Best Albums Of 2011: 5-1

30-26 | 25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1

#5 Cut Copy - Zonoscope

One of the true breakthroughs in 2011 was the joyful dance pop of Cut Copy and their third album Zonoscope. From their relentless tour schedule, their spot-on live shows and their infectious single "Where I'm Going", these Australians have gone from a hidden gem to a marquis talent that everyone knows. This is definitely more than a one hit band as each track is a crowd pleaser from the Chariots Of Fire inspired intro to the Madchester 15 minute rave finale. Expect Cut Copy to be around long after the party is over.


Download Track | Purchase Album

Cut Copy - Zonoscope

#4 Yuck - Yuck

Where the new-wave 80's seemed to dominate the best of 2011, the punky, yet melodic alt-rock of the 90's get a high five from these kids from the UK. Soundchecking every big artist on the college radio charts from 1988-1994, they have resurrected a sound that was long pronounced dead over a decade ago. When you listen to "Get Away", "The Wall", "Suicide Policeman" and "Holing Out", I hear Dinosaur Jr., Yo La Tengo, The Lemonheads and Superchunk. When I think of all of these old bands cashing in on reunion tours, they are catering to people wanting jump in a time machine and relive their childhood, at least for an evening. Yuck does that without the hefty price tag and they still have many albums and high points ahead of them.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Yuck - Various Tracks

#3 The Horrors - Skying

The Britpop-goth sound of The Horrors has become more genteel since they burst onto the overhyped UK scene five years ago. Now on their third LP Skying The Horrors have an equilibrium between the dry ice cloud of their tenebrous past and their accessible present sound. The shoegazing is like a blanket of haze setting over this album, but the pop nuggets shine through like diamonds. Each song has an individuality and value, whether they make your head bob or make your hair stand up on end. Whether is it the loving single of "Still Life", the teasingly explosive "Endless Blue" or the stretched out mileage that burns on "Moving Further Away", The Horrors have made an album that acts as a reminder of the greatness and as the savior of UK music.

Download Track | Purchase Album

The Horrors - Still Life

#2 Fucked Up - David Comes To Life

Homer could not have conceived of an epic presented quite like this. The story that connect the songs in David Comes To Life are the stuff of The Who's rock operas: love, death, rebellion and mysticism. However, the whole sprawl is draped in punk rock tempo, layers upon layers of power chords and the universal screams of a lead singer who goes by Pink Eyes. When you consider the modest and anti-establishment beginnings of Fucked Up (for example, the band name is Fucked Up), to create a double album that borrows so much from mainstream music is incredulous. Still, this band who seems to be leading the charge against the homogenizing of punk has riffs that could be found in any classic rock album. Although the band is on infinite hiatus right now, their next move after this sprawling effort could be equally unpopular and exciting.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Fucked Up - A Little Death

#1 Wye Oak - Civilian

Sometimes an artist finds that perfect balance between the maturing and honing of their technique and the palpable, raw excitement of being great musicians. Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack of Wye Oak found this in Civilian where the inviting warmth of Wasner's vocals and simple chords teases and manipulates the listener as each song gets read like a new chapter. The openers "Two Small Deaths" and "The Alter" are moody yet enveloping, then "Holy Holy" and "Dog's Eyes" blow through you like a hurricane. It is this astonishing tension, the thoughtful ebb and flow that runs through Civilian while framed by earnest guitar work and emotive vocals that keeps this album always in the front of my mind and the top of my list.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Wye Oak - Civilian

Best Albums Of 2011: 10-6

30-26 | 25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1

#10: The Weeknd - House Of Balloons

Let me make something clear. I do not consider myself a fan of hip-hop, rap or R&B. I don't hate it or even dislike most of it. It is just not one of my first listening choices. That is, until I heard The Weeknd. To say the feel of House Of Balloons is beyond R&B would belittle the genre. This album sounds like music from another century, another planet, another plane of existence. The topics addressed, however, are graphically present and real. The obsession with women, parties, sex and drugs is a well trod road. However, the lost, distant cries of how everything goes horribly wrong is an intriguing mystery. If any album this year indicates the future of music, House Of Balloons is it.

