honorables

Here are the honorable mentions for best album of 2011, in no particular order.

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Rich mountain-folk harmonies describe bucolic visions of apple trees and sunlight, with an added dimension of patience, instrumentation, and maturity.

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

A romp across war-torn England is the theme of this ambitious concept album from PJ Harvey that evokes Hemingway (Nick Adams) and Goya (the Disasters of War). Expertly executed with a sound that’s fresh and folk-tinged.

Umphrey’s McGee – Death By Stereo

A studio album from Umphrey’s will never match the face-melting explosiveness of their live shows, but they’ve made quite a few, and they all stand up to scrutiny as solid work that doesn’t even try for the same effect as the live stuff. Here their studio skills are sharpened even further, on this uneven but enjoyable album.

The Weeknd – House of Balloons

Perhaps the most buzzed-about group of 2011, the mysterious Toronto RnB group released three free albums in 2011, the best of which was this first one which announced the arrival of a new genre of dark RnB.

Wye Oak - Civilian

This Baltimore boy-girl duo take minimalist arrangements of guitar, vocals and drums, and make moving mellow pop music, almost reminiscent of the true Baltimore dream-pop masters: Beach House.

Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien

2008 saw Brooklyn’s CEG burst on the scene with the infinitely-enjoyable Why There Are Mountains, and they’ve followed it up with this much more dense and difficult tangle of psychedelic visions, played with a 90’s underground alt-rock feel.

Thundercat – The Golden Age of the Apocalypse

One of the most dynamic bass players out there, Thundercat crafted this gilded vision that incorporates his influences of 70’s soul jazz with his eccentric aesthetic. Think Jaco Pastorius meets Flying Lotus.

Raekwon - Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang

It would be nearly impossible to match the amazing length, density and quality of 2009’s Only Built for Cuban Linx Pt. 2, but this album proudly carries on the Wu mythology with plenty of gusto, guest star appearances and the classic Wu Tang kung fu gangsta aesthetic.

Neon Indian - Era Extraña

Chillwave is a newly coined name, and this sort-of genre blew up in 2011 with albums from Washed Out, Neon Indian and M83, as well as a slew of imitators. Neon Indian follow up 2009’s great Psychic Chasms was this reviewer's favorite chillwave of the year, full of 80’s nostalgia and a rainbow of synthesizers.

Mastodon – The Hunter

Mastodon has always followed their vision when it comes to exploring new sounds, from their imposing concept albums, Leviathan and Crack the Skye, which are radically different from each other, to this new collection of songs where the band has taken ideas that worked for them in the past and placed them in an array of new material that finds them still playing hard and freely experimenting.

SBTRKT – SBTRKT

This mysterious masked producer (the one with the African mask) crafted 2011’s smoothest chilled-out dubstep album. Although this approach to post-dub bass music with vocals was taken by other artists this year such as James Blake and Apparat, SBTRKT rises easily above his peers.

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