My Favorite Albums of 2011

I've been meaning to start this blog for a while now, and I figure a summary of my favorite things from the past year is as good a way as any to kick off the new one. Here are my fifty favorite albums of 2011, out of the five hundred or so new releases I heard over the course of the year. I may come back to this later and add commentary for some or all of the albums.

1) tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l

2) Slackeye Slim - El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa

3) PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

4) St. Vincent - Strange Mercy

5) James Blake - James Blake

6) Farmers by Nature - Out of This World's Distortions

7) Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest

8) Aram Bajakian - Aram Bajakian's Kef

9) Robyn Ludwick - Out of These Blues

10) Bon Iver - Bon Iver

11) Tony Malaby - Novela

12) Larry and His Flask - All That We Know

13) Steve Coleman and Five Elements - The Mancy of Sound

14) Battles - Gloss Drop

15) Bill Dixon - Envoi

16) Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

17) Nels Cline, Tim Berne, and Jim Black - The Veil

18) Chris Thile and Michael Daves - Sleep with One Eye Open

19) Franco Donatoni - 10 Anni Dopo

20) My Brightest Diamond - All Things Will Unwind

21) Harrison Birtwistle - Night's Black Bird

22) Darius Jones and Matthew Shipp - Cosmic Lieder

23) Tom Waits - Bad As Me

24) Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet - Apparent Distance

25) honeyhoney - Billy Jack

26) Matana Roberts - COIN COIN Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres

27) The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

28) Craig Taborn - Avenging Angel

29) Lydia Loveless - Indestructible Machine

30) Lykke Li - Wounded Rhythms

31) Kris Davis - Aeriol Piano

32) M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

33) Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers - Starlight Hotel

34) Abigail Washburn – City of Refuge

35) Benoit Delbecq and Francois Houle - Because She Hoped

36) Kaija Saariaho - Saariaho

37) Eilen Jewell - Queen of the Minor Key

38) Sofia Gubaidulina - Glorious Percussion

39) Keith Jarrett - Rio

40) Hellbound Glory - Damaged Goods

41) Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place

42) Husky Burnette - Facedown in the Dirt

43) William Elliott Whitmore - Field Songs

44) Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

45) Fovea Hex - Here Is Where We Used to Sing

46) Cults - Cults

47) Peter Evans Quintet - Ghosts

48) Tinariwen - Tassili

49) The Weeknd - Balloons

50) Radiohead - The King of Limbs