I still listen to all of those guys. Al Jourgensen finally released his “Buck Satan and the 666 Shooters” alt. country side project this year, which was fun for what it was. Chris Connelly recently released a more rock-based album. KMFDM released another album that was decent, Sascha Konietzko started a new solo project called “OK-ZTEIN-OK” that is more in the vein of oldschool experimental KMFDM (highly recommended but sadly already out of print), and En Esch did another album with Mona Mur. Skinny Puppy have a new album out, as well as a new one from Ogre’s oHgr project (which has gone a bit soft more my taste). I’m also enjoying the new albums from Decree, Prurient, and Thorofon.
Oh man, I love this album. And this is completely out of my usual genres. I only picked it up because I saw it repeated on a few of the Onion’s AV Club editor’s lists for the year. I’ve completely late to the party, but I’ve had this album on repeat for about a week now. Great, great, great.
Pitchfork fills me with sadness. Great reviews, and I always enjoy reading it, but they skew towards toward indie and rap, which doesn’t help me much since I’m not a huge fan of either genre. Man I was there was a Pitchfork sub-site that focused on electronic and dance. But El Camino is extremely pleasing to me.
Start one yourself! I will never understand why, in this era where so many genres go underappreciated, why we don’t have more music sites focusing on what is so great about them. I happen to be right in Pitchfork’s wheelhouse, but there is plenty of room for other voices, and the barriers of entry have never been lower.
Since nobody seems to have mentioned it yet, i’ll cast my vote for World Wide Rebel Songs by Tom Morello.
My top ten is extremely easy, as it turns out I’ve purchased exactly ten albums this year. I enjoyed all of these to a greater or lesser extent. I’ve provided links to what I think are stand-out tracks.
Feist – Metals (The Bad in Each Other)
Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys! (High Ideals)
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
The Kills - Blood Pressures (DNA)
Beirut - The Rip Tide (Santa Fe)
Husky Rescue - Ship of Light (Fast Lane)
Laura Marling - A Creature I Don’t Know
Radiohead - King of Limbs
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Live in France
P J Harvey - Let England Shake
My pick of the year would probably be the Feist album. Quite a surprise for me, the style is a departure from her last album. In the past, I’ve only enjoyed a few of her songs.
[shameful self-promotion]My own one…[/shameful self-promotion]
The title for best album was left vacant this year. Kesha didn’t release any albums in 2011.
Echoing the recommendations for Wilco, M83, Fucked Up.
Must also highly recommend:
Opeth - Heritage. If you’re interested in their usual Scandinavian death metal… this isn’t it. Lots of keyboards, prog rock, that kind of thing. I love their usual style and also love their efforts to push their boundaries.
Yell County - What You Get. Straight-up American rock mixed with a little drawl and some punkishness. The album starts off with a bang and is a solid little work, and I find myself repeatedly picking it out of the albums loaded on my iPhone when I want to hear something with some real heart and guts in it. Oh, and our own An Arky is the lead singer and plays guitar, IIRC.
There’s a ton I’m forgetting, I know.
I’m gonna add “Civilian” by Wye Oak and “Slave Ambient” by The War on Drugs.
Slave Ambient was great, definitely worth checking out. Didn’t hear the Wye Oak one, although I saw them in concert several months ago and enjoyed their set.
I got an Amazon gift card for my birthday, so I was checking out their mp3 store. They’ve put out their top 100. 21 by Adele is their #1. They’re having a sale through December where many mp3 albums are only $5. A few I bought that haven’t been mentioned yet are Cults by Cults, Middle Brother by Middle Brother,and Both Ways Open Jaws by The Dø.