
I feel like I’ve listened to a lot more music in 2011 than in previous years. I’m not sure why that would be, probably just one of those cyclical things (the same reason I can go for weeks without reading a book and then binge on three in under a fortnight). Maybe it’s just been a good year for music.
So, here’s my favourite twelve. I wasn’t aiming for a dozen, that’s just the number I got to, no point in leaving off some good stuff just for the sake of a round number is there?
(All the album titles link through to Spotify.)
Yeah, I know: Brooklyn indie kids with falsetto lead vocalist and trip-hoppy beats… so predictable Rob. But ‘Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out’ on its own ensures it a place on this list. It’s not an amazing album, but it’s a solid one, and as long as you can forget that its supposed to be a ‘song suite about an emotionally abusive relationship set in a cancer ward’ then it’s reliably entertaining one too (wow, I know how to damn with faint praise, don’t I?).
I know absolutely nothing about Tycho (I just had to check Wikipedia to make sure it’s a person and not a band – turns out he’s a designer and photographer from San Francisco). What I do know is that this album has been my go-to ‘desk listening’ album of 2011. A good pair of headphones, this on Spotify, and a blinking cursor – that’s been the start to a lot of my mornings for the past few months.
This would be my 2011 guilty pleasure, if liking Katy B was considered to be in any way shameful. Turns out she’s actually critically respectable and that (nominated for the Mercury Music Prize don’t you know).
For me, in the ‘respectable face of dubstep-pop’ fight, Katy kicks James Blake’s arse every time.
Another Mercury nominee (the winner’s a bit further down the page), it took me a while to get Metronomy. On first listen they struck me as a bit too art school, a little too eager to impress. But something kept me going back (plus, it kept getting played in the office), and eventually the ear worm burrowed its way into my brain (especially ‘Everything Goes My Way’). The album does fizzle out a bit towards the end though.
If Metronomy felt like they were trying too hard, then Wild Beasts managed to nail ‘effortless’. Not easy when your singers sound like a couple of pissed up choir boys. This album has the best opening segment of any album released this year I think: the spooky hook of Lions Share, followed by the awesome Bed of Nails. Stick this on in the front room on a Saturday morning and I’ll happily wail along to it.
Ah, Low. How can you not love them? Well, actually, their last album didn’t really do it for me, so I was really happy when C’Mon came out and it blew me away. There’s something about the sound of Low that bypasses my brain and hits me right in the stomach, a great emotional ‘whump’ to the gut, like being sideswiped by a giant pillow. They do an awful lot with very little and I’m very grateful they exist.
P.J. Harvey – Let England Shake
A lot of people’s ‘Album of the Year’ and the Mercury Prize Winner of course, and for good reason. Brilliant, folky melodies mixed in with some sonic experiments and beautiful lyrics, it’s Proper Music. I’m not going to pretend that Let England Shake is my go-to iPod album, but when you put the effort in, it rewards you with everything you could want back. And she has some awesome headgear.
Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
Best album name of 2011? Absolutely. Best album, full stop? Not quite, but bloody close. I’ve been a fan of Mogwai since Young Team, but I’d always had a nagging doubt (probably unfair) that they were gradually losing it somehow. This album proved me wrong in the best way possible. It’s beautiful and terrifying at the same time, in the way only Mogwai can be.
I was never not going to like this album. I was pretty much obsessed with the first one, played it to death, and fell in love with the way lead singer Ed Macfarlane dances (seriously, it’s incredible). Pala was never going to live up to my expectations, but it still managed to be one of the albums of the summer, and the little drum break approximately four minutes into Live Those Days Tonight is one of my favourite three seconds of music this year.
The Field – Looping State of Mind
Probably my most anticipated album of 2011, and one that did not disappoint on any level. I haven’t stopped listening to Axel Willner’s latest minimalist soundscape since it was released, and I’m sure I’ll be devouring it well into 2012. It’s just utterly mesmerising; a hugely refreshing, substantive, and emotional record that sticks out above all the limp ‘chillwave’ that’s been around recently. Plus, the double vinyl edition is absolutely gorgeous.
The Rapture – In the Grace of Your Love
My party record of 2012. The Rapture have hardly broken the mould with this one: cowbells? Check. House piano? Check. Slap bass? Check. Hand claps? Check. Chanty choruses? Check.
Is it awesome? Fucking check.
How Deep is Your Love? takes my ‘track of 2012′ award by a country mile, and the rest of this album puts such a massive grin on my face that it’s a shoe-in for this list.
I don’t have a ‘number one best album of 2011′ but as far as all-round brilliance is concerned, Cut Copy take the award. This album ticks every box: brilliant artwork, beautifully produced, freakishly catchy, no duff tracks… it doesn’t put a foot wrong, even during the fifteen minute, psychedelic monster that is the closing track. I love it.



