I have increasing trouble finding a cutoff point where I just go ahead and post a list. I was acquiring a steady stream of new albums towards the end of the year, and as other people started posting their year end lists, I kept thinking I just needed a little longer to hear a few more things just a few more times to really finalize my list. Here it is almost halfway through January so I might as well go ahead and do this before 2012 really gets going.

It kind of feels like cheating to wait this late because I've already seen most of your lists and taken a few things from them and from lists in other places. A couple of these were acquired as recently as the end of December (even this week for one of the EPs), but for the most part none of that ended up very high on my list.

At this point I have 113 albums from 2011, and I want to write a little something about each one of them, hopefully keeping it much more brief than I have in the past and moving much faster through all of them. I've got them all ranked and am going to go through the list from bottom to top. (The bad stuff is always more fun to write about anyway.) It may even change a little as I'm doing this, but hopefully I can move through these pretty quickly so it won't change much.

But first, my Top 10 Reissues of 2011. These choices are maybe a little more arbitrary than my favorite albums list since these just happen to be reissues that I bought and liked, and they were all either older albums that I had never heard or had never owned in physical form. So plenty of other things were reissued in 2011 that may seem like it would deserve to be here (as in, it's something I like or would seem to like), but I just wasn't interested in the reissue because I owned and/or was satisfied with previous versions.

#1.
Giant Sand - Chore of Enchantment
It was a total last-second decision to swap this with my #2 choice below, but I am totally falling in love with this album. I'd put off really getting into Giant Sand's catalog until this past year, and it seemed like a good time with all the reissues that began rolling out in 2010. I started at the beginning with Valley of Rain (which I also like a lot), and then a few months later when it finally came out, I skipped ahead to this one. It's a great reissue, too, tacking on a second disc called The Rock Opera Years that was more or less an earlier recording of the album but mostly contains different songs (some or all may have shown up on later Giant Sand or Howe Gelb solo albums). Really fantastic stuff that I know several of you are already familiar with. If you're not, you should be.

#2.
Fred McDowell - The Alan Lomax Recordings
I'm still pretty new to the blues, and this is the first I've really heard of (Mississippi) Fred McDowell. The recordings are of excellent quality, and these are just great cuts. I mean you just can't go wrong with this.

#3.
Bitch Magnet - s/t
Bitch Magnet was a late-'80s/early-'90s precursor to noise/math/post-rock... a lot of the indie rock that happened in the '90s, basically. Not that they were wholly original or anything. They're a very Steve Albini-sounding band, and if you didn't know better, you'd swear that was him "singing" these songs. But then this band sounds more like Shellac than Big Black, and Shellac didn't exist yet at this point. So it would seem that were both influenced by and were an influence on Albini. Anyway this stuff is totally in my wheelhouse and will be for several of you as well. And while I'd seen the band name thrown around a lot, I'd never actually heard them until this 3-disc reissue package (both of the albums plus their one EP and some alternate versions, possibly their entire recorded output) was released near the end of the year.

#4.
Sebadoh - Bakesale
A solid reissue with a hearty helping of bonus tracks. I had never owned this one, and it's up there with III and Bubble & Scrape for me.

#5.
The Raincoats - Odyshape
No bonus tracks, decent liner notes. Possibly remastered, but I never listened to my old mp3s enough to really compare. It's been out of print forever, though, and it's nice to have a physical copy.

Some other ones I have and have enjoyed:

6. Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues. Fantastic album that sounds great here. All but one of the bonus tracks I could do without, though.
7. Archers of Loaf - Icky Mettle. Great reissue of a decent album. I like some of the bonus tracks better than the actual record.
8. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon: Immersion. No, I didn't actually buy this version, but that third disc is nice, with the early Alan Parsons mix.
9. Queen - Sheer Heart Attack. No bonus tracks, don't know about remastering quality vs. old versions, but I'd never the whole thing before.
10. Los Dug Dug's - Los Dug Dug's. Not exactly a lost masterpiece, but really fun garage rock album. Probably the only Mexican rock band in my collection?

