What are your top ten albums of 2011?

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artrat
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26 Jan 2012, 9:03 am

Here are mine.
10. Nameless path by Marcus Foster
9. Tales From The Barrel House by Seth Lakeman
8.Knife Man by Andrew Jackson jihad
7.Helplessness Blues by The Fleet Foxes
6. Bad as Me by Tom Waits
5. The Speed of Darkness by Flogging Molly
4. England Keep my Bones by Frank Turner
3. A Winter Tale by Bobby Long
2. The King Is Dead by The Decemberists
1. I 'll never get out of this world alive by Steve Earle

The albums that almost made it on my list are " Skying" by Horrors and "Fire and Ashes" by Ryan Adams.


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Last edited by artrat on 26 Jan 2012, 7:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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26 Jan 2012, 9:43 am

In no order, and probably forgetting some:

Shoot: Hedvig Mollestad Trio
Build a rocket boys: Elbow
I like you: Martin Hagfors
Pólýfónía: Apparat Organ Quartet
Heritage: Opeth
Violeta Violeta, Vol 1: Kaizers Orchestra
Your Headlights Are On: Your Headlights Are On
Bad as Me: Tom Waits
Let England Shake: PJ Harvey
Roadwork vol. 4 - Intrepid Skronk: Motorpsycho



LexingtonDeville
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26 Jan 2012, 12:40 pm

1. Mastodon - The Hunter
2. Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction/Ghost
3. Machine Head - Unto the Locust
4. Evile - Five Serpents Teeth
5. ChthoniC - Takasago Army
6. Alestorm - Back Through Time
7. Sylosis - Edge of the Earth
8. Arch Enemy - Khaos Legions
9. Opeth - Heritage
10. Iced Earth - Dystopia


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Laconvivencia
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26 Jan 2012, 4:03 pm

This may not be 10, but here is mine.

1. Gloria Estefan - Miss Little Havana
2. Jennifer Lopez - Love?
3. Ricky Martin - Música + Alma + Sexo
4. Pitbull - Planet Pit
5. Michael Buble - Christmas



Chevand
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28 Jan 2012, 2:36 am

I had to struggle to scrape together even five that I could mention. It's been another lean year as far as the kind of music I like, with Tool, The Mars Volta, and Bloc Party still remaining frustratingly silent, Trent Reznor still on hiatus from NIN (despite collaborating with Yeah Yeah Yeahs' vocalist Karen O. on an awesomely industrial cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" for the soundtrack of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), and Metallica having released Lulu with Lou Reed rather than capitalizing on their new momentum from Death Magnetic. That said, there were a few gems that made an otherwise barren year tolerable.

1. Grace For Drowning - Steven Wilson
This is, in my opinion, one of the crowning achievements of Wilson's 20-plus-year career thus far, including his work with Porcupine Tree. PT will always have a special place in my heart and my music catalogue for their renewed take on Pink Floyd and Rush prog sensibilities. And Wilson's first solo offering, Insurgentes, though quite a marked departure from Porcupine Tree, certainly has its moments. But in my opinion, Grace For Drowning eclipses both Insurgentes and its more immediate predecessor, Porcupine Tree's latest album The Incident. For one thing, there is a darkness and harshness of an intensity that Wilson has rarely indicated in his previous work; the song "Index", for example, could quite possibly be the disturbed cousin of Porcupine Tree's In Absentia-era work. The album is equal parts beautiful, bombastic, and bizarre, and yet it still holds together as a cohesive whole. I think part of that has to do with the way choral arrangements have featured so prominently as a motif here-- they can be instruments of revelatory splendour, as in "Postcard", or they can be signifiers of unforgiving terror, like in the instrumental "Sectarian". But the most challenging and ambitious thing about the album is its foundation in experimental jazz, as demonstrated by the centerpiece, the 23-minute "Raider II". The first few minutes are marked by John Cage-ish experiments with the impact of pronounced silence upon the music, before the song erupts into full fury. It took me a few listens to fully digest it, but once I did, it was like an epiphany. And the music I love and respect the most is the music that does that.

2. Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes
I am 26. Everytime I listen to a Fleet Foxes recording, it makes me feel old, because Robin Pecknold is younger than I am, and his music is so accomplished and impressive that I wonder what I've been doing with my life. Helplessness Blues upped the ante. This is a definite progression from the band's first album; the 60s folk-rock vibe is still there, but it's been polished and developed into some rather surprising new permutations-- for example, "The Shrine/An Argument" is 8 minutes long, and by the end it has devolved into Mars Volta-style jazz fusion chaos. The first time I heard it, it was jarring, because it forced me to reevaluate my sense of what kind of music Fleet Foxes were.

3. El Camino - The Black Keys
Not as soulful as Brothers; less Mississippi Delta, and more party rock. But it's fun party rock, and it's got a good beat. And so what if "Little Black Submarines" plays like an abridged homage to "Stairway To Heaven"? There's nothing wrong with getting back to basics, especially in a radio climate where Led Zeppelin is considered oldies. If the Black Keys want to use their newfound current status as "world's most ubiquitous band" to make that kind of music cool and new again, then good for them.

4. Nine Types of Light - TV On The Radio
Return To Cookie Mountain was their underground critical success. Dear Science was their mainstream breakout smash. And now, Nine Types of Light sees TV On The Radio interested in a mellower, more intimate, more immersive sound. No big confrontational outbursts like "Hey jackboot, f*** your war" here. Everything about the album seems to decry the detachedness and divisiveness so prevalent in the present day-- if not in tone, then at least in content, like the album's big single "Caffeinated Consciousness". Maybe the band decided it was better to be lovers than fighters.

