Best Tracks of 2011 (with the benefit of a year's reflection)

A year ago, I decided to start a new tradition here.  It's a bit hard to claim something as a tradition when it's only been done once.  Now it will be twice.  So that you don't have to click over to it, here's what I said a year ago:

"I've decided to start a new year-end tradition. I'm going to count down the top tracks from the previous year. Let me be clear. I'm reviewing the year that ended a full year ago. I'm not counting down the just-completed year. It's too soon, and everybody's doing the current year. They have editors and deadlines. I don't. I'm going with the previous year. I will have had time to catch up and reflect."

This list of the 75 best tracks of 2011 is both longer and better than it would have been if I had made it a year ago.

75) Bon Iver - Calgary
74) Cass McCombs - County Line
73) My Brightest Diamond - There's a Rat
72) Wilco - Art Of Almost
71) EMA - California
70) Adele - Rolling In The Deep
69) Peter Bjorn And John - Breaker Breaker
68) Destroyer - Savage Night At The Opera
67) Nicki Minaj - Super Bass
66) Wild Flag - Romance
65) The Dodos - Don't Stop
64) The Strokes - Machu Picchu
63) Peter Bjorn And John - Second Chance
62) Erik Friedlander - Low Country Cupola
61) Sloan - Shadow Of Love
60) R.E.M. - ÜBerlin
59) Phantogram - Don't Move
58) Veronica Falls - Right Side Of My Brain
57) The Ettes - Teeth
56) Washed Out - Eyes Be Closed
55) Alexander - Truth
54) Secret Cities - Always Friends
53) The Bevis Frond - The Divide
52) The Vaccines - Norgaard
51) TV On The Radio - Caffeinated Consciousness
50) The Baseball Project - Panda and The Freak
49) My Morning Jacket - You Wanna Freak Out
48) Cults - Go Outside
47) The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
46) Lana Del Rey - Video Games
45) Bell - Meaninglessness
44) Smith Westerns - Weekend
43) John Maus - Quantum Leap
42) Girls - Honey Bunny
41) tUnE-yArDs - Bizness
40) Chain And The Gang - Why Not?
39) Austra - Beat And The Pulse
38) Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks
37) Atari Logic - Around The Bay
36) Factory Floor - Two Different Ways
35) Akron/Family - Silly Bears
34) The War On Drugs - Baby Missiles
33) Yellow Ostrich - WHALE
32) Okkervil River - Rider
31) The Fresh & Onlys - Keep Telling Everybody Lies
30) Girls Names - I Could Die
29) Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know
28) The Bandana Splits - Sometimes
27) Dengue Fever - Family Business
26) M83 - Midnight City
25) Amy LaVere - You Can't Keep Me
24) The Mountain Goats - The Autopsy Garland
23) Jerusalem and The Starbaskets - Chocolate Covered Everyberry
22) Fleet Foxes - Sim Sala Bim
21) Title Tracks - Turn Your Face
20) The Head and the Heart - Sounds Like Hallelujah
19) Crystal Stilts - Radiant Door
18) Battles - Ice Cream (Featuring Matias Aguayo)
17) Ward White - 1964
16) Rob Crow - Purpose
15) Little Dragon - Ritual Union
14) Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - Simple Girl
13) The Wooden Birds - Be No Lie
12) The Feelies - Later On
11) Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers - Heaven In Stereo
10) Let's Wrestle - I Am Useful
9) Generationals - I Promise
8) Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise If You Can See
7) Sandro Perri - Changes
6) Those Darlins - Screws Get Loose
5) P.J. Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder
4) Fujiya & Miyagi - Pills
3) Pistol Annies - Hell On Heels
2) Bill Callahan - Free's
1) Blitzen Trapper - Fletcher

And now I have a full year to troll through all the best of 2012 lists that were rushed out over the last couple of weeks.  Some are better than others.  Some have songs that will grow on me.  Some have songs that will age rapidly and poorly.  Look for my 2012 list here at the end of 2013.

Paste Top Songs of 2011

Paste Magazine has released their top 50 songs of 2011.  I really appreciate their willingness to make it a list of songs instead of CDs.  I just downloaded the top 20 (or at least the portion of the top 20 that I didn't already have), and I'm enjoying making my own decisions about their worthiness for the list.

Follow the link for the whole list, but the top 5 are:
1) Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
2) M83 - Midnight City
3) Typhoon - The Honest Truth
4) tUnE-yArDs - Powa
5) Phantogram - Don't Move

None of these were 5 star songs on my iPod, but the Generationals, who came in at #6, do make my short list of 2011 releases with personal 5-star ratings.  Fleet Foxes has 5-star songs too, but not from 2011.  I do see the appeal of their new release, but it's just a bit bland in a late 70s CSN-ish way as opposed to the more interesting CSNY-ish vibe of their first EP.

I'm going to keep M83 and Phantogram on at least medium rotation on the iPod for a while.  I can see how their indie-oriented pop confections could grow on me, but they also might be no better than Katy Perry or Lady Gaga, just with a different target audience.  OK - I paused for a few minutes to watch a few Katy Perry and Lady Gaga videos.  I was unfair to M83 and Phantogram.  They're better than that, but I'm still not sure they belong in a top 5.

I wasn't familiar with tUnE-yArDs, even though it's music tailor-made for former free form DJs (and of course current free form DJs, but I don't know any of them).  I'm on the fence about the 2011 tracks, but I also downloaded some 2009 tUnE-yArDs tracks and I think "Sunlight" may have been one of the many late-decade omissions from my best songs of the 2000s list.  I think I may also like the older Typhoon song I downloaded better than the newer one.  Sometimes I think bands make these lists with their second best records because of critics regrets about omitting their earlier releases which were discovered too late to make any year-end lists.