On Monday I'll run down my odds and ends list of EPs/singles/comps/whatever that qualified as "new" but I didn't feel like putting on my albums list.

I know you're not a big uploader, Drink, but I'd be interested in hearing the alternate mix of Dark Side...

Yeah, I can put it up somewhere, especially since I just d/led myself in the first place. Probably won't get around to it until Monday, though.

No probs.

I'm a fan of Giant Sand but didn't hear that reissue either. Checking out now via Spotify, thx.

I'm not a Sebadoh fan, but I'm a massive fan of Bakesale.

I need to do that too. Ever since a Wuxtry employee (one of those townies that smelled like sour B.O.) told me that Chore of Enchantment was one of the most beautiful records he'd heard in years (said at the time of its release) I've been intrigued, and even listened to it a few times. I"ll try to spend more time with it via Spotify.

Nice. I didn't even know that Raincoats had been reissued.

Baskesale is one of my favorite records and has remained a go-to even after my interest in Sebadoh waned. This was a welcome reissue.

That Mississippi Fred McDowell Lomax recording album looks good.
I already own this:
which, I think is an essential blues album.

Bitch Magnet is the most written about resissue for 2011 that I've seen. Universal acclaim. Its like, where were all of you when they were recording?

This, and that Fred McDowell really intrigues me.

OK sere here's my list of the best EPs, singles, 7"s, comps, live albums, etc. that I didn't want to put on my albums list...

#1.
The Soft Moon - Total Decay EP
The Soft Moon's self-titled album could have been in my Top 10 for 2010 if I'd heard it that year, and that was a great year. This EP is a worthy companion piece, and probably gets bonus points from me for bringing my attention to this "band" (really all one guy, I think) in the first place. As you can tell from the above clips, the sound draws heavily from vintage post-punk, Joy Division in particular, and even though I'm not the biggest JD fan, this is totally my thing. I like it immediately and haven't tired of it.
8/10

#2.
Clams Casino - Rainforest EP
I listened to almost no hip-hop at all in 2011. I just didn't care. I know Clams Casino produced tracks for Lil B and A$AP Rocky, but I've only heard his stuff in "intrumental" form. And I'm totally fine with that. Even though his Instrumental Mixtape isn't quite as fleshed out - or, frankly, pretty - as this is, I have no desire to hear anybody rapping over any of his tracks. He creates a gauzy, relaxing, dreamlike sound world that rapping would only disrupt - at least for my ears. But anyway, the point is just that I like this just as it is, and I like this EP much more than the mixtape.
8/10

#3.
Tim Hecker - Dropped Pianos EP
Sort of the behind the scenes/outtakes companion to Hecker's excellent Ravedeath, 1972 album. It reveals a little of Hecker's creative process, featuring more sparsely layered tracks of piano tinkering minus most of the effects. It took several plays, but it eventually became a totally captivating listen in its own right for me. While Hecker is no great piano virtuoso, he's a master of mood and ambiance, even without all the buzzing drones and washes of noise.
8/10

#4.
Ty Segall - Singles 2007-2010
This would seem to have a pretty unfair advantage stacked up against single-7"s and 4-song EPs... and it does, I guess. It's fairly uneven, though, and a fair amount of it sounds pretty tossed-off. Still, Ty Segall makes garage rock sound like effortless, spontaneous fun, and that's just as it should be.
7.5/10

#5.
Factory Floor - Two Different Ways/R E A L L O V E Singles
I've probably mentioned more than a few times that I'm not really into electronic dance music. House, trance, techno, whatever else, usually just leaves me cold. Or bored. Or irritated. So I'm kind of puzzled when I end up liking something like this as much as I do. It's mechanical repetition, but there's something about it that just works for me. It has a certain edge to it. As it turns out, these guys actually perform something like a real band, with an actual live drummer and somebody doing something with a guitar although I never would have guessed it from hearing the recordings. Maybe the reason I like this lies somewhere in there. There's definitely something human and primal at the core of these tracks.
7.5/10