5. King Of Limbs - Radiohead
Alright, so it's not The Bends, it's not OK Computer, and it's not Kid A. With that out of the way-- it's still quite respectable. Coming from any other band, this would be a formidable statement. "Bloom" has a lush atmospheric feel to it, very appropriate to the dark European-fairy-tale forest aesthetic. "Separator" may be one of the most relaxing and laidback things the band has ever done. And of course, "Lotus Flower" is a pretty standard Radiohead single, as instantly recognizable within the band's catalogue as "Creep" and "Karma Police". My biggest issue is the album's sparseness, which probably owes more than anything else to the band's recent attitudes about using new digital distribution techniques to release music as standalone songs rather than concentrated collections. But when yours is the rare band that actually has enough influence to alter decades-old paradigms and business models, you're bound to make a few missteps trying to figure it out. It still beats the current radio favorites by a longshot.


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Last edited by Chevand on 28 Jan 2012, 2:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

abacacus
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28 Jan 2012, 2:41 am

LexingtonDeville wrote:
1. Mastodon - The Hunter
2. Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction/Ghost
3. Machine Head - Unto the Locust
4. Evile - Five Serpents Teeth
5. ChthoniC - Takasago Army
6. Alestorm - Back Through Time
7. Sylosis - Edge of the Earth
8. Arch Enemy - Khaos Legions
9. Opeth - Heritage
10. Iced Earth - Dystopia


Machine Head, Alestorm, Sylosis, and Evil? Good taste man.

I'll get a list together when I get around to remembering which ones came out last year.


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Enigmatic_Oddity
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28 Jan 2012, 4:19 am

1. Father, Son, Holy Ghost - Girls
2. Wild Flag - Wild Flag
3. Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes
4. A Creature I Don't Know - Laura Marling
5. Cults - Cults
6. El Camino - The Black Keys
7. Making Mirrors - Gotye
8. Wounded Rhymes - Lykke Li
9. Let England Shake - PJ Harvey
10. The King Is Dead - The Decemberists

With the exception of Lykke Li and The Black Keys I managed to see everyone perform on this list for their album's respective tours.



LexingtonDeville
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28 Jan 2012, 5:17 am

abacacus wrote:
LexingtonDeville wrote:
1. Mastodon - The Hunter
2. Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction/Ghost
3. Machine Head - Unto the Locust
4. Evile - Five Serpents Teeth
5. ChthoniC - Takasago Army
6. Alestorm - Back Through Time
7. Sylosis - Edge of the Earth
8. Arch Enemy - Khaos Legions
9. Opeth - Heritage
10. Iced Earth - Dystopia


Machine Head, Alestorm, Sylosis, and Evil? Good taste man.

I'll get a list together when I get around to remembering which ones came out last year.


Cheers, Sylosis got my attention when i heard a few of their tracks online. They have that melodeath edge to them, not to mention they hail from Reading, England!


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AnnettaMarie
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28 Jan 2012, 10:40 am

1. King of Limbs - Radiohead
2. Take Care, Take Care, Take Care - Explosions in the Sky
3. Ritual Union - Little Dragon
4. Ceremonials - Florence and the Machine
5. Helplessness Blues - Fleetfoxes
6. Parallax - Atlas Sound
7. Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will - Mogwai
8. Tunnel Blanket - This Will Destroy You
9. Wounded Rhymes - Lykke Li

No ten.


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Moog
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28 Jan 2012, 10:41 am

Something from 1973 or 1996 or 1965 or 2008, probably


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TheFerretHadToGo
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28 Jan 2012, 6:34 pm

Since no-one has mentioned Mirror Traffic by Stephen Malkmus I guess I have to do it.
His previous two records were really flat and uninteresting so I was happy to find he´s been able to revitalize his music (well, the track "Senator" is an exception to that).



Fogman
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30 Jan 2012, 11:30 am

I don't have ten favorites for 2011, but I did like:

Tombs - Paths Of Totality
Kvelertak - Kvelertak
Arkona - Slovo
Seven That Spells - AUM The Death And Resurrection of Krautrock


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Nebulo
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30 Jan 2012, 1:33 pm

In alphabetical, not preferential, order.

Ancient Astronauts - Into Bass and Time
Baths - Pop Music/False B-Sides
Blueneck - Repetitions
Conquering Animal Sounds - Kammerspiel
Field Rotation - Acoustic Tales
Jacaszek - Glimmer
Kangding Ray - OR
Long Arm - The Branches
Mobster - Mon Sommeil
MVMNT - 120 Sheets
Roll The Dice - In Dust

That's excluding brilliant EPs, a couple epic remix albums and a multitude of great singles.



GoonSquad
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30 Jan 2012, 1:49 pm

Yeah... I'm pretty sure most of my top 10 for 2011 would be from other years. :?

I do really like EL Camino by the Black Keys and that EP from Jimmy Cliff.... can't think of the name right now.


edit: the EP is called Sacred Fire. It's awesome.


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neerdowell
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31 Jan 2012, 4:58 pm

Rise Against- Endgame
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committees Part II
The Lonely Island - Turtleneck & Chain
Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You
Earth Crisis - Neutralize the Threat
Green Day - Awesome as f**k
Social Distortion - Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes
Dropkick Murphys - Going out in Style
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
Blink 182 - Neighborhoods

This list is in no particular order and could possibly change again but for the moment this would be my top 10.