The Guardian's Best Albums of 2011

Original Source →

50.

January 7, 2011
Critic Score
80
19 reviews

49.

May 10, 2011
Critic Score
80
29 reviews

For the follow-up ... the band have expanded their sound, swaddling typically despondent lyrics in gorgeous electronic textures (Rolled Together, Tiptoe) and Portisheadesque beats, as on the glistening Parenthesis.

46.

August 30, 2011
Critic Score
75
28 reviews

44.

Marius Neset - Golden Xplosion
May 17, 2011
Critic Score
93
3 reviews

43.

Machine Head - Unto the Locust
September 27, 2011
Critic Score
85
10 reviews

42.

October 11, 2011
Critic Score
85
7 reviews

41.

June 28, 2011
Critic Score
84
30 reviews
A thrilling, space-age vision of modern hip-hop.

40.

February 15, 2011
Critic Score
73
28 reviews

39.

February 8, 2011
Critic Score
69
28 reviews

Computers and Blues is inimitable, flawed, and perhaps a suitable way to bow out.

38.

Nicola Roberts - Cinderella's Eyes
September 23, 2011
Critic Score
79
7 reviews
While Girls Aloud's hiatus rumbled on, Nicola Roberts set about carving herself a solo career, and her debut album threw up its fair share of surprises.

37.

August 8, 2011
Critic Score
75
35 reviews

If Watch the Throne's musical direction seems like West's work, it's worth noting that Jay-Z has the better lyrics.

35.

May 17, 2011
Critic Score
75
11 reviews

34.

April 19, 2011
Critic Score
72
14 reviews

33.

January 25, 2011
Critic Score
85
30 reviews
It's unique and warm and beautiful, as love letters are supposed to be.

32.

February 25, 2011
Critic Score
80
34 reviews
On Little Bit, the hypnotic centrepiece of her debut, she was "a little bit in love", while here "sadness is her boyfriend", the album recorded in the aftermath of an unrequited love affair.

31.

May 23, 2011
Critic Score
70
28 reviews

This, perhaps, has always been the thrilling paradox of Lady Gaga – that she can be the most exciting, confounding and mind-bogglingly creative artist on planet pop while still sounding like an early-90s Tampax advert.

30.

February 22, 2011
Critic Score
78
28 reviews
Throughout, Scott's old-soul narratives are reborn through Smith's atmospheric beats.

29.

November 21, 2011
Critic Score
86
38 reviews

50 Words for Snow is extraordinary business as usual for Bush, meaning it's packed with the kind of ideas you can't imagine anyone else in rock having.

28.

September 13, 2011
Critic Score
70
8 reviews

27.

February 18, 2011
Critic Score
75
41 reviews

Listening to it, you're reminded that Radiohead are the only band of their size and status that seem driven by an impulse to twist their music into different shapes.

24.

October 4, 2011
Critic Score
78
35 reviews

There are worse crimes than being too subtle: there's something impressively soft and unspun about Feist's quirkiness. And besides, more often Metals just sounds fantastic.

21.

June 28, 2011
Critic Score
86
25 reviews
Welch writes fine, timeless melodies, and her mostly gloomy lyrics are performed in suitably mournful, no-nonsense style.

20.

May 3, 2011
Critic Score
83
40 reviews
The result is almost laughably beautiful.

19.

November 15, 2011
Critic Score
76
32 reviews

Drake is insipid as a singer ... As a rapper, he is inert to the point of catatonia and his foregrounded voice becomes swiftly intolerable.

18.

September 12, 2011
Critic Score
86
37 reviews
It's a little top-heavy, and meanders towards the end, but it's smart, demanding and unique, too.

17.

October 11, 2011
Critic Score
80
38 reviews

Heralded as the future of music, Björk's album/app is a whirl of innovation – and the music's beautiful.

16.

July 26, 2011
Critic Score
81
33 reviews

Music buffs might still want to play spot the influence with Skying ... but that would undersell this marvellous record, which should be every bit as exciting to a listener who knows none of those reference points.

15.

June 28, 2011
Critic Score
77
26 reviews

14.

October 25, 2011
Critic Score
87
42 reviews
As ever, he's doing things his own way, with songs catchy enough to suggest everyone should accompany him for the ride.

12.

May 9, 2011
Critic Score
81
33 reviews

Smother isn't conventional chart material, but will make their burgeoning cult impossible to ignore.

11.

May 23, 2011
Critic Score
75
19 reviews

10.

April 19, 2011
Critic Score
85
33 reviews

Whereas the musical and lyrical boldness of her 2009 debut, Bird-Brains, was a little muted by her homespun recording techniques, here every fragmenting note and confrontational idea is exhilaratingly crisp.

9.

October 11, 2011
Critic Score
82
19 reviews

6.

February 4, 2011
Critic Score
82
37 reviews
James Blake's debut is not an easy listen, but it's exactly what modern pop needs

5.

June 21, 2011
Critic Score
85
41 reviews

Whether exploring supple R&B in Minnesota, WI, joyful country in Towers, or swollen soft-rock in Beth/Rest, Bon Iver remains rooted in the emotional sincerity that made Vernon's debut so mesmerising.

4.

June 24, 2011
Critic Score
70
34 reviews
Beyoncé's new album isn't bad, but nor is it the game-changer we were led to expect.

3.

February 16, 2011
Critic Score
74
6 reviews

2.

April 5, 2011
Critic Score
77
28 reviews
Clearly it requires something more than vocal talent and looks to escape the fate of the featured vocalist, and whatever it is, 21-year-old Kathleen Bryan appears to have it.

1.

February 14, 2011
Critic Score
89
44 reviews
You're left with a richly inventive album that's unlike anything else in Harvey's back catalogue.
Original Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/dec/01/best-albums-2011
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