Favourite music of 2011

[charliepanayi]

I know these threads usually wind up with a couple of posts saying 'I only listened to two new albums this year' etc but may as well give it a try.

What have been people's favourite songs/albums released this year? Or even favourite gigs and festivals you attended?

[The Man]

Top ten, alphabetical order:

Ash Borer
Blut aus Nord (both albums)
Echtra
Falls of Rauros
GridLink
Lake of Blood
Panopticon
Petrychor
Wolves in the Throne Room

Other highlights:

Altar of Plagues
Autopsy
Between the Buried and Me
Carbonscape
Decapitated
Fen
Fleet Foxes
ICS Vortex
Krallice
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Liturgy
Moonsorrow
Noisear
Oskoreien
The Psychic Paramount
Paul Simon
Tartar Lamb II

There's still a bunch of other stuff I need to sort through. Opeth isn't as bad as everyone said it was, but I'm not sure it qualifies as a highlight. I've only listened to it a few times though. There are a bunch of other albums I haven't listened to nearly as much as I should, or at all.

[Miss_Lulu]

The new Florence album was amazing inho.

[Rantz]

I always end up having to make sure that the albums I want to list are actually new releases and not just new discoveries on my part. And I usually find a few of the latter that I thought were the former. :p


Alexi Murdoch – Towards the Sun: Found it somewhat less atmospheric than his other stuff, but he's still rather good. Always nice to listen to that honey voice.
Ane Brun – It All Starts With One: Another "not her best release", but there are some really good tracks on here. Worship and Do You Remember are two good examples. I'm glad that she remains somewhat experimental and tries out new things.
Cold War Kids – Mine is Yours: Love this to death. Both of their previous studio albums were amazing and this ranks right up there with them. If I were to choose just one favourite album this year, I think this might be it.
Freddie Wadling – With a License to Kill: Freddie Wadling is a Swedish singer with a history of unexpected releases with fun themes, one release being filled with ballads about grisly murders and crimes. This is his second album in English, and the theme is covers of Bond themes. It's unexpected and while it's no amazing showcase of musical talent, it's not bad to listen to and most of all it's a fun initiative that I can't help but love.
Graveyard – Hisingen Blues: Straightforward hard rock. Not much else to say. Love it.
James Blake – James Blake: An interesting album with some really great tracks. As I understand it he gets a lot of flak for his "excessive use of auto-tune", but I don't get that criticism. I can see how people can disrespect auto-tune as a tool to correct your pitch and compensate for having a mediocre voice, but the way Blake uses it, he makes it his instrument and part of his sound. To me, this criticism is like saying rock music is bad for its excessive use of electric guitars.
James Blake – Enough Thunder: This was released both as an EP and as the second disc of the deluxe edition of the above album. This is just as well produced and good to listen to as the main album, but I find that the highlight tracks, Fall Creek Boys Choir (ft. Bon Iver) and A Case of You (Joni Mitchell cover), go above and beyond. So good!
Jedi Mind Tricks – Violence Begets Violence: Excellent hip-hop album. This is the first I'm hearing of them, so I can't compare it to earlier material, but I love it.
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake: I love PJ Harvey. So much. She's one of those rare gems like Björk who never stops experimenting with new sounds and is always trying new angles. This is one of my very favourite new releases this year.
The Roots – Undun: Another great hip-hop album. The track Make My is my favourite right now.
Various Artists – Rave On Buddy Holly: Currently relevant artists (She & Him, The Black Keys, Florence + The Machine, Modest Mouse, and many more) and a few old veterans (Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Paul McCartney) get together to make an album of Buddy Holly covers. This album is what the kids would call a "hoot". Lots of fun to be had, and some really nice covers.


Several releases I find are good enough to listen to, but aren't really fresh/interesting enough to warrant much commentary (that, or I haven't listened to them enough to say anything interesting).
Beirut – The Rip Tide
Björk – Biophilia
Explosions In The Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
Madeleine Peyroux – Standing On The Rooftop
The Decemberists - The King is Dead

I was hoping to be able to put these on this list because I love the artists, but they ended up underwhelming me. Sad. :(
Anna Ternheim – The Night Visitor
Death Cab for Cutie – Codes and Keys
Laura Marling – A Creature I Don't Know
The Decemberists - Long Live The King (didn't even make the connection between the album titles until I put them down just now)

And the joker that I'm still kind of in limbo about is Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow. My first impression was rather underwhelming, but I'm giving it another chance thanks to Vincent, Thunder God and kind of liking it.

