The Best Albums of 2011 – The Compilations

So, there are two albums worth highlighting that don’t really fit into the ‘artist album’ category that we’d like to talk about before we reach the main event of our top fifty countdown tomorrow. There’s no order here, these are both just excellent albums.

The Fruit Tree Foundation

Idlewild’s Rod Jones has been behind this project to raise awareness of mental health issues for a few years now and while this was “technically” out last year, the physical release only came out in early 2011 so it definitely counts. And it’s all for a great cause, so we’re not going to pass up an opportunity to mention it. James Graham (Twilight Sad), Scottish Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit), Jill O’Sullivan (Sparrow and the Workshop), Emma Pollock and James Yorkston all featured prominently and with artwork by Aiden Moffat, what are you waiting for. Buy it HERE, tightwads.

Jonnie Common Presents Deskjob

A unique piece of work where island electro popster reworked a number of songs by other Scottish artists such as eagleowl, Panda Su, Meursault, Conquering Animal Sound and more. We suppose it’s a remix album of sorts but most tracks are merely subtle rearrangements of existing material with Common’s little flourishes a unifying theme. All told, it’s lovely stuff. Don’t believe us? The album is previewed below.

Side Show

Album of the Week: Burns Unit – Side Show

Kenny Anderson must be the hardest working man in Scottish music. Not content with a prolific album release schedule, numerous collaborations and all the shenanigans involved in Anstruther’s Homegame (where he effectively recorded a new album for instant release earlier this year), here he is playing a full part in yet another project – Burns Unit.

They’ve been around in one form or another for a few years, but this is their first album together. When I first heard about the project I took the ‘Burns’ bit too literally and assumed that a handful of contemporary Scottish artists were taking on the verse of Rabbie Burns, which reeked of the tiresome annual Eddi Reeder/Phil & Aly love-in on BBC Scotland*.

My heart sank at that notion but thankfully I was well off the mark. What we have here is something akin to a Scottish Broken Social Scene, in terms of the group’s make-up and songwriting policy, if not necessarily the music.

Joining Anderson in the eight piece act (among others) are ex-Delgado Emma Pollock, former Soop Dragon Sushil K. Dade (also known as Future Pilot a.k.a.) and folky songstress Karine Polwart. There are ten tracks here, all hugely varied in style with a number of distinct voices setting them apart.

The album is bookended by a couple of heartbreaking Anderson/Polwart duets, Since We’ve Fallen Out and Helpless to Turn. Each could probably fit on a King Creosote album fairly comfortably, but Polwart’s icy, traditional vocals take it to a new level and she’s the perfect foil for Anderson’s scruffy melodies.

Emma Pollock lends her vocals to the lovely Trouble but it’s Send Them Kids To War that will really make you sit up and listen. MC Soom T spits out rapid-fire political raps over some sinister sounding Indian chanting and rattling percussion. It sounds like it was made in Mumbai by a completely different band and shouldn’t really work, but it absolutely does.

I’m not normally one for exaggeration but it might just be the finest Indo-Caledonian folk-hop disco tune ever made.

It works as an album too. Too many times, collectives like these fail to gel and resulting works sound a bit messy but every song here has its place. Future Pilot A.K.C. is Scottish pop at its best, What Is Life? does the Indian thing at a slightly less frantic pace and Blood, Ice and Ashes interrupts Polwart’s piercing words with some rather loud powerchords.

With so many members having their own careers, it’s unclear what the future holds. There are no gigs on the schedule for a start, so if this turns out to be a one-off then make sure you savour every note.

*No idea what I’m talking about? Count yourself lucky. I don’t underestimate the importance of Burns to Scottish culture but the Burns Night broadcast is uninspiring,  repetitive and features the same old faces again and again.