| 2011 |
| The Roots undun | 4.5 |
Hip hop with funk-soul dimensions. The instrumentals on this are a non stop groove and
lyrically the album delivers two fold. This is a concept album about Stephens, a poor kid
from Philadelphia who eventually surrenders himself to the morally corrupt ways of the
streets. These gritty and funky yet soulful tunes are certainly masterful and this album
feels like a grand statement. These melodies are a life lost, embodied by The Roots. |
| Nujabes Spiritual State | 3.5 |
| Nickelback Here and Now | 1.5 |
| Tycho Dive | 4.0 |
| Nicolas Jaar Don't Break My Love | 4.5 |
| "Why Didn't You Save Me" will surely seduce you into a massive ego-masturbatory trance and is certainly one of the top tracks this year. |
| Lou Reed and Metallica Lulu | 1.0 |
| Black Milk and Danny Brown Black and Brown! | 4.0 |
| Florence and the Machine Ceremonials | 4.0 |
| The Field Looping State of Mind | 4.0 |
| M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming | 3.5 |
| Real Estate Days | 4.0 |
| Rustie Glass Swords | 3.5 |
| Future Islands On the Water | 4.5 |
| Radiohead TKOL RMX 1234567 | 3.0 |
| this is so crazy it will turn your brain into liquid shit |
| Jack's Mannequin People and Things | 2.5 |
| La Dispute Wildlife | 4.0 |
| Youth Lagoon The Year of Hibernation | 3.5 |
| Wilco The Whole Love | 3.5 |
| Chelsea Wolfe Apokalypsis | 3.5 |
| Dark, dark, sexy, sexy moody jams right here. An overall ethereal sound that remains memorable because of ominous undertones. |
| BADBADNOTGOOD BBNG | 3.5 |
I was all alone in my flat, or whatever english pricks are privy to, eating a massive roast
turkey. Several hours into the face hole shovel-fest, I broke out into a epic meat sweat. At
that exact moment, I squeezed out a thick yet sweet aroma into the air. The vibrations were
so intense from doing so that I actually came multiple times. Sadly I was naked and the
affected area was my plastic bucket full of turkey. I wept, basting my chubby cheeks with
tears of gravy. It was a moment to remembered, or maybe not. |
| Das Racist Relax | 2.5 |
| Blitzen Trapper American Goldwing | 2.5 |
| Cymbals Eat Guitars Lenses Alien | 3.0 |
| I love some of this album and hate other parts. This album definitely needs repeated spins before an opinion can be formulated. |
| St. Vincent Strange Mercy | 3.5 |
| Neon Indian Era Extrana | 3.5 |
| Grouplove Never Trust A Happy Song | 4.0 |
| Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost | 4.0 |
| Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire Lost in Translation | 3.5 |
| Crude lyrics that mainly talk about eating, drinking, and fucking atop solid production. |
| Apathy Honkey Kong | 3.5 |
| Sometimes the beats are little sub-par but a very, very solid hip hop offering here. 23 tracks on this giant and I wouldn't say one is bad. |
| Gotye Making Mirrors | 4.5 |
| The Jim Jones Revue Burning Your House Down | 4.0 |
| The War On Drugs Slave Ambient | 4.5 |
| Beirut The Rip Tide | 4.0 |
| Gucci Mane and Waka Flocka Flame Ferrari Boyz | 2.0 |
| Shlohmo Bad Vibes | 4.0 |
| this album gives me the meat sweats, the good kind |
| Danny Brown XXX | 4.5 |
| Alter egos, varying styles of delivery, fantastic one liners, impeccable production, insightful parody of the genre, personal and original feel - this will come off initially jarring but will reward with each subsequent listen. |
| Kashiwa Daisuke 88 | 3.5 |
| Hassaan Mackey and Apollo Brown Daily Bread | 4.0 |
| Awesome use of samples - the lyricism is top notch too. Not the most unique hip hop album but certainly polished enough to hide the fact. |
| Little Dragon Ritual Union | 3.5 |
| 3 Doors Down Time of My Life | 1.5 |
| Portugal. The Man In The Mountain In The Cloud | 4.0 |
| Trophy Scars Never Born, Never Dead | 4.5 |
| Washed Out Within and Without | 4.0 |
| The Horrors Skying | 3.5 |
| Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) Home After Three Months Away | 4.0 |
| Taking Back Sunday Taking Back Sunday | 2.0 |
| Handsome Furs Sound Kapital | 3.0 |
| Rival Sons Pressure And Time | 4.0 |
| Shabazz Palaces Black Up | 4.5 |
The production borders on masterful and insane - unconventional song structure and
transitions place this album way ahead of its time. The lyrics are certainly thought
provoking as well, providing lines such as:-"Time I understand it, but I never choose it. I
can't explain it with words, I have to do it."-"I run on feelings, fuck your facts.
