Official Critics Best Of 2011 Lists

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Originally posted by DG1 Drake, Adele And More: The 20 Best Albums Of 2011 From Girls to Beyoncé (and just about everyone in between), Bigger Than the Sound takes a look at the year's best albums. By James Montgomery (@positivnegativ) In 2011, we all seemingly discovered dubstep and learned how to pronounce "Bon Iver." We marveled at the success of Adele, Katy Perry and Rihanna, took the leap with Beyoncé and got royal with Jay-Z and Kanye. We said hello to bright new stars like Frank Ocean and the Weeknd and watched former breakouts Florence Welch and Drake take the next steps in their careers. Oh, and pretty much all of us bought Lady Gaga's Born This Way, or at least debated its pricing schemes. Yes, it's been a pretty eventful 12 months, and now, it's time to take a look back with my picks for the Best Albums of 2011. Rock, hip-hop, pop and electronic records — from artists big and small — that managed to stick with me through the entire year. Looking at it now, there are at least a half-dozen other albums I could've included — it really was that big of a year. That said, I'm sure I left a few off my list, so I'm counting on you to remind me of anything I might have missed. Let me know in the comments below, and now, let's get right to my Best of 2011 list. These are my favorite albums, from a fascinating year in music. 20. Beyoncé, 4 An artfully anachronistic album — in that it takes its cues from Fela Kuti and Earth, Wind and Fire instead of, you know, David Guetta — it's little wonder 4 confounded a large portion of the record-buying public when it was released this summer. But given time, most (myself included) have come to love its classy flourishes and classically influenced roots. From big-boned ballads to weirdo world-music jams, 4 is clearly the disc on which Beyoncé makes her bid for artistic credibility. Sadly, it just took us all a while to realize it. 19. Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX, We're New Here The late Scott-Heron's final album gets reworked by Jamie Smith (avowed superfan and beatmaker behind the XX), who deftly combines the poet's gravelly ruminations with cutting-edge electro flourishes, yet never lets the latter outshine the former. And in that regard, We're New Here stands apart from most remix albums, in that it is very much a labor of love. Released in February, it fittingly took on new life when Drake made its final track — "I'll Take Care Of U" — the centerpiece of his Take Care disc. 18. Rihanna, Talk That Talk Depending on your perspective, it's either "the best pop album of the year" or maybe "the dirtiest 'pop' album since Madonna's Erotica," though given some time, perhaps it's best to just call TTT Rihanna's best album, a streamlined, over-sexed, oft-adventurous thing that pushes everything to the limit. And while you can get caught up in the adjectives, the real proof of TTT's power lies in its ability to make you move, endlessly, effortlessly, excitedly so. That's what pop albums are supposed to do, after all. 17. Gospel Music, How to Get to Heaven From Jacksonville, FL Pocket-size pop from Owen Holmes, current (former?) member of Black Kids, whose deep croon recalls the likes of Calvin Johnson (not Megatron) and Stephin Merritt and whose erudition brings to mind Jarvis Cocker. High praise, but when the music comes this effortlessly (check "This Town Doesn't Have Enough Bars for Both of Us" or "Let's Run" for proof) and the lyrics are this heartbreakingly hilarious ("He pores over Poe, peruses Proust/ While waiting for sauce to reduce/ Buys only seasonal produce/ I don't know what you see in him"), well, the dude's sort of earned it, really. Quite possibly the year's most underrated album. 16. Black Keys, El Camino On the follow-up to their breakout Brothers, the Black Keys go full-throttle, tearing through 11 hard-riffing, deep-boogying tracks in something like 38 minutes. All handclaps and talk-box guitar solos, El Camino rattles and chugs along like the titular Chevy and, on tracks like "Lonely Boy," "Money Maker" and "Little Black Submarines," manages to get positively brilliant too — in a George Thorogood-meets-the Cramps kind of way, of course. 15. Florence and the Machine, Ceremonials Florence Welch possesses a voice that can shatter glass, shift tectonic plates and quite possibly alter the very fabric of time, so it sort of makes sense that, on Ceremonials, producer Paul Epworth provides her with the appropriate backing tracks. This is an unapologetically massive album in just about every conceivable way, from the soaring heights of "Shake It Out" and "No Light, No Light" to the delving depths of "Only If for the Night" and "What the Water Gave Me," which is to say it fits Florence like a glove. Or high-end Givenchy couture. 14. The Weeknd, House of Balloons and Thursday Mysterious, majestically paced R&B from Canadian Abel Tesfaye, who rode his pair of (free) releases to breakout success. Both Balloons and Thursday tell the trope of the troubled loverman, but rarely are matters of the heart played out as honestly as they are here. An endless cycle of druggy nights, desperate flings and depressed dawns, Tesfaye makes no apologies, and with his two albums of masterful murk, he's inadvertently created mood music for increasingly moody times. 13. Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues "So now, I'm older/ Than my mother and father/ When they had their daughter/ Now what does that say about me?" That's how Fleet Foxes frontman Sam Pecknold opens the band's sophomore effort, and rarely does he relent from those notions. For an album so rich in wide-screen vocal harmonies and warm, finger-picked acoustics, Blues is far from atmospheric — in fact, it's downright analytical. Pecknold roots through problems that are very real, and that balance is key to the album's strength. Because for a band that so indulges in the space of the studio, this is an album that is rarely, if ever, self-indulgent. 