges Brothers and hippie-rock guitar hero Lee Baker to members of The Bar-Kays. A fine reclamation project and one of the best albums of the year.

Skewby, More or Less (somethingaboutskewby.com): Following up on his mixtape triumph Proving You Wrong Since 1988, Memphis MC Skewby more than delivers on his early promise with this artful 14-track effort. Connecting on multiple lyrical levels, Skewby's rhymes are buoyed by production from a host of skilled beatmakers (Go Judo, Rickey G, DJ Charlie White, DJ Chev, Carlos Broady and 9th Wonder), yielding a set of songs that flash plenty of heart and heat. Like fellow Memphis MC Cities Aviv, Skewby — who connected with his growing fan base during a run at the annual South by Southwest Festival in March — seems poised for bigger and better things in 2012.

Five more from everywhere else

Beat Angels, Unreleased Third Album (sonsofthedolls.blogspot.com): The Internet is a strange and wonderful thing. How else could an album recorded in the late '90s, abandoned at the turn of the decade, then cobbled together and belatedly released on a music blog just last year become a favorite in 2011? This once-doomed LP from long-lamented Phoenix, Ariz. glam-pop crew Beat Angels provides a showcase for frontman Brian Smith's guttersnipe poetry and the push-pull magic of Michael Brooks' and Keith Jackson's guitars, making a further case for the group as one of the great lost bands of the last 20 years.

Low Cut Connie, Get Out the Lotion (Self-released): A trans-Atlantic collaboration between Jersey-ite Adam Weiner and Birmingham, England's Dan Finnemore, Low Cut Connie's debut is a deliriously delivered selection of '50-style jukebox junk that demands repeated listening.

Tommy Keene, Behind the Parade (Second Motion Records): An album of pure pop for now people, the ninth studio effort from cult hero Keene finds little age or wear on the veteran rocker's crunching brand of songcraft. Arguably his best record in two decades — if not of all time.

Deer Tick, Divine Providence (Partisan Records): Songs about booze, broads and brotherly bonhomie color an occasionally overdone, yet eminently enjoyable LP by these Rhode Island ragamuffins.

The Vaccines, What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? (Columbia): Short, sharp, buzzy pop from new hit-making U.K. combo. Much like the group's U.S. concert appearances this past spring, this 11-song, 35-minute album leaves you wanting more.

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