2011: It's Over!

Yes, another year draws to a close. Not the most active or exciting on my iPod, I must say, but plenty of great records came out. In lieu of a long-winded year in review thing no one would really care about, I've decided to just list my favorite albums, roughly in order, and I made a Spotify playlist featuring as many of them as the service provided. Sadly, that meant a lot of great mixtapes and some surprising commercial releases couldn't be represented (You gotta get No Kings by Doomtree. It's not on the playlist, but trust me, it should be), but I worked with what I had. Anyway, here's the list:

Royal Bangs, Flux Outside

Thao & Mirah, Thao & Mirah

St. Vincent, Strange Mercy

TV on the Radio, Nine Types of Light

Mastodon, The Hunter

Doomtree, No Kings

Wild Flag, Wild Flag

Talib Kweli, Gutter Rainbows

Hail Mary Mallon, Are You Gonna Eat That?

Electric Six, Heartbeats And Brainwaves

Pharoahe Monch, WAR

The Kills, Blood Pressures

Opeth, Heritage

Das Racist, Relax

Sims, Bad Time Zoo

TesseracT, One

Raekwon, Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang

Surfer Blood, Tarot Classics

Protest the Hero, Scurrilous

East of the Wall, The Apologist

Jean Grae, Cookies Or Comas mixtape

Booker T., The Road From Memphis
Okkervil River, I Am Very Far 

Mike Doughty, Yes And Also Yes

Tom Waits, Bad As Me

Betty Wright & The Roots, Betty Wright: The Movie

Dessa, Castor, The Twin

Zola Jesus, Conatus

The Roots, Undun

The Cool Kids, When Fish Ride Bicycles

Atmosphere, The Family Sign

Des Ark, Don't Rock The Boat, Sink the Fucker!

Those Darlins, Screws Get Loose

G. Love, Fixin' To Die

Slaughterhouse, Slaughterhouse EP

In Flames, Sounds of A Playground Fading

9th Wonder, The Wonder Years

Glassjaw, Our Color Green: The Singles

Lushlife, No More Golden Days mixtape

††† (Crosses), EP†

Beastie Boys, Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2

Laws & Paul McCartney, Yesterday's Future mixtape

Joell Ortiz, Free Agent

Kassa Overall, The Stargate Mixtape

Kittie, I've Failed You

Money Making Jam Boys, The Prestige mixtape

GAYNGS, AFFILYATED

Warm Brew, Warm Brew EP

Party Animal, You Can't Win EP

Amon Amarth, Surtur Rising

Idle Warship, Habits of the Heart
Los Campesinos!, Hello, Sadness

Of Montreal, The Controllersphere  EP
dredg, Chuckles & Mr. Squeezy
The Lonely Island, Turtleneck & Chain 

Lakutis, I'm In The Forest EP

TECLA, Thank$giving

Amanda Diva, Madame Monochrome 

Tapes N' Tapes, Outside

PJ Harvey, Let England Shake  

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Tao of the Dead

J. Period, John Legend & The Roots, Wake Up Radio! mixtape
Pucifer, Conditions of My Parole
Andrew WK, Party All Goddamn Night EP
Sir Michael Rocks, The Rocks Report mixtape

Wugazi, 13 Chambers mixtape

Trophy Scars, Never Born, Never Dead
Kool AD, Hyphy Ballads EP

Sims & Laserbeak, Wild Life EP

Tori Amos, Night of Hunters

Tegan & Sara, Get Along

Chip Tha Ripper & Chuck Inglish, Gift Raps mixtape
Smoking Popes, This Is Only A Test
King, The Story EP

Skyzoo, The Great Debater mixtape

Rapsody, Thank H.E.R. mixtape

Truck North, Quicktape 

Actual Proof, The Talented Tenth mixtape

Sha Stimuli, The Break Up 2: The Proposal mixtape

Big Baby Ghandi, Big Fucking Baby mixtape

And here's the playlist:

2011: It Happened

Good-Bye, 2011. Happy 2012, everybody! Hope you have a good year.

Yup.
--D