12. Frank Ocean, Nostalgia, Ultra The year's most self-assured debut, courtesy of the only Odd Future member who seems to actually shrink from the spotlight. Like the title implies, Nostalgia is an album that longs for the past, both sonically — sampling Radiohead, Coldplay and the Eagles — and thematically, as Ocean tills through broken relationships and lost associates. The results are unflinchingly, almost unassumingly great, and wherever Ocean goes from here, I'll be sure to follow. 11. The War on Drugs, Slave Ambient Here's a fascinating little album, one that pulls just as readily from Bruce Springsteen's and Tom Petty's wide-eyed-yet-wincing Americana as it does Sonic Youth's and Spacemen 3's hazy dirges. Part road record, part barroom soundtrack, it's a compelling — and slightly confounding — listen, pairing jangly guitars with sleepy, bedheaded sonic sections, and frontman Adam Granduciel is frequently a man without a home, keening about freeways and harbors and great open expanses. In that regard, perhaps this is a record less about the final destination as it is the trip itself — a somnambulant trek in which the lines between awake and dreaming are constantly shifting. 10. Lady Gaga, Born This Way When it was first released, it wasn't a stretch to call BTW the year's most anticipated album, and though the debate may rage about whether it lived up to the hype, you cannot deny that Gaga put everything into it. From the piston-pumping electronics of "Marry the Night" and the tarantula tango of "Americano" to the twitching, "Transformers"-huge techno of "Heavy Metal Lover" and the epic balladry of "Yoü and I" and "The Edge of Glory," this truly is an effort that tries very hard to be everything to everyone. And, in the process, Gaga has created something entirely new. BTW is quite possibly the first multi-national, multi-hyphenate, multi-sexual pop album of our time. And sure, it's probably too long, but that's sort of the point, isn't it? Gaga only operates on the hugest of stages, and BTW is her grandest mission statement to date. And if she didn't please everyone, you can't say she didn't try. 9. Portugal. The Man, In the Mountain, In the Cloud It is quite possible to argue Portugal. The Man may be the new Flaming Lips, especially if you've ever caught them live (and since the Lips seem content to simply embed songs inside human skulls these days). They are both from spots firmly off the musical map (Wasilla, Alaska, and Oklahoma City, respectively); they both indulge in frazzled, psych-tinged pop; and both seem hell-bent on doing things their way, no matter what the consequences. And if all that logic holds, then Cloud is either their Hit to Death in the Future Head (the one before they had the hit) or their Clouds Taste Metallic (the one before they got universal acclaim). On their major-label debut, Portugal got proggy, arty and unapologetically weird, and the disc sold about as well as you'd expect. Still, there's true genius in tracks like "So American," "Senseless" and "Sleep Forever," and while they've still got, like, two decades to go before they can match the Lips in terms of longevity, consider this the next step on their voyage. 8. Jay-Z and Kanye West, Watch the Throne The year's highest-profile collaboration didn't exactly play against type — except for the fact that, unlike most other meetings-of-the-egos, it actually ended up being really good. And that's because, despite all the flash surrounding it (the globe-trotting recording sessions, the Riccardo Tisci-designed cover, the video where they sawed the top off a Maybach) and all the boasts contained within it, WTT is very much an album that grapples equally with big themes — success, race, responsibilities, public perception — and, you know, big watches. And then, of course, there's the incredibly odd "N---as in Paris," surely the first rap song to give equal face time to Will Ferrell. A weird, wonderful, whirling album — the kind that, sadly, they don't make all that often, mostly because it's impossible to do so. 7. Bon Iver, Bon Iver Justin Vernon has done the impossible: follow up a beloved, much-mythologized debut album (you know, the one that was recorded in a cabin) with a record that's just as good — if not better. He's always been one for atmospheres, but never before have those atmospheres been so dense — or so compelling. Here, he creates a singular, breathless world, building it with layers of echoing instrumentation and his own ghostly falsetto. There are moments where the sun shines through the cracks — a horn crescendo, a silvery sliver of bell — but for the most part, Bon Iver is a mesmerizing trip through a dewy dreamscape. And in that regard, it's a momentous achievement (one made even more momentous by Vernon's recent Grammy nominations), even if the last song does sound like Bruce Hornsby. 