Download all albums for free at http://the-weeknd.com/.

The Weeknd - House Of Balloons Mixtape

#9 Neon Indian - Era Extrana

Chillwave's greatest achievement in 2011 is from one of its founders in Alan Palomo. The lush and accessible grooves on Era Extrana are the next progression for this often indiscernible genre. Here, Neon Indian borrows heavily from shoegaze purposeful blurs and new wave pop beats to cobble together moments that are equally exciting and soothing. From the simplicity of his most accessible tracks "Polish Girl" and "Fallout" to the cacophony that blankets "Hex Girlfriend" and "Halogen (I Could Be A Shadow)", this is the less popular, yet much cooler version of M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. Hopefully, the rest of the world will catch on to this better made and edited effort.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Neon Indian - Fallout

#8 - Radiohead - The King Of Limbs

The most hyped album of the year was a disappointment before anyone had heard it. Maybe it was the fact that it was preceded by arguably their best album, but Radiohead's The King Of Limbs by comparison to all of the fanfare (which was not self-marketed) was uneventful. People even invented stories about a second half to the album thinking that there had to be MORE. Alas, this album was a retreat by comparison, an anti-album from the World's Greatest Band. Ignoring the blather, this is simply a collection of eight loosely connected songs addressing the themes of loss and disconnection. Even a middle-of-the-road Radiohead album is better than most in my mind. I guess others feel differently. Or maybe they just did not want to pay for it this time around.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Radiohead - Lotus Flower

#7 TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light

Watching an avant-garde band like TV On The Radio move closer to the mainstream in sound and popularity brings mixed emotions. As you hear each musician become more refined and focused on Nine Types Of Light, you realize that those tightrope moments will be fewer and less likely. Still, on tracks like the slow dance of "Will Do", the doo-wop intensity of "Repetition" and lamenting soul of "Forgotten", they are pushing the establishment into the future, rather than succumbing to those dated and stagnant rules.

Download Track | Purchase Album

TV On The Radio - Will Do

#6 St. Vincent - Strange Mercy

When I first started making my end of the year list, Annie Clark's latest as St. Vincent started as a mere consideration. After each listen, the quirky, experimental sounds and words that tumble from Strange Mercy kept winning me over. This album is a collection of awkward stories and confrontational confessions that simply fascinate. The dichotomy of tempo and theme on "Cruel", for example, takes beautiful sweeping synths and her angelic voice and stabs it playfully with that artfully maddening guitar. Look to the creepy "Cheerleader", the seductive "Surgeon" and the boiling intensity of  "Hysterical Strength" to hear the full range of this amazing effort.

Download Track | Purchase Album

St. Vincent - Cruel

Best Albums Of 2011: 15-11

30-26 | 25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1

#15: Toro Y Moi - Underneath The Pine

The soulful and space-age bachelor pad grooves found on Underneath The Pine make for an assured good time this holiday season. However, the real story is progression of Chaz Bundick, the man behind the sounds, from holding the title as the Godfather of Chillwave to new funk upstart. Those buried, gauzy effects are restrained or altogether left behind like training wheels. No longer recording in the bedroom or basement, this self-made indie star bounces between genre and influences and finds out what he can do from the Prince flavor on "New Beat", the delicate Franco-tinged "Before I'm Done" and the Stereolab homage "How I Know". Just when you have forgotten this is a Toro Y Moi album, he throws in a chillwave stunner on "Light Black", just to keep you guessing.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Toro Y Moi - New Beat

#14 Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde

This one took a while to grow on me. Everything from the obvious derivatives on Dye It Blonde to the stories and rumors of bad behavior in concert and interviews had tempered my view. Once I had the right frame of mind, Smith Westerns finally won me over with this flowering garden of glam rock and retro-pop in full bloom. The guitar chorus on "Still New", the tongue-in-cheek Beatles reference on "Imagine, Pt. 3" and the T.Rex sleaze on "End Of The Night" are all places to before you even need to hear the Tommy Hilfiger sales pitch on "Weekend" one more time.

