Aural Pleasure Presents: The Twelve Days of Xmas Music Extravaganza 2011

Hey everyone, here it is, all of the Aural Pleasure Twelve Days of Xmas collected in one convenient place so you don't have to search through everything. That's my final present to you. And remember, these are in no particular order at all, they're all what I consider to be albomb of the year, don't make me make that distinction okay? Alrighty, now that that's out of the way, enjoy.

Aural Pleasure, The Thirteenth Day of Xmas

On the thirteenth day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... thirteen songs a-play- wait a minute, there isn't a thirteenth day of Xmas is there? There's not? Really? Well damn, I had so much more music to talk to you all about. Even though I was joyous at the completion of the list yesterday. Okay, so here's the deal, today I'm going to list all the stuff that was vying for a spot on my list. Many of these didn't make it simply because I just hadn't listened to them as much as the others. Some of these were actually hard not to include, and the twelve spot was only chosen at the very last minute with basically what amounted to a coin toss (It was actually a dwarf toss). Anyway, here's a list of things that almost made it, and very well may have kicked certain albums off if I had only listened to them a few times more.

Aural Pleasure, The Twelfth Day of Xmas

On the twelfth day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... twelve drummers drumming. Hey, I got that one right, wow, I can't believe how that worked out. And okay, it only sounds like twelve drummers in this group ... I guess. 'Cause you know ... there's the one drummer who's really dynamic and I uh ... man can you tell that I'm burned out on all these intro jokes (I use the word "joke" generously here)? Thank goodness this is the last one, hooray. What is this last album of the year.

Aural Pleasure, The Eleventh Day of Xmas

On the eleventh day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... eleven things the water gave me. Also eleven heartlines ... and eleven devils. Or was that seven devils? Eh who cares, they rhyme, and multiple devils are involved. Let's see who we have today, if anything they have the best damn opening picture on the list, wouldn't you say? Read on to see who it is, yay.

Aural Pleasure, The Tenth Day of Xmas

On the tenth day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... ten wolves a-waiting. Eek, that's scary, lemme try again, how about ten orchestras a- ... um orchestrating? I don't think that works. How about ten drum loops a- ... looping? Man, this just gets harder and harder as I go along. Let's just get to album numero ten.

Aural Pleasure, The Ninth Day of Xmas

On the ninth day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... nine impressed steampunk girls. No? How bout nine things made in China? Or how about nine guys who used to be a pimp but are now hoinfodaman? Have you guessed it yet? We have quite the unexpected surprise today.

Aural Pleasure, The Eighth Day of Xmas

On the eighth day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... eight kids born a-screaming. Born a-screaming they had fire in their eyes. Like wild demons, Lord it came as no surprise. Okay I know the frontman of this band doesn't actually have eight kids, at least I hope for his sake that he doesn't, but that's a hell of a homage to his children wouldn't you say? Yep, today's album is the one and only:

Aural Pleasure, The Seventh Day of Xmas

On the seventh day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... seven sirens singing. Well no, it's actually two sirens singing, but we did "Two" earlier. Maybe today's collection should have been two and two should have been three, but then where would three go? Seven? You see the problem? Anyway, I'm so happy today that I get to talk about this dynamic duo.

Aural Pleasure, The Sixth Day of Xmas

On the sixth day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... One Hundred Blog Posts! That's right everyone, this is my hundredth ever post, and it's quite fitting that I get to spend it talking about one of my all time favorite bands ever. By all rights it's probably one of your all time favorite bands too, and that's because Radiohead is a group of stunning and experimental musicians that have never ceased to amaze this humble listener. Yep, gave it away before the jump (As if the title picture doesn't do that already), who cares it's Radiohead, Wooo 100!

Aural Pleasure, The Fifth Day of Xmas

On the fifth day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... five octothorpes ... no that's not right, there's only one octothorpe that I know of. What's an octothorpe you ask? That's a great question, I have no idea, all's I know is there's a big one stamped on the front of today's album, take a look and see.

Aural Pleasure, The Fourth Day of Xmas

On the fourth day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... four pedal steels a-sliding ... sliding? Is that the right verb? Twanging? Yes twanging, that's what pedal steels do, and there's a lot of twanging in today's pick:

Aural Pleasure, The Third Day of Xmas

On the third day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... three girls a-mourning ... Woah, that doesn't sound good does it? Hmm, three girls a-belting? A-singing? A-being sad because their naive preconceptions of life and love have shattered around them and are now forced to deal with the pain of toughening up against a cruel and harsh world? Yes, that's it! That's what this next wonderful album is all about.

Aural Pleasure, The Second Day of Xmas

On the second day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... two rappers rapping ... well okay, mostly two rappers, their DJ drops in for quite a few tracks. And you can't have a rap album without guest appearances and cameos, you seriously can't. Anyone know why that is? Anyway, the point is there's more than two rappers rapping, but this is typically a duet, since today's best album is:

Aural Pleasure, The First Day of Xmas

On the first day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... A Decemberist in a Folk Tree. Oh man, did I just give it away, if I've learned (stolen) anything from other blogs doing this sort of thing is that you don't give away the actual item until after the jump. Oh well, this is my first go, there's bound to be kinks. So here we go, my first favorite of the year.

A Very AP Xmas

Merry xmas everyone, now that this year is almost over I feel this is a perfect time to take a moment reflect on 2011 ... Wow yeah that's depressing huh? I imagine most people had a shit year, so let's reflect on something else ... like, say, MUSIC! Indeed music had one hell of a year this year huh? Seriously, this is one of the best years for music I can remember in a long time, this year for music was what 2007 was for movies, as in there's just too much good, too many surprises, and this year I would actually have trouble narrowing my favorite music down to a top ten list. This might not sound like that big of a deal, but usually my favorite music of a particular year only includes a few current selections, and it's not because good music didn't come out that year. It's usually because I'm usually really jamming on things that came out previously, and despite that, I was still obsessed with tons of things that actually came out this year, things that actually surprised me. So, in honor of this wonderful year of music, taking a page from the RPS chaps, I am going to do an Aural Pleasure Presents: The Twelve Days of Xmas Music Extravaganza, where each day of Xmas I gush about an album that came out this year that I fucking loved.