[Wolf Kanno]

TRON: Legacy OST: It's Daft Punk, so I was sold from the very beginning but really its a great techno album that has a serious sense of nostalgia for early electronica styling from the 80s mixed in with more modern sounds and techniques as well. It's really a gorgeous album. Listening to it on my headphones as I took the Light Rail and traveled around the city was just perfect.

Gorillaz ~ The Fall - Okay so this was actually released last December but it passed my radar and I didn't get a hold of it until this last summer, besides it was literally released like the last week of 2010. I'm still putting it on here cause the album is gorgeous, recorded on an iPad during the American Tour, the album has a styling and feeling of "traveling" which really hit home for me, because I use to travel by road trips when I was a young. So the album really creates that sense of old family vacations and trips I've taken to some great places and some godforsaken places. Revolving Doors, Amarillo, and Hillbilly Man are all exceptional tracks. It's a very experimental album so I can't really recommend it for casual listening.

[Chris]

http://www.mememagazine.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/550x550_music_grace_jones_hurricane_dub.jpg

Grace Jones - Hurricane Dub

Boring and predictable choice, right? But to be honest, this re-modeled release of her 2008 comeback album, is incredible dub music. Spacey, broody, dark, industrial, tropical and "Grace-ful".

[Parker]

I didn't listen to a whole lot of music from this year (and I can't remember what was released this year and what wasn't) but I did go to an Electric Six gig a couple weeks ago :cool:

it owned

[NorthernChaosGod]

Oh, man. 2011 was a great year for new metal. :monster:


All Shall Perish - This is Where it Ends Hands down my favorite album of 2011 and probably their best work to date. Plenty of technically impressive riffs, nice melodies, and overall great musicianship.
The Black Dahlia Murder - Ritual This band just keeps getting better and better as they continue. Amazing riffs, impressive drum work, and a great atmosphere make for one awesome metal album.
TesseracT - One A new band I discovered a little while ago. Their debut album release and they've already shown they can hang with some of the larger names in metal. Has some very heavy and complex guitar work and the music is very atmospheric.
Between the Buried and Me - The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues Only an EP, but at 30 minutes it has more song than a lot of albums do. In fact, if it was a full-length album, it would probably have been my favorite release of 2011. Their music continues to impress, it's complex, catchy, and very emotional.
3 - The Ghost You Gave to Me Another recent discovery of mine. This album has a bit of everything thrown in and it works well. The quiet passages complement and contrast the heavier passages quite well and the music is very impressive overall to say the least.
Trivium - In Waves They've gone back to their heavier roots after their previous release all while keeping some of the lighter melodies and singing. A very solid album all around and the bonus tracks are a great addition to a good album.
Symphony X - Iconoclast Symphony X never disappoints. They've continued pushing the envelope with their complex riffs and heavy riffs while keeping a very melodic sound. The vocals are amazing as well.

[Pike]

Question: if I say I liked the new Lady Gaga album, will I be banned?

[NorthernChaosGod]

Yes.

[chionos]

/concurs with NCG.

I also agree with Rantz about the Decemberists album, major disappiont, same with Death Cab. And I agree with Rantz, the Roots are on my good year list.

I was disappointed at first by Radiohead's newest, but it's kind of growing on me.

I want to mention the Roots again, because Undun is just fantastic.

In 2011 The Fleet Foxes continued to roxor my boxors with Helplessness Blues...oh the harmonies, I love this band.

I'm anxiously waiting for some new Jose Gonzalez, but still nothing in 2011, I'm afraid I'm going to break Veneer playing it too much.

Some of the Mastadon album isn't too bad either.

Also, I'm afraid some of you might not know Gonzalez, and that just will not do.
perfectly simple, simply perfect (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4_4abCWw-w)
cycling trivialities (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGMhLUgqnRA&feature=related)

[Rantz]

/concurs with NCG.

I also agree with Rantz about the Decemberists album, major disappiont, same with Death Cab. And I agree with Rantz, the Roots are on my good year list.

I was disappointed at first by Radiohead's newest, but it's kind of growing on me.

I want to mention the Roots again, because Undun is just fantastic.

