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