Stream the full album here.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Smith Westerns - Still New

#13 Bon Iver - Bon Iver

This people's champion of 2011 is the self-titled sophomore effort for Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver. Who wouldn't love this story going from obscurity and isolation for the recording of an album to guest starring in Kanye West's cirque de grandeur. For the follow up, Vernon aims high by adding strings, percussion and woodwind and reaches those perfectly fragile moments when expressions of emotion meets tempered subtlety. Bon Iver is such a beautifully captured work until it reaches the horrendously ill-advised finale "Beth/Rest" that reminds of the worst ballads found in the annals of music history. Either the listening public is tremendously forgiving or frighteningly irresponsible.

Download Holocene | Download Calgary

Purchase Album

Bon Iver - Two Tracks

#12 Low - C'mon

Being known for making the saddest music in the world is a heavy moniker to carry. With a new band member on board for their ninth effort, the Duluth MN trio chose to travel an unfamiliar, yet sanguine, road. The result is an album full of hushed moments, leaving behind the emotive clatter on the past two Low LPs. C'mon has an earnest nature on "You See Everything" and "Witches" that sets up for the eventual weight "Especially Me" and "Nothing But Heart". Despite being ready to try a more positive approach, Low never seems to lose that element of beauty in their music.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Low - Try To Sleep

#11 Washed Out - Within and Without


Chillwave took some interesting turns this year with some artists' latest efforts fumbling in quality or even abandoning the genre altogether. A couple of these soldiers stayed the course and in the case of Earnest Greene, made a lovingly brisk and freeing album of smooth and coolly effortless synth grooves. Most of the tracks on Within And Without are distant yet enticing with a glacial beat creating an atmosphere with all of the striking beauty of a early evening snowfall.


Download Track | Purchase Album

Washed Out - Amor Fati

Merry Christmas!

Best Albums Of 2011: 20-16

30-26 | 25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1

#20: The Antlers - Burst Apart

Many lesser bands would have crumbled under the pressure to make a follow-up to an album as poignant as the 2009 LP Hospice. The Antlers created a freeing release in Burst Apart that removes the shackles and lets loose with passion and certitude. The simplicity on "Rolled Together", the sexual sirens of "Parentheses" and the urgent "I Don't Want Love" are a watershed and a solid step forward. Although the album wanes a bit in the second half, Burst Apart still reaches new ground while walking the line between emotion and spontaneity.

Download Track | Purchase Album

The Antlers - Parentheses

#19: EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints

Most of my favorite albums are something I can put on everyday at any time, while some are special moment albums when I am ready to enforce a certain feeling. Past Life Martyred Saints is neither of these. It is contentious and uncomfortable and a struggle to get through. This first effort from Erika M Andersen is a furious display, a scars-and-all confessional that confronts with no chagrin. For me, there has not been an album this caustic since PJ Harvey's Rid Of Me. After hearing her disappointing release this year, I think it is time to pass the torch to this new creative force. Let's hope she never finds a lack of subjects for her fury. If you have not yet heard "California", give it a listen and you will know what I mean.

Download Track | Purchase Album

EMA - California

#18: The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient

If you are looking for the next indie breakthrough band you have never heard, The War On Drugs may be close to a sure thing. This album is rife with pleasing classic rock signposts that spare no passionate overture. The influences are also apparent and welcome, touching on Arcade Fire as well as Jackson Browne and moving from U2 to a Dylanesque nasal sneer. Slave Ambient is well-constructed as a cohesive unit with each anthem connected by loving instrumental interludes to give the listener an necessary breather before the next powerful moment. See, M83? It isn't so difficult.

