TVD’s Best of 2011

Yea, I know. I’m not much of a fan of the annual look-back-over-the-shoulder at the previous year either. Although to be fair, the more music I hear during the year, the more I realize there was plenty that I didn’t hear.

So, before we close the books on 2011, we’ve asked the writers and editors from across the many TVD locales to rummage through not just their records, but ruminate on the shows, books, and movies that informed their 2011.

First up, TVD NYC’s Mike Newman and his Long and Winding Album List. —Ed.

Well, it’s certainly that time of year (the end of it, that is) where everyone who has anything to do with music (including Eddie No-Ears, who just feels the music) finds it necessary to rank their favorite musical things that came out in the past year. So if you happen to be EXACTLY like me, you will undoubtedly agree with everything on this list.

But, the fact of the matter is, as much as I dislike rating, ranking and reviewing music until all the magic is sucked out of it, I do find other people’s lists helpful to remind me of some of the great things (perhaps from January 2011 or maybe that I heard whilst partying at that one party at that one guy’s place), which I might’ve already forgotten about. And other’s lists are a reminder that we all have very different tastes, but it’s cool to see where those tastes overlap (kinda like hot fudge over peppermint ice cream).

So anyway, let’s hop to it then and see what I liked a lot in 2011! And mind you, it’s impossible for me to do a “Top 10”-style list. That would just hurt my brain. And this list is much more awesome and inclusive! Also, keep in mind that I don’t listen to every album that comes out, nor do I have a desire to do that. So… in no particular order:

Quilt – Quilt (Mexican Summer)

Foxygen – Take the Kids Off Broadway (Breakfast Horse)

Buffalo Killers – 3 (Alive Naturalsound)

Radio Moscow – The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz (Alive Naturalsound)

The Paperhead – The Paperhead (Trouble In Mind)

Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter – Marble Son (Station Grey)

Woodsman – Mystic Places (Fire Talk)

Master Musicians of Bukkake – Totem 3 (Important Records)

Fergus & Geronimo – Unlearn (Hardly Art)

Peaking Lights – 936 (Not Not Fun)

Colin Stetson – New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges (Constellation)

Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo (Matador)

Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost (True Panther)

Thee Oh Sees – Carrion Crawler/The Dream (In the Red)

Meg Baird – Seasons on Earth (Drag City)

P.G. Six – Starry Mind (Drag City)

Real Estate – Days (Domino)

Barn Owl – Lost in the Glare (Thrill Jockey)

Eternal Tapestry – Beyond the 4th Door (Thrill Jockey)

Eternal Tapestry & Sun Araw – Night Gallery (Thrill Jockey)

Night Beats – Night Beats (Trouble in Mind)

The Donkeys – Born With Stripes (Dead Oceans)

Brian Olive – Two of Everything (Alive Naturalsound)

The Peoples Temple -Sons of Stone (Hozac)

White Hills – H-p1 (Thrill Jockey)

The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient (Secretly Canadian)

White Denim – D (Downtown)

Other killer faves from 2011:
Wooden Shjips – West (Thrill Jockey)
Eleven Twenty-Nine – Eleven Twenty-Nine (Northern Spy)
D. Charles Speer & the Helix – Leaving the Commonwealth (Thrill Jockey)
Mikal Cronin – Mikal Cronin (Trouble in Mind)
Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor – Spectra Spirit (self released)
Psychic Ills – Hazed Dream (Sacred Bones)
Jacuzzi Boys – Glazin’ (Hardly Art)
Nicole Atkins – Mondo Amore (Razor & Tie)
Country Mice – Twister (Kanine)
The Dead Exs – Resurrection (Bang Bang Boogaloo)
Abstract Artimus – Rite of Passage (Dire Life)
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears – Scandalous (Lost Highway)

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