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.

• 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]

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

it owned

[NorthernChaosGod]

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

• 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
cycling trivialities

[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
cycling trivialities

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.