Your favorite albums of 2011

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I was let down with a lot of albums this year to be honest. I'm thinking YelaWolf's album, out in a couple of weeks, could be ace.
 
Nicolas Jaar - Space is only Noise
John Maus - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
Gus Gus - Arabian Horse
Little Dragon - Ritual Union
The Weeknd - House of Balloons
SBTRKT - SBTRKT
Washed Out - Within and Without
James Blake - James Blake
Gui Boratto - III

Clams Casino also made some great stuff like my tune of the year.

I was thinking about adding Jamie Woon, but I realized I really only like 'Night Air'.
 
Some great shouts there Iron Stove looks like we have a pretty similar taste in music, seeing SBTRKT live in a few weeks can't wait!

Not sure if its this year or last year but I'm absolutely in love with the Jamie XX and Gill Scott Heron collaboration We're New Here
 
The albums released this year that I have listened to in some kind of order:

This is my album of the year:

Kaputt - Destroyer

These are also exceptional:

House of Balloons - The Weeknd
The Year of Hibernation - Youth Lagoon

These were in heavy rotation for a long time:

Section.80 - Kendrick Lamar
Days - Real Estate
The Rip Tide - Beirut
James Blake - James Blake
Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes
Bon Iver, Bon Iver - Bon Iver

These I enjoyed at first but pretty quickly stopped listening to:

Nine Types of Light - TVOTR
Thursday - The Weeknd
Smoke Ring For My Halo - Kurt Vile

These have some good parts:

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming - M83
Departing - The Rural Alberta Advantage
Cults - Cults
David Comes To Life - fecked Up
The King of Limbs - Radiohead

This is very disappointing for me since I have been a fan for years and it's pretty much shit:

Kiss Each Other Clean - Iron & Wine

These are bad:

Mine Is Yours - Cold War Kids
Zonoscope - Cut Copy

I only started listening to this today so it's too early to tell:

Replica - Oneohtrix Point Never

amolbhatia100 said:
Kiss Each Other Clean by Iron & Wine. Had heard lots about this band prior to downloading this album. Utter nonsense.
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It's a shame this album was your introduction to Iron & Wine. Since you like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver I urge you to give I&W one more chance and listen to The Creek Drank the Cradle or Our Endless Numbered Days which are both so much better than the extremely disappointing Kiss Each Other Clean.
 
letranger0 said:
It's a shame this album was your introduction to Iron & Wine. Since you like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver I urge you to give I&W one more chance and listen to The Creek Drank the Cradle or Our Endless Numbered Days which are both so much better than the extremely disappointing Kiss Each Other Clean.
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Fair enough, I guess every artist has disappointing releases and I should look at theirbother work as well but is his voice weaker in this album than previous work? Because i actually find the lead singer a bit weak vocally on this album. Certainly doesn't come across as extremely gifted in this aspect. Hopefully its just how it comes across on Kiss Each Other Clean.
 
On his newest album I thought he made a conscious decision to try to be more assertive and adventurous with his singing and his melodies and, as you say, it didn't work for him. On previous albums his singing was very whispery and reserved/quiet, like this:







So if you're looking for a stronger vocalist then maybe he's not for you, but I would give him a go regardless.
 
Pillory's right, this is far too early. I can't recall too many albums that have impressed me this year. I'm sure I've forgotten some, but more sure that I'll eventually discover some more.

Kimya Dawson - Thunder Thighs
Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
John Olav Nilsen & Gjengen - Det nærmeste du kommer
Blade Brown - Financial Times
 
Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines

Miles Kane - Colour of The Trap

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Arctic Monkeys - Suck it And See

Sound Of Guns - What Came From Fire
 
Sebastian Bach
Michael Schenker
Anthrax
Megadeth
Bush
Children of Bodom
Edguy
In Flames
Sick of it all
Marty Friedman
 
Mighty Boosh said:
Some great shouts there Iron Stove looks like we have a pretty similar taste in music, seeing SBTRKT live in a few weeks can't wait!

Not sure if its this year or last year but I'm absolutely in love with the Jamie XX and Gill Scott Heron collaboration We're New Here
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You must have an extraordinary taste in music, good sir! ;)

And, yes that's a great one. Really love 'NY is Killing Me'


cinc said:
Thats a simple remix album, Heron died in may.
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Such a shame.
 
letranger0 said:
...
The Year of Hibernation - Youth Lagoon
...
It's a shame this album was your introduction to Iron & Wine. Since you like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver I urge you to give I&W one more chance and listen to The Creek Drank the Cradle or Our Endless Numbered Days which are both so much better than the extremely disappointing Kiss Each Other Clean.
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Youth Lagoon is a great call, love that album!