Download Track | Purchase Album

The War On Drugs - Come to the City

#17: Real Estate - Days

Maybe it is the cold weather that takes place at the end of the year, but those LPs that remind of sunny months and good feelings always sound so nostalgic. The warmth on Days is undeniable with the pleasant sounds like pictures in some discovered photo album of summer vacations long ago and fading from memory. The details Real Estate puts forth here seem effortless and deceivingly lazy, with each picked note and hazy lyric coming from last night's pleasant dream. From the opener "Easy", to the highlights "It's Real", "Wonder Years" and "Younger Than Yesterday" to the stretched out finish of "All The Same" each song is a worn page telling that story never to be lost again.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Real Estate - It's Real

#16: Disappears - Guider


Less of an album and more of a half hour steady hum, Guider is a quick, yet weighty exercise in minimal garage rock where each song, whether under two or over fifteen minutes, is a expression in sonics and reverb that has the listener digging past the noise to reach the pulsing core. Never stopping for a moment, these captured sounds show an urgent need to connect and create. If past indicators are true and the addition of Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley is permanent, then the next release will bring the masses as well as the critical acclaim.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Disappears - Superstition

Best Albums Of 2011: 25-21

30-26 | 25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1

#25 Atlas Sound - Parallax


The never ending stream of music from Bradford Cox continues in 2011 with this new LP of grey shaded ballads and actual pop-centered crooners. Parallax picks up where Deerhunter's brilliant 2010 LP Halcyon Digest left off, exploring each new life experience like an unfolded diary. Atlas Sound has always been a place where Cox experimented with the leftovers with the results a mixed bag of agitation and improvisation. The fresh, single take feel is still here, but finding a subdued assuredness on this latest effort. It is obvious that Cox is finally comfortable with his accomplishments and successes, even if his song topics are often anything but settled.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Atlas Sound - The Shakes

#24: The Feelies - Here Before

It is the end of the year and I can still hardly believe I am writing about a new Feelies album. That patented, itchy guitar jangle that connected The Velvet Underground to the birth of alternative rock and, in turn, launched a thousand bands is back, unfettered and ageless. The band members are well into middle age, but by being meticulous and patient they conserve their efforts to create great moments in each release. In this era where new is never new enough, Here Before is a welcome reminder of simpler times, hard working bands and how some traditions never get forgotten.

Download Track | Purchase Album

The Feelies - Should Be Gone

#23: Wild Beasts - Smother


This album aches and throbs, whether it is the heartbeat drums, the longing piano or the lithe, operatic vocals. The sensual themes run taut though Smother as the falsetto of Hayden Thorpe grabs the listener and explores the dark reaches with the prime motive of seduction. Whether is the balladry of  "Albatross" or the catchy riffs on "Loop the Loop" and "Reach A Bit Further", Wild Beasts have set a solid foundation of lovely sounds that tease and entrap, even though you won't put up much of a struggle.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Wild Beasts - Albatross (video)

#22: M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

I am so tempted to call this album, Midnight City + Some Other Stuff  because there is so much to forge through on this double album of epic excess. This is coming from someone who loved the cheesy eighties spirit on Before The Dawn Heals Us and Saturday = Youth. Wanting to enjoy this album despite it's lack of self-editing, I did what I had to do (and what some recording engineer should have begged him to do): I indiscriminately cut out the crap. Once all of the often lengthy, directionless instrumentals were out of the way, I got what I needed. Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is the most celebratory album of the year, a New Year party where no cover charge would be needed, no liquor license would end the evening too soon and no hangover would bring any regrets. And in case you were wondering, that annoying Frog Song had to go as well.

Download Track | Purchase Album

M83 - Midnight City

#21: Mr. Dream - Trash Hit


This would be my guilty pleasure album of 2011. Although the eighties sounds of excessive synth and glitz was the retro sound of the year, Trash Hit is that decade's latter years where thick bass, pummeling drums and wailing grunge licks kicked the crap out of new wave. Homages to the sainted members of bands such as The Jesus Lizard, The Melvins and one really obvious Nirvana riff, Mr. Dream is a reminder that the best times are found in the tightest packed venues, sweaty and bloody as the band plays loud, heavy and aggressive. Check the full album stream below and you will remember as well.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Mr. Dream (Full Album Stream)

Best Albums Of 2011: 30-26

It has been a while since I wrote anything for Another Dying Artform. That was not such a bad thing as getting a new job and starting down a new career path filled the space that was being patched by being able to write and think critically about the music I enjoy. Even with my new pressures and huge life shift, I still read about music, procured what I could and thought about what words I would be writing, editing and obsessing over before publishing. In 2011, there was still a lot of new discoveries, some disappointments and head scratchers and a few moments of greatness that need to be recognized. Although 2012 will definitely be busy and full of changes, my goal will ideally be to balance work, family and actively write ADA throughout the year, promoting the music that deserves as much attention as can be gathered. I hope you, whether it be friend, fan or someone who stumbled upon ADA by accident discovers something new. For me, that is what it is all about.

