While the Too Much Rock Podcast gleefully celebrates the infectious single, and shamelessly promotes them by compiling the Top 25* Songs of 2011*, great bands create more than great singles, they create great albums. Here is a quick list of my top 30 albums in 2011.
30. Wounded Lion - IVXLCDM (In The Red) 29. Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See (Domino) 28. Shotgun Jimmie - Transistor Sister (You've Changed) 27. Blue Skies For Black Hearts - Embracing the Modern Age (Super Big Limited) 26. Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde (Fat Possum) 25. Glen Campbell - Ghost On The Canvas (Surfdog) 24. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo (Matador) 23. East River Pipe - We Live in Rented Rooms (Merge) 22. Mates Of State - Mountaintops (Barsuk) 21. I'm From Barcelona - Forever Today (Mute) 20. Hospital Ships - Lonely Twin (Graveface) 19. Okkervil River - I Am Very Far (Jagjaguwar) 18. Figurines - Figurines (The Control Group) 17. Noah and the Whale - Last Night on Earth (Mercury) 16. Bill Callahan - Apocalypse (Drag City) 15. Hot Club De Paris - Free The Pterodactyl 3 (Moshi Moshi) 14. Sleepy Rebels - Yellow Tree (Self Released) 13. Tune-Yards - Whokill (4AD) 12. Jeffrey Lewis - A Turn In The Dream-Songs (Rough Trade) 11. Wild Flag - Wild Flag (Merge) 10. Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math (Columbia) 9. An Horse - Walls (Mom+Pop) 8. Acid House Kings - Music Sounds Better With You (Labrador) 7. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Belong (Slumberland) 6. The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library - Volume One (Self Released) 5. Hidden Pictures - Synchronized Sleeping (Self Released) 4. Kimya Dawson - Thunder Thighs (Great Crap Factory) 3. The Decemberists - The King Is Dead (Capitol) 2. Low - C'mon (Sub Pop) 1. Holcombe Waller - Into the Dark Unknown (Napoleon)
As with my list of top songs, my list of top albums is limited to the records added to my collection in the last year. I'm sure to have missed a few, and for the next few weeks I'll be picking up those albums, and playing my favourite songs on the podcast. What do you think? What did I miss?