I can't say I fully agree with you when it comes to Kiss Each Other Clean though. It wasn't up to the heights of Sam Beam's previous exploits, but I was hardly extremely disappointed. I would also have liked it if he had stayed closer to his original sound, but as an artist I would imagine that he wishes to expand and evolve, as opposed to keep making the same album over again. And even if the direction he took with KEOC didn't quite do it for me, it still had its moments like Tree By The River and Godless Brother In Love.

The Shepherd's Dog is my favourite of his albums though, so I can definitely see how far away KEOC is from the first two, if you were hoping for something more in the direction of those. Carousel and Resurrection Fern from Shepherd's are two of my all time favourite songs!

On the subject of disappointments though, I'd like to mention Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys. I've all but lost all faith in them putting out another classic. I've liked their previous, recent albums to some extent, but ever since Plans they've gotten progressively worse.
 
Downloaded Build a Rocket Boy and Tamer Animals today, one of which based on a suggestion from you guys. Will post my initial opinions after a first full listen.
 
Blitzkid - Apparitional (Horror punk)
Social Distortion - Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes (Punk rock)
Dropkick Murphys - Going Out In Style (Celtic punk)
Megadeth - TH1RT3EN (Thrash/heavy metal)
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light (Rock)
 
Foster The People - Torches
Liam Finn - Fomo
Panic! At The Disco - Vices & Virtues
Architecture In Helsinki - Moment Bends
Pajama Club - Pajama Club
 
Off the top of my head:

Above & Beyond - Group Therapy
Pain of Salvation - Road Salt Two
Steven Wilson - Grace for Drowning
Le Butcherettes - Sin Sin Sin
M83 - Hurry Up We're Dreaming
Memories of Machines - Warm Winter
Omar Rodriguez Lopez - Telesterion
Various Artists - Anjunadeep 03
Cosmic Gate - Wake Your Mind
James Blake - James Blake

I've been exploring a lot of House/Trance/Chillout compilations from the past this year so I've probably not listened to as many artist albums as I usually would.
 
I'm a hip hop listener. My album of 2011 is

Wildelux and Mac - The Masterplan

Other mentionables are:

Phonte - Charity Starts at Home
Evidence - Cats and Dogs
Torae - For the Record

Nas and Common still to drop so looking forward to this. And on the 'commercial' side, I thought the Game's R.E.D album was pretty good.
 
Stretch said:
I'm a hip hop listener. My album of 2011 is

Wildelux and Mac - The Masterplan

Other mentionables are:

Phonte - Charity Starts at Home
Evidence - Cats and Dogs
Torae - For the Record

Nas and Common still to drop so looking forward to this. And on the 'commercial' side, I thought the Game's R.E.D album was pretty good.
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The new Roots albums shaping up to be something else.
 
RedLars said:
Youth Lagoon is a great call, love that album!

I can't say I fully agree with you when it comes to Kiss Each Other Clean though. It wasn't up to the heights of Sam Beam's previous exploits, but I was hardly extremely disappointed. I would also have liked it if he had stayed closer to his original sound, but as an artist I would imagine that he wishes to expand and evolve, as opposed to keep making the same album over again. And even if the direction he took with KEOC didn't quite do it for me, it still had its moments like Tree By The River and Godless Brother In Love.

The Shepherd's Dog is my favourite of his albums though, so I can definitely see how far away KEOC is from the first two, if you were hoping for something more in the direction of those. Carousel and Resurrection Fern from Shepherd's are two of my all time favourite songs!
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Actually The Shepherd's Dog is my favourite as well and I had no problem at all with the way he developed his sound from TCDTC -> OEND -> Woman King EP -> TSD, in fact I really liked the progression he went through.

My main gripe with KEOC is that while his intention might have been to 'expand and evolve', in so doing he created an album which, while on the surface of it, yes, it may seem more expansive than his previous efforts with his more assertive melodies and more creative instrumentation, just feels so incredibly limp and lifeless to me. Where is the emotion and passion in these songs? Maybe some can find it, but I have tried and I can't. In my opinion his attempt to expand has had the exact opposite effect and actually made his songs more limited, small, closed, reserved, or whatever the word is, than anything he recorded with just him and his guitar alone in a room.