In 2011 The Fleet Foxes continued to roxor my boxors with Helplessness Blues...oh the harmonies, I love this band.

I'm anxiously waiting for some new Jose Gonzalez, but still nothing in 2011, I'm afraid I'm going to break Veneer playing it too much.

Some of the Mastadon album isn't too bad either.

Also, I'm afraid some of you might not know Gonzalez, and that just will not do.
perfectly simple, simply perfect (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4_4abCWw-w)
cycling trivialities (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGMhLUgqnRA&feature=related)

The song Helplessness Blues is almost all I've heard from Fleet Foxes' new album, but I love that song. Need to listen through that album properly.

What I've heard of Gonzalez is great, but I haven't really indulged in his music yet.

[NeoCracker]

TRON: Legacy OST: It's Daft Punk, so I was sold from the very beginning but really its a great techno album that has a serious sense of nostalgia for early electronica styling from the 80s mixed in with more modern sounds and techniques as well. It's really a gorgeous album. Listening to it on my headphones as I took the Light Rail and traveled around the city was just perfect.

Gorillaz ~ The Fall - Okay so this was actually released last December but it passed my radar and I didn't get a hold of it until this last summer, besides it was literally released like the last week of 2010. I'm still putting it on here cause the album is gorgeous, recorded on an iPad during the American Tour, the album has a styling and feeling of "traveling" which really hit home for me, because I use to travel by road trips when I was a young. So the album really creates that sense of old family vacations and trips I've taken to some great places and some godforsaken places. Revolving Doors, Amarillo, and Hillbilly Man are all exceptional tracks. It's a very experimental album so I can't really recommend it for casual listening.

Revolving doors is amazing. That said, I was a bit dissapointed with this album after Plastic beach. Mind you, the only bad song I though was Bobby in Pheonix, which was almost Sweepstakes bad (Okay, it's still a ways better then sweepstakes, but still). Compared to any of their last three albums it's lacking a lot, but at the same time I'm still happy to have bought it.

[Boney King]

My favourites:

Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Touche Amore - Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me
Africa Hitech - 93 Million Miles
Thursday - No Devolucion
Trap Them - Darker Handcraft
Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
Battles - Gloss Drop
Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
James Blake - James Blake
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
Andrew Jackson Jihad - Knife Man
Braids - Native Speaker
Funeral for a Friend - Welcome Home Armageddon
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (which is also Album Title of the Year)

[charliepanayi]

Mogwai is also my album title of the year, well jointly anyway with John Maus - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves.

[DK]

Soil & "PIMP" Sessions - 15 Summer Goddess [Son of Goddess Ver.] - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itBe-UnDHLE)

:heart: Made my year.

[Loony BoB]

Ed Sheeran's album, +, I adored so much after downloading it that I actually went and purchased it afterwards (which is something I've not done for many a year). When I first heard one of his songs ages back I thought he was just another James Blunt or something, but since then I've actually listened to the lyrics, noted that he does it all himself and also fallen for the way he sort of half-sings, half-raps his songs out.

I also heard Dan singing some song from a Fallout game and I don't know about you guys but I thought it was pretty damned good. ;D

[Psychotic]

My album of the year is What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? by the Vaccines, obviously.
I also heard Dan singing some song from a Fallout game and I don't know about you guys but I thought it was pretty damned good. ;D70 years too late on that one, although I will agree heartily with your assessment.

[Old Manus]

Smoking in Heaven by Kitty Daisy & Lewis

Takes me back to my youth in the 50s

[Rantz]

I'll have to add Nicolas Jarr - Space is Only Noise. Recent discovery!

[Breine]

Some favourites of this year are:


Kate Bush - "50 Words for Snow": As always, Kate is amazing. Simply brilliant. As a big Kate Bush fan I'm very happy.
The Antlers - "Burst Apart": Great album from a great band. Obviously way different than "Hospice", but it still packs a whole lot of nerve. Also, I saw them live a couple of weeks ago, and it was a pretty intense experience.
Bon Iver - "Bon Iver": A wonderful mix of ethereal soundscapes and spacy 80s synth. I dig it.
PJ Harvey - "Let England Shake": Harvey does it again.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

TesseracT - One A new band I discovered a little while ago. Their debut album release and they've already shown they can hang with some of the larger names in metal. Has some very heavy and complex guitar work and the music is very atmospheric.

I told you about them at least 8 months ago! You never listen to me!