#6.
White Denim - Takes Place in Your Work Space
I'd never listened to White Denim prior to late-December, and I'm wishing I hadn't slept on them for so long. I wouldn't say I've fallen in love with their sound, but I certainly enjoy it. The "Southern Prog" of their album D has been compared to '70s prog bands like Gentle Giant, and I find it similarly likable and unpretentious. These songs are more laid back, more comfortable, and probably catchier than what's on their album. I was having the hardest time pinning down who this band reminds me of until just recently when it struck me that (this EP in particular) reminds me of Liquid Skin-era Gomez. I don't really know if that's a good or bad thing - or even if it's very accurate - since I haven't listened to that in nearly a decade, but I'm pretty sure that's what I was trying to think of.
7.5/10

#7.
Andy Stott - We Stay Together EP
I saw a lot of mentions of this guy as year end lists started rolling around so I thought I'd check him out. I'm always up to hear some new electronic music although for most of the past decade there's really been very little that I've latched onto. I don't know how much I'll be coming back to this, but it's definitely some of the better stuff I've heard. It's bass music, deep and dark. I'm not entirely sure what sub-genre it falls into if it does in fact fit into one. (The best stuff never quite does, IMO.) He put out another release before this that's of similar length that I put onto my albums list. Retroactively they've been grouped together on most lists and counted as album, but I thought I'd keep them separate for whatever reason. (Maybe because I acquired them separately?) And I put this one as an EP because that's how I've seen it listed some places. I like it slightly less than the "album" Passed Me By.
7.5/10

#8.
Weekend - Red EP
I really enjoyed Weekend's 2010 album Sports even if it wasn't the most original thing. One more shoegaze revival record, but one that took a noisier bent rather than a dream pop one. This is a little less hazy and fuzzed out, mostly with good results. I really like four of the five tracks here, especially opener "Sweet Sixteen" and closer "Golfers". The only one that really doesn't do it for me is "Hazel", probably just for the seemingly dumb lyrics. Otherwise, sign me up as looking forward to their next album.
7.5/10

#9.
Echo Lake - Young Silence EP
Another shoegaze-y thing, this is the first and still only thing I've heard by this band. It's very good. Also somewhat on the noisy side but prettier and more tuneful and than Weekend.
7.5/10

#10.
Hauschka - Youyoume EP
When I finally got around to hearing Hauschka's 2011 album Salon Des Amateurs, it blew me away. (More on that on my albums list.) This EP, however, did not. Where his album is bouyant, dense, and busy, this is much more sparse and downcast. It's grown on me, though. It's very pretty. Here Hauschka's piano is less cut up or layered so it flows more at it's own languid pace rather than the kinetic rush of the album. It may need more time to sink in, or maybe there just isn't as much here.
7.5/10

Honorable Mentions:
11. Ty Segall – Ty Rex: 7.5/10
12. Women/Cold Pumas/Fair Ohs/Friendo – Split 7”: 7.5/10
13. Toro Y Moi – Freaking Out: 7.5/10
14. Mikal Cronin – Tide: 7.5/10
15. Darkside – Darkside EP: 7/10
16. The Fresh & Onlys – Secret Walls: 7/10
17. Deerhunter – iTunes Live from Soho: 7/10
18. Burial – Street Halo: 7/10

The rest:
19. Radiohead – The Daily Mail & Staircase: 6.5/10
20. Pure X – You’re in It Now: 6.5/10
21. Dum Dum Girls – He Gets Me High: 6/10

I'll start on my albums list tomorrow, if possible.

Re: Weekend... heh, "Hazel" will probably be on my year-end mix whenever I finally make it.

OK, here we go. 113 albums, bottom to top. All of the 2011 albums that I listened to.

