It’s the end of 2011, and so that makes it time for the now-obligatory list of ‘albums of 2011’, just in case you’re not finished with your Christmas shopping yet and want to add some of these to your list. There’s been some great stuff out this year, across the musical spectrum, so these are offered up in no particular order, and also attempting to keep the superlatives to a minimum (last year’s list certainly over-used the word “superb”). I’ll try and post a list of my favourite songs of the year some time in the next week too. So, without further ado, then: Bon Iver – Bon Iver Of course, you should have bought Bon Iver’s album already, but if you didn’t, you’re missing out on one of the most surprising and bizarre second albums of all time. Justin Vernon’s take on love and nostalgia is layered and dense, not to mention nigh-on impenetrable, but it’s also an album that is haunting, too, creeping inside your head and surfacing at unexpected moments. Lightning Cube MonitorCam V2.0 Cracked PROXY. If you’ve only heard first single Calgary, it’s well worth looking at the rest, especially Wash., the sublime Perth and the so-uncool-it’s-hip-again Beth/Rest.
Hear a beautiful acoustic piano version of the latter. Gungor – Ghosts upon the Earth Already reviewed on this blog, Gungor’s very odd follow-up to the widely-loved Beautiful Things leaps from jaunty folk to growling prog-rock, confusing Christians who listen to Chris Tomlin across the world in the process. It’s very definitely not background music, and it’s certainly an album that will take some time to love, but on repeated listens it reveals itself to be arguably more powerful than their more accessible last album. Highlights are the choral-accented Let There Be, not to mention When Death Dies, which you can hear, the totally bonkers Wake Up Sleeper and the triumphant answer to death that is This is not the End. David Crowder Band – Oh for Joy Prime contender for best Christmas album of the past decade, David Crowder Band’s is a pure worship album in the way that only Crowder can pull off. Whether it’s adding banjo and fiddle to Angels We Have Heard on High, an epic and desperate O Come, O Come Emmanuel, a rapturous rendition Joy to the World or a beautiful cover of Go Tell it on the Mountains, which you should listen to, there’s not a bad song on here. Highly recommended.
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Josh Garrels – Love & War & The Sea In-Between Josh Garrels’ album, which is incredibly still free over at, is the album I’ve returned to most over the past year. Garrels’ unique voice and thought-provoking lyrics hold together a long album that leaps throughout genres, with the folksy, my favourite song of the year, next to the hippy rap of The Resistance and the glorious melancholy of Ulysses. Another album that takes some time to sink in, but easily one of the most nuanced EPs released this year, and given that it’s free, what do you have to lose? The Sleep Design – All That is not Music is Silence Another free album from Noisetrade, The Sleep Design make post-rock that initially sounds like it is made up of offcuts from Brand New, but their album is a surprisingly worshipful collection of soundscapes with a few standout moments., with its emo closing vocals, Fire, the Grave and the Eyes of Man, and These Dreams Haunt & Capture are all high points.
Explosions in the Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care A different breed entirely, long-standing post-rockers Explosions in the Sky return after nearly five years off with an EP that almost reaches the dizzying heights of their classic The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place. Single Trembling Hands is quite unlike anything else the band have ever done before, but it’s the closing moments of, which interweaves a classical melody throughout, that will take your breath away. Fnaf 1 Full Version Mediafire. Postcard from 1952 is wonderful, too.
Death Cab for Cutie – Codes and Keys Death Cab for Cutie’s new album didn’t change the world, despite Ben Gibbard’s new, sunnier disposition since his marriage to Zooey Deschanel (now sadly dissolved), but it did have enough quality tunes to remind Death Cab fans why they stuck it out in the first place. In particular,, with its echoes of The Cure and its fantastic video, was terrific, but the title track, the jaunty art-rock of Doors Unlocked and Open and the upbeat closing number Stay Young, Go Dancing, should also be enough to win you over. Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know Somebody said that Laura Marling sounded like the prophet of a Texan doomsday cult on her latest album. Download Aiv Editor Stronghold Crusader Torrent. Well, I don’t know about that, but the third album of a woman who is extraordinarily talented is still easily one of the best albums of 2011, and by some way.