The Universally Listable ’11

Year-end lists have become a dime-a-dozen.  Print publications are easily predictable (just count the ads per issue and you’ll have your list); the online publications put out so many mid-year and quarterly reviews that it’s no surprise when the big list is revealed.  And the bloggers are so busy trying to beat each other to the punch, they forget to let the year end before naming their favorite album, artist or track (guilty).  That being said, these lists are great. This time of reflection is the best time of the year — listening back through all the playlists and determining what stood the test of time (measured in weeks and days) and browsing through all the lists to figure out what was missed throughout the year.

ILSUDH2 has the albums, artists and tracks of ’11 all picked out and is in the process of setting the order. The Class of 2011 posts should start next week.  But in the meantime, Largehearted Boy has been kind enough to collect all of the lists in one place.  These lists represent literally thousands of albums — every list is unique, yet, when digging through them all (as we did today), there are quite a few common denominators.  Based on what is out there so far, these are the most universally listable albums of ’11*. I assure you, ILSUDH2‘s list will look quite different.

1. Bon Iver – Bon Iver (93)
2. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (77)
3. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l (62)
4. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (61)
5. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (55)
6. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy (53)
7. Radiohead – The King of Limbs (48)
8. Wilco – The Whole Love (46)
9. Adele – 21 / Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost (45)
10. Kanye West & Jay-Z – Watch the Throne (44)
11. James Blake – James Blake (42)
12. Tom Waits – Bad as Me (38)
13. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead (37)
14. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life (36)
15. Real Estate – Days (34)
16. The Antlers – Burst Apart (33)
17. The Black Keys – El Camino (32)
18. The Weeknd – House of Balloons (31)
19. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo (30)
20. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes (29)

metal charts look like this

1. Mastodon – The Hunter (51)
2. Opeth – Heritage (29)
3. Tombs – Path of Totality (20)
4. Anthrax – Worship Music / Krallice – Diotima (18)
5. Machine Head – Unto the Locust (17)
6. Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestial Lineage / YOB – Atma / Revocation – Chaos of Forms (16)
7. Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising / The Devin Townsend Project – Deconstruction / Liturgy - Aesthethica / Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination / Trap Them – Darker Handcraft / Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All (15)
8. Autopsy – Macabre Eternal / Craft – Void / Obscura – Omnivium / Rwake – Rest (14)
9. 40 Watt Sun – The Inside Room / Disma – Towards the Megalith / Graveyard – Hisingen Blues / The Atlas Moth – An Ache for the Distance (13)
10. Absu – Abzu / Decapitated – Carnival Is Forever (12)

* based on how many times they appeared in the Top 20 section of a Best Albums post.  Updated 12/20.

The Universally Listable '11

The Universally Listable '11 (Metal)

Tags: best of 2011

This entry was posted on December 8, 2011 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Best of..., Found Stuff, Music, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.