The 111 Best Albums of 2011

Here they are.  The 111 Best Albums of 2011 as voted on by you my readers.  If you don't like the results...then vote for something better next year.

I personally, always like the results of this list much better than most critic lists.  This list is always more honest to me.  While Adele dominated most lists...she only cracks the top 40 here.  Or the Decemberists who barely made it on many critic lists jumped up high here because the people just liked the album.

Here are the 111 Best Albums of 2011:

1. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
2. The Black Keys - El Camino
3. The Decemberists - King Is Dead
4. Yuck - Yuck
5. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
6. Death Cab For Cutie - Codes and Keys
7. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
8. Radiohead - King of Limbs
9. Wilco - The Whole Love
10. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
11. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
12. The Weeknd - House of Balloons/Thursday/Echoes of Silence
13. Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math
14. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
15. Wye Oak - Civilian
16. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
17. Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne
18. The Strokes - Angles
19. TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
20. R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now
21. Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
22. Bright Eyes - The People's Key
23. Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials
24. Middle Brother - Middle Brother
25. Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
26. Destroyer - Kaputt
27. War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
28. Wild Flag - Wild Flag
29. Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
30. Tune-Yards - Who Kill
31. Foster The People - Torches
32. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life
33. Real Estate - Days
34. Beirut - Rip Tide
35. Ryan Adams – Ashes and Fire
36. Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing
37. Tom Waits - Bad As Me
38. Adele - 21
39. Gomez – Whatever’s On Your Mind
40. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical
41. Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave
42. James Blake - James Blake
43. Stephen Malkmus - Mirror Traffic
44. Alexander (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) - Alexander
45. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Belong
46. Tapes N Tapes - Outside
47. Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What
48. Class Actress - Rapproacher
49. Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong
50. My Morning Jacket - Circuital
51. Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams
52. Ersatz G.B. - The Fall
53. Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See
54. Atlas Sound - Paradox
55. Explosions in the Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
56. Rival Schools - Pedals
57. Sigur Ros - Inni
58. Battles - Gloss Drop
59. Dustin O Halloran - Lumiere
60. Sam Roberts Band – Collider 
61. Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part 2
62. Drake - Take Care
63. Washed Out - Within and Without
64. Feist - Metals
65. Jason Isbell - Here We Rest
66. Fountains of Wayne - Sky Full of Holes
67. Grouplove - Never Trust a Happy Song
68. Handsome Furs - Sound Kapital
69. Childish Gambino - Camp
70. Low - C’mon
71. Crooked Fingers - Breaks in the Armor
72. Blitzen Trapper - American Goldwing
73. Deer Tick - Divine Providence
74. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
75. Hey Rosetta! - Seeds
76. SBTRKT - SBTRKT
77. The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart
78. The Roots - undun
79. Noah and the Whale - Last Night On Earth
80. Mates of State - Mountaintops
81. New Found Glory - Radiosurgery
82. Gillian Welch - Harrow and Harvest
83. Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi 
84. Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears - Scandalous
85. Found - Factorycraft
86. Metronomy - The English Riviera
87. Library Voices - Summer of Lust
88. The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?
89. The Kills - Blood Pressures
90. Juliana Barwick - The Magic Place
91. Cut Copy - Zonoscope
92. We Were Promised Jetpacks - In The Pit Of Our Stomachs
93. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
94. Tennis - Cape Dory
95. Cults - Cults
96. The Antlers - Burst Apart
97. Friendly Fires - Pala
98. Bombay Bicycle Club - A Different Kind of Fix
99. J. Mascias - Several Shades of Why
100. Tyler the Creator - Goblin
101. Noah Gallagher - High Flying Birds
102. Ladytron - Gravity the Seducer
103. We Are Augustines - Rise Ye Sunken Ships
104. The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once
105. And You Will Know us By The Trail of Dead - Tao of the Dead
106. The Felice Brothers - Celebration, Florida
107. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
108. Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
109. Glossary - Long Live Us All
110. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
111. The Deep Dark Woods - The Place I Left Behind

Buy these albums and more here and here.

The 11 Best Songs of 2011

I usually don't like doing Top song lists of the year (ironic...huh?) but I wanted to give everyone a last chance to get your votes in for the top album of the year.

Just list your favorite albums of 2011 in the comment section below.  Monday is the final day to vote.

Here are the 11 Best Songs of 2011:

1.  Midnight City - M83 (Hurry Up We're Dreaming)
2.  Holocene - Bon Iver (Bon Iver)
3.  The Birds Part 1 - The Weeknd (Thursday)
4.  Shell Games - Bright Eyes (People's Key)
5.  Pumped Up Kicks - Foster The People (Torches)
6.  Under Cover of Darkness - The Strokes (Angles)
7.  First of the Year Equinox - Skrillex (also the best video)
8.  Get Away - Yuck (Yuck)
9.  Gold on the Ceiling - Black Keys (El Camino)
10.  No Church - Jay-Z & Kanye West (Watch the Throne)
11.  Hasa Diga Eebowaii  (The Book of Mormon)

Buy these songs and their albums now!

The 55 Best Albums of 2011 (1-11)

So here it is...my top 11.  My choices.  My opinion.  So, shut up.

SEND ME YOUR LISTS!  I'm still collecting your top 20 lists for a massive 111 Best albums of 2011.  It doesn't have to be 20...just all your favorites albums you can think of.