Before I get into it, a few things I want to note. I don't try to hear everything, only the stuff I think I might like or find interesting. So most of my scores are fairly positive. In the end I think I'm pretty good at filtering through what's out there and choosing stuff I'll like before I take the plunge.

There are a few rare cases where stuff ends up being much worse than I expected, which brings me to...

#113.
Araabmuzik - Electronic Dream
Apparently trance is cool now? I'll sit this one out, thanks. And as if this revival of the all-time worst subgenre of electronic dance music wasn't bad enough, there's an insulting recurring vocal sample throughout this album that sounds just like the audible "watermarks" added to some promo copies of records. "You are now listening to Araabmuzik." My mistake. Won't happen again. 3/10

#112.
40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room
Maybe I'm being too harsh or judging this too hastily, but it is just not what I had expected or hoped for at all. Listening to samples, I thought this was another doom-y, Neurosis-type metal band. Musically it's really not far off, but those vocals. The lyrics. This is emotional, sensitive-dude, relationship stuff. These songs could be re-recorded by any pop singer (provided they were shortened and sped up) and no one would know they were originally on a metal album. I don't know, this just doesn't work for me. At all. 4/10

#111.
Ganglians - Still Living
Talk about a disappointing follow-up. I avoided this one for a while because no one anywhere seemed to like it, and I wish I could have skipped it altogether. Their debut album Monster Head Room and the EP that preceded it were among my favorite releases of 2009. I thought for sure they were bound for bigger and better things. I have no idea what went wrong, but there's very little right about this record. There are only one or two songs I'd call truly bad, but the rest of the album is pretty thoroughly mediocre. The best thing I can say about it is that most of the time it's fairly pretty. They just don't manage to find their way to a single good melody or hook over the course of the entire thing.

Not long before I got this, I got the Song to Comus comp that compiles all the recorded material by the band Comus, basically just their cult classic debut First Utterance plus a single, some B-sides, and an unreleased track on one disc, and their perplexing second and final album To Keep From Crying plus a "pop" single from bandleader Roger Wootton that followed that album on the other disc. Although Ganglians debut releases don't measure up to First Utterance, like Comus, Ganglians were a promising avant-folk band who seemed bursting with creativity and great ideas to spare. And while Still Living isn't quite as bad as To Keep From Crying, it's such a crushing disappointment that I'd like to pretend like it never happened. 5/10

#110.
Sic Alps - Napa Asylum
I've listened to way too much Sic Alps. Between this album, their Long Way Around to a Shortcut comp, and the first album of theirs I acquired, U.S. EZ, I have 424 scrobbles of Sic Alps tracks on my last.fm page, placing them 16th out of 960 artists. They are not my 16th favorite band. They aren't my hundredth favorite band. I could probably list a thousand musical artists I like more than Sic Alps if I really tried. I actually don't like them very much at all! They just aren't very good. That Long Way Around comp has a handful of good songs on it, but that's about it. They're about the laziest, most apathetic and cynical sounding band I've ever heard. Too bad Royal Trux already pulled this stunt almost twenty years prior and managed to actually make some good records in the process. Sic Alps are neither as genuinely wasted or weird as the Trux were, and they don't have the swagger or provocative attitude, either. I mean, from what I can tell, they're much better live than on record, so all my comments here just apply to their records which are by and large a waste of time. Trust me, I know. 5.5/10

Holy cow, blurbs for all 113. This should be cool to read.

I've enjoyed that Clams Casino quite a bit this year. Didn't even realize they did hip hop tracks and I'd agree I don't care if I hear them or not. That record stand on its own.