30-26 | 25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1

#30: CANT - Dreams Come True

Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear fame has kept him pretty active since the band's zenith-reaching LP Veckatimest. He has most notably produced last year's Twin Shadow debut and started Terrible Records where his side project CANT can get the loving attention that an indie label can give while stepping firmly always from that Grizzly Bear moniker and all the expectation that goes along with it. Dreams Come True has a real bedroom, one man show feel, thick with layers of humming synth broken up by patches of bass and guitar that are purposely unsettled. Often surprising with new themes, Taylor tries out some creepy melancholia on "Bang",  electronic steel on "Answer" and smooth yacht rock on "The Edge" with equal success. Overall, Dreams Come True is a provocative little experiment that ably captures that excess creativity while keeping one sharp for next year's big triumph from his "other band".

Download Track | Purchase Album

CANT - Believe

#29: Tapes n' Tapes - Outside

This is your typical "Band makes a great album, band stumbles on the followup, band is forgotten in the shuffle" story. This Twin Cities foursome had to do something big to capture everyone's attention again, and accomplished that with their insistent rocker "Freak Out". The rest of the album is positive and buoyant, playfully teasing with rhythm and mood, shaking and swaying and reminding the listener of why they received comparisons with Pavement on their 2006 debut The Loon. Throughly overlooked and underestimated, Outside is a solid album of established indie (if there is such a thing), rooted in a sensible rock tradition that nudges the boundaries slightly while dealing low risk grooves that are hard to ignore.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Tapes n' Tapes - Two Tracks

#28: Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost!

This is the first example of the unintentional yet unavoidable main theme of 2011. The 80's are back! with an apparent abundance of exclamation points! according to duo Holy Ghost! Under the able guidance of Messrs Murphy and Goldsworthy at DFA, they have crafted a party platter of cunning and effective steppers that with get the cool kids dancing all night. For those of us whose reminisce on the early adventures in club beats, whether it was the hot New Order remix, the nuggets of Chicago house groove or the nameless and faceless Euro anthems that you recall only by muscle memory, Holy Ghost! has given reason to blow the dust off those vinyl 12" hidden away in the storage space.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Holy Ghost! (Full album stream)

#27: We Were Promised Jetpacks - In The Pit Of The Stomach

This 2nd LP for these blokes was woefully overlooked by the tastemakers, including me. Anthemic and incendiary in all ten of the tracks, In The Pit Of The Stomach pushes so many of my music-lover buttons. Machine gun drumrolls and rock riffs for months are heaped plentifully and topped with a Scottish wail that goes off key just to add more punctuation. Not unlike their other countrymen Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad, WWPJ are never light or easy, opting for sprawling sagas where the power in the poetry is obvious, but they bellow the lyrics anyway.

Download Track | Purchase Album

We Were Promised Jetpacks - Act On Impulse

#26: Wild Flag - Wild Flag

This is a welcome return for me, even though this LP is technically a debut. I guess any band's dream would be to go out on top and that is exactly what Sleater-Kinney did with their swan song The Woods. Some soul searching and fond absence brings Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss back, with some old friends, to make a seamless transition into S-K II. They spare no riff nor sneer in making an foundation LP that could extend for as long as the band members hold interest. What I personally enjoy most is that Wild Flag squashes the recent dump truck of indie gals penning their odes to the 60's girl group, doing their damnest to recreate their 21st century version of "Leader of the Pack". Instead they keep blazing their singular trail straddling punk, indie and classic rock while the fact that every member is a female becomes incidental. This album simply rocks, gender notwithstanding.

Download Track | Purchase Album

Wild Flag - Romance