The Festive 50 (2011)

// December 16th, 2011 // Music Reviews

This year, I thought I might try and actually order my top 50 albums of the year by preference rather than taking the path of least resistance offered by an alphabetical listing. It’s much harder than I thought it might be. The decline in quality from 1 to 50 is actually rather slight and this makes the judgement calls between individual placings near impossible.

This rundown has been compiled from a much larger list of around 150 albums which have spiced up a lengthy succession of otherwise dreary days spent building and replumbing other people’s websites.

Top prize this year goes to the excellent collaboration between Adian Moffat and Bill Wells Everything’s Getting Older. For those of us of a certain vintage this album will have a particular resonance but for thinking music fans everywhere this is a must-have for 2011. PJ Harvey was awarded the Mercury Prize for Let England Shake and, this time at least, the judges were spot on. A stunning album. I was lucky enough to see Baltimore’s Wye Oak live this year when they were the support band for The National. The sublime Civilian has never been far from my playlist.

There is plenty to keep you busy here. From the post-rock loud/quiet of Mogwai’s Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will and the instrumental post-metal of Russian Circles’ Empros through to the experimentalism of Puscifier’s Conditions Of My Parole and David Lynch’s (yup, that one) Crazy Clown Time.

By my count there are 8 albums here by home-grown Scottish artists. Not a bad total. Special mention must go to Martin John Henry (of the late, and much missed De Rosa) and his superb solo debut The Other Half Of Everything.

1 to 50 (in order of preference)
  1. Adian Moffat & Bill Wells – Everything’s Getting Older (open in spotify)
  2. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (open in spotify)
  3. Wye Oak – Civilian (youtube clip)
  4. The Antlers – Burst Apart (open in spotify)
  5. The Decemberists – The King is Dead (open in spotify)
  6. Wild Beasts – Smother (open in spotify)
  7. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine (open in spotify)
  8. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy (open in spotify)
  9. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (open in spotify)
  10. Puscifier – Conditions of my Parole (open in spotify)
  11. Star Wheel Press – Life Cycle of a Falling Bird (open in spotify)
  12. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (open in spotify)
  13. Martin John Henry – The Other Half of Everything (open in spotify)
  14. The Dø – Both Ways Open Jaws (open in spotify)
  15. Feist – Metals (open in spotify)
  16. Bon Iver – Bon Iver (open in spotify)
  17. Gazelle Twin – The Entire City (open in spotify)
  18. The Field – Looping State of Mind (review and streams)
  19. Johann Johannsson – The Miner’s Hymns (open in spotify)
  20. Elbow – Build a Rocket Boys! (open in spotify)
  21. Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow (open in spotify)
  22. Tom Waits – Bad As Me (youtube clip)
  23. Radiohead – The King of Limbs (open in spotify)
  24. Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know (open in spotify)
  25. Alexi Murdoch – Towards The Sun (open in spotify)
  26. Loch Lomond - Little Me Will Start a Storm (open in spotify)
  27. Russian Circles – Empros (open in spotify)
  28. Vessels – Helioscope (open in spotify)
  29. Braids – Native Speaker (open in spotify)
  30. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (open in spotify)
  31. David Lynch – Crazy Clown Time (open in spotify)
  32. Explosions In The Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (open in spotify)
  33. Low – C’Mon (open in spotify)
  34. Bjork – Biophilia (open in spotify)
  35. Peggy Sue – Acrobats (open in spotify)
  36. Found – Factorycraft (open in spotify)
  37. David Thomas Broughton – Outbreeding (open in spotify)
  38. Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi – Rome (open in spotify)
  39. Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi (open in spotify)
  40. RM Hubbert – First & Last (open in spotify)
  41. R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now (open in spotify)
  42. Christina Vantzou – No. 1 (open in spotify)
  43. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes (open in spotify)
  44. The Jezabels – Prisoner (soundcloud track)
  45. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact (open in spotify)
  46. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo (open in spotify)
  47. King’s Daughters and Sons – If Then Not When (open in spotify)
  48. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost (open in spotify)
  49. Thrice – Major/Minor (open in spotify)
  50. The Moth & The Mirror – Honestly, This World (open in spotify)

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