these are my favorite albums of 2011, what are yours?

girls // father, son, holy ghost

craft spells // idle labor

the weeknd // house of balloons

youth lagoon // the year of hibernation

james blake // james blake

smith westerns // dye it blonde

ty segall // goodbye bread

widowspeak // widowspeak

hunx and his punx // too young to be in love

jeff the brotherhood // we are the champions

real estate // days

adele // 21

bon iver // bon iver

drake // take care

asap rocky // liveloveasap

cold cave // cherish the light years

cut copy // zonoscope

holy ghost! // holy ghost!

vivian girls // share the joy

mikal cronin // mikal cronin

dum dum girls // only in dreams

tennis // cape dory

black lips // arabia mountain

washed out // within and without

yuck // yuck

it’s june, and that means its time for me to make a list of my favorite records so far this year. i narrowed it down from a list of 17 that i really liked a lot, which was narrowed down from the 40+ records that came out this year. granted, there are some that have just recently come out and i haven’t spent enough time with. also, there are some that have some really great tracks, but fall short as an full album. these ten records are start-to-finish great bodies of work.

cults - s/t

smith westerns - dye it blonde

james blake - s/t

yuck - s/t

holy ghost - s/t

tennis - cape dory

black lips - arabia mountain

la sera - s/t

death cab for cutie - codes and keys

cold cave - cherish the light years

james blake put out what may be the best record of the year so far, but my biggest concern was that he couldn’t translate the songs to a live environment. i was fucking wrong.

xxx