This might be one of the first times I've ever had a few of those. Especially Let England Shake. I've become a huge PJ Harvey fan in the last year, about 20 years overdue.
Usually these lists are bewildering because I've never heard of half the bands or I know them and think they're crap.
Paul Kalkbrenner - Icke Wieder
Nicholas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
The Weeknd - House of Balloons
A$AP Rocky - LIVELOVEA$AP
1 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming - M83 - October 18th on Naïve Records
2 Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes - May 3rd on Sub Pop
3 Bon Iver - Bon Iver - Jun. 21st on Jagjaguwar
4 El Camino - The Black Keys - Dec 6 on Nonesuch Records
5 James Blake - James Blake - February 4th on Atlas
6 Take Care, Take Care, Take Care - Explosions in the Sky - 26 April 2011 on Temporary Residence Limited.
7 The King of Limbs - Radiohead - Feb. 18th, self released
8 House of Balloons - The Weeknd - March 21 2011 - Self released
9 Camp - Childish Gambino - November 15th on Glassnote
10 Strange Mercy - St. Vincent
11 Drive (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - Cliff Martinez and Various Artists - September 27th on Lakeshore
12 The King is Dead - The Decemberists - January 14th on Capitol
13 Burst Apart - The Antlers - May 10th on Frenchkiss
14 w h o k i l l ~ tUnE-yArDs - April 19 on 4AD
15 Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will - Mogwai
16 Bad As Me - Tom Waits - October 24th on Anti
17 The Hunter - Mastodon - Sep 27th on Reprise
18 Father, Son, Holy Ghost - Girls - Sept. 7th on True Panther
19 Wasting Light - Foo Fighters - RCA Records, April 12
20 Nine Types of Light ~ TV on the Radio - April 11 on Interscope
21 21 - Adele - February 22 on Columbia
22 Gloss Drop - Battles - June 6 on Warp
23 Watch the Throne - Jay Z & Kanye West - Aug. 8th on Roc-A-Fella
24 Torches - Foster the People - May 2011, Columbia
25 Cults - Cults (In The Name Of | June 7)
26 The Rip Tide - Beirut - Aug. 2 on Pompeii
27 The Whole Love - Wilco
28 Passive Me Aggressive You - The Naked and Famous - March 15, 2011 on Republic;Edit: People have brought it to my attention that this album originally came out on September 6, 2010 under the label Somewhat Damaged. I should have known that, sorry folks.
29 Let England Shake - PJ Harvey - February 11th on Vagrant
30 David Comes to Life - ####ed Up - June 6, 2011 on Matador
31 SBTRKT - SBTRKT - June 28 on Young Turks
32 Hot Sauce Committee Part Two - Beastie Boys - April 27 on Capitol
33 In The Mountain, In The Cloud - Portugal. The Man - July 19th, 2011 on Atlantic
34 Jamie XX & Gil Scott-Heron - We're New Here - February 21, 2011 + XL
35 Yuck - Yuck - Feb. 15th on Fat Possum
36 Tomboy - Panda Bear
37 Within and Without - Washed Out - July 11 on Sub Pop
38 Zonoscope - Cut Copy
39 Days - Real Estate - Oct. 18th on Domino
40 Kaputt - Destroyer - Jan. 25th on Merge
41 TRON: Legacy Reconfigured - Daft Punk - Disney Records
42 Ceremonials - Florence and the Machine - Oct 31 on Island Records
43 Kiss Each Other Clean - Iron & Wine - January 25th on Warner Bros./4AD
44 Wounded Rhymes - Lykke Li - February 25 on LL/EMI
45 Circuital - My Morning Jacket - May 31st on ATO
46 nostalgia, Ultra - Frank Ocean - Feb. 18 Self-released
47 Metals - Feist - October 4th on Cherrytree
48 Simple Math - Manchester Orchestra - May 9th on Favorite Gentlemen Recordings
49 Black Up - Shabazz Palaces - June 27, 2011 + Sub Pop
50 Parallax - Atlas Sound - Nov 7 on 4AD
51 Smoke Ring For My Halo - Kurt Vile - March 7 on Matador
52 Section.80 - Kendrick Lamar - July 2nd, 2011 - Top Dawg Entertainment
53 Rome - Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi -16 May
54 Andrew Jackson Jihad - Knife Man
55 The People's Key - Bright Eyes - February 15th on Saddle Creek
56 Go Tell Fire To The Mountain - WU LYF - June 13th on LYF Recordings;EDIT: Fixed release date!
57 Underneath the Pine - Toro Y Moi - February 22, 2011 + Carpark Records
58 Angles - The Strokes - March 18, 2011 + RCA, Rough Trade
59 Making Mirrors - Gotye - 19th August on Eleven
60 Heritage - Opeth - September 13th on Roadrunner Records
61 Era Extraña - Neon Indian - Sep. 13th on Inertia
62 Dye It Blonde - Smith Westerns - Jan, 18 2011 Fat Possum
63 Suck It And See - Arctic Monkeys - 6th June on Domino
64 Welcome Reality - Nero - August 12th on MTA
65 Civilian - Wye Oak - Mar. 8 on Merge
66 Reptilians - Star####er - March 8, 2011 on Polyvinyl Records
67 Slave Ambient - The War on Drugs - Aug. 16th on Secretly Canadian
68 Weightless - Animals as Leaders - Nov 8 Prosthetic Records
69 All Eternals Deck - The Mountain Goats - March 29 + Merge Records
70 Major/Minor - Thrice - Sept 20 on Vagrant Records
71 Return of 4Eva - Big K.R.I.T. - March 28th, self released
72 The Year of Hibernation - Youth Lagoon - Sept 27 2011 - Fat Possum
73 Undun - The Roots - December 6th, 2011 (Has been streaming on NPR past week or so) - Def Jam Records
74 Belong - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
75 Hello Sadness - Los Campesinos! - November 14th on Wichita
76 Empros - Russian Circles
77 Inni - Sigur Ros - November 15 on XL
78 The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues - Between the Buried and Me - March 31st on Metal Blade
79 Biophilia - Björk - October 10 on One Little Indian
80 The Big Roar - The Joy Formidable - January 24, 2011 Atlantic Records
81 Justice - Audio, Video, Disco
82 Space is Only Noise - Nicolas Jaar - 31 January 2011 on Circus Company
83 Grace for Drowning - Steven Wilson - September 26th on kscope
84 England Keep My Bones - Frank Turner
85 English Riviera - Metronomy - April 19, 2011 on 101 DISTRIBUTION
86 A Dramatic Turn of Events - Dream Theater - September 13, 2011 through Roadrunner Records.;Edit: Fixed formatting.
87 Showroom of Compassion - Cake - January 11 on Upbeat Records
88 Thank You, Happy Birthday - Cage the Elephant - Jan. 11 on RCA
89 The Colour Spectrum - The Dear Hunter - June 14th on Triple Crown
90 Ravedeath 1972 - Tim Hecker - February 14, 2011 + Kranky
91 Mirror Traffic - Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
92 Scurrilous - Protest the Hero - March 22, 2011 + on Vagrant Records in the US and Underground Operations in Canada.
93 Eye Contact - Gang Gang Dance - May 10, 2011 + 4AD
94 Odd Soul - MUTEMATH - October 4, 2011 on Teleprompt/Warner Bros.
95 Relax - Das Racist - September 13th on Greedhead Records
96 Wildlife - La Dispute - October 4 on No Sleep
97 Conditions of My Parole - Puscifer - October 18, 2011 - Puscifer Entertainment
98 Goblin - Tyler, The Creator - May 10, 2011 on XL Recordings
99 Isam - Amon Tobin
100 Take Care - Drake - November 15, 2011 on Young Money
101 Deconstruction - The Devin Townsend Project - June 20th on InsideOut Music
102 Grouplove - Never Trust a Happy Song - September 2 / Atlantic
103 Dive - Tycho - November 15th on Ghostly International
104 Smile - The Beach Boys - November 1, 2011 + Capitol
105 Ceremonials - Florence + The Machine
106 Oneirology - Cunninlynguists - March 22 QN5 Music
107 Wild Flag - Wild Flag
108 Build a Rocket Boys! - Elbow - March 4 + FictionRecords/Polydor
109 John Maus - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves - June 28th on Ribbon.
110 Megalithic Symphony - AWOLNATION - March 15 on Red Bull Records
111 House of Balloons - The Weeknd - March 2011 - mixtape on the-weenkd.com
112 Looping State Of Mind - The Field - October 11th on Kompakt
113 D - White Denim - 24 May on Downtown Records
114 Wild Beasts - Smother - May 9th on Domino
115 13 Chambers - Wugazi - July 13th 2011 + Doomtree
116 Life Fantastic - Man Man - May 6 on Anti
117 Ritual Union - Little Dragon - Jul. 25th 2011 on Peacefrog Records
118 Endgame - Rise Against - March 11, 2011 - Interscope
119 Green Naugahyde - Primus - September 12 on ATO Records.