Deception is the truest act."-"I'm free to chain my will on the wings my instinct and wander
around this box I'm inextricably linked."-"The lies are getting truer, and the truth is
getting brighter. Things are looking blacker, but black is looking whiter." |
| SBTRKT SBTRKT | 3.5 |
| everyone have some wuba wuba wub womps! wubawut wubawut |
| *shels Plains Of The Purple Buffalo | 4.5 |
| Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver | 3.5 |
| sleepmakeswaves ...and so we destroyed everything | 4.0 |
| Beau Navire Hours | 2.0 |
| Patrick Wolf Lupercalia | 2.5 |
| The Dear Hunter The Color Spectrum | 3.0 |
| The Wonder Years Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing | 3.0 |
| Blue Scholars Cinemetropolis | 3.5 |
| I don't know what to think of this - it hardly compares to Bayani. Sabzi seems to have lost his touch for the beats and Geologic doesn't quite have the same passion behind his words. That said it's a different album for the scholars and isn't necessarily bad, just a surprise really. |
| Submotion Orchestra Finest Hour | 3.5 |
| WU LYF Go Tell Fire to the Mountain | 4.5 |
| howling snarls, chanting organs, stumbling rhythms, and heroic melodies; I am WU LYF. |
| Fucked Up David Comes to Life | 3.0 |
| Givers In Light | 3.5 |
| Tech N9ne All 6's and 7's | 4.0 |
| Arctic Monkeys Suck It and See | 4.0 |
| Frank Turner England Keep My Bones | 4.5 |
| Poor Lily Poor Lily | 3.5 |
| such awesome, energetic angry. Download the album free here http://poorlily.com/2011/06/03/download-our-album-for-free/ |
| Lo-Pan Salvador | 3.0 |
| Amon Tobin ISAM | 3.5 |
| The Men Leave Home | 3.5 |
| Boris Heavy Rocks (2011) | 4.0 |
| King Creosote and Jon Hopkins Diamond Mine | 4.0 |
| Dot Dot Curve I'm Still Here | 1.0 |
| Tyler, the Creator Goblin | 2.5 |
| Swagged out so much Tyler forgot he needed more than 4 tracks. |
| Manchester Orchestra Simple Math | 3.5 |
| Balkans Balkans | 3.5 |
| The Antlers Burst Apart | 4.0 |
| Wild Beasts Smother | 4.0 |
| This Will Destroy You Tunnel Blanket | 4.5 |
| New Tim Hecker can suck it. This is the ambient album of 2011. |
| Africa Hitech 93 Million Miles | 2.5 |
| Sarah Fimm Near Infinite Possibility | 3.5 |
| Mac Lethal North Korean BBQ | 4.0 |
| I very mature, and cynical, rap album. Very, very well produced too. |
| Cat's Eyes Cat's Eyes | 3.5 |
| Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues | 4.5 |
| Beastie Boys Hot Sauce Committee Part Two | 4.5 |
| This has the perfect amount of cowbell. Glad someone finally got it right... |
| dredg Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy | 2.0 |
| uuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!????!!?????? |
| Laura Stevenson Sit Resist | 3.5 |
| Death Grips Exmilitary | 3.5 |
| tUnE-yArDs w h o k i l l | 3.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky Take Care, Take Care, Take Care | 3.0 |
| Body Cheetah Long Distance Lover | 3.5 |
| Jessie J Who You Are | 1.5 |
| Foo Fighters Wasting Light | 3.5 |
| Panda Bear Tomboy | 3.5 |
| Holy Ghost! Holy Ghost! | 3.5 |
| TV on the Radio Nine Types of Light | 4.0 |
