No More Beach

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

No More Beach's Best Albums of 2011

2011 was odd in that I found myself in disagreement with many year end lists. This year was truly a renaissance year for club culture and guitar-driven acts like Wye Oak and Chad VanGaalen were criminally under appreciated. Some blogs even announced 2011 as an off year for indie music. They said that rock n' roll was dead. That second point is probably true (what the hell is rock n' roll anyway? Led Zeppelin? I think it's probably Led Zeppelin. Anyway...). Whatever your opinion is on music in 2011, you're an IDIOT if you think this was an off year. Here are some of the highest of lights...

35. The Decemberists - The King is Dead

34. Quilt - (Self Titled)

33. Caveman - Coco Beware

32. Woods - Sun and Shade

31. Yellow Ostrich - The Mistress

30. Cass McCombs - Humor Risk

29. WU LYF - Go Tell Fire to the Mountain

28. Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver

27. The Stepkids - (Self Titled)

26. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy

25. Megafaun - (Self Titled)

24. Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams

23. My Morning Jacket - Circuital

22. Gauntlet Hair - (Self Titled)

21. The Dodos - No Color

20. The Strokes - Angles

19. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical

18. Destroyer - Kaputt

17. Radiohead - King of Limbs

16. Atlas Sound - Parallax

15. War on Drugs - Slave Ambient

14. Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde

13. Feist - Metals

12. Ringo Deathstarr - Sparkler

11. Panda Bear - Tomboy

10. Yuck - (Self Titled)

9. Wye Oak - Civilian

8. Toro Y Moi - Underneath the Pine

7. Washed Out - Within You and Without You

6. Real Estate - Days

5. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - (Self Titled)

Funk music doing gravity bongs. Seriously though. Do it.

4. The Drums - Portamento

An emotional roller coaster that rides down to the altar of Morrissey and Joy Divison. Check out "Days" for one of the best songs of the year.

3. Chad VanGaalen - Diaper Island

This album plays out like a blissful anxiety attack with plenty of ocean, chase scenes and breakables around. It dreams the dream of a perfect album.

2. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo

Jaunty strumming glides hand in hand with more layers of atmosphere than Vile has hair. His lyrics can be terse at times, but they're always concrete enough to devour.

1. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Rest assured that the art of carefully cultivating, meticulously mastering and presenting a pristine artifact deserving of decades of prestige (both live and via recording) is still in tact as long as Fleet Foxes are around.