A year in albums, summer 2011 - notable mentions!

The Streets.

Oi! As a few of you may remember, I usually use the relative quietness of July in music to sum up the year that has passed. I do that not only because July is a bit boring, but also because it seems a logical time to sum up things. After all, we in the Northern Hemisphere tend to divide years down the middle anyway.


So, what's gonna go down the next days here is I'm gonna sweep you through 20 of the albums that have made a lasting impression on me since last August. I know I stated this last year too, but this year has been really strong musically. Such an abundance of interesting albums have been released, it's been hard to fit them all in. I regretfully still have the jury out on albums such as Toro Y Moi's Underneath The Pine, Lykke Li's Wounded Rhymes, Gang Gang Dance's Eye Contact, Ford & Lopatin's Channel Pressure, Hooray For Earth's True Loves, Thurston Moore's Demolished Thoughts, and Washed Out's Within And Without.


Also, as customary, this list - to separate it from my end-of-year list - isn't reserved for albums released the past year. It's a deeply personal list of the music I've gathered through the last year. This time I've had to make an exception though, and that's regarding A Grand Don't Come For Free by The Streets. Technically, I got the album just this year, but having known and loved the album for a long time beforehand, I've decided it doesn't count. I've also taken the liberty of listing artists instead of albums in a few cases - I'll explain that to you when they occur in the list.


Another thing I'm working on is a massive 2011.5 mixtape with a truckload of sweet stuff from the last six months!


... And, just to finish off this introductory post, here's the list of albums that made the shortlist, but didn't make it into the final top 20!


The Streets - Computers & Blues
Ólöf Arnalds - Innundir Skinni
I Got You On Tape - Spinning For The Cause
The Walkmen - Lisbon
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
The Amplifetes - The Amplifetes
VETO - Everything is Amplified
Klaxons - Surfing The Void
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
Shout Wellington Air Force - Clean Sunset
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest