Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Portugal. The Man

PORTUGAL. THE MAN
Sleep Forever / Got it All (This Can't Be Living Now)

From: In the Mountain In the Cloud
Released: July 19

Portugal. The Man can be a pretty confusing band. The grammatical challenges their name presents to writers like myself notwithstanding, their career has taken a rather bizarre trajectory in recent years. Some of you may recall People Say for being included on their 2009 album The Satanic Satanist and that year's edition of Year in Rock. Well, 2010 saw them release another new album (in fact, since their 2006 inception, they've released at least one new album every year) in March, followed by the announcement a month later that they'd signed a major label contract with Atlantic. They promptly ran back into the studio and recorded a new album over the summer before releasing a video in October... for People Say. Whaaaaa?

The new album, In the Mountain In the Cloud (oh sure, they'll use periods where they don't need them, but completely diss the comma?), came in July alongside the truly epic video you can watch below. Of course, never ones to be too straightforward, there are two songs in the video: the hazy rocker Sleep Forever and the epic and uplifting Got it All (This Can't Be Living Now), the latter of which was released as lead single. It was all beautifully filmed in the band's native Alaska, and will likely have you thinking twice next time you're considering entering the Iditarod.

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