Ants Albums of the Year 2011

Metacritic: 85

"This album is destined to redraw the parameters, thanks to its sheer scale and detail, its recurring themes and imagery, and its creators' refusal to settle for less than they could achieve."- Mojo

723/31/22413/4

#3

Wilco- The Whole Love

Pitchfork: 6.9

Metacritic: 83

"The Whole Love feels like a truly audacious studio record, jam-packed with instruments, ideas, and the sort of restless creativity that marked 2002's game-changer, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot."- The Boston Phoenix

647/26/16822

#4

The Black Keys- El Camino

Pitchfork: 7.4

Metacritic: 84

"The brilliance of El Camino lies in the fact that it is still perfectly modern, a step in the direction of legitimizing the use of vocal effects, multi-tracking and ultimately catchy choruses."- PopMatters

549/28/15372

#5

Radiohead- The King of Limbs

Pitchfork: 7.9

Metacritic: 80

"Like every other album, there are the trademarks we've all come to grow and love from the band and by the end of this, all of the most loving adjectives one could shower on an album will be spread all over The King of Limbs."- Delusions of Adequacy

520/27/14040

#6

The Decemberists- The King is Dead

Pitchfork: 7.2

Metacritic: 77

"It's a lavish aural luxury worn by Meloy, his limited range worked to its finest by the glorious Welch chiming in, the two matched like a 21st century Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris."- Austin Chronicle

427/24/10248/1

#7

Destroyer- Kaputt

Pitchfork: 8.8 BNM

Metacritic: 84

"While Bejar's arrangement decisions challenge popular notions of what delineates good and bad music, shaking off preconceptions in order to immerse yourself in Kaputt's nighttime world is worth the effort."- NOW Magazine

567/16/9072/2

#8

James Blake- James Blake

Pitchfork: 9.0 BNM

Metacritic: 81

"James Blake is an essential for anybody interested in witnessing how pop music can and will continue to change, progress, and grow into something new with time."- Consequence of Sound

567/16/9072/1

#9

M83- Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

Pitchfork: 9.1 BNM

The A.V. Club: B-

"Gonzalez has crafted an admirable paean to fuzzy memories, nostalgia, melancholic rumination and pop experimentation, imploring the listener to become the stories and places that populate dreams."- Filter

427/19/8113/1

#10

Ryan Adams- Ashes & Fire

Pitchfork: 6.5

"Underneath the almost soporifically smooth old-soul and country polish, Adams's ear for a delicate melody and feel for the shadowy nuances of emotion give this latest chapter beautiful depth."- The Telegraph

375/16/6000/1

#11

Beirut- The Rip Tide

Pitchfork: 7.7

Metacritic: 78

"These ideas of acceptance, hope and personal reflection make The Rip Tide an accomplished, restrained record, which sees Condon forgetting his travels, and forging his own native sound."- NME

374/16/5984/1

#12

St. Vincent- Strange Mercy

Pitchfork: 9.0 BNM

Metacritic: 85

"The modulations and switches in pace remain as bold as ever, and Clark has a knack for memorable melody and a winning voice with shades of Kate Bush and Leslie Feist."- The Observer

395/15/5925/2

#13

Girls- Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Pitchfork: 9.3 BNM

Metacritic: 79

"With Father, Son, Holy Ghost's exquisite, beyond-indie melodies, arrangements, and musicianship (the playful "Magic," the elegant "Just a Song," the fiery "Die"), he [Christopher Owens] and bassist-producer JR White flirt with perfection."- Spin

414/14/5796

#14

Kurt Vile- Smoke Ring For My Halo

Pitchfork: 8.4 BNM

"It's a record with a folky, sometimes psychedelic edge, but it's never self-indulgent or less than focused. In fact, Smoke Ring for My Halo is persuasive evidence that Vile has come fully into his own as a songwriter and musician."- Hartford Courant

338/17/5746/1

#15

The Weeknd- House of Balloons

Pitchfork: 8.5 BNM

Metacritic: 87

"House of Balloons is an album suspended in contradiction--a collection of sex jams tired of sex, or a paean to coke addled irretrievably by the same. It lacks dynamism because it has to; the Weeknd know nothing else, just that in every solid groove lurks the metronomic pulse of something waiting to die."- cokemachineglow