| Crystal Stilts In Love With Oblivion | 4.0 |
| Grouper A I A | 4.0 |
| Timber Timbre Creep On Creepin' On | 4.0 |
| The Raveonettes Raven in the Grave | 4.0 |
| Pygmy Lush Old Friends | 4.0 |
| Wiz Khalifa Rolling Papers | 1.5 |
| Sum 41 Screaming Bloody Murder | 2.0 |
| Snoop Dogg Doggumentary | 2.0 |
| Snoop fell victim to the generic cookie-cutter create-a-rapstar formula that is incessantly played on the radio. He does show glimpses of his older self with that trademark snoop flow but unfortunately almost every track comes off as completely uninspired. Plus, what's the deal with him rapping about being hard and gettin bitches? He's 39 years old and has a family. |
| Funeral Party The Golden Age Of Knowhere | 3.0 |
| The Sounds Something to Die For | 3.0 |
| The Mountain Goats All Eternals Deck | 3.0 |
| Craft Spells Idle Labor | 3.5 |
| new wave bed pop forever. This album is wonderfully nostalgic. |
| Havok Time Is Up | 4.0 |
| The sonic equivalent to downing a double shot of warm whiskey then being roundhouse kicked in the face by Chuck Norris.rhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGk1pnuD_qw |
| The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Belong | 4.5 |
| FaltyDL You Stand Uncertain | 3.0 |
| Swarms Old Raves End | 4.0 |
| Britney Spears Femme Fatale | 2.0 |
| Light Bearer Lapsus | 4.0 |
| Raphael Saadiq Stone Rollin' | 4.5 |
| Beardfish Mammoth | 4.0 |
| CunninLynguists Oneirology | 4.5 |
| The Sheepdogs Learn and Burn | 4.5 |
| The Weeknd House of Balloons | 3.0 |
| Mother Mother Eureka | 2.5 |
| Coma Cinema Blue Suicide | 4.5 |
| Alex Turner Submarine OST | 4.0 |
| Lupe Fiasco Lasers | 2.0 |
| Wye Oak Civilian | 4.0 |
| STRFKR Reptilians | 4.0 |
| Raekwon Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang | 4.0 |
| Elbow Build A Rocket Boys! | 3.0 |
| Noah and the Whale Last Night On Earth | 3.5 |
| Not everything has to be profoundly deep or life changing. Sometimes its nice to have a light pop album for those care-free days. Last Night on Earth is a well polished piece of music that will certainly find it's way into many summer playlists. |
| of Montreal thecontrollersphere | 4.0 |
| Weedeater Jason the Dragon | 3.0 |
| DeVotchKa 100 Lovers | 3.0 |
| Eisley The Valley | 3.5 |
| Vessels Helioscope | 4.0 |
| Scale the Summit The Collective | 4.0 |
| Middle Brother Middle Brother | 4.5 |
| Genuine honesty blended with elements of southern rock and folk. This album is heartbreak presented as resolve. |
| Beady Eye Different Gear, Still Speeding | 2.0 |
| Toro Y Moi Underneath The Pine | 3.5 |
| Dumbo Gets Mad Elephants At The Door | 4.0 |
| Julianna Barwick The Magic Place | 4.0 |
| Colin Stetson New History Warfare Vol 2: Judges | 4.5 |
| Simple and haunting. The man Colin Stetson can sure play the sh*t out of the sax. |
| Kerouac/The Long Haul Split | 2.5 |
| Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX We're New Here | 3.5 |
| Frankie and The Heartstrings Hunger | 4.0 |
| Woah, woah oh oh, wooooaaaahhh oh. It's about time. |
| Body Cheetah Blonde B*tches Ain't Free | 3.0 |
