CRM114

I like reading other's take on what the best albums of the year are/were. Feel free to also post other "Top Albums" lists.

Here is my Top 11:

1 Middle Brother - Middle Brother
2 Wilco - The Whole Love
3 Dawes - Nothing is Wrong
4 The Decemberists - The King is Dead
5 Ryan Adams - Ashes and Fire
6 The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart
7 Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
8 Deer Tick - Divine Providence
9 Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
10 Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
11 Felice Brothers - Celebration, Florida

CRM114

Paste Magazine Top 50 of 2011

Chrisedge

Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
The Cars - Move Like This
Cage The Elephant - Thank You, Happy Birthday

Hiro11

Of the maybe 50 2011 releases I feel I've listened to enough to comment, here are the favorites that spring to mind:

The War on Drugs: Slave Ambient
Fucked Up: David Comes to Life
The Weeknd: House of Balloons
Mastodon: The Hunter
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: Mirror Traffic
Das Racist: Relax
Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials
Male Bonding: Endless Now
Van Hunt: What Were You Hoping For?
The Joy Formidable: The Big Roar (2010?)
Wild Flag: S/T

cdollaz

Above Average
Gang Of Four - Content
Strokes - Angles
Duran Duran - All You Need Is Now
Yes - Fly From Here
Primus - Green Naugahyde
Tom Waits - Bad As Me
Peter Murphy - Ninth

Average
Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events
They Might Be Giants - Join Us
Megadeth - Thirteen
Anthrax - Worship Music

Dissappointments
Radiohead - The King Of Limbs
REM - Collapse Into Now
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
The Cars - Move Like This

Shit
Queensryche - Dedicated To Chaos
RHCP - I'm With You
Jane's Addiction - Great Escape Artist

FatTony

My (loosely ordered) list:

Best of 2011
Touche Amore - Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me
Red City Radio - The Dangers Of Standing Still
Thursday - No Devolucion
Portugal. The Man - In The Mountain In The Cloud
Caparza - Grooming Standards
La Dispute - Wildlife
Cobra Skulls - Bringing The War Home
SHARKS - The Joys Of Living: 2008-2010
Junior Battles - Idle Ages
Nothington - Borrowed Time
Direct Hit! - Domesplitter
Polar Bear Club - Clash Battle Guilt Pride
Maritime - Human Hearts
The Copyrights - North Sentinel Island
Heartsounds - Drifter

Pretty Good
Big D and the Kids Table - For the Damned, the Dumb, and the Delirious
Less Than Jake - Greetings From Less Than Jake
The Wonder Years - Suburbia I've Given You All And Now I'm Nothing
Title Fight - Shed
Protagonist - States
Larry and His Flask - All That We Know
Kay Kay And His Weathered Underground - Introducing...
Riverboat Gamblers - Smash/Grab

Slightly Disappointing
Cobra Skulls - Agitations
Blue Scholars - Cinemetropolis
Seahaven - Winter Forever
Face To Face - Laugh Now, Laugh Later
Balance And Composure - Separation
Taking Back Sunday - Taking Back Sunday
Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones
Defeater - Empty Days and Sleepless Nights
The Horrible Crowes - Elsie
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes - Go Down Under
Places And Numbers - Travels

Turds
Bayside - Killing Time
The Aggrolites - Rugged Road
The Dear Hunter - The Color Spectrum
Pour Habit - Got Your Back
The Aquabats - Hi-Five Soup!

Gdrlv

We have very similar tastes...the exception being that I think the new Deer Tick is absolutely awful. Biggest disappointment for me in years.

1. Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong
2. Blitzen Trapper - American Goldwing
3. Middle Brother - Middle Brother
4. Wilco - The Whole Love
5. The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart
6. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic
7. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo
8. Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What
9. My Morning Jacket - Circuital
10. War on Drugs - Slave Ambient

Ky-Fi

I don't keep up with new music that much, but Peter Murphy's "Ninth" was my favorite CD of the year.

Pointyskull

Couldn't come up with 10 off the top of my head, but here's the ones I can think of immedately:

Lydia Loveless - Indestructible Machine
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Wild Flag
The Head and The Heart
Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
The Belle Brigade
Cave Singers - No Witch

islandclaws

Unordered, off the top of my head:

Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
Ulver - Wars of the Roses
Alice Cooper - Welcome 2 My Nightmare
Mastodon - The Hunter
Amon Amarth - Surtur's Fire
Primus - Green Naugahyde
Cannabis Corpse - Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shalt Rise
David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time
Drive soundtrack
Anthrax - Worship Music
ICS Vortex - Storm Seeker

2011 has been a great year for music for me. I'm hoping 2012 will offer up as many good albums as this year provided.