This is why Mike is my new metal soul-mate. :colbert:

Anyway.

Animals As Leaders - Weightless

Nemertines - Bad Blood

Eluveitie - Everything Remains As It Never Was

Born of Osiris - The Discovery

Structures - Divided By

[chionos]

I really like Born of Osiris' sound, the syncopation and guitar work especially.

[NorthernChaosGod]

TesseracT - One A new band I discovered a little while ago. Their debut album release and they've already shown they can hang with some of the larger names in metal. Has some very heavy and complex guitar work and the music is very atmospheric.

I told you about them at least 8 months ago! You never listen to me!

This is why Mike is my new metal soul-mate. :colbert:

Anyway.

Animals As Leaders - Weightless

Nemertines - Bad Blood

Eluveitie - Everything Remains As It Never Was

Born of Osiris - The Discovery

Structures - Divided By
xD I guess that's why I had that video linked for so long before I found the album online.

Sorry, sharky. Can you ever forgive me? :(

[Pete for President]

Some of my 2011 favourites:
Cold War Kids - Mine is Yours
the Cubical - It ain't human (now this is one hell of a raw blues album)

But there's one album which particularly caught my interest:
the Amazing - Gentle Stream
(The Amazing -Gentle Stream.wmv - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0p3QFVr9Hs))

Arguably the worst bandname ever, but this Swedish psychedelic/rock/indie formation's latest is so beautifully orchestrated, it's nothing short of amazing. It's subtle, but epic at the same time and instrumental orchestrations on song's endings do make the entire album actually flow like a gentle stream. I recommend this underdog to anyone who's into Band of Horses, Pink Floyd, Fleet Foxes and the like.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

xD I guess that's why I had that video linked for so long before I found the album online.

Sorry, sharky. Can you ever forgive me? :(

Awwww, I can't stay mad at you. (well, actually, I can) Either way you're still in the family.

Also.

Scale The Summit - The Collective

Zeds Dead - Rumble in the Jungle

[Wolf Kanno]

Gorillaz ~ The Fall - Okay so this was actually released last December but it passed my radar and I didn't get a hold of it until this last summer, besides it was literally released like the last week of 2010. I'm still putting it on here cause the album is gorgeous, recorded on an iPad during the American Tour, the album has a styling and feeling of "traveling" which really hit home for me, because I use to travel by road trips when I was a young. So the album really creates that sense of old family vacations and trips I've taken to some great places and some godforsaken places. Revolving Doors, Amarillo, and Hillbilly Man are all exceptional tracks. It's a very experimental album so I can't really recommend it for casual listening.

Revolving doors is amazing. That said, I was a bit disappointing with this album after Plastic beach. Mind you, the only bad song I though was Bobby in Pheonix, which was almost Sweepstakes bad (Okay, it's still a ways better then sweepstakes, but still). Compared to any of their last three albums it's lacking a lot, but at the same time I'm still happy to have bought it.

I agree it's not as good as Demon Days or Plastic Beach but I kind of compare it more to the D-Sides and G-Sides albums which are also mainly hit or miss. Mostly to the albums experimental and semi-improvised creation. Then again, I'm probably biased cause as I said, this album taps into memories of a part of my life where I traveled on the road a lot so it's theme of traveling through the U.S. is kind of nostalgic for me.

[charliepanayi]

20. The Rapture - In the Grace of Your Love
19. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
18. Tom Waits - Bad as Me
17. Explosions in the Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
16. Summer Camp - Welcome to Condale
15. Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
14. Tune-Yards - Whokill
13. St Vincent - Strange Mercy
12. The Decemberists - The King is Dead
11. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
10. Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
9. Wild Flag - Wild Flag
8. F***ed Up - David Comes to Life
7. Yuck - Yuck
6. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
5. The Horrors - Skying
4. Low - C'mon
3. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong
2. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
1. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

[The Man]

Ok, somehow I missed hearing the best album of last year until just a couple days ago: Giles Corey - s/t. It's a solo project of one of the dudes in Have a Nice Life and Nahvalr, two projects some of you may be familiar with,, but as far as I'm concerned it's light-years beyond even those two projects (which have both produced some great music). This is some of the most emotionally wrenching music I've ever heard in any genre, and at the same time it manages to be pretty experimental, incorporating influences from a bunch of different genres (electronica, ambient, folk, alt-country, shoegaze, lo-fi, psychedelic rock, plus a subtle metal influence). I would not be surprised if this ends up in my top 50 albums ever, and possibly being my album of the decade.