| Radiohead The King of Limbs | 3.5 |
| Frank Ocean Nostalgia, Ultra. | 2.0 |
| White Suns Waking in the Reservoir | 1.5 |
| Drive-By Truckers Go-Go Boots | 2.0 |
| Yuck Yuck | 3.0 |
| Sims Bad Time Zoo | 3.5 |
| Asobi Seksu Fluorescence | 4.0 |
| The Twilight Singers Dynamite Steps | 4.0 |
| my dad vs. yours Little Symphonies | 4.0 |
| Bright Eyes The People's Key | 3.0 |
| PJ Harvey Let England Shake | 3.0 |
| The Rural Alberta Advantage Departing | 3.5 |
| Tim Hecker Ravedeath, 1972 | 4.0 |
| Once you peel back the layers you realize that there is nothing, NOTHING! |
| Nicolas Jaar Space Is Only Noise | 5.0 |
This is electronic music yes, but as said previously, it has a very organic feel to it. Jaar
uses lots of samples, even in certain parts it includes odd clacking noises (sounds like
they were made with his mouth), pages being flipped through in a book, and of course, live
instrumentation. But even though there are a lot of natural sounds, Jaar washes over them
with other sounds and dissonance to the point where it feels degraded. This album almost
feels ancient at times, yet it is clearly not. This album really stresses what is in between
the notes; you get lost in the music and it pushes the boundaries of your imagination. |
| Cut Copy Zonoscope | 3.0 |
| ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead Tao of the Dead | 3.5 |
| James Blake James Blake | 4.0 |
| The Boxer Rebellion The Cold Still | 4.0 |
| Earth Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I | 4.5 |
| Windmills By the Ocean Windmills By the Ocean II | 3.5 |
| Twin Brother Best Frenzy | 4.0 |
| The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble From the Stairwell | 4.0 |
| Little Comets In Search of Elusive Little Comets | 4.5 |
| Iron And Wine Kiss Each Other Clean | 3.5 |
| Destroyer Kaputt | 4.5 |
| Charles Bradley No Time For Dreaming | 4.5 |
| A powerful soul debut for mr. charles bradley. This album grabs you and doesn't let go. Possibly the Best album of 2011 so far. |
| Cold War Kids Mine is Yours | 3.0 |
| Demdike Stare Tryptych | 4.5 |
| Adele 21 | 3.0 |
| Smith Westerns Dye It Blonde | 2.5 |
| IMAKEMADBEATS IMAKEMADBEATS | 2.5 |
eeehhhhhhh..... I love hip hop but these lyrics are sub-par at best. The beats are so
goddamn fantastic it pains me to hear such awful emcees controlling the mic flow. |
| Lead Hands Lead Hands | 3.0 |
| Ducktails Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics | 3.0 |
| I was listening to this and after the album was done I realized I was completely naked. Dripping with sweat. |
| Daytrader Last Days of Rome | 3.5 |
| Braids Native Speaker | 4.0 |
| Old Man Markley Guts N' Teeth | 4.0 |
| Spokes Everyone I Ever Met | 4.5 |
| The Sand Band All Through the Night | 4.0 |
| Joyce Manor Joyce Manor | 4.0 |
| Natural Snow Buildings Waves of the Random Sea | 4.5 |
| The Hotelier It Never Goes Out | 2.5 |
| Power chords and youth angst. Definitely fits right in with the post punk movement of the late 90's. Not bad. Not great. |
| The UV Race Homo | 4.5 |
| A blissfully flawed punk masterpiece. What more could you ask for? |
