2011 Top albums

Without frills, pictures, or further ado:

1. The Beach Boys – SMiLE Sessions
You know that line from Barenaked Ladies' “Brian Wilson”: “just listening and re-listening / to Smiley-Smile”? That's me.
2. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
At first I was disappointed with the album after the obvious greatness of “Vomit,” but while not all the songs are as grandiose, they all develop into much more than they seem.
3. The Weeknd – House of Balloons / Thursday
4. Beyonce – 4
My top 25 songs of the year would have 3 from this album. Could be even higher if it weren't for that atrocious first single.
5. Beirut – The Rip Tide
By far my favorite Beirut album comes when he ditches the fancy instrumentation and lets his songwriting (and voice) come through relatively unadorned.
6. M83 – Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
7. Bon Iver – S/T
8. Real Estate – Days
Pretty standard 90s-sounding alt-rock (Yo La Tengo?) executed to perfection. Yes, thank you.
9. Destroyer - Kaputt
10. King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
Not sure why no one (besides embarrassing NPR) is into this album.
11. Eleanor Friedberger – Last Summer
So much preferable to any Fiery Furnaces album, to me. A big surprise for me.
12. Ryan Adams – Ashes and Fire
Best Ryan Adams album since Jacksonville City Nights. That maybe isn't saying much, but I'm impressed.
13. Cloud Nothings – S/T
Every year there's some new indie rock band (usually teenagers) that makes me nostalgic for high school and getting excited about some energetic but flawed “rock” album (see also: #25). It's silly and my friends rarely identify with these picks.
14. Apparat – The Devil's Walk
15. The Rapture – In The Grace of Your Love
Rapture deliver again. Not sure what happened to them in pop/hipster consciousness. Is this how 30-somethings talk about Wilco?
16. Kendrick Lamar – Section 80
Wonderful samples and laid-back flow.
17. Escort – Escort
I love disco unironically.
18. Teirus Nash - 1977
19. James Blake – S/T
Everyone seems to have forgotten about poor darling James Blake. James, I never loved you, but I didn't forget you either.
20. Tycho – Dive
Not exciting but infinitely listenable and never boring.
21. Cults – S/T
22. Jens Lekman – An Argument With Myself
Jens has a spot reserved on any year-end list for me, even if all he releases is a silly little EP.
23. Drake – Take Care
24. Wild Flag – Wild Flag
25. Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong

Also, like Nick, I found myself listening more and more to ambient or modern classical music while I worked. It is hard to rate these "ignorable" or "mood" albums alongside the pop albums above, so I'll just list them (in no order) below:

Olafur Arnalds – Living Room Songs
Swod – Drei
Disk Jokke – Sagara
Blanck Mass – S/T
Hauschka – Youyoume
Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Beileid

TOP ALBUMS 2010

I have a suspicion that this is by far my most vanilla list, especially at the top. Does this mean I am getting old and my tastes are getting stale? Maybe. I will post my top tracks later if I have time.
1.The National – High Violet
2.Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
3.Belle and Sebastian – Write about Love
4.Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part II
5.Warpaint – The Fool
6.Girls – Broken Dreams Club EP
7.LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
8.Hot Chip – One Life Stand
9.Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
10.Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
11.Antony and the Johnsons - Swanlights
12.The Drums – The Drums
13.Cloud Nothings – Leave You Forever EP
14.Baths - Cerulean
15.Dom – Sun Bronzed Greek Gods EP
16.Diamond Rings – Special Affections
17.Matthew Dear – Black City
18.Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt / Sometimes the Blues... EP
19.Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
20.Caribou - Swim
21.Anoraak – Wherever the Sun Sets
22.The Radio Dept.- Clinging to a Scheme
23.Fang Island – Fang Island
24.Michael Mayer – Immer 3
25.Kisses – Heart of the Nightlife
26.Clinic - Bubblegum
27.Pantha du Prince – Black Noise
28.Teen Daze – Four More Years / Beach Dreams EP
29.Jamie Lidell - Compass
30.Prins Thomas – Prins Thomas