#109.
The Weeknd - House of Balloons
This whole indie R&B thing is another trend I'll gladly sit out. The Weeknd, Autre Ne Veut, and whoever else. It's sort of like The xx and jj, I guess, smoky and "cool", but more blatantly reaching to R&B influences (post-1980). I find it mostly boring and soulless. There are moments where I kind of enjoy the production, but the vocals never really do it for me. I actually find it kind of irritating that Beach House is sampled for one of the tracks. There are other samples I recognize (Siousxie and the Banshees' "Happy House" for one), and in every case I wish I was listening to the original. That's the problem with most recognizable samples for me. 6/10

#108.
Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams
This is an improvement over their previous album and the single/EP from earlier in the year, but mostly just a cosmetic one. The production sounds better, but the songs for me just feel like paint-by-numbers rock and roll. I like the song "Coming Down", though. It's probably the only time a Dum Dum Girls song has made me feel anything at all aside from mild irritation. So I guess that's something. 6/10

#107.
Bon Iver - s/t
This ended up much lower than I thought it would. It's not that I hate this or Bon Iver in general. I just feel absolutely nothing for this or any of his music. For all the purported loneliness and isolation of his previous album, I never felt any deep human expression there to connect with. Just a pleasant facsimile of what an album recorded alone in the woods might sound like, made with modern recording equipment and multi-tracked vocals. The much more intricate and nuanced production on this album struck me initially but ultimately proved hollow. Whatever it is here that so many people have fallen in love with continues to elude me. 6/10

#106.
Braids - Native Speaker
I liked this initially, but it didn't hold up. It's Animal Collective-lite as many of its detractors said early on. They could go on to do something worthwhile, but I wouldn't count on it. 6/10

#105.
James Blake - s/t
People must have either been overcome with crippling anxiety or had trouble sleeping in 2011. It's the only explanation I can think of for the runaway popularity of the soothing sounds of Bon Iver and James Blake. I mean, I do like Blake's production aesthetic on this album to some extent. The open airiness, the deep bass hits... I just don't care about the songs at all. Or his voice. I really don't care for his voice. I suppose I prefer him singing to the vocal sample loops on his previous EPs, but still. This is like the EZ-listening version of Jamie Lidell. What's the big deal? 6.5/10

#104.
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place
It feels a little weird ranking this one down so far as I still think it's something I like in theory. In practice I guess I've just never enjoyed it very much. I think that what she does with her voice is fairly unique, but I guess I'm starting to get my fill of various kinds of amorphous, ambient-type music. 6.5/10

#103.
Curren$y - Weekend at Burnie's
I liked Curren$y's two Pilot Talk albums from 2010 a lot, but this one just left me cold. Could be it was just too much Curren$y for me in too short a time, or it could be that this is just an inferior, less inspired follow-up. Or both. Also didn't help that I've had almost no interest in hip-hop lately. 6.5/10

#102.
Cults - s/t
This seemed like it'd be a lot of fun based on the single "Go Outside", and it was for a while. It wore out its welcome pretty fast, though, and now it just feels cloying and shallow. I guess it's fine for innocuous pop music with a thin indie shell. 6.5/10

#101.
The Antlers - Burst Apart
Boy, I just do not remember a single thing about this record. And that's not just because I haven't heard it in a while, but it's a problem I remember noticing immediately after each time I listened to it. Nothing ever really stuck or impressed upon me in any way. Maybe next time? Maybe never? How about I give it a 6.5 and slap in at #101? Sure, why not. 6.5/10

Pretty sure Doug Martsch covered "Woke Up This Morning" on his solo album. Cool!

I should probably get Bakesale, as I got the reissue of III and enjoyed it more than I enjoyed Sebadoh back in the 90s.

#100.
EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
I'm not particularly drawn to this kind of songwriting, this sort of "raw", "naked", "off-the-cuff", "brutally honest" thing. To me it sounds kind of artless, kind of desperate for attention, aiming for shock value. I guess that's sort of the point, I don't know. Not that there isn't anything poetic here, but there's nothing that resonates with me or really interests me. I like the closing track "Red Star", but I could pretty much do without the rest. 6.5/10

#99.
Mastodon - The Hunter
This is actually a small improvement over the mushy Crack the Skye as far as I'm concerned. It's a fairly lightweight pop metal album, but it's not without its charms. It's just kind of mindless, energetic fun. But not that much fun. 6.5/10