6. PJ Harvey, Let England Shake The iconic Brit shape-shifts with seemingly every record she releases, and on Shake, she's reborn as an old-fashioned protest singer (with a newfound upper register too). The sad thing is, the subjects she's singing about — conflict, bloodshed, man's unending cycle of self-immolation — are just as timely now as they were 50 years ago. Through it all, Harvey weaves a partial history of her oft-troubled homeland, and does so with haunting, harrowing specificity: the quivering flesh of the dead, the fog rolling over the bones of deceased sea captains, the tread of tanks plowing the countryside. That she manages to do so without ever gnarling into full-on outrage is a testament to both her skill as an observer of the human condition and her love of England, which is perhaps the most impressive feat of all on an album brimming with them. 5. The Horrors, Skying Is there a band with a more inexplicable career arc than the Horrors? They started off as spooky-ooky figureheads of London's goth-garage scene (or whatever you want to call it), reimagined themselves as psych disciples on 2009's Primary Colours and, finally, on the wildly emotive Skying, they've emerged as one of the U.K.'s best rock acts. It's a rhetorical question — there is no band quite like them, and their aptly named latest captures them at the height of their abilities. Skying is a bold, big, decidedly Technicolor affair, packed with synth peaks and piles of echoing guitars, and much like its title implies, it positively soars. The great moments abound, though it's on lengthy tracks like "Moving Further Away" and "Oceans Burning" — when they break through the clouds and let the daylight pour in — that they really, truly shine in ways no one thought imaginable. 4. F---ed Up, David Comes to Life A wrecking-ball sorta rock opera courtesy of Toronto's hardest-working (and, most likely, only) six-piece punk collective, David Comes to Life tells the story of a downtrodden factory worker who may have killed his true love. I think. Because, along the way, there's also betrayal, heartache, bomb blasts, fisticuffs and a whole lot of plot-twisting shifts in narration too. Of course, the story behind the album is largely unimportant (if you want to keep score at home, here's a handy guide), especially when the album itself hits so hard. The (multi-multi-multi-)tracked guitars squeal and chug for days, and frontman Pink Eyes' screams are so visceral you can practically feel his blood welling up in your headphones. It's an ambitious, ringing, raging success, the kind of record you'll listen to over and over again, either to try and follow the plotline or just get pummeled by the sheer might of the thing. Either way, you'll enjoy yourself. 3. Drake, Take Care What was that line Drake dropped a few years back? "Last name ever, first name greatest?" Right. Well, here's the proof that he wasn't lying. Take Care is his masterpiece of mope, an agoraphobically artistic exploration of late-night excesses and early morning regrets, of being smothered by fame and troubled by success, of drunken phone calls and drugged-out epiphanies. You can chalk it up to him being "emo," but I prefer to think of it as him just being honest, unafraid to play the villain or point out his own shortcomings. And that's what makes this album so wonderful: It is very much about losing contact, fracturing relationships and attempting to put the pieces back together again. Much like Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (or 808s & Heartbreak), on Take Care, Drake and producer Noah "40" Shebib craft an insular, downright claustrophobic world, one fraught with perils both real and imagined. Though, when your life is as fantastically surreal as Drake's, it's often difficult to tell the difference — much to his dismay, and our benefit. 2. Adele, 21 It's nice when the year's best-selling album also ends up being one of the flat-out best, but, in the case of Adele's 21, we should have seen it coming. After all, she wowed critics and fans with her debut, but this time, well, she's stumbled onto something else entirely. She created a classy, classic album that moved units the old-fashioned way: namely, on the strength of some hits and her prodigious pipes. On 21, she's also grown as an artist, become a singer capable of both tremendous power (like on the smash "Rolling in the Deep") and terrifying tenderness too (like on the smashing "Someone Like You"). A roiling collection of breakup ballads, revenge fantasies, heartbreaking honesty and even a little humor, there truly was no other album quite like 21 released this year. It's a throwback in every way, though it recalls nothing else so closely as it does the heady times when great albums were also great-selling albums. Hopefully, it's a sign of things to come. 1. Girls, Father, Son, Holy Ghost In a year when dance music slithered its way onto the top 40 and dudes like Skrillex pick up Best New Artist Grammy nods, I found solace in the bristling, brokenhearted Father, Son, Holy Ghost, a masterful collection of retro-leaning rock (Elvis Costello, Pink Floyd, the Beach Boys) that rang true above everything else. That's mostly because it is an undeniably real album, both sonically (the surging guitars and crashing drums that open "Honey Bunny," the pealing organ that closes "Jamie Marie") and spiritually pining over lost loves and the emptiness of sex. And on two epic, excellent tracks — "Vomit" and "Forgiveness" — songwriter Christopher Owens lets his sadness and frustrations boil over, resulting in two of the most visceral moments of the year. It's a chilling, hair-raising ride, a heartbreaking listen that channels genuine emotions; full of sadness, self-loathing and real anger, it doesn't pull any punches, and somewhere in that morass, it also stumbles across true beauty too. In a time when everyone's got a DJ and people continue to sing like robots from the 23rd century, I'll take Father, Son, Holy Ghost's unflinching realness any day. After all, sadness is a virtue too. MTV will reveal the best artists, songs and movies of the year. Come to MTV News each day to see more big reveals and check out more of MTV's Best of 2011 music, TV, movies and news coverage. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/167...ke-adele.jhtml