402/14/5628/2

#16

Washed Out- Within and Without

Pitchfork: 8.3 BNM

Metacritic: 70

"Within and Without is an excellent demonstration of what happens when, even after the buzz-band cycle has faded, you continue to investigate a sound on your own hushed, ambitious terms."- Pitchfork

379/14/5306

#17

My Morning Jacket- Circuital

Pitchfork: 7.2

"My Morning Jacket should be celebrated as a band that tirelessly deliver value for money--there's enough in here to keep you listening for months on end, and loving every minute of it."- Clash Music

310/16/4960

#18

Feist- Metals

Pitchfork: 7.7

Metacritic: 80

"Ultimately, what it all boils down to is that, as much as an album can be, it's pretty damn close to being flawless; not only matching the quality of The Reminder but actually bettering it."- No Ripcord

378/13/4914/1

#19

The Antlers- Burst Apart

Pitchfork: 8.2 BNM

Metacritic: 81

"Burst Apart deserves all the plaudits that can be thrown at it; albums are rarely as unashamedly, gut-wrenchingly, genuinely emotional as this."- Drowned In Sound

337/14/4718

#20

Real Estate- Days

Pitchfork: 8.7 BNM

Metacritic: 77

"Real Estate have such a knack for classic-sounding melody that every song quickly engages on a musical gut level."- Pitchfork

310/13/4030

#21

Tim Hecker- Ravedeath, 1972

Pitchfork: 8.6 BNM

Metacritic: 86

"Complex and rewarding in a way that the telescoping salvia trip of An Imaginary Country never was, and tougher and more fibrous than the excellent Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again, Ravedeath, 1972 somehow manages to soothe even as it disorients."- The A.V. Club

381/10/3810/1

#22

The Roots- Undun

Pitchfork: 7.3

Metacritic: 88

"Undun is a brilliant reminder of the power of the emcee as storyteller, the possibility of 40 minutes of music lending itself to a thoughtful character and plot."- Paste

259/14/3626

#23

Atlas Sound- Parallax

Pitchfork: 8.7 BNM

"Parallax feels like a more complete work than any other Atlas Sound record, with the differences between the songs less distinct and everything flowing together more naturally."- Pitchfork

327/11/3597

#24

Panda Bear- Tomboy

Pitchfork: 8.5 BNM

Metacritic: 77

"While it will inevitably be argued as to whether or not Tomboy is really a work of startling originality or perhaps just a long lost companion to Björk's Vespertine, it's hard to deny positing that we've got one of the best albums of 2011 finally in our hands."- Delusions of Adequacy

289/12/3468

#25

Laura Marling- A Creature I Don't Know

Pitchfork: 7.6

The A.V. Club: N/A

"These are truly wonderful songs that deserved to be poured over and analysed for months to come."- musicOMH.com

333/10/3330

#26

Cut Copy- Zonoscope

Pitchfork: 8.6 BNM

Metacritic: 71

"It's very hard to determine what the actual standout from this album will be, because literally every track is full to the absolute brim with the genius of seasoned veterans."- Consequence of Sound

277/12/3324

#27

Gang Gang Dance- Eye Contact

Pitchfork: 8.5 BNM

Metacritic: 83

"Eye Contact solidifies the group's heavyweight majesty. Gang Gang Dance injects pop music with new life, leading the quest for newer sounds from ageless sources and mixing it all together in a critically irresistible way."- PopMatters

365/9/3285

#28

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart- Belong

Pitchfork: 8.2 (BNM)

"The 10-track set barely has a weak moment and actually ends too soon. It's like '90s alt-rock had a child who suddenly grew up beautiful."- Billboard

292/11/3212/2

#29

The Strokes- Angles

Pitchfork: 5.9

Metacritic: 71

"There aren't many instantly identifiable bands that can mess with the familiar recipe while somehow also honoring it, but that's precisely what the Strokes have achieved on Angles, an album as warm as it is cool."- Paste

221/13/2873

#30

TV on the Radio- Nine Types of Light

Pitchfork: 7.7