Best of 2011

Alright, folks, I sat on this one for a long time, but I put some serious elbow grease into it.

The consensus was that 2012 didn't produce a whole lot of heavyweights, and I wouldn't disagree, but one album defined this year for me, gave me goosebumps the first time I heard it (hiking solo in Big Sur a year ago), quickly revealed itself as the year's first great album, got more plays on our table and on my headphones than anything else, and still blows my mind every time I hear one of its silky sax solos, worthy of my mom's smooth jazz station.

That would of course be Kaputt, by Destroyer. Welcome to the recesses of my heart and soul.

Meanwhile, the music world continues to grow weirder and wider and more fractured and fascinating by the year. My impressions thereon..

The Best of the Rest:

The Horrors - Skying
Little Dragon - Ritual Union
Wild Beasts – Smother
James Blake - s/t
Yuck – s/t
WU LYF - Go Tell Fire to the Mountain
V/A: Sofrito Tropical Discotheque
Radiohead - The King of Limbs

T10 - 25:

Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
Other Lives – Tamer Animals
Gotye - Making Mirrors
Anna Calvi - s/t
Okkervil River – I Am Very Far
Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread
Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise
Toro y Moi – Underneath the Pine
Eleanor Friedberger – Last Summer
Teebs – Ardour / Collections 01
Spectrals – Bad Penny
Zola Jesus - Conatus
St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
Austra – Feel It Break
The Weeknd – House of Balloons / Thursday
The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient

Underrated Cusp Albums:

Blood Orange – Coastal Grooves
Wilco – The Whole Love
Fruit Bats - Tripper
Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde
The Kills – Blood Pressures
Diego Garcia - Laura
Weekend - Sports
Future Islands – On the Water
White Denim – D
Fools Gold – Leave No Trace
Julian Lynch – Terra
Grouper – AIA: Dream Loss / Alien Observer
Bibio – Mind Bokeh
Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes

Properly (and above) Rated Cusp Albums:

Feist - Metals
Girls - Father Son Holy Ghost
Cut Copy – Zonoscope
Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
Julianna Barwick – The Magic Place
Atlas Sound - Parallax

2011 Annex (aka Small Sample Size Stunners):

Sandro Perri – Impossible Spaces
Korallreven – An Album by Korallreven
Charles Bradley – No Time for Dreaming
SBTKRT – s/t
Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
Thee Oh Sees – Carrion Crawl / The Dream

Fave EP: Trash Talk

Best single without a proper release: Mazzy Star – ‘Common Burn’

Most interesting: The Weeknd

Best album by Kanye or Jay-Z since Graduation: Kanye West & Jay-Z - Watch the Throne

Model of consistency: Okkervil River - I Am Very Far... Four very good LPs in a row (not counting last year's collab with Roky Erickson, which is probably great too!). Name me another band. I'm just sayin...

Best album that has at least three unlistenable songs – Gotye – Making Mirrors

Seven-headed monster that proves women run sh!% - Zola Jesus / Austra / Anna Calvi / Eleanor Friedberger / Laura Marling / St. Vincent / every Yukimi Nagano appearance

Music city of the year: San Francisco, California, suckaaa (killer releases by Girls / Ty Segall / Sonny & the Sunsets / Thee Oh Sees / Weekend / and we’ll throw in Oaktown’s Tune-yards)

Favorite product of the Dirty Dirty since TI's 'King': Big K.R.I.T. – Return of 4Eva

Favorite major label release: Cults – s/t

Archaeological Dig of the year: The Olivia Tremor Control – Dusk at Cubist Castle

Favorite beatmaker of the year: Teebs

Go-to ambient album of the year: Kyle Bobby Dunn – Ways of Meaning

Life-affirming thumper - Anna Calvi - 'Desire'

Poised to make noise in ‘12: King Krule

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