Some year-end lists of the best albums of 2011 are coming out. Some are right up my alley and some challenge, uh, my alley. Best of lists aren't only good to compare your own favorites, but to discover albums you may not have found otherwise. I'm already listening to a couple of albums I would have ignored if not for showing up on a respected list. Check some of these out (several compiled by the excellent Stereogum).
- Paste | Top 50
- Uncut | Top 50
- Mojo | Top 50
- Q | Top 50
- Stereogum | Top 50
- Filter | Top 10
- Chicago Tribune | Greg Kot Top 20
- Metacritic | 2011 Music Critic Top 10 Lists - a collection of all top lists, and using those rankings to give weight to overall best of 2011 list
Paste seems to be the best list of those - or at least the most similar to what my top 50 would look like.
Look forward to reading your list when you post it.
Posted by: Timcasteel | 12/07/2011 at 01:54 PM
Yeah, always solid. Sometimes they fight for things everyone else is frowning upon, and I'm afraid it's for non-artistic reasons, but bias is all over the place. If you want to cluck your tongue a few times, read Rolling Stone's list. They have a way of mixing the "wonderful!" with the "whaaa?" :)
Posted by: Steve McCoy | 12/07/2011 at 02:02 PM
Haha - yeah, I'm not sure Gaga, Beyonce and Britney deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, or even Adele.
Besides Rolling Stone - seems like most indie lists are trying really hard to be super-indie. They feel a need to list the most obscure band you've ever heard of or at least the most challenging song from a known artist (like those that put Sufjan's 25 minute song "impossible soul" as best song of the 2010. Not a bad song - just a little indulgent).
Posted by: Timcasteel | 12/12/2011 at 03:08 PM
Are there any best-of-2011 Christian music lists out there?
Posted by: BrianD | 12/15/2011 at 02:37 PM