A.V. Club's Best Music of 2011

Civilian continues the progress made by 2009’s excellent The Knot, bringing Wye Oak’s astral drone to blossom on a richer, fuller, and more extroverted bouquet of luminous melodies.

David Comes To Life is Fucked Up’s most musically accessible album wrapped up in its most fearlessly pretentious and flat-out incomprehensible concept.

The bruised, bottomless beauty of Days suggests that growing up hasn’t always been easy for Real Estate.

Engaging the darkness (rather than just acknowledging it) adds some flesh-and-blood humanity to an artist whose excellent output has nonetheless been marked by cold distance.

It’s hard to deny the power of The Decemberists’ renewed commitment to basic songcraft.

Bad As Me is entry-level Waits for newcomers, and for longtime fans it’s a fun reminder of Waits’ ability to be a badass when necessary.

An album that’s as stunning for its straight-faced chutzpah as for its unrepentant, obsessively well-coiffed lushness.

Considering the personnel involved, it’s no surprise Wild Flag works as well as it does, or that it picks up in a familiar place.

The songs hold to simple instrumentation and simple structures that allow Adele’s raspy, expressive voice to develop the story in the verses before she delivers the hook.