#98.
Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
I think it's officially time I closed the book on these guys. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've said that before. They're just silly and obnoxious and not in any kind of endearing way. Their seemingly boundless enthusiasm feels nonsensical. They've become the Hippie Clown Campfire Birthday Party Drum Circle Electric Jug Band Choir Puppet Show. Worst of all is I still hear those glimmers of potential, those hints of what I thought was so great five, six years ago. But it's pretty clear by now that they seem bent on entertaining their worst impulses, and that little bit of greatness that still manages to shine through occasionally just isn't enough for me anymore. They're not irritating, and they still aren't bad. It's just frustrating to realize that they've landed in this musical cul de sac when they once seemed capable of so much more. 6.5/10

#97.
Dead Rider - The Raw Dents
I'm up for hearing anything U.S. Maple-related especially since there most likely won't be any kind of U.S. Maple reunion any time soon. So far, as far as post-USM projects go, I've heard Mark Shippy (guitarist) and (original drummer) Pat Samson's band Miracle Condition (good), Adam Vida (more recent drummer) and (other guitarist) Todd Rittmann's album together with the band Singer (pretty good), and now this band. After Singer's first album, Rittmann left the band and is presumably just focusing on this band Dead Rider (formerly D. Rider). Unfortunately, this is the weakest of the USM former-bandmember projects that I've heard. There's something a little bit stale and out-of-step about it. There's some interesting playing, but Rittmann's vocals are a little grating. The overall aesthetic is just kind of... crusty. Old dudes making an attempt at edgy, confrontational rock posturing but just sounding kind of sadly dated. Come on, guys. Just get U.S. Maple back together already. 6.5/10

#96.
Zombi - Dedication
On the surface, I thought there was something interesting about Zomby's sound, but ultimately I've found it a little hollow. It's decent electronic dance music with a nice, dark sparseness to most of it, but there isn't much... depth. I'm not sure how to really explain that, but it just doesn't feel particularly special. It starts to sound kind of dull and thin to me after a while. The best production here is probably the track with Panda Bear on vocals, "Things Fall Apart", but unfortunately Panda Bear's vocals are pretty weak. On the whole this album makes for nice atmosphere, but it hasn't rewarded close listening. 6.5/10

I can agree with you on a couple of those already, but not that Dum Dum Girls. It'll be interesting to see how your list will end up. It's sorta starting as a downer of course, but now I'm curious as to what is gonna float your boat.

Yeah... nowhere to go from here but up!

#95.
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
I was totally on board with Fleet Foxes previous album and the Sun Giant EP, and I was prepared to be on board for this one as well. Something has been lost, though. Too much attention to the wrong details? Too much polish, not enough heart. There's very little life to this record. It's very pretty and comforting, but it ends up falling into the same forgettable background music category as Bon Iver for me. I do like Robin Pecknold's voice a lot more than Justin Vernon's, and I feel like he's a better songwriter. For me both of them are achieving pretty much the same effect, though, by smoothing out their sound more and filling it out with pretty, ornate flourishes. Unlike Bon Iver, though, I think Fleet Foxes have the potential to be better. 6.5/10

#94.
Sightings - Future Accidents
I'd be a little bummed out that my favorite noise band put out such a sub-par album, but I feel like this is sort of a stopgap, minor release. Even still, the hodgepodge collection End Times that came between Arrived in Gold and Through the Panama was better than this. But, this could be a transitional record or something. I don't know, but that near-twenty-minute track that closes out the album (and takes up the whole B side of this vinyl-only release) is really dull. The first half (the A side) is really pretty good, but it's well-worn territory for them. Still, I'd happily take another full-length of that kind of stuff, and I do hope they've got another album coming down the pipe soon. 6.5/10

