Favorite Albums: 2011
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Tier 1
Art Department – The Drawing Board [Crosstown Rebels]
ASAP Rocky – LiveLoveA$AP [self-released]
Azari & III – Azari & III [Loose Lips]
Florence & the Machine – Ceremonials [Island/Universal]
Hooray for Earth – True Loves [Dovecote]
Machinedrum – Room(s) [Planet Mu]
Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise [Cirqus Company]
Shabazz Palaces – Black Up [Sub Pop]
Southern Nights – Peninsula Music [self-released]
The Weeknd – House of Balloons/Thursday/Echoes of Silence [self-released]
Tier 2
Active Child – You Are All I See [Vagrant]
Cold Cave – Cherish the Light Years [Matador]
Com Truise – Galactic Melt [Ghostly]
Craft Spells – Idle Labor [Captured Tracks]
Elite Gymnastics – Ruin 1 & 2 [Acephale]
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX – We’re New Here [Young Turks/XL]
Main Attrakionz – 808s & Dark Grapes II [Mishka]
Peaking Lights – 936 [Not Not Fun]
Pictureplane – Thee Physical [Lovepump]
Rustie – Glass Swords [Warp]
Tier 3
Body Language – Social Studies [OM]
Cults – Cults [ITNO/Columbia]
Ga’an – Black Equus [Captcha]
Gauntlet Hair – Gauntlet Hair [Dead Oceans]
Korallreven – An Album by Korallreven [Acephale]
Kuedo – Severant [Planet Mu]
Matthew Herbert – One Pig [Accidental]
Pure X – Pleasure [Acephale]
Toro Y Moi – Underneath the Pine/Freaking Out [Carpark]
Woodsman – Rare Forms [Lefse/Fire Talk]
Tier 4
Chad Valley – Equatorial Ultravox [Sire]
Clams Casino – Instrumental Mixtape/Rainforest single [self-released]
Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges [Constellation]
Ela Orleans – Mars Is Heaven [LA Station Radar]
Holy Other – With U [Tri Angle]
HT RK – Work (Work Work) [Ghostly]
Katy B – On a Mission [Rinse/Columbia]
LA Vampires Goes Ital – Streetwise [Not Not Fun]
Little Dragon – Ritual Union [Peacefrog]
Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers – Teenage and Torture [Knitting Factory]
Tier 5
Buraka Som Sistema – Komba [Enchufada]
Class Actress – Rapprocher [Carpark]
Frank Ocean – Nostalgia, ULTRA. [self-released]
G-Side – The ONE…COHESIVE [Slow Motion Soundz]
Matt Baldwin – Night in the Triangle 2LP [American Dust]
Moon Duo – Mazes [Sacred Bones]
Processory – Change Is Gradual [Sugarcane]
Seefeel – Seefeel [Warp]
The Field – Looping State of Mind [Kompakt]
Young Prisms – Friends for Now [Kanine]
Tier 6
Alias – Fever Dream [Anticon]
Balam Acab – Wander/Wonder [Tri Angle]
Blood Orange – Coastal Grooves [Domino]
Cut Hands – Afro Noise 1 [Very Friendly/Susan Lawly]
Hype Williams – One Nation [Hippos in Tanks]
James Blake – James Blake [Universal/Polydor]
Lee Noble – Horrorism [Bathetic]
Prefuse 73 – The Only She Chapters [Warp]
Puro Instinct – Headbangers in Ecstacy [Mexican Summer]
Thundercat – The Golden Age of Apocalypse [Brainfeeder]
Tier 7
Asva – Presences of Absences [Important]
Ducktails – III: Arcade Dynamics [Woodsist]
Egyptrixx – Bible Eyes [Night Slugs]
Future Islands – On the Water [Thrill Jockey]
Gui Boratto – III [Kompakt]
Holy Ghost! – Holy Ghost! [DFA]
Margaret Dygas – How Do You Do [Powershovel Audio]
Mo Kolours – Drum Talking EP [One-Handed]
Rotor Perdition – Hard Limits [self-released]
The Advisory Circle – As the Crow Flies [Ghost Box]
Tier 8
Adventure – Lesser Known [Carpark]
Blasted Canyons – Blasted Canyons [Castle Face]
Clap Rules – Golden Hands [Bear Funk]
Ford & Lopatin – Channel Pressure [Software]
Fruit Bats – Daytripper [Sub Pop]
Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact [4AD]
Implodes – Black Earth [Kranky]
Jane Jane Pollock – Jane Jane Pollock [Flea Ridden Kitten]
SBTRKT – SBTRKT [Young Turks]
Slow Club – Paradise [Moshi Moshi]
Tier 9
Borden, Ferraro, Godin, Halo & Lopatin – Frkwys Vol. 7 [Frkwys]
Giles Corey – Giles Corey [Enemies List Home Recordings]
I Break Horses – Hearts [Bella Union]
Julia Holter – Tragedy [Leaving]
Kendrick Lamar – Section.80 [Top Dawg]
Maria Minerva – Cabaret Cixous [Not Not Fun]
Moritz von Oswald Trio – Horizontal Structures [Honest Jon’s]
Styles P – Master of Ceremonies [D-Block]
Sun Araw – Ancient Romans [Sun Ark]
The Cool Kids – When Fish Ride Bicycles [Green Label Sound/C.A.K.E.]
Tier 10
AraabMuzik – Electronic Dream [Duke Productions]
Black Pus – Primordial Pus [Load]
Bobby – Bobby [Partisan]
CHLLNGR – Haven [Green Owl]
Circuit des Yeux – Portrait [De Stijl]
James Ferraro – Far Side Virtual [Hippos in Tanks]
Matthewdavid – Outmind [Brainfeeder]
Police Academy 6 – Police Academy 6 [AMDISCS]
Psychedelic Horseshit – Laced LP [FatCat]
Youth Lagoon – The Year Of Hibernation [Fat Possum]
Weirdest:
Foot Patrol – Pussyfooting
Gayngs – Relayted
Hilariously Bad:
EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints
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