That said there's still a bunch of other stuff I haven't listened to that could end up being contenders, but I'm having a hard time imagining anything topping this.

[Boney King]

Ok, somehow I missed hearing the best album of last year until just a couple days ago: Giles Corey - s/t. It's a solo project of one of the dudes in Have a Nice Life and Nahvalr, two projects some of you may be familiar with,, but as far as I'm concerned it's light-years beyond even those two projects (which have both produced some great music). This is some of the most emotionally wrenching music I've ever heard in any genre, and at the same time it manages to be pretty experimental, incorporating influences from a bunch of different genres (electronica, ambient, folk, alt-country, shoegaze, lo-fi, psychedelic rock, plus a subtle metal influence). I would not be surprised if this ends up in my top 50 albums ever, and possibly being my album of the decade.

That said there's still a bunch of other stuff I haven't listened to that could end up being contenders, but I'm having a hard time imagining anything topping this.
I liked that album but I think Deathconsciousness is just a wee bit better, imo.

[Mittopotahis]

2011 felt like a bit of a let-down for me when it comes to music. Possibly just in comparison to '09 and '10, we had some great albums those years.

My 2011 favourites:
- Burst Apart - The Antlers I have a personal motto: The sadder the music, the better. This album has a song about a couple dying in a house fire. Therefore, it is brilliant. Honestly, just amazing song writing and feels like nothing else realised this year and for a while.
- Odd Soul - Mutemath Liked these guys since album one, but this is by far their best effort. Taking a bit more of a Black Keys sound, it just really works for them. Plus, they are such good musicians! dat drumma.
- Bon Iver, Bon Iver - Bon Iver Not as good as For Emma, Forever Ago. But Justin Vernon is one of the best songwriters of the 21st century.
- Skying - The Horrors Not much to say about this one but that it is a frigging good album.
- Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes Not even much of a Fleet Foxes fan, but man, you'd have to be dead to not appreciate those harmonies. Each song is really unique in it's own way, they really surprised me with this one. Grower of the year.
- Making Mirrors - Gotye When this guy gets a song right, he gets it right. A few utterly marvellous songs on the album, a few good ones and a few below par. Like Drawing Blood is better.

[Shiny]

The Journey Aflame - Akua Naru (http://akuanaru.bandcamp.com/album/the-journey-aflame)

[escobert]

Nas - Nasty - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo97R0ib1CE&list=LL2Tl0Sa59ROyfj9twljyqTQ&index=2&feature=plpp_video)

[Elskidor]

Music in 2011? I thought that died off years ago, what is this rubbish?

[theyouthexpress]

I don't like to listen too much but It's fully depend upon my mood..When i'm feeling bore then mostly listen hip hop songs...
_________________________________

Be a part of online magazines (http://theyouthexpress.com/) which is made by youth for youth.....

[krissy]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWZOwvj_7mg">The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0AvO0oBmUA">Nujabes - Spiritual State</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2js8IQkuhE">Braids - Native Speaker</a>

<a href="http://youtu.be/c1npX5-CP0A">Dirty Beaches - Badlands</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRwcgLzlJw8">Talib Kweli - Gutter Rainbows</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_JvY9xeVNM">The Black Keys - El Camino</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsFL17DvOIA">CunninLynguists - Oneirology</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhMyeRti4bU">Prefuse 73 - The Only She Chapters</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i59x7D_hpSc">Kuedo - Severant</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts11tHPBAEg">Low Roar - Low Roar</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsVR5FN-0-Y">My Brightest Diamond - All Things Will Unwind</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHn_Kb4Dz40">Tom Waits - Bad as Me</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxuDoYhQI2o">Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9KsxKC-ksE">Blouse - Blouse</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtNvRfRdqI0">The Flashbulb - Love As A Dark Hallway</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKZBrc4VCRQ">Tycho - Dive</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igqyqxyoaTo">Amon Tobin - ISAM</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yROkpHUY9kU">Mr. Oizo - Stade 2</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh4K2lRtPXM">Washed Out - Within and Without</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZG5OQSKXTU">The Roots - Undun</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KrmxavLIRM">Bon Iver - Bon Iver</a>