#93.
Grouper - A I A: Dream Loss
A lot of people have put Grouper's two 2011 A I A releases together as a single release for the purpose of lists and reviews, but I've decided to keep them separate since, aside from being released at the same time, they are officially sold separately and are of different quality. This is the colder, rougher, and hazier of the two and is naturally less appealing as such. Not much more to it than that. Grouper albums are slow burns, though, and it may manage to grow on me with time. I just haven't found as much to like here as on Alien Observer, and neither have really captivated me in like Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill. At least not yet. 6.5/10

#92.
Rustie - Glass Swords
Rustie can be a lot of fun in small doses, but it's definitely the kind of the thing I have to be in the mood for. Way over-the-top electronic maximalism. Another chapter in the recent trends of making unfashionable sounds fashionable again, Rustie does at least manage to infuse this with genuine charm. There's just only so much of it I can take. 6.5/10

#91.
Stephen Malkmus - Mirror Traffic
Malkmus's much-touted return to form really is pretty good and is probably the best thing he's done since his Pavement days. The problem for me is that I've felt like most of his solo material prior to this was really bad. I think I gave up after a single listen to whichever one came after Pig Lib which was itself a huge disappointment. There seems to be a fair amount to like on this album, though, although I have to say that I really, really do not like that "Senator" song at all. To be honest I haven't had this that long, and there may be some real gems on here that haven't quite managed to worm their way into my subconscious yet. We'll see, but my overall feeling right now is that it's merely a decent record. 6.5/10

#90.
Thee Oh Sees - Castlemania
I love this cover, but unfortunately I don't love the album. Thee Oh Sees are an incredibly prolific band which is good in the sense that they did manage to release another album in 2011 that was much better than this. It's not so good if you detract points for inconsistency. I suppose I don't mind if they release a handful of duds along the way as long they continue to hit a home-run every now and then. This isn't even a dud, really. At times it sounds like they're trying to pull off their best impression of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, and even if that comes up feeling a little hollow, it still sounds cool. This is generally a pretty scattershot record, but it has a really nice cover of "I Won't Hurt You". It's enjoyable enough for the occasional listen. 6.5/10

#89.
Crystal Stilts - In Love with Oblivion
This was another sort of disappointing follow-up. I didn't have huge expectations after the previous Crystal Stilts album, but I hoped for something just a little more distinctive than this. Maybe honing in on a sound that's really theirs rather than more garage rock pastiche. This is a little less Joy Division and a little more rock, but it's still kind an indistinguishable jumble. I mean, it's fine, and I don't really have a specific problem with anything here. I guess I just wanted a little more, wanted them to move forward or take some risks or something. 6.5/10

#88.
Ford & Lopatin - Channel Pressue
Here's another nice album cover, maybe my favorite of the year. The sonic aesthetic here is similarly cool, and Daniel Lopatin certainly seems to be a master of cool sounds and visuals. He's not really a master of creating truly great music, though, as far as I'm concerned. Everything I've heard of his has sounded very cool and very leading-edge, but nothing has ever seemed all that innovative or exciting, really. It's the whole making old stuff sound new again, making the forgotten and formerly unfashionable now sound unironically hip, by chopping it up, distorting it, and slowing it down. Compared to his Oneohtrix Point Never persona, this collaboration (formerly called Games) with Joel Ford (whoever that is) is his stab at making pop music, but this record is divided between quirky, campy pop and weird, stoned soundscapes. It all sounds pretty cool, but none of it feels substantial in the least. 6.5/10

#87.
Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo
Kurt Vile's slacker songwriting and singing style has a certain appeal. He seems super likable, like a musical Mitch Hedberg sharing his hazy stories in a strung-out drawl that's down-to-earth and friendly. Unfortunately, none of this quite coalesces into what I'd consider a great song aside from "Jesus Fever". I love that one, but it isn't quite enough to carry the whole album. At many points it seems to drag a little too lazily along or seem just a bit too stream-of-consciousness or in need of some editing. Overall it's OK, but I'm not quite ready to consider myself a fan. 6.5/10