120 Replica - Oneohtrix Point Never - Software [november]
121 Join Us - They Might Be Giants - July 19th on Idlewild
122 London Sessions - LCD Soundsystem - January 25th on Virgin
123 Departing - The Rural Alberta Advantage - March 1st on Paper Bag Records/Saddle Creek Records
124 On the Water - Future Islands - October 11 on Thrill Jockey
125 Glass Swords - Rustie - October 11th Warp Records
126 Cole World: The Sideline Story - J. Cole - September 27th, Roc Nation
127 Minecraft-Volume Alpha - C418 - March 04
128 Spiritual State - Nujabes - Dec. 3 Hydeout Productions
129 Exmilitary - Death Grips - April 26th on Third Worlds
130 Apocalypse - Bill Callahan
131 Skying - The Horrors - 11th July on XL Recordings;Can't believe my top album from this year hasn't been posted yet!
132 Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me - Touche Amore - June 7th on Deathwish
133 Gangs - And So I Watch You From Afar - April 29th on Richter Collective
134 Suburbia: I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing - The Wonder Years - June 14th on Hopeless Records
135 Friendly Fires - Pala - May 24 / XL
136 Unto the Locust - Machine Head - Sept. 27 + Roadrunner
137 Arabia Mountain - The Black Lips - June 7th - Vice Records
138 Velociraptor! - Kasabian - September 16 on RCA
139 Vows - Kimbra - Aug 29 Warner bros.
140 The Year of Hibernation - Youth Lagoon - September - Fat Possum Records
141 Conatus - Zola Jesus
142 Seeds - Hey Rosetta! - February 15th
143 ALERT: HIPSTER DETECTED
144 The Devil's Walk - Apparat - September 27 on Mute Records
145 Alpocalypse - Weird Al Yankovic - June 21, 2011 on Volcano Records
146 Only in Dreams - Dum Dum Girls
147 One - TesseracT - March 22, 2011 on Century Media Records.
148 Little Hell - City and Colour - June 7th on Dine Alone
149 Mine Is Yours - Cold War Kids - January 25 on Downtown
The Following User Says Thank You to jydk For This Useful Post:
My preliminary favorite (in no order, more to come):
Raveonettes - Raven In The Grave
Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
Wild Flag - S/T
Those Darlins - Screws Get Loose
Destroyer - Kaputt
Chad VanGaalen - Diaper Island
Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Armistice - S/T
Peter Bjorn And John - Gimme Some
Wilco - The Whole Love
Urge Overkill - Rock & Roll Submarine
Tom Waits - Bad As Me
Dirty Projectors & Bjork - Mount Wittenberg Orca
Mariachi El Bronx - II
Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams
Lol at all the lists with Adele. Shes just as manufactured as any other female pop stars like Avril or Taylor Swift (who also had albums out this year), just marketed to a different demographic. I actually prefer Taylor Swift, she's not as good of a singer but her songs are way better.
Im also surprised not to see more of Foster the People. Seemed like I heard their songs everywhere this summer.
New Albums I listened to:
Grinderman 2
Austra-Feel it Break
Justice-Audio Video Disco
Bruce Cockburn-Small Source of Comfort (his best since his heyday)
Arctic Monkeys -Suck it and See
Kate Bush-50 Words for Snow (really disappointed with this, and I'm a huge fan of hers. The only highlight is probably Stephen Fry pronouncing the Klingon word for snow.)
Anywho, didn't listen to much new stuff this year, and even bands that I used to love back in my high school days (Wilco, Radiohead, My Morning Jacket, Sloan) I just couldn't find time for their new stuff.
Haven't listened to a lot of new albums this year, somewhere in the neighborhood of ten. Radiohead's newest album is the only one that I can definitively say I will be listening to for years to come so I'll write a little on it:
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
It took a little bit of time for me to truly sink my teeth into this record, I would say after the band's From the Basement performance was when it clicked. I found the album to be a tad diluted sonically but that was quickly remedied after hearing them perform songs like 'Bloom' and 'Feral'. I've been on a 'Feral' binge lately, the layering is incredible, Johnny and Ed basically just adding a whole bunch of crazy effects and pitch bends to their chords while Colin effortlessly grooves around the percussion. There are lyrics to the song, incoherent for the most part but not without their place. Radiohead are this era's Can, years ahead of most if not all other current musicians.
And...
Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Mastodon - The Hunter
Wilco - Whole Love (Great bookending tracks)
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat - Everything's Getting Older
Favorite Tracks:
Spoiler!
Agreed on TKOL. Masterpiece.
Haven't been listening to much else from this year besides Phantogram's NightLife. Which is a great 6 song EP.
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As you can see, I'm completely ridiculous.
10) Warbringer - Worlds Torn Asunder
09) LMFAO - Sorry For Party Rocking
08) Cauldron - Burning Fortune
07) Unearth - Darkness in the light
06) Thrice - Major/Minor
05) The Lonely Island - Turtleneck & Chain
04) Machine Head - Unto the locust
03) Bayside - Killing Time
02) The Strokes - Angles
01) Wiz Khalifa - Rolling Papers
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The Oilers are like a buffet with one tray of off-brand mac-and-cheese and the rest of it is weird Jell-O
I feel like at this time in 2008 I purchased both M83 - Saturdays=Youth and F***ed Up - Chemistry of Common life. I think I will now buy their 2011 releases respectively.
