First Half Albums of 2011

6 months has already pass in 2011. A good time to take stock and see where we are:

12 Favorite Albums (in somewhat decreasing order; fine, I'll # them...)

12. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo - another solid offering

11. Radiohead - The King of Limbs - their best since Amnesiac

10. Yuck - Yuck - the great rockers on this one make up for the occasional dud

9. Mars Classroom - New Theory of Everything - the best of the 4 Pollard releases (so far)

8. Tim Cohen - Magic Trick - lead singer of Fresh and Onlys delivers retro-tinged pop ditties

7. Motel Beds - Sunfried Dreams - such a fun, upbeat, out-of-nowhere record all the way through

6. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World - one of the most unique and fascinating listens of the year

5. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues - love it already and only going to get better

4. Woods - Sun and Shade - contains some of their best songs; embracing the two extended jams is key

3. The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? - I am as surprised as anybody that I love this record, but it just feels so easy and carefree

2. Hospital Ships - Lonely Twin - had a revelation today; so much going on with this record, I feel like I've only scraped the surface

1. Destroyer - Kaputt - still the best thing I've heard all year

10 Biggest Disappointments (disappointing in the sense that I really like(d) these bands but wasn't inspired to listen to them their albums more than a couple times each - if that)

10. James Blake - just can't get into it yet, not sure I'll ever be able to

9.  Papercuts - a couple really good tracks, but dull as a whole

8. Generationals - first song is so killer, the rest is just a let-down

7. Bill Callahan - I'll try again in the fall

6. Sonny Smith - he's gone too 50's for my taste

5. The Decemberists - almost time to stop paying attention to this band, save a couple songs here and there

4. Iron and Wine - don't even remember how this one sounded

3. Dodos - steady decline since their first album (as Dodo Bird)

2. Mountain Goats - only listened to it once, so many better MG albums to listen to

1. Smith Westerns - that one song had a good outro, but that's about it; what happened to these guys?

17 Albums That Didn't Hook Me Immediately But Probably Warrant More Listens Before Passing Judgment (random order)

* Bon Iver

* The Antlers

* Panda Bear

* Cass McCombs

* Gang Gang Dance

* Tune-Yards (I refuse to type it the stupid way)

* WU LYF

* Peter, Bjorn, and John

* TV On The Radio

* The Wooden Birds

* Peaking Lights

* Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr

* Black Lips

* Toro y Moi

* Chad Vangaalen

* Okkervil River

* Times New Viking

What do you think?

- tk