Best Albums of 2011

Who knows, possibly I'll post more here in the new year. Possibly I won't. Anyway, here are my favourite albums of the year. As always I'm painfully aware that there's a lot of good stuff I've missed, but of the records I picked up this year here's what did it for me. Possibly the only album I bothered to get which I really didn't like was the Kurt Vile one. Such a great stage name. Such terrible music. So that means I basically spent the time listening to music that I'd already tried, or that I was pretty sure I was going to like. I am not, as they say, a professional musical listening writer.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, as they say:


Fucked Up - David Comes To Life

I liked individual songs by Fucked Up before but this is the first time they really clicked for me over an album length. It's just a fantastic, fantastic rock record, like one long anthem to love and how tough it is. Actually in a way it's like an hour-long chorus, which I guess is how your music sounds when you have a frontman whose every utterance sounds ripped out of his guts.

Radiohead - The King of Limbs

Yeah, I'm basically down for whatever Radiohead do now. It's all good.

Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire - Lost In Translation

In a way it's kinda cheating since a lot of why I like this mixtape is all the old El-P beats he uses, but I really like his flow too. Hope whatever he does next is similarly great.

Mr. Dream - Trash Hit

Never has a band that was so consistently compared to other bands I love actually turned out to be as good as this one. (NB: video is cheating as it's the non-album single that they put out after the record, but I always listen to the lot and I just found this cool live version of it and it's easier just do youtube vids rather that switch to vimeo where their great video for Croquet is...)

Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica

I dug the Ford and Lopatin album that he was involved in too, but this is other-world music. Something to get lost in.

Tuneyards - W H O K I L L

I went up and down with this one, but in the end I love it I think. One of the few times when a video irritated me so much that I thought again about liking the great song that went with it (not the video I'm posting here of course).

Office of Future Plans - Office of Future Plans

J. Robbins put out a new album this year and it basically sounds like Burning Airlines and Channels and late Jawbox and there is no way an album like that is not making it into my favourite albums of the year (even though this video dates from 2010).

Wilco - The Whole Love

I didn't pick up the last two Wilco albums even, but this is just great, great music. I listened to it a lot.

Tokyo Jihen - Daihakken

I'm surprised I didn't find more stuff from Japan that I loved this year, but it was just this and the Perfume record basically. One of those records where the singles they released before hand were the worst songs on there, which is how it goes I suppose.

Shabazz Palaces - Black Up

More other-world music. Deep, I mean with a sense of physical depth, not in a cheesy way.

See you in 2012, ya mooks!