Consequence of Sound's Top 50 Albums of 2011

Consequence of Sound's Top 50 Albums of 2011

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50.

October 11, 2011
Critic Score
74
28 reviews

Ashes & Fires remains compelling throughout thanks to its peaks and valleys.

48.

Astronautalis - This Is Our Science
September 13, 2011
Critic Score
83
4 reviews

You have to break before listening to any other music, so you don’t interrupt the sense of peace and joy you get after this record ends.

47.

June 21, 2011
Critic Score
75
13 reviews

46.

November 8, 2011
Critic Score
76
20 reviews

Summer Camp evokes the feeling of an idealized vision of these adolescent days of summers past with some bittersweet and irresistibly catchy pop songs.

45.

August 8, 2011
Critic Score
75
35 reviews

Watch the Throne turns out to be a success, even if it isn’t the landscape-altering LP the world had hoped for.

44.

February 15, 2011
Critic Score
75
34 reviews

What elevates Yuck above the typical nostalgic, lo-fi noise revivalist is how the band defies predictability by shifting styles and directions between, and even within, songs.

43.

September 20, 2011
Critic Score
76
6 reviews

41.

July 12, 2011
Critic Score
71
37 reviews

No amount of hip hop swagger or style can save this album from being exactly what it’s desperately trying not to be: your standard bedroom synthpop record.

40.

March 29, 2011
Critic Score
78
27 reviews

Eternals is not a Death Metal record in the slightest, but easily the most bandy album in the Mountain Goats discography.

39.

August 15, 2011
Critic Score
84
8 reviews

38.

November 8, 2011
Critic Score
79
29 reviews

Replica catches Lopatin at the peak of his powers, realizing his esoteric vision with a newfound brazenness

37.

October 18, 2011
Critic Score
75
32 reviews

There is very little to back up a claim of true musical growth, but it’s something of a start.

35.

June 21, 2011
Critic Score
72
14 reviews
They've created for themselves a unique soundscape and vibe to explore in future releases. In short, they've proven that knowledge is great, but a rocking album trumps all.

34.

January 24, 2011
Critic Score
77
28 reviews

21 is a good album that shows the world Adele’s talent, but one that is just a precursor to bigger and better things.

33.

February 4, 2011
Critic Score
72
35 reviews

Every track is full to the absolute brim with the genius of seasoned veterans.

32.

Gotye - Making Mirrors
August 19, 2011
Critic Score
70
17 reviews

31.

November 21, 2011
Critic Score
86
38 reviews

While looking for 50 Words For Snow, she has found 50 other original ways to express herself effortlessly, creating another intriguing piece of work.

30.

August 16, 2011
Critic Score
78
31 reviews

The album ... rides like a dream along the freeway and blazes forward on its own path more than it follows in the footsteps of the others.

29.

May 24, 2011
Critic Score
75
9 reviews

It sticks like a demented structure that’s mysteriously magnetic and, in the end, really fun.

28.

March 8, 2011
Critic Score
78
27 reviews

The unexpected twists in melody throughout the record nicely balance the more repetitive strains.

27.

November 15, 2011
Critic Score
68
25 reviews

He can really, really rap, plus sing and emote and put on a show better than 90% of his hip-hop counterparts.

26.

September 13, 2011
Critic Score
81
29 reviews

Supergroups rarely have any business sounding this good.

25.

April 12, 2011
Critic Score
76
32 reviews

Aside from being a top-notch album musically, it very well may be Lennox’s most accessible work to date.

24.

June 28, 2011
Critic Score
77
26 reviews

It maintains an ever-so-perfect pace throughout, fraught with big beats, catchy choruses, and smooth textures, making it one of this year’s finest debuts by far.

23.

March 21, 2011
Critic Score
79
18 reviews

They bring to the table the most interesting, depressing, and drug-infested R&B record in years.

22.

August 30, 2011
Critic Score
71
16 reviews

Apocalypse is one of those rare modern jazz records that’s remarkably unpretentious without having to cheapen the daunting complexity jazz is noted for.

21.

September 13, 2011
Critic Score
79
31 reviews

Father, Son, Holy Ghost succeeds thoroughly at nearly everything it does.

20.

October 25, 2011
Critic Score
87
42 reviews

He takes his fair turns at singing, as opposed to unearthing, and delivers some of his more satisfying softer moments in recent memory.

19.

June 7, 2011
Critic Score
82
31 reviews

But more than any theoretical narrative or concept, this is a rock album at heart, and it certainly does rock

18.

November 8, 2011
Critic Score
80
33 reviews

Parallax offers a miniature glass menagerie of fragile songs ascribed with heaps of intimacy, all shedding the most light on Cox’s whole artistic persona.

17.

July 26, 2011
Critic Score
81
33 reviews

With Skying, the band has moved on to their own distinct personality by simply evolving.

16.

May 10, 2011
Critic Score
80
29 reviews

The album is a culmination of female vocal power, with Anderson borrowing, recreating, and updating a sound that so many females before her have revolutionized.

15.

February 18, 2011
Critic Score
75
41 reviews

It’s essentially a 37 minute jam session; one where they’re carving out their current sensibilities and seeing where they run.

14.

May 3, 2011
Critic Score
83
40 reviews

It’s an album that makes you sad that it’s not longer; sad that it can’t just go on forever.

13.

June 24, 2011
Critic Score
70
34 reviews

4 continues the Beyoncé tradition of making amazingly catchy, anthemic records with some of her best songs to date.

11.

May 10, 2011
Critic Score
80
29 reviews

10.

November 15, 2011
Critic Score
76
32 reviews

Take Care shines bright, utilizing the same concepts and notions as its predecessor but with far more lethal and appealing results.

9.

January 25, 2011
Critic Score
85
30 reviews

Kaputt is the sort of record that arrives only once in a while: an expansive world that captivates you from beginning to end, impresses you with its self-awareness and cohesiveness, then releases you from its grasp when it's all over.

8.

April 19, 2011
Critic Score
85
33 reviews

w h o k i l l is an album indulgent in eccentricity, compelling in its variety, and downright impossible to not enjoy.

7.

October 18, 2011
Critic Score
75
40 reviews

Although Dreaming sports slower, more introspective ballads, there’s also a pantry’s worth of interstellar jams, chock full of sounds you’ve probably never heard before.

6.

February 4, 2011
Critic Score
82
37 reviews

James Blake is an essential for anybody interested in witnessing how pop music can and will continue to change, progress, and grow into something new with time.

5.

April 12, 2011
Critic Score
73
37 reviews

Wasting Light has cornered the kind of ideas that make up the best of the band’s catalog in an earnest attempt to go as big as possible, while staying relatively grounded.

4.

February 14, 2011
Critic Score
89
44 reviews

It’s an awe-inspiring, challenging album in all the best ways. PJ Harvey has created an album that will be at the top of everyone’s “Best of” list come December.

3.

June 28, 2011
Critic Score
84
30 reviews

Black Up is not the best hip hop album of the year so far, it’s the best album of the year so far.

2.

June 21, 2011
Critic Score
85
41 reviews

The album is a shoo-in for being a timeless great, no matter what we say.

1.

September 12, 2011
Critic Score
86
37 reviews

Strange Mercy achieves that sweeping goal, delivering on its promises, challenging thematically and intellectually, while also entertaining.

Original Source: http://consequenceofsound.net/2011/12/albums-of-the-year-2011/
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