50

(All week we’re counting down the top albums of 2011.  For previous entries on the list, click here.  We hope you enjoy the music.)

20. Gil Scott-Heron & Jaime xx – We’re New Here

Dubstep (and it’s painfully precise sub-sub-genres) has had a landmark year, for better or for worse. Jamie xx’s reimagining of Gil Scot-Heron’s stellar goodbye I’m New Here is an example of the best. Deep and deliberate production fill the holes of the autobiographical original, drawing interesting parallels between two artists at complete opposite sides of the career arc. -PTL 

Gil Scott-Heron & Jaime xx – “I’ll Take Care of You”

19. Beirut – The Rip Tide

Zach Condon is a tough guy to categorize. The Gulag Orkestra, his debut album with Beirut, was a hectic homage to Eastern Europe. His second album, The Flying Cup Club, was a love affair with French language and culture. On the latest Beirut record—the Euro influences are still there, but the presiding spirit is American, from “Santa Fe,” an ode to Condon’s hometown, to “East Harlem,” a reworking of the soul classic “Spanish Harlem.” -KLM

Beirut – “East Harlem”

18. Clams Casino – Instrumental Mixtape + Rainforest EP

With the exception of perpetuating the use of the word “based” amongst American youths, essentially everything for which Clams Casino was responsible this year turned out golden.  In this era of rampant mixtapery, a hot producer can have greater influence over the development of hip-hop than a hot emcee, and no one is hotter than Clams.  If you think “instrumental hip-hop” sounds dull or uninteresting, think again.  -LVL

Clams Casino – “Motivation”

17. Wild Beasts – Smother

The new record from Britain’s Wild Beasts is music for your inner animal. Led by the wobbly falsetto of Hayden Thorpe, the album’s slinky and sensual songs
include: “Deeper,” “Plaything,” and “End Comes Too Soon.” Lyrics include lions, bulls, and birds, as well as innuendos to post-coital breakfast and oral sex. As for the album title, use your imagination. While our tastes occasionally differ, on this one my co-editor and I are in perfect agreement: this album may be too good for the masses. -KLM

Wild Beasts – “Bed Of Nails”

16. Battles – Gloss Drop

Battles will be remembered for bringing modern-experimentation to the masses in a similar way David Lynch brought weirdness to network television with Twin Peaks. Both Gloss Drop and Twin Peaks have managed to make the impossible possible: to reel the mainstream into a sub-world usually reserved for weird enthusiasts and nerds. Just substitute brooding, psychological melodrama for blistering, mechanical progressive rock, and you’ve got Gloss Drop, Lynchian mindfuck and all. -PTL

Battles – “White Electric”

15. Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire

Some people give Ryan Adams a hard time for being a musical chameleon. As if to silence those critics, his new album sounds like a Ryan Adams record, whatever that means. He may be married to a super babe, have Meniere’s disease, and obsess over death metal, but he still writes stellar songs and sing them with the warm ache that made Heartbreaker one of the best albums of the last decade. -KLM

Ryan Adams – “Lucky Now”

14. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

When Fleet Foxes released their eponymous debut in 2008, it seemed that a new era of gentle harmonic interplay and folksy balladry was dawning.  Of course, like all new eras it 21st-century indie music, that one lasted about 8 months, and as such the band’s 2011 follow-up Helplessness Blues was not met with much fanfare.  A shame, too, because Helplessness Blues is every bit the beautiful artifact its predecessor is, only with a greater sense of scope and adventure.  Thankfully, I’m willing to bet that, even as the attention focused on them diminishes, Fleet Foxes will continue to grow.  -LVL

Fleet Foxes – “Grown Ocean”

13. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

I am out of superlatives for this record.  -LVL

St. Vincent – “Cruel”

12. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

The latest album from the nerd kings of Portlandia marks a hard swing from eclectic to accessible, with its rock anthems, country tearjerkers, and folk ballads, plus a Celtic foot-stomper and a honky tonk blues. Guest musicians Gillian Welch and Peter Buck of R.E.M. add to the NPR-crowd appeal, a reversal from the band’s ostentatious rock opera The Hazards of Love. As always, the soul of the group is Colin Meloy, whose nasal bleat and literary lyrics put him in the top tier of the singer-songwriter pantheon. -KLM

Decemberists – “January Hymn”

11. Youth Lagoon – The Year Of Hibernation

No more startling debut was released this year than Youth Lagoon’s The Year Of Hibernation, a tragically short collection of mini-epics designed to lift your soul out of whatever dark place it might find itself in.  Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be conferred on any debut is that the listener cannot imagine how a follow-up is possible, so flawless and complete is the original.  This is how I feel about The Year Of Hibernation. If just one of you listens and feels the same way…well, then I think I’ve done my job.  -LVL

Youth Lagoon – “Cannons”

Be sure to check in throughout the week for the rest of our Best 50 Albums of 2011 coountdown. And, if you missed it, check out our Best 50 Songs of 2011.

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