Top 20 Albums of 2011

(5/9/11)

Finally! A couple polar opposite punk albums at the top, Radiohead beaten at their new game, some super annoying rap throughout, and a generous helping of indie rock standbys filling in the gaps. Also, this has got to be my first top 10 with 3 "fuck"s in it. Enjoy!

01 Royal Headache - Royal Headache: 25 minutes of too-fast, melodic interstate punk with sun-soaked shoulders for taking breaks. The most fun, perfectly-paced album of the year.
Best Sample Track: Psychotic Episode

02 Fucked Up - David Comes to Life: Royal headache's evil twin, a gorgeous 77 minute album about love, all in thunderous hardcore clothing.
Best Sample Track: Queen of Hearts

03 Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor - The Social Network OST: Dense, weightless, minimal instrumentals, dripping with tension and promise.
Best Sample Track: Intriguing Possibilities  

04 Radiohead - The King of Limbs: I've heard this called "a minor masterpiece" and that just about nails it. As spindly and uncanny as a stop-motion skeleton.
Best Sample Track: Bloom

05 Das Racist - Relax: Offkilter rapping that's as funny, complex and downright listenable as ever.
Best Sample Track: Relax

06 M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming: So huge. Biggest album of the decade. Slash Ever? Bonus points to the ridiculous Raconte-Moi Une Histoire for cracking this crusty old heart of mine. Best Sample Track: This Bright Flash

07 Starfucker - Reptilians: A bursting, joyous, depressing album, pop charging headlong down laser tunnels into death. Best Sample Track: Julius

08 Spank Rock - Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Fucking Liar: Brash, ugly, spazzy, noisy, nasty square wave rap. Strangely irrisistable. Best Sample Track: Nasty

09 Wu Lyf - Go Tell Fire to the Mountain: A raucous, mournful, moon-howling bliss-out, with big drums and bass and chiming guitars for miles. Best Sample Track: We Bros

10 Battles - Gloss Drop: Just the slickest, sickest, most fun beats of the year, wrapped around all manner of offkilter jams. Best Sample Track: Futura

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11 King Creosote and John Hopkins - Diamond Mine: A quiet, tragic masterpiece told in moments tiny and small. Best Sample Track: Bats in the Attic

12 Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver: At its best it soars eternal, but its too samey for me to heft it to the heights decreed by the indie elite. Best Sample Track: Holocene

13 Youth Lagoon - The Year of Hibernation: A stone soup of perfect beats and perfect synths and crooning yearning. Best Sample Track: Posters

14 The Black Keys - El Camino: A richer, glammier album from the most stone cold solid (for better or worse) band going these days. Best Sample Track: Little Black Submarines

15 Mr Dream - Trash Hit: A perfect 90's underground tribute/parody/ripoff, lousy with great crunchy riffs. Best Sample Track: Crime

16 Smith Westerns - Dye it Blonde: All the longing and fuzz-edged pumpkinsey guitars you can fit in a single summer. Best Sample Track: Weekend

17 Flashbang Grenada - 10 Haters: The highlight is the buzzy, chippy, bent production. The great rapping is gravy. Best Sample Track: Moisturizer

18 Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, but You Will: Typical mogwai boreal hugeness, but in an uncharacteristically catchy, well-paced package. Best Sample Track: Death Rays

19 Danny Brown - XXX: A harrowing, schizophrenic rap epic: reveling-in and suffereing-from excess, in turn. Best Sample Track: Fields

20 Wavves - Life Sux EP: Wavves finally puts out a disc with a the perfect fun-ass-punk-to-stoned-ambience ratio. Best Sample Track: Bug

And for reference, here's everything I listened to / reviewed in 2011. New reviews starting back up soon!