CRM114

The Deer Tick album is half really good and half disappointing to me. But together, still better than anything else this year given my personal taste.

Hiro11

Forgot that one. It is excellent.

Labor

Ceremonials by Florence & the Machine is by far my favorite

bunkaroo

I can only really mention albums from artists I already like as I haven't heard any new artists this year I thought were decent. The best album by far I have heard in 2011:

Steven Wilson - Grace For Drowning

Honorable mentions:

Opeth - Heritage (it's a grower)
Blackfield - Welcome to My DNA
Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events
Within Temptation - The Unforgiving

Quake1028

1.Hail Mary Mallon - Are You Gonna Eat That?
2.Atmosphere - The Family Sign
3.The Black Keys - El Camino
4.Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys
5.Greek Fire - Deus Ex Machina
6.Talib Kweli - Gutter Rainbows
7.G. Love - Fixin' to Die
8.Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
9.The Strokes - Angles
10.Bright Eyes - The People's Key

rw2516

Chickenfoot III

Mike86

Favorite new releases:

Foo Fighters: Wasting Light
Eddie Vedder: Ukulele Songs
The Strokes: Angles
Jeff Bridges (self-titled)
REM: Collapse into Now
The Book of Mormon Soundtrack

I have a feeling that The Black Keys: El Camino will end up on the list too but haven't heard it yet.

Disappointed with:

Coldplay: Mylo Xyloto. Nothing on it really stands out and feels like it will be an album I'll forget about.
Red Hot Chili Peppers: I'm With You. It's not as bad as I initially thought but still overall I don't put it up with their best albums. There's some good songs here but nothing really stands out and makes me want to replay it.

statcat

don't like a whole lot of new stuff but I liked these

Biters - All Chewed Up
Booze - At Maximum Volume
Woggles - Move
Eddie Phillips - Woodstock Daze (not that great overall I guess but it's Eddie Phillips)

nando820

I don't keep up with recent releases much but that's also my taste right there, although I haven't heard all of those, they are in my radar.

From what I heard I really liked

Eddie Vedder: Ukulele Songs
The Strokes: Angles
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi: Rome

Osiris3657

I can't think of an order right now, but some favorites have been:

The Strokes-Angles
Death Cab For Cutie-Codes + Keys
The Decemberists-The King is Dead
The Black Keys-El Camino
Wilco-The Whole Love

Foo Fighters Wasting Light and Red Hot Chili Peppers I'm With You were solid

Radiohead is my favorite band, and while I like The King of Limbs, it was a disappointment overall and a big drop from In Rainbows.

Incubus If Not Now, When? was the most disappointing.

Black Keys-El Camino is probably #1 though.

mdc3000

Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
City and Colour - Little Hell
Kanye West & Jay-Z - Watch The Throne
Death Cab for Cutie - Codes & Keys
Childish Gambino - Camp
Young the Giant - Young the Giant
Foster the People - Torches
Blink 182 - Neighborhoods
Matthew Good - Lights of Endangered Species

I'm sure the new Black Keys can find a place on that list....

cactusoly

1) Anthrax : Worship Music
2) Chickenfoot III
3) Machine Head:Unto The Locusts
4) Megadeth : Th1r3en
5) Alice Cooper: Welcome 2 My Nightmare
6) Charred Walls of The Damned: Cold Winds on Timeless Days
7) Five Finger Death Punch : American Capitalist
8) Sebastian Bach : Kicking and Screaming
9) Wednesday 13 : Calling All Corpses
10) Children of Bodom :Relentless Reckless Forever

kstublen

Hands down my favorite album of 2011. After that though I'm not quite sure how I'd rank the rest of my favorite albums of 2011. Ceremonials would probably be second, but had I been listening to it all year like Tell Me it might have been number one. These would definitely be on my list of favorites though:

Cansei De Ser Sexy - La Liberación
Childish Gambino - Camp
Cults - Cults
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Rome (Starring Jack White & Norah Jones)
Death Cab For Cutie - Codes And Keys
Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy

I imagine next week I'll be adding The Black Keys - El Camino to the list.

Giles

my bluray copy of the Steven Wilson album has been sitting in my 'to listen to' pile for far too long now...

so far the only album that has wowed me in it's entirety is:

- Gang Gang Dance: Eye Contac

oh and the Fountains of Wayne album
not an album per se, but Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs 'Prehistory' EP is amazing.

bootsy

Kendrick Lamar - Section.80
The Weeknd - Thursday/House of Balloons
Big K.R.I.T. - Return of 4Eva
Frank Ocean - Nostalgia/Ultra
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
James Blake - James Blake
Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
Danny Brown - XXX
CunninLynguists - Oneirology
Adele - 21
Radiohead - King of Limbs
The Roots - Undun
Drake - Take Care