BBC

Originally posted by DG1 It's that time of year: a time for reflection, for celebration... for lists. And here's a rather important one: the top 25 albums of 2011, as voted for by BBC Music's team of album reviewers. The science bit - i.e. how this top 25 was calculated - can be read at the bottom. A full list of writer top-fives will be published next week. 25 - Bright Eyes - The People's Key 24 - Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know 23 - Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years 22 - Trap Them - Darker Handcraft 21 - The Decemberists - The King is Dead 20 - EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints 19 - Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place 18 - Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues 17 - Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow 16 - Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi 15 - Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx - We're New Here 14 - Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots 13 - Katy B - On a Mission 12 - SBTRKT - SBTRKT 11 - Björk - Biophilia 10 - Iceage - New Brigade 09 - Bon Iver - Bon Iver 08 - Josh T Pearson - Last of the Country Gentlemen 07 - Beyoncé - 4 06 - Metronomy - The English Riviera 05 - Tom Waits - Bad as Me 04 - The Antlers - Burst Apart 03 - The Horrors - Skying 02 - Wild Beasts - Smother 01 - PJ Harvey - Let England Shake http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcmusic/..._25_album.html

The New Yorker

Originally posted by Shame♥ Source

Q Magazine

1. Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials
2. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
3. Adele - 21
4. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
5. Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
6. Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne
7. Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See Get
8. St Vincent - Strange Mercy
9. WU LYF - Go Tell Fire To The Mountain
10. Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys!
11. The Horrors - Skying Get
12. Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
13. Bombay Bicycle Club - A Different Kind Of Fix
14. The Weeknd - House Of Balloons
15. Baxter Dury - Happy Soup
16. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
17. Metronomy - The English Riviera
18. Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi
19. Cass McCombs - Wit's End Get
20. The Weeknd - Thursday Get
21. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
22. White Lies - Ritual
23. Bjork - Bophilla
24. Real Estate
25. Wild Beast - Smother
26. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
27. Ed Sheeran - +
28. Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest
29. Kasabian - Velociraptor!
30. Lady Gaga - Born This Way
31. Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part II
32. Radiohead - King Of Limbs
33. Tune-Yards - Whokill Get
34. Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo
35. Cass McCombs - Humor Risk
36. Katy B - On A Mission
37. Washed Out - Within And Without Get
38. Feist - Metals
39. James Blake - James Blake
40. Danger Mouse & Daniel Luppi - Rome
41. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
42. Josh T Pearson - Last Of The Country Gentlemen
43. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine
44. Death In Vegas - Trans-Love Energies
45. Miles Kane - Colour Of The Trap
46. SBTRKT - SBTRKT
47. Mastodon - The Hunter
48. Noah & The Whale - Last Night On Earth
49. Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra
50. Justice - Audio Video

