Prefix's Top Albums of 2011

Prefix's Top Albums of 2011

Original Source →

50.

Vetiver - The Errant Charm
June 14, 2011
Critic Score
72
14 reviews

48.

June 24, 2011
Critic Score
70
34 reviews
You'd be hard pressed to find a big ticket R&B album quite as restless, tuneful and fearless this year.

44.

February 8, 2011
Critic Score
75
10 reviews

42.

Grails - Deep Politics
March 8, 2011
Critic Score
77
4 reviews

41.

February 14, 2011
Critic Score
89
44 reviews

Harvey’s singing delivers the material by juggling unwieldy emotions with care and empathy. And she makes the experience sound natural — like a true no-brainer.

40.

September 13, 2011
Critic Score
81
29 reviews

39.

July 12, 2011
Critic Score
71
37 reviews
It is not a sea-change or a rehash, but a projection of a sound, and an idea, on to a much larger scale.

38.

January 25, 2011
Critic Score
71
15 reviews

33.

April 26, 2011
Critic Score
72
18 reviews

32.

May 13, 2011
Critic Score
74
25 reviews

30.

August 30, 2011
Critic Score
75
28 reviews

29.

September 13, 2011
Critic Score
79
31 reviews
The album is nothing like a career-killer, but it is a career-worrier.

28.

March 29, 2011
Critic Score
82
23 reviews

While no single song on the album comes close to the weight and volume that Lift to Experience was capable of slinging, Last of the Country Gentlemen delivers its own subtle intensity.

27.

June 28, 2011
Critic Score
77
26 reviews

25.

June 21, 2011
Critic Score
72
14 reviews

Unknown Mortal Orchestra has produced the rare indie pop record that seizes you on the first listen but also rewards repeated playing.

22.

February 15, 2011
Critic Score
75
34 reviews

21.

February 14, 2011
Critic Score
84
19 reviews

20.

May 3, 2011
Critic Score
83
40 reviews
It comes down to what you're expecting here. Do you earnestly yearn for another album full of beautifully arranged, meticulously pored over harmonic acoustic folk? Then this is probably your album of the year to beat.

18.

September 13, 2011
Critic Score
71
15 reviews

17.

April 12, 2011
Critic Score
76
32 reviews

Tomboy's best quality is its consistency with Lennox's vision, in spite of the critical hullabaloo surrounding it.

14.

September 12, 2011
Critic Score
86
37 reviews

Strange Mercy is her best yet, a deft mixture of self-confession, master class musicality, and downright unshakable songs.

13.

August 16, 2011
Critic Score
78
31 reviews

Slave Ambient continues themes of wanderlust and searching that were all over the other records, but as Granduciel sings of friends gone, of calling loved ones home, of trying to find his place in the world changing around him, the music behind him seems to be searching too.

11.

October 18, 2011
Critic Score
75
40 reviews
With less of the anxiety that marked his earlier albums, that world is a joy to get lost in over and over.

10.

November 15, 2011
Critic Score
76
32 reviews

As a series of a mood pieces detailing the luxury lifestyle of hip-hop’s one-percenters, Take Care is fairly captivating. As a portrait of the artist at the top of the mountain, however, it’s pretty frustrating.

9.

March 8, 2011
Critic Score
78
27 reviews

It's easy to see Smoke Ring being remembered as the stepping stone to a transcendent piece of work in Vile's discography.

8.

June 21, 2011
Critic Score
85
41 reviews

It is, upon first listen, an undeniably beautiful record. But how that beauty was created takes some time to figure out. You need to dive in and untangle these tightly woven parts. You have to weave through the layered vocals to get at the emotional core of these songs.

7.

October 18, 2011
Critic Score
75
32 reviews

Days is a great sophomore album and solid evidence that Real Estate is growing and ready to settle in for the long haul.

6.

April 19, 2011
Critic Score
85
33 reviews

Garbus might be more known right now as a magnetic performer, but w h o k i l l proves she's just as beguiling on record.

5.

August 8, 2011
Critic Score
75
35 reviews

Watch the Throne is as much of a celebration of the A-list prominence of its two marquee stars as it is an exegesis of all of that fame's attendant complications.

4.

June 7, 2011
Critic Score
82
31 reviews
It is an album based very clearly on a concept, an overall construct. Within that, Fucked Up once again morph themselves, moving further away from anything you could call hardcore (save Damian Abraham's voice).

3.

August 15, 2011
Critic Score
84
8 reviews

2.

January 25, 2011
Critic Score
85
30 reviews
Kind of like the whole idea of a disco album, a collaboration with a visual artist about African-Americans' tragic history is something you would never expect from Destroyer, and yet once you listen, it seems perfectly authentic, inspired, and essential.

1.

June 28, 2011
Critic Score
84
30 reviews
If there’s been a better album, hip-hop or not, out this year, I haven’t heard it.
Original Source: http://www.prefixmag.com/features/beyonce-clams-casino-grails-mogwai-oneohtrix-point-never-peaking-lights-pj-harvey-vetiver-young-widows/prefixs-top-50-albums-2011-50-41/59573/
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