#86.
Pure X - Pleasure
This one seemed to get some hype around forums and blogs and such, and I guess I can hear why. It's a cool, laid-back, vaguely nostalgic and melancholy aesthetic that seems to be in line with a lot of the "chill" music of late. It feels worn and damaged and lost in a cavern of reverb. It's easy to get lost in it, but it's hard to come away with anything definite. There are no songs here that have really struck or stayed with me. But it's a nice listen, especially if I'm in a mood to wallow. 6.5/10

#85.
The Field - Looping State of Mind
I think that The Field's highly acclaimed album from several years ago From Here We Go Sublime is stupendously overrated. Perhaps it's because I'm just not particularly fond of music constructed primarily from loops, but I found it dull and repetitive. Yeah, yeah, he gradually "unpacks" his samples or whatever and makes them more recognizable over the course of a track, but I never found that all that interesting or impressive. Anyway, for whatever reaason, I gave him another chance with this one, another blatantly loop-based record. It's better though. At least the first few tracks, anyway. There's a little more energy here, and it feels a little fuller or something. Towards the end, however, I start to find some of the loops a little grating, and I lose patience with it. I could stand to have a full-length of stuff like the first couple of tracks here, though. 7/10

#84.
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Radiohead's worst album since Pablo Honey is still pretty good. They've maintained a really high level of quality for a long time, and at this point I can't say that I'm really expecting them to pioneer new territory or surprise me in any way. They make music that sounds like Radiohead, and that's something no one else can really do even though plenty have tried. All that aside, though, none of these scant eight songs really feels like a necessary addition to their catalog. It's all well-covered territory. They're sort of like a collection of the most average songs on Hail to the Thief, but that albums few, soaring high points are absent. Still, even a weak Radiohead album is better than blah blah blah... 7/10

#83.
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
I love M83's Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, but since then it's been a downward trajectory as far as I'm concerned, at least until now. Their previous album Saturdays=Youth got worse and worse with each listen, and I would have ignored this one if I hadn't liked the single "Midnight City" (and it if hadn't received such pervasively glowing reviews). So on the plus side, this is definitely a step in the right direction, but unfortunately it's still a long ways off from what I liked. And all expectations and preconceptions about this band aside, I just don't think there are that many good songs here. There are a few, but I'd like more on an album of this length, especially now that Gonzales' focus seems to have shifted from atmosphere and overpowering sonics to crafting pop songs. 7/10

#82.
The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
This is one of the more unappealing band names I've seen in the last several years, for whatever reason. Anyway, widespread praise for this got me curious so I decided to give them chance. They have a very inviting and sort of comforting sound. The singer's ambling cadence is pretty similar to Kurt Vile (who I guess used to involved with this band), and it tempers any sense of urgency that may arise in the music. True to the word "ambient" in the title, though, the music is mostly pretty subdued. It's vaguely Springsteen-ish but with more atmospheric flourishes and generally less sweat. It's nice, but I have no truly strong feelings towards it. 7/10

#81.
Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On
I have to admit that this one sort of slipped through the cracks over the course of the year. I liked it initially, but I suppose it never fully took hold. There's just something missing I guess. It's a pretty cool aesthetic, this sort of doom-wop thing, and yet I tend to think of it more as a singer-songwriter record than as a sonic experience. It just doesn't have quite enough in either category - songs or sonics - to really be a full-on winner. But I still feel like it's a pretty good record that I should listen to more. 7/10

Ha! This was one of my favorite albums of the year. I had zero experience with them whatsoever and had no expectations. It does feel like some bizarro acid soaked campfire party and that's totally what I like about it. One of the more engrossing listens I came across from start to finish. I found different things in it every time I sat through it. They can totally change from song to song. Hell, they change 2-3 times within ONE song. Def not an album to put on for shuffle purposes.

Yeah... could be I'm just a little jaded w/r/t their range and how much they throw into the mix. They're definitely very talented musicians.

If you haven't heard their debut, check it out. Also their album with Angels of Light. To me they have yet to match either of those.

Also, been digging that Giant Sand and Soft Moon EP. So, thanks for that.