MOJO

1: PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
2: The Horrors - Skying
3: Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
4: Jonathan Wilson - Gentle Spirit
5: Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow
6: White Denim - D
7: Josh T Pearson - Last Of The Country Gentlemen
8: Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi
9: Tom Waits - Bad As Me
10: Wild Beasts - Smother
11: Laura Marling - A Creature I Dont Know
12: Kurt Vile - Smoke Rings For My Halo
13: Cat's Eyes - Cat's Eyes
14: King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine
15: Paul Simon - So Beautiful Or So What
16: Bon Iver - Bon Iver
17: Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Everything's Getting Older
18: Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
19: James Blake - James Blake
20: My Morning Jacket - Circuital
21: The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient
22: Beirut - The Rip Tide
23: Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
24: EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
25: The Stepkids - The Stepkids
26: Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots
27: Arbouretum - The Gathering
28: Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
29: Wilco - The Whole Love
30: Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
31: Nick Lowe - That Old Magic
32: Bjork - Biophilia
33: Glenn Jones - The Wanting
34: Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest
35: Tinariwen - Tassili
36: Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
37: Duane Eddy - Road Trip
38: The Sand Bag - All Through The Night
39: Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See
40: Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming
41: Destroyer - Kaputt
42: Booker T. Jones - The Road From Memphis
43: Gwilym Simcock - Good Days At Scholss Elmau
44: Glen Campbell - Ghost On The Canvas
45: Tuneyards - Whokill
46: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
47: Radiohead: The King Of Limbs
48: Wire - Red Barked Tree
49: Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra
50: Joe Henry - Revere

Stereogum’s Top 50 Albums Of 2011

50 Youth Lagoon – The Year Of Hibernation
49 Toro Y Moi – Underneath The Pine
48 Oddisee – Rock Creek Park
47 Wilco – The Whole Love
46 tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l
45 Adele – 21
44 James Blake – James Blake
43 Twin Sister – In Heaven
42 Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra
41 Das Racist – Relax
40 Kendrick Lamar – Section.80
39 Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise
38 Burst Apart – Burst Apart
37 Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde
36 Cut Copy – Zonoscope
35 Atlas Sound – Parallax
34 Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo
33 SBTRKT – SBTRKT
32 St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
31 Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
30 Radiohead – The King Of Limbs
29 Washed Out – Within And Without
28 Pictureplane – Thee Physical
27 Destroyer – Kaputt
26 The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Belong
25 Cold Cave – Cherish The Light Years
24 Frank Ocean – Nostalgia, Ultra
23 Wild Flag – Wild Flag
22 Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire
21 Clams Casino – Instrumental Mixtape
20 Real Estate – Days
19 Iceage – New Brigade
18 Beyoncé – 4
17 Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica
16 Neon Indian – Era Extraña
15 Zola Jesus – Conatus
14 Austra – Feel It Break
13 Yuck – Yuck
12 M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
11 Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow
10 Kanye West & Jay-Z – Watch The Throne
09 ASAP Rocky – LIVELOVEA$AP
08 PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
07 EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints
06 Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact
05 The Weeknd – House Of Balloons
04 ****ed Up – David Comes To Life
03 Bon Iver – Bon Iver
02 Drake – Take Care
01 Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Source