As for DCFC; I agree. I didn't even bother listening to their latest effort.
 
Am I the only one that only knows about 10 bands mentioned? Is this all just some indy shit?
 
pillory said:
Heard this one at a friend's yesterday. Not enough to really form an opinion, but it sounded very interesting. I'll probably buy it.
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Probably the album I've listened to the most this year. I love the retro 80's New Wave sound. Also, I think the whole album is great, not just or two songs.

 
Snow said:
Am I the only one that only knows about 10 bands mentioned? Is this all just some indy shit?
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Well that's the point to be honest.

I'm loving tamer animals by the way. Build a rocket boy, the album, doesn't seem as impressive as the song which is brilliant.
 
The new Florence and the Machine album has some very decent tracks on it. Rarely listen to chart stuff but this caught my eye and I've enjoyed all that I've listened to off it so far.
 
Figured I'd bump this to add to the collection of albums already mentioned. Skipping the obvious albums (Bon Iver, James Blake, Fleet Foxes) to focus on the ones I hadn't seen mentioned here already, starting off with my two definite favourites...

Andrew Jackson Jihad's Knife Man (punk, folk punk). An album dealing with miserable topics but remains hilarious thanks to the combination of witty lyrics and brilliant whiny vocals.


Danish band Iceage released their debut album, New Brigade (punk, post punk), at the beginning of the year. It's noisy, sounds youthful and like Scandinavian winter.


Other great albums this year...
Tyler, The Creator - Goblin
GIRLS - Father, Son, Holy Ghost ("Vomit" is my pick for song of the year)
WU LYF - Go Tell Fire To The Mountain

Two absolutely brilliant EPs... King Krule by King Krule (formerly Zoo Kid, singer-songwriter, experimental. He's been getting compared to Pete Doherty and Jeff Buckley. Definitely recommend checking out "Out Getting Ribs" which he released in 2010 as Zoo Kid) and Awake by Trash Talk (hardcore, punk).



Some good free albums/mixtapes that were released this year:
A$AP Rocky - LiveLoveA$AP (rap, hip/hop)
Big K.R.I.T. - Return of 4Eva (rap, hip/hop)
Dymbo Gets Mad - Elephants at the Door (psychedelic)
Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra (RnB, hip/hop)



One of my favourite albums this year don't quite qualify as "best album of 2011"; MGMT's Late Night Tales, a compilation album of their very favourite after after party songs, including their own cover of Bauhaus' "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything". Been hailed as the best in the Late Night Tale series so far and shows MGMT is a band that really knows their stuff (note: I'm a ridiculously big fan of MGMT and I consider everything they do to be brilliant, sue me). Youtube Dave Bixby's "Drug Song".


Wasn't sure whether to put the videos in a spoiler or not, so tell me if it's annoying and I will.
 
Loved;
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Astronautalis - This is Our Science (my album of the year)
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Austra - Feel It Break
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Explosions In The Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

Enjoyed;
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Bombay Bicycle Club - A Different Kind of Fix
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Buck 65 - 20 Odd Years
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Flashbang Grenada - 10 Haters
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Danger Mouse & Danielle Luppi - Rome
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Antlers - Burst Apart
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T.V. on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
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Laura Stevenson & the Cans - Sit Resist


Disappointed by;
Beirut - The Rip Tide
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
 
Thursday The Weeknd
Camp Childish Gambino
Section.80 Kendrick Lamar
Goblin Tyler, The Creator
Blue Slide Park Mac Miller

My top five, in no particular order.

If I had to pick a track of the year: A.D.H.D Kendrick Lamar
 
Ceremonials-Florence and the Machine was a pleasant surprise for someone like me who never really listens to chart stuff. Cracking album.
 
Since the year is nearly over;

1. The Weeknd - House of Balloons
2. Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
3. The Weeknd - Echoes of Silence
4. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
5. Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra
6. Kendrick Lamar - Section.80
7. The Roots - Undun
8. James Blake - James Blake
9. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
10. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
 
Final list:


1. Blut aus Nord - 777 Sect(s)
2. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
3. Blut aus Nord - 777 The Desanctification
4. Atlas Sound - Parallax
5. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
6. Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
7. Tom Waits - Bad as Me
8. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
9. Krallice - Diotima
10. Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
 
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