NME's Best Albums of 2011

Original Source →

49.

June 28, 2011
Critic Score
77
26 reviews

48.

September 13, 2011
Critic Score
78
15 reviews

47.

October 18, 2011
Critic Score
75
32 reviews
Two years, lots of touring, and a wad of cash from Domino Records later and the New Jersey four-piece have shaken off the sun-flecked dust of that haphazard genre to reveal a clean and canny record.

46.

June 21, 2011
Critic Score
85
41 reviews

Those looking for the raw catharsis of ‘For Emma…’ will need to cop their misery fix elsewhere – ‘Bon Iver’ is the sound of a man making peace with the world, saxophones and all.

45.

May 13, 2011
Critic Score
74
25 reviews

44.

January 25, 2011
Critic Score
85
30 reviews
Bejar creates an astonishing world in just nine songs; it's his finest work to date, and excessive, but irresistibly so.

43.

April 12, 2011
Critic Score
73
37 reviews
Sounds like his band are having too much fun.

39.

November 8, 2011
Critic Score
68
34 reviews
Noel's still got it. Only a fool would write him off.

38.

October 11, 2011
Critic Score
80
38 reviews
It is that rarest of things, a record so particular to Björk’s own artistry that no-one could ever hope to replicate it.

37.

May 23, 2011
Critic Score
75
19 reviews

36.

January 7, 2011
Critic Score
80
19 reviews

35.

April 11, 2011
Critic Score
79
35 reviews

Nine Types…’ will make those who over-contextualise TVOTR finally quit their chin-stroking and live a little. This really is the most fun you can have without laughing.

34.

June 21, 2011
Critic Score
72
14 reviews
Nielson probably didn't know what he was getting into when he started UMO and is probably still figuring it out now. If that means more sleepless nights for him, all the better for us.

33.

October 25, 2011
Critic Score
67
33 reviews

The main problem with ‘†’ was the album’s awkward flip-flopping between mega club bangers and noticeable filler. ‘Audio, Video, Disco’’s success is in its album-wide consistency, and a contemplative depth of sound that outshines the expectations of their disco-biscuit crowd.

32.

Alex Turner - Submarine
March 15, 2011
Critic Score
74
11 reviews

31.

October 28, 2011
Critic Score
76
35 reviews

By taking what worked about Lungs and amplifying those qualities to a natural, satisfying conclusion, Florence has made a near-great pop record that should afford her the creative freedom to do whatever the hell she wants next time around.

29.

January 18, 2011
Critic Score
78
32 reviews

28.

October 11, 2011
Critic Score
78
27 reviews
It's expansively, ecstatically excellent for many of the same reasons as The Field's previous two: blissful, loop-based hymns at the intersection between shoegazing, trance and minimal techno.

27.

June 7, 2011
Critic Score
77
18 reviews

26.

September 13, 2011
Critic Score
79
31 reviews

Because there’s an awkward squirm at Girls’ core, a deviant devolution of classic mores, and that makes ‘…Holy Ghost’ something of a maladroit masterpiece.

25.

May 24, 2011
Critic Score
72
25 reviews

24.

Big Talk - Big Talk
July 19, 2011
Critic Score
59
9 reviews

23.

February 15, 2011
Critic Score
75
34 reviews
To bypass Yuck would be imbecilic simply because their debut contains some of the most effortlessly hard-hitting, heart-hitting pop of 2011.

20.

February 18, 2011
Critic Score
75
41 reviews

A record to respect for its craft, rather than worship for its greatness. Listen to it enough times and you may convince yourself you love it. But let’s not kid ourselves that it’s up there with their best work. It just isn’t.

18.

May 17, 2011
Critic Score
75
11 reviews

15.

September 13, 2011
Critic Score
81
29 reviews

13.

Suuns - Zeroes QC
October 12, 2010
Critic Score
72
11 reviews

12.

October 4, 2011
Critic Score
75
12 reviews

11.

January 14, 2011
Critic Score
78
22 reviews

9.

April 19, 2011
Critic Score
85
33 reviews
It's as if Garbus is powered by primal, wrong-righting spirits that click like a force of nature.

8.

April 5, 2011
Critic Score
77
28 reviews
‘On A Mission’ is hands-down pop debut of the year, marking the arrival of a completely credible, fresh-faced, mischievous talent to draw the proverbial moustaches on pop’s gallery of gurning grotesques.

7.

September 12, 2011
Critic Score
86
37 reviews

It’s this combination of unforced sonic gorgeousness and a refusal to settle for the obvious that puts Clark in a field of her own, and makes for a strange and wonderful record that shows no mercy in blowing your mind.

6.

June 7, 2011
Critic Score
75
37 reviews
A stunning new level of intelligent, love-steeped songcraft.

5.

March 8, 2011
Critic Score
78
27 reviews

The overall impression is of gloomy landscape paintings with a spooky, residual feeling that God might be hiding behind every cloud or passing tumbleweed — electrifying.

4.

May 9, 2011
Critic Score
81
33 reviews

‘Smother’ is deeply sad and lonely, but still a barbed invitation to intimacy; like Coleridge’s albatross, an extraordinarily elegant, stunning, (near)-perfect portrait of how terribly bad decisions can turn out.

3.

July 26, 2011
Critic Score
81
33 reviews

If all you can see is a tangle of influences then you’re standing too close to the picture, and when ‘Skying’’s visions come into focus, it not only reaffirms that ‘Primary Colours’ was far from a fluke, but that they could go so much further.

2.

April 8, 2011
Critic Score
78
23 reviews

‘The English Riviera’ is a deep sea of ideas and imagination: a far-flung, limitless dreamworld full of romance, nostalgia, lovers’ tiffs and good old-fashioned shagging.

1.

February 14, 2011
Critic Score
89
44 reviews

‘Let England Shake’ is a record that ventures deep into the heart of darkness of war itself and its resonance throughout England’s past, present and future.

Original Source: http://www.nme.com
Comments
Sign in to comment
No one has said anything yet.
Connect with AOTY
Like Us
Follow Us

February Playlist