IDOLATOR


Foster The People - Torches

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

Beyonce - 4

Will Young - Echoes

Oh Land - Oh Land

Adele - 21

The Sound Of Arrows - Voyage

Patrick Stump - Soul Punk

Ben Folds - The Best Imitation Of Myself: A Retrospective

Britney Spears - Femme Fatale

http://idolator.com/6092572/favorite...-2011-idolator

1. Wilco – The Whole Love 2. Gillian Welch – The Harrow and the Harvest 3. Adele – 21 4. Drive-By Truckers- Go-Go Boots 5. Dawes – Nothing Is Wrong 6. Hayes Carll – KMAG YOYO 7. Paul Simon – So Beautiful Or So What 8. Pistol Annies – Hell on Heels 9. The Black Keys- El Camino 10. Feist – Metals Others: 15. Bon Iver – Bon Iver 16. Miranda Lambert – Four The Record 19. Radiohead – The King Of Limbs 42. Noel Gallagher – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

10. ZOMBY - ‘Dedication’ 9. MY MORNING JACKET - ‘Circuital’ 8. ADELE - ‘21’ 7. THE KILLS - ‘Blood Pressures’ 6. METRONOMY - ‘The English Riviera’ 5. RADIOHEAD - ‘The King Of Limbs' 4. BATTLES - ‘Gloss Drop’ 3. PJ HARVEY - 'Let England Shake' 2. THE HORRORS - ‘Skying’ 1. MODESELEKTOR - ‘Monkeytown’ Others: 12. BJÖRK - ‘Biophilia’ 16. BEASTIE BOYS - ‘Hot Sauce Committee Part Two’ 19. LYKKE LI - ‘Wounded Rhymes’ 26. BON IVER - ‘Bon Iver’ 28. FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE - ‘Ceremonials’ 32. JAY-Z AND KANYE WEST - ‘Watch The Throne’ 35. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - ‘I’m With You’

New York Magazine

1. Austra - Feel It Break
The astonishing thing about this debut album of prim and chilly Canadian synth pop is singer Katie Stelmanis—the shuddery force in her operatic voice, and the way she builds it into layers and harmonies that feel like little sculptures.

2. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
This bass saxophonist summons up hypnotic flurries of notes in single takes, using the slap of his keys as percussion, while Laurie Anderson intones texts—and it’s moving in ways that aren’t remotely esoteric.

3. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
The best-sounding hip-hop album of the year, from an ex-member of Digable Planets. These abstracted electronic beats and boho raps are free-thinking, eye-opening, and beautiful.

4. Destroyer - Kaputt
Indie eccentric Dan Bejar made the most immersive “soft rock” album of the year, turning smooth sounds to clever, cryptic ends.

5. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
This album’s off-kilter, sideshow sound—British folk music made gray and macabre—manages to say as much about nationhood and war as Harvey’s lyrics do.

6. Iceage - New Brigade
A band of teenagers from Denmark gallops through some of the year’s most engaging punk and post-punk—with remarkable style, an ear for melody, and plenty of hustle and clamor.

7. Tune-Yards - W h o k i l l
One-woman whirlwind Merrill Garbus grabs everything at her disposal—her massive voice, the sounds of African music, a loop pedal, clanging drums—and throws it all into vivid songs with refreshingly big ideas.

8. Kendrick Lamar - Section.80
Young Compton rapper obsessed with self-knowledge formulates deep thoughts on the generation of kids born during the crack era—not always good thoughts, but the earnestness with which he chases them is charming.

9. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
World music, sci-fi mysticism, goth, incense and synthesizers, keening and cooing—imagine a band good enough to make these things sound like they’ve belonged together for centuries.

10. Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise
This New Yorker makes rarefied, minimal dance music—all open space, slow-moving beats, and murmured vocals—that might as well be a strange version of pop.

http://nymag.com/arts/cultureawards/...op-ten-albums/

Chicago Tribune

1. Wild Flag, “Wild Flag” (Merge): Four alumni of Sleater-Kinney, Helium and the Minders join forces and celebrate dancing, getting lost in the moment and letting go – it’s what every new beginning should sound like. Guitars jostle for space, harmonies send melodies soaring, and Janet Weiss’ drums make it all zoom. This debut is a glorious reminder of rock at its most exuberant.

2. The Roots, “Undun” (Def Jam): In its third decade, the Philadelphia hip-hop octet releases its best, most ambitious album, a 39-minute song cycle tracing the birth, tragic life and death of a street hustler whose dreams disappear amid crack smoke. The music veers from eerie atmospherics and stomping gospel-rock to a beautifully chilling four-part classical finale.