Here are the 11 Best Albums of 2011:

1.       Yuck - Yuck (Holing Out)

2.       M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

3.       The Strokes - Angles

4.       The Weeknd - House of Balloons/Thursday/Echoes of Silence (get all 3 for free!)

5.       Bon Iver - Bon Iver

6.       Wilco - The Whole Love

7.       Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing

8.       Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

9.       Wild Flag - Wild Flag

10.   Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

11.   The Black Keys - El Camino

Buy these albums and many more for under $5...for a limited time.

The 11 Best Songs By Bon Iver

This weekend, our culture lost two sidemen.  Two sidemen that may have been small parts of a bigger machine, but were integral to that machine's distinct existence.  First and foremost was the loss of Clarence Clemmons, the infamous sax man from the E Street band.  Usually, a sax player is a last second thought and is only thrown into the song to add texture.  But Clemmons added more than flavor.  He added melody...he added a unique sound that didn't just enhance Bruce's gritty songwriting, it elevated his songs to another level. Clemmons sax solos in Bruce's songs are as memorable as the songs themselves...and many times...they are the reason they are memorable.

Ryan Dunn may not have been as integral to the show Jackass...but his input added a certain camaraderie.  As a friend of Bam's, they fed off each other, and created pacing and tone that turned stupid idiots doing stupid idiotic things into an art form on par with Looney Tunes and the physical comedy of the silent movie era.  Jackass may not be the Bruce Springsteen of our generation...but when their movies outgross all the other movies at the box office they're definitely impacting our society.

You may wonder why I would include Ryan Dunn (from Jackass) in a memorial for Clarence Clemmons.  The better question is why am I using them to preview a best of songs for Bon Iver.  Justin Vernon took a few months in a cabin and released Bon Iver's debut...considered of the most important albums of the past decade.  He instantly became one of the most used sidemen in the business.  He had multiple side projects (Gayngs, Volcano Choir, Anais Mitchell), made appearances in the unlikeliest of places (Eau Claire High School Jazz Band, S. Carey, Kayne West) and even dropped in to be a part of the Twilight Soundtrack craze.  In our society, sometimes front men get all the credit.  It's not that they don't deserve credit but many of them could not have done it without a supporting staff.  Kayne's latest album uses Justin Vernon through-out it, creating a pace, a tone, and elevating it to his best release to date.  Kayne should get most of the credit...but even the best can't do it alone.  Maybe that's why Vernon hired himself a band this time around.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Bon Iver:

1.  Skinny Love (For Emma, Forever Ago)
2.  Blindsided (For Emma, Forever Ago)
3.  For Emma (For Emma, Forever Ago)
4.  Bruised Orange (Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows)
5.  Flume (For Emma, Forever Ago)
6.  Bracket, WI (Dark Was The Night)
7.  Creature Fear (For Emma, Forever Ago)
8.  Blood Bank (Blood Bank)
9.  Come Talk To Me (7-inch split with Peter Gabriel)
10.  Re: Stacks (For Emma, Forever Ago)
11.  Wisconsin (For Emma Bonus Track)

Buy Bon Iver's new self-titled album now!!!

The 11 Best Side Project Songs By Justin Vernon

I learned about the new S.Carey release (bassist of Bon Iver) the old fashioned way:  word of mouth.  Not only did I not know that his solo album had been released, I didn't even know the bassist was out recording his own album.  Discovering a great album like this really like finding that diamond in the rough.  What makes it especially awesome is how I found out.  It wasn't in some big music magazine that did a huge spread on it.  It wasn't a feature on the radio.  And it wasn't blasted all over a music blog/web page.  I heard about it from a friend, which in all honesty is the best sign of quality when it comes to music.  Reading a review from a big corp is hard to take seriously when they have dozens of reviewer all with different tastes...all with different moods.  Your friends are your friends.  Their tastes are always their taste.

This is now the 24378th album featuring members of the indie darling Bon Iver.  Either this band is ridiculously talented...or every one else out there plain sucks.

Here are the 11 Best Side Project/Other Band Songs By Justin Vernon of Bon Iver:

1.  Island, IS (Volcano Choir - Unmap)
2.  Last Prom on Earth (Gayngs - Gayngs)
3.  Silent Signs (DeYarmond Edison - Silent Signs)
4.  A Satisfied Mind (Eau Claire Memorial Jazz I - A Decade With Duke)
5.  Ragstock (DeYarmond Edison - Silent Signs)
6.  Since I Fell For You (Eau Claire Memorial Jazz I - A Decade With Duke)
7.  Sleepymouth (Volcano Choir - Unmap)
8.  If It's True (Anais Mitchell - Hadestown)
9.  The Gaudy Side of Town (Gayngs - Gayngs)
10.  Doubt Comes In (Anais Mitchell - Hadestown)
11.  Bewtiched (Eau Claire Memorial Jazz I - A Decade With Duke)

Buy S. Carey's new album, All We Grow...now!!

The 11 Best Albums of 2008 (Part 5)

At the end of the day, my decision on this top 11 came down to one thing...listenability. Which albums held up to repeat listens... Which albums didn't get dated by the 3rd spin... Which albums still sounded fresh a month after the novelty wore off... Which albums I felt confident recommending to friends...

Bon Iver's album became that one album that stood above the others. It's the one album I kept going back to...the one album I could listen to on repeat...the one album that reminded me why I love music so much...

The 11 Best Albums of 2008:

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (Flume - Daytrotter)
2. Beck - Modern Guilt (only $5.00)
3. Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
4. She and Him - Volume One (Get Free)
5. Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line (Dying Is Fine - Daytrotter)
6. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals
7. TV on the Radio - Dear Science (only $5.00)
8. Coldplay - Viva La Vida (only $5.00)
9. Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy
10. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
11. Little Joy - Little Joy