I don’t think I have ever been so caught unawares by an artist or genre of music or anything in music for that matter. The Weeknd was just a combination of aspects of the fundamentals of music that was so unique; I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it all. House of Balloons was first described to me as “chilled out dubstep.” Well, I don’t know about you, but I was a little intrigued so I gave it a shot. And what I heard just. Well. It just. It was good shit. It was the first thing I had heard in 2011 that really stuck out to me, it was my first new artist of 2011 and I guess what I’m trying to say is that, the Weeknd represents 2011 to me more than anything else that happened this year. More than the Packers winning the Superbowl. More than Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit. More than Charlie Sheen, more than Bin Laden dying and more than the earthquake in Japan, the Weeknd represents this year for me. I know the content isn’t very moral. But I like to think of myself as a nice guy and hearing the Weeknd act in the complete opposite way sometimes is refreshing. His voice has the perfect amount of swag and soul in it to make it something special. And like with Nine Types of Light, House of Balloons didn’t have a song that really stuck out to me. It was a complete project that had to be left together in order to be appreciated fully. And this is an album of the year list and House of Balloons just was the best over all album to me. There is not a whole lot more I can say, other than, House of Balloons just felt right for me. I’ve tried to express my love of the Weeknd as much as I could in this list and I know a lot of people do not feel the same way. I understand what it’s like to make judgments about music, sometimes it can feel like making life or death decisions. But I tried my best to convey why I liked each album individually and I hope you all can understand where I’m coming from and I would love to see each and everyone of you make a list so I can learn a little bit more about music, and more specifically, the great music of this past wondrous year 2011.