3. Tune-Yards, “Whokill” (4AD): Merrill Garbus strums ukulele, pounds drums and writes songs that sound as if they’re being whipped up in the moment. Her voice is a thrillingly uninhibited instrument, and it rides waves of percussion to ecstatic highs that suggest Afro-pop and dance music as much as indie-rock.

4. Van Hunt, “What Were You Hoping For?” (Godless Hotspot): Hunt is a former major-label up-and-comer who has found a new kind of freedom and confidence doing things on his own. His third album ventures across genres, touching on everything from country twang to sci-fi psychedelia. The glue is Hunt’s acuity as a songwriter; he knows how to drop hooks and turn a smart phrase, and this album brims with surprises.

5. F--- Up, “David Comes to Life” (Matador): The Toronto sextet caps a prolific first decade (in which they released more than 50 singles, EPs, mixtapes and albums) with a four-part, 18-song, 78-minute rock opera. Guitars weave counterpoint melodies and build to anthemic peaks. The five-character narrative about love, death and redemption is equally ambitious, a landmark that transcends the band’s hardcore-punk origins.

6. Feelies, “Here Before” (Bar/None): The veteran New Jersey quintet’s first studio album since 1991 picks up where they left off, their resolute minimalism spinning off into chiming twilight pastorals, tumbling rockers and hypnotic journeys. Each note counts, every song resonates. No one sounds like the Feelies, still.

7. Raphael Saadiq, “Stone Rollin’ ” (Columbia): Saadiq’s career as a top-flight producer/songwriter/performer extends back to the ‘80s, and this is his finest achievement. He’s always written songs steeped in soul and R&B, but now he gives them a progressive edge with roaming bass lines and haunted keyboard textures. He’s no longer a retro stylist – he’s writing new classics.

8. The Bewitched Hands, “Birds & Drums” (Look Mum No Hands): This French psychedelic-pop sextet crams its songs so full of ideas that they sound like they could burst – and they sometimes do. Tossing together ‘60s California-style vocal reveries, pithy surf-punk ditties, titanic anthems and progressive-rock mini-suites, the Bewitched Hands behave as though they were discovering all these ideas for the first time, imbuing them with a joy that destroys jadedness.

9. Das Racist, “Relax” (Greedhead): After a series of celebrated mixtapes, Heems (Himanshu Suri) and Kool A.D. (Victor Vazquez) spend their debut album celebrating and satirizing hip-hop, a double-edged triumph. Their off-kilter humor and surreal wordplay bounce from the brainy to the outrageous as they topple bling and booty clichés. The production colors outside the margins, too. If anyone emerges as the new Millennium’s answer to De La Soul, this combo has the inside track.

10. Fleet Foxes, “Helplessness Blues” (Sub Pop): The miraculous multi-part harmonies remain, but on its second album, this Seattle band broadens and deepens its sound. The arrangements are more sprawling and pack more punch, even making room for a free-jazz freakout. On the title song, singer Robin Pecknold declares his desire to “be a functioning cog in some great machinery, serving something beyond me.” This beautiful album is the soundtrack for that search.

11. Lydia Loveless, “Indestructible Machine” (Bloodshot)

12. TV on the Radio, “Nine Types of Light” (Interscope)

13. Sam Phillips, “Solid State: Songs from the Long Play” (Littlebox)

14. St. Vincent, “Strange Mercy” (4AD)

15. Tom Waits, “Bad as Me” (Anti)

16. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi, “Rome” (Capitol)

17. Anna Calvi, “Anna Calvi” (Domino)

18. Cymbals Eat Guitars, “Lenses Alien” (Barsuk)

19. Le Butcherettes, “Sin Sin Sin” (Rodriguez Lopez)

20. Low, “C’Mon” (Sub Pop)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entert...5245883.column

Q Magazine Tracks of 2011

1. Adele – Someone Like You
2. Lana Del Rey – Video Games
3. Kreayshawn – Gucci Gucci
4. Foster The People – Pumped Up Kids
5. Lady Gaga – The Edge Of Glory
6. The Vaccines – If You Wanna
7. Aloe Blacc – I Need A Dollar
8. Tyler The Creator – Yonkers
9. The Strokes – Under Cover Of Darkness
10. Lykke Li – Get Some
11. Jack White – Love Is Blindness
12. Chase & Status – Blind Faith
13. Rihanna – Man Down
14. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
15. Florance & The Machine – Shake It Out
16. Ghostpoet – Cash And Carry Me Home
17. Wretch 32 – Traktor
18. Cat’s Eyes – Best Person I Know
19. Example – Changed The Way You Kissed Me
20. Beady Eye – The Morning Son

