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The best local albums of 2011

scene and heard

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

December 23, 2011|By Luke O'Neil

Eli Keszler was among the local performers who made notable albums in 2011.

You’d need a whole extra year to make your way through all of the great local music that arrived in 2011, and we know you probably don’t have that to spare. In the interest of saving your time and enhancing your iPods, here are our critics’ picks for the 10 best local albums of the year — arranged alphabetically to prevent any interscene squabbles from breaking out. MICHAEL BRODEUR

BEARSTRONAUT ‘‘Satisfied Violence’’

This collection of singles released by the Lowell-Boston band this year is a tour through the indie-rock dance club of the decade past. ‘‘Sensual Sanctuary’’ is shouty, expansive disco-punk that would make fast friends with something off the Rapture’s latest, then dance the night away. ‘‘Shannon’’ fuses synthy-noodling to a dirty cowbell beat, while ‘‘No Reunion’’ chimes with post-punk sheen. ‘‘Moniker’’ and ‘‘Roger Was a Dancer’’ show the band mastering the pop side of the equation, with big, singalong melodies, and on the latter, the sax solo of the year — Katy Perry be damned. LUKE O’NEIL

BIG D AND THE KIDS TABLE ‘‘The Damned, the Dumb & the Delirious’’

After a delightful detour into R&B, torch songs, and girl-group sunshine on 2009’s ‘‘Fluent in Stroll,’’ the band returns with a joyful and brawny blast of its patented ska-punk goodness. From the politically tinged ‘‘It’s Raining Zombies on Wall Street’’ to the hearty lift-a-drink rocker ‘‘Best of Them All,’’ frontman David McWane powers through songs silly, serious, and sentimental as his compatriots keep the beat percolating and the riffs jumping. SARAH RODMAN

BUFFALO TOM ‘‘Skins’’

This is how you commemorate 25 years as a band, by releasing an album that is passionate, thoughtful, rocking, and melodic. Ruminating on life as they know it right now, the trio manages to bridge the urgent energy of its past with the more reasonable pace that grown-up life demands. From the antsy ‘‘Arise, Watch’’ to the winsome pop shuffles ‘‘She’s Not Your Thing’’ and ‘‘The Kids Just Sleep,’’ this is a fitting tribute to the group’s silver anniversary. S.R.

GEM CLUB ‘‘Breakers’’

Some albums are so beautiful and personal, you almost feel like you should not be privy to them. It’s as if you are eavesdropping on someone else’s conversation. Gem Club’s ‘‘Breakers,’’ the Boston duo’s debut on Hardly Art, is like that. On piano and cello, Christopher Barnes and Kristen Drymala crafted austere pop songs on life support. Heavy with reverb, the melodies glistened like glaciers and moved about as fast. But even swathed in gauze, ‘‘Breakers’’ was clearly a labor of love — and a beguiling one, at that. JAMES REED