Albums of 2011

[Kebab]

2011 was a bit mediocre in my opinion, but I have a few of stand-out albums.

Stand-out great albums:

Ghost by Devin Townsend
This album came a complete surprise to me and anyone whose familiar with Devin's work. Never have I listened to music that felt more like a journey than an album. Perfect to chill out to with headphones.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2junZRuEG0&feature=related[/youtube]
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Simple Math by Manchester Orchestra
Manchester Orchestra never fail to impress, they're always on top of their game album after album. This one however, shows the band more mature, and provides a different feel to their previous work.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKgSs0MQ270&ob=av2e[/youtube]
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Siberia by LIGHTS
Easily the best album to come out of the pop scene this year, and I'll be honest, I'm not a big pop fan these days. After her first promising yet average release 'The Listening', I wasn't expecting something epic. But I was sure surprised, this seemed to lean away from the cookie cutter lyrics and resulted in a dark, electronic and really enjoyable album. The writing is perfect, and the sound is just spot-on!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGqMg2rleD8[/youtube]
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Wildlife by La Dispute
These guys make this so hard to listen to, through all the heart-wrenching broken lyrics and non-existant structure comes a complete raw masterpiece. While not bringing anything new from their previous album, they've made this a lot more consistant, and if you are or aren't into this new wave of music, there'll be something here for everyone to discover.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McC5440CKBk[/youtube]

 

[Darren B]

I can only think of one album that really got me excited and that was Chris Brown - F.A.M.E, Best.Album.Ever!.

The only other 'decent' album i've bought this year is Plan B - The Defemation Of Strickland Banks, but that was released in 2010 so doesn't really count.

 

[Strummer]

F*cked Up - David Comes To Life
Tom Waits - Bad As Me
Social Distortion - Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes
Chuck Ragan - Covering Ground
Horrible Crowes - Elsie
The Aggrolites - Rugged Road
Radiohead - King Of Limbs

 

[roomraider]

In no particular order, Albums I loved this year included

Friendly Fires - Pala

Strange Talk - Strange Talk

Augustana - Augustana

Parachute - The Way It Was

The Boxer Rebellion - The Cold Still

 

[Brookes]

Absolute delights of last year:

Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See
Kasabian - Velociraptor!
RHCP - I'm With You

Only been listening to these since christmas but they came out last year:

Black Keys - El Camino
Miles Kane - Colour of the Trap

 

[Kebab]

I forgot about this album, it's absolutely stunning! Seriously!:

CunninLynguists - Oneirology:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsFL17DvOIA[/youtube]

 

[robbeal]

Albums of 2012 in my opinion:

The Vaccines' debut was without doubt the most stunning and confident debut I've heard in years. Definitely my album of the year.

Ed Sheeran's debut was also pretty stand-out, although I've flitted between loving it and being less than interested.

Kasabian's Velociraptor was a decent one too. It's not up to the standard of either of their first albums, but for me was a step up from the previous one.

The Smith & Burrows project produced an interesting album too, this being the side project of Editors' Tom Smith and Andy Burrows, formerly of Razorlight.

The final one this year for me was The Horrors' Still Life. This came completely out of the blue as they'd never interested me previously, but this was stunning.

For 2012, currently it's all about Lana Del Rey's debut and the new XX album for me!