Loud&Silent

The Best 25 Albums of 2011

1. The Roots – undun and The Beach Boys – The SMiLE Sessions The Roots made a triumphant, glorious return (as if they ever really left) to the hip-hop world this year with the magnificent, gritty undun. The album, fierce, bitter, and gorgeous, represents one of the greatest moves in hip-hop history. SMiLE, meanwhile, is an undisputed masterpiece. It needs no-one else to extol its praises.
2. The Moth & the Mirror – Honestly, This World  A fantastically varied and dark debut from this Scottish folk-rock hybrid band. While this album has been gestating for years, its arrival on the scene, largely overlooked by mainstream publications and listeners, was nonetheless magnificent. A uniquely assured and well-formed debut filled with brilliant, huge songs that exude confidence.
3. Wild Beasts – Smother  A realization of the occasionally spotty beauty of their previous record Two Dancers, Smother is dark, gorgeous, and intricate. Borrowing builds and rhythyms from Wild Beasts’ natural cousins, post-rock, the group constructs an album with one edge as cutting as a newly sharpened blade and one edge as fragile as a delicate glass sculpture.
4. SBTRKT – SBTRKT  The anonymous Brit’s statement on dubstep, SBTRKT‘s self-titled debut is a gloriously soulful, danceable, and clean take on the diluted genre. His beats are immaculate, ever-morphing, and sleek. His melodies are smooth, catchy, and soulful. Another in a long line of brilliantly assured debuts this year.
5. Rustie - Glass Swords Similar to SBTRKT’s album, Rustie offers his own unique and interesting take on the dubstep genre. His approach, however, is one of unflinching maximalism: smooth, shining synths and beats so large they kilter on the brink of explosion. The music is huge, epic, shining, and as slick as it’s eponymous weapon. It’s a sharp blade indeed.
6. The Weeknd - House of Balloons/Thursday/Echoes of Silence
7. Tom Waits – Bad As Me
8. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
9. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
10. Feist – Metals
11. Radiohead – The King of Limbs
12. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
13. Saigon – The Greatest Story Never Told
14. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
15. Björk – Biophilia
16. ASAP Rocky – Live.Love.A$AP
17. Wilco – The Whole Love
18. Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness
19. Big K.R.I.T. – Return of 4Eva
20. Active Child - You Are All I See
21. Atlas Sound – Parallax
22. Zola Jesus – Conatus
23. James Blake – James Blake
24. Jamie Woon – Mirrorwriting
25. Twin Sister – In Heaven

Author’s note: This year, I had a much easier time picking my Album of the Year. Although SMiLE is a pop masterpiece and unquestionably one of the greatest albums of all time, I couldn’t in good conscience label an album recorded over forty years ago as the sole “Album of 2011.”  It shares its title with another stellar record, undun by The Roots.

The Best 10 Songs of 2011

1. How To Dress Well - “Suicide Dream 1 - Orchestral Version”
2. Clams Casino - “I’m God”
3. Purity Ring - “Belispeak”
4. M83 - “Midnight City”
5. Neon Indian - “Polish Girl “
6. Feist - “The Circle Married the Line”
7. The Moth & the Mirror - “Fire”
8. Azealia Banks - “212”
9. St. Vincent - “Cruel”
10. Bon Iver - “Beth/Rest”
11. ASAP Rocky - “Palace”

Above, listen to the best track of 2011, I’m God by Clams Casino.