BEST ALBUMS OF 2011 ( Top Ten)

10 - The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient

There were several albums who pleased the guitar lovers, and this is  one of them. Adam Granduciel started the band with Kurt Vile  in 2003 , around 2008 Kurt Vile left. This is the second LP by War on Drugs, it is beautiful psychedelic indie rock . It's surprising how much it reminds me Kurt Vile's last album but Slave Ambient is less folky. Highly recommended.


9 - Tennis -  Cape  Dory

Perfect smart pop by husband&wife duo... Saw them live couple months ago , very impressed by their performance even though at her interviews she mentioned that she is very nervous about playing live. They played some new songs and they all sounded very good. Hopefully second album will prove that they are not one hit wonder. One of the best debut in the last few years.

8- Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx - We’re New Here

7- Panda Bear - Tomboy


Noah Lennox(a.k.a Panda Bear) is a solo artist and also founder of experimental pop band Animal Collective. While his second solo album Person Pitch become a cult album , I liked this album much better . Tomboy is a dreamy dub-pop album, the white sound (like the perfect album cover) makes you wanna listen this again and again...

6- Destroyer - Kaputt

 The 2011 Champion of Vancouver music scene. Beautiful lyrics, with chamber pop music. It does not get any better. Watch the cool video!

5- Atlas Sound - Parallax

Bradford Cox is one of the most talented musician especially in the last two years, first he did an amazing album with his band in 2010 and then in 2011 he released his third solo album under the name Atlas Sound. Not only his music but his  poem-like lyrics makes him the most interesting persona of the indie rock scene. Like he said "And we will go to sleep /And we'll have the same dream" ...

4 - tUnE-yArDs - WHOKILL

Modern music starts here , post-punk , afro-beat,funk and soul-jazz !

3 - Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for my Halo

I dont wanna change but i dont wanna stay the same/i dont wanna go but im runnin
i dont wanna work but i dont wanna sit around . (Peeping Tom, eight track from the album)...

2 - Radiohead - King of the Limbs

Music critics are funny people, as well as music fans. I can't understand why the King of Limbs is so underrated. I believe it is Radiohead's best album, the reason for that is very simple because Radiohead is a super band with top-notch musicians. They are  restless souls who has to change with every album. King of Limbs is a musical journey and it is actually their journey, all  you have to do listen it.Just listen.

1 - PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (tie)

     WU LYF -  Go Tell Fire To  the Mountain(tie)

I wrote several months ago about PJ Harvey's album and I knew it would be in this list in top 5. I couldn't decide which album is better , so I decided to put WU LYF ( World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation) and PJ Harvey to the first position. The funny thing about this two album, they both recorded in church.  WU LYF is a total surprise, they are the best new band that I have heard for long time. They are young guys who made this really original album with perfect  art concept . The lyrics are total poetry, remind me a little bit the French God Rimbaud. This is anarchy in the music, nobody can understand their lyrics, once you can hear it , that's the magic part. "Fire starts, can you hear it? "

BEST ALBUMS OF 2011( 20-11)

20-Woods - Sun & Shade

Woods are from Brooklyn, on their sixth album Sun&Shade they are playing  an excellent lo-fi,psychedelic music with big and nice krautrock influence. Just listen Out of the Eye to hear Neu!'s classic Hallogallo.

19-Summer Camp - Welcome to Condale

Impressive debut, cheesy rock&roll...

18-Akron/Family- S/t II : The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT

17-Prince Rama - Trust Now

Powerfull music from Brooklyn's female duo , it is somewhere between Dead Can Dance&Animal Collective. Their music is not the only connection with Animal Collective, the record comes also from Paw Tracks label(originally founded by Animal Collective members).

16-Deerhunter - Rhapsody Originals(Live)

15-Boris - Attention Please

There are many kinds of Boris, noise Boris,grunge Boris,doom Boris and this is the pop Boris. Their most accessable album in their career. I just love it.

14-Dengue Fever - Cannibal Courtship

13-Sonic Youth - SYR 9: Simon Werner a Disparu (OST)

Things are changing on Sonic Youth's site with the divorce of Kim&Thurston, but this is probably their best in their SYR series.

12-Zola Jesus - Conatus

She is one of the most original female singer of the year. Highly recommended... "Lick the Palm of the Burning Handshake" is one of the best song of the year, the whole album feels like a cold breeze. This is experimental pop music , or I would call it modern pop.

11-Peaking Lights- 936

Not Not Fun records is one of my favorite label, every year they release very interesting albums. Peaking Lights is one of the best surprise of 2011. A hypnothic dub music, a music created by a duo who knows what they are doing.  It is the sound that they created makes this album so unique. King Tubby's soul was there , right in the studio...

BEST ALBUMS OF 2011( 35 -21)

There were lots of very good albums in 2011. It made it harder to make this list.

I also added some videos from these albums, some of them are really cool. One of my favorite video is from James Blake, Lindisfarne. Also check out Luaka Bop's new star Delicate Steve's video...

Special thanks to "Kurt Vile" and "Thee Oh Sees" for their hard work in 2011 for releasing two records.

xtras:

-Musical regrets (The Shows that I missed in my city,which I still can't believe how it did happen)

1- WU LYF

2- Thee Oh Sees

3- Prince Rama

4- Zola Jesus

- Best Shows

1- Portishead

http://askthedust-badbrains.blogspot.com/2011/11/portishead-live-2011-vancouver.html

2- Swans 

3-Pixies 

http://askthedust-badbrains.blogspot.com/2011/05/pixies-2011-tour.html

4-Tennis

5- Boris

Enjoy the list, top 20 is coming soon...

35-James Pants- James Pants

34-The Flamming Lips - Gummy Song Skull

33-Thee Oh Sees - Castlemania

32-Kurt Vile - So Outta Reach

31-James Blake - James Blake

30- War on Drugs - Slave Ambient

29-Delicate Steve - Wondervisions

28-Neon Indians & Flaming Lips -

27-Tom Waits - Bad As Me

Now Mr. Waits,Mr. Jagger and Mr. Richards , tell us if we will ever get the satisfaction! Nice album by dirty blues punk rocker Tom Waits...

26-Wooden Shjips - West

It wouldn't be wrong to say that this is Wooden Shjips first proper studio album. It's really good , if you like Suicide,Spacemen 3 & Velvet Underground , you'll dig this...

25-Moon Duo -Mazes

Moon Duo is a side project of Ripley Johnson of Wooden Shjips with Sanae Yamada. Again if you like beer&space rock, you should buy this album, you won't be regret!

24-Beirut - The Rip Tide

23-Toro Y Moi - Underneath the Pine

Chazwick Bundick (aka Toro Y Moi) has a very cool cover for his album, it is one of the best electronic album of the year(or is it Chillwave?).

22-Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts

To be honest , when I learned that Beck was the producer of this album,I was expecting a much better result. Still good but ... And a bad album cover(I mean really , what is that?).

21-Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/The Dream

Thee Oh Sees is a weird band in a very good way, but it is a little hard to describe their music. Psychedelic,noise,garage,krautrock,punk...