Paste - Top 50 Songs of 2011

50. Lykke Li – “Love Out of Lust”
49. Lana Del Rey – “Video Games”
48. Little Dragon – “Ritual Union”
47. Chris Bathgate – “Salt Year”
46. Fitz & The Tantrums – “Moneygrabber”
45. Florence + The Machine – “Shake It Out”
44. Nicki Minaj – “Super Bass”
43. Peter Bjorn and John – “Dig a Little Deeper”
42. Surfer Blood – “Miranda”
41. Kurt Vile – “Jesus Fever”
40. Pistol Annies – “Hell on Heels”
39. Battles – “Ice Cream”
38. The Belle Brigade – “Losers”
37. Rubblebucket – “Came Out of a Lady”
36. Seryn – “We Will All Be Changed”
35. Yuck – “Georgia”
34. Adele – “Rolling in the Deep”
33. Reptar – “Blastoff”
32. Foster the People – “Pumped Up Kicks”
31. Dawes – “A Little Bit of Everything”
30. James Blake – “The Wilhelm Scream”
29. Givers – “Up Up Up”
28. Wye Oak – “Holy Holy”
27. The Antlers – “Rolled Together”
26. My Morning Jacket – “Circuital”
25. The Head and The Heart – “Down In The Valley”
24. Those Darlins – “Be Your Bro”
23. Radiohead – “Lotus Flower”
22. The Decemberists – “This Is Why We Fight”
21. Middle Brother – “Blue Eyes”
20. The Black Keys – “Lonely Boy”
19. TV on the Radio – “Second Song”
18. Real Estate – “It’s Real”
17. Childish Gambino – “Heartbeat”
16. Beirut – “East Harlem”
15. The Civil Wars – “Barton Hollow”
14. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – “Nothing But Our Love”
13. St. Vincent – “Cruel”
12. Blitzen Trapper – “Fletcher”
11. Girls – “Honey Bunny”
10. Bon Iver – “Calgary”
09. Cults – “Go Outside”
08. Wilco – “Art of Almost”
07. Tom Waits – “Bad As Me”
06. Generationals – “Ten-Twenty-Ten”
05. Phantogram – “Don’t Move”
04. tUnE-yArDs – “Powa”
03. Typhoon – “The Honest Truth”
02. M83. Midnight City”
01. Fleet Foxes – “Helplessness Blues”

Originally posted by Gui Blackout Q Magazine Tracks of 2011 5. Lady Gagagagagag – The Edge Of Glory

KCRW

1. TV On The Radio – Nine Types of Light (Interscope)
2. Elbow – Build A Rocket Boys (Co-Op/Fiction)
3. My Morning Jacket – Circuital (ATO)
4. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop)
5. Adele – 21 (XL/Columbia)
6. Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee part 2 (Capitol)
7. Portugal. The Man – In The Mountain, In the Cloud (Atlantic)
8. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (Anti)
9. Metronomy – The English Riviera (Big Beat/Atlantic)
10. Feist – Metals (Interscope)

Originally posted by Gui Blackout Q Magazine Tracks of 2011 5. Lady Gagagagagag – The Edge Of Glory

26. Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials
25. Adele - 21
25. Washed Out - Within and Without
23. Britney Spears - Femme Fatale
22. Saigon - The Greatest Story Never Told
21. Iceage - New Brigade
20. Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
19. Cloud Nothings - Cloud Nothings
17. (tie) Destroyer - Kaputt
17. (tie) Wild Flag - Wild Flag
15. (tie) Yuck - Yuck
15. (tie) Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra
14. Paul Simon - So Beautiful Or So What
13. Drake - Take Care
12. Tom Waits - Bad As Me
11. TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light
10. The Decemberists - The King Is Dead
9. Jay-Z and Kanye West - Watch The Throne
8. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
7. Real Estate - Days
6. The Weeknd - House Of Balloons
5. Wilco - The Whole Love
4. Low - C’mon
3. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
2. ****ed Up - David Comes To Life
1. Wye Oak - Civilian

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-b...-2011,66004/2/