Top Albums of 2011

Heading into final taper week for the marathon, so I figured I'd go ahead and finally finish off my list of my top 40 favorite albums of 2011. I've been counting down the list on Facebook....but stalled @ #7...so recapping starting at #20...here's the list all the way to #1.

#20 Battles - Drop Gloss
#19 Wild Flag - Wild Flag
#18 Austra - Feel It Break
#17 Das Racist - Relax
#16 The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh
#15 The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
#14 Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
#13 Kendrick Lamar - Section 80
#12 Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
#11 Death Cab for Cutie - Codes & Keys
#10 Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys!
#9 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - It's a Corporate World
#8 The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Decks

So here are the top #7. Why top #7? Just felt like I enjoyed these more a slight bit over the others.... top 7 it is.

#7 Cults - Cults

A fun, breezy, summery pop record that seems like it could have come out anytime in the last 50 years and 'worked'.




#6 Adele -21

No need to link to the songs...chances are you own a radio. Just because it is radio friendly, doesn't make it any less amazing. "Someone like You" was the perfect heartwrenching song to pair with the fantastically big and bold "Rolling in the Deep."

#5 Real Estate - Days

SIGH....relaxed, chill, precise....not sure what the right word is, but I've listened to this record front-to-back countless times, and it is magical everytime. That earns you a top #5 spot.

#4 Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Catchy, catchy, catchy. "Just like a shotgun needs an outcome." is easily my favorite lyric of the year on the straightforward sex anthem "Get Some", but it was the softer side with songs like this one....that made me fall in love with these songs. I'll echo what I read in a review, that she is equally comfortable being the agressor or the victim.





#3 Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

The smartest sad-ish record I think I've ever heard. It avoids the 'woe is me' mopiness of a Morrisey record, because it is just so damn self-aware. Every song seems so thought out, so introspective. Lyrically masterful and a vast improvement over White Winter Hymnal. I'm convinced that all of the energy I spent learning to like Fleet Foxes, balanced out my (relative) disappointment in the new Bon Iver album.






#2 Wye Oak - Civilian

Really hard to make this #2, because I loved the hell out of this record. Driving, haunting, insert whatever haughty music review language you want....this just sounds sounds amazing. As much as people (myself included)....have praised bands like The Black Keys for being able to get so much sound out of a duo, Wye Oak has the Jenn Wasner advantage. Her voice carries throughout, and add the drums of Andy Stack....and well, every song just seems so well constructed. Amazing stuff.




#1 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong

Simply my favorite of the year. An 80's throwback in all the right ways, and noisy when it needs to be. I'll leave it at that.