Discussing
TC Top Ten: Albums

I commend any artist who can produce an entire album of quality songs. I find myself gravitating to the singles lately. I love Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain" from her 21 Album but probably wouldn't listen to most of the rest of the album more than a few times.Alas ... when it comes to poetics my heart still belongs to Leonard Cohen so I'm waiting for his "Old Ideas" Album to come out the end of this month."Show me the place where the word became a man"  - Leonard Cohen

Lady Antebellum's "Own the Night" is nothing short of amazing. Two cuts are on the radio now -- "Just A Kiss" and "We Owned the Night." Honestly, I think that those might be two of the weaker tracks.

"Heart of the World" is a beautiful song, and my wife and I might have adopted it as our new song.

I agree about the Tom T. Hall tribute, by the way. I love Tom T. Hall.

I liked Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math & Switchfoot - Vice Verses. Though I couldn't put the albums in their entirety on a top 10 list it I liked a lot of what I heard from Mutemath, Coldplay and Angels & Airwaves.

I'd add a shout-out to Josh Garrel's Love & War & The Sea in Between (which is free on his website at the moment). I discovered this artist this year, and was really impressed with this album. Singer-songwriter stuff with a certain hip-hop sensibility. Also the new Black Keys' and Florence& The Machine album's are both excellent. Did anyone mention Bazan's new album? That was this year...mmm....so much good stuff!

Garells was definitely right there in the mix, as were The Decemberists. I toiled over those but had to settle on ten, so there you have it. Other faves: Buddy Miller's Majestic Silver Strings, Switchfoot's "Vice Verses" (which was on my UnderTheRadar list,) The Farewell Drifters "Echo Boom," Over The Rhine's "The Long Surrender, Leeland's "The Great Awakening" and more.

Good stuff, but where's M83 or Feist or Bon Iver!? Top ten lists are just too hard to make! :)  p.s. best new band I discovered in 2011: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.  More here (http://videoaudiodisco.blogspo... LOVE.

Love this list. Plenty that I agree with, and plenty more new music for me to check out.

I'll admit, though, that I'm surprised at the omission of Bon Iver. I was a bit late to the Bon Iver party, and I ended up liking (not loving) For Emma, Forever Ago. The new album, however, has completely won me over. It's not only my favorite album of 2011, but it contains 3 of my top 5 favorite songs of the year. Perth, Holocene and Calgary all play like a perfect mix of hipster folk and atmospheric, emotional soundscapes, ala Explosions in the Sky.

Good list, now I have some new ones to check out.

Here's my list http://missionalthoughts.wordp....

I won't even begin to claim I've got enough musical knowledge to compete with most people, but there were two major albums I couldn't get enough of this year. They were "The King is Dead" by The Decemberists (and their complementary EP "Long Live the King") and "Bad As Me" by Tom Tom Waits. A transitional album by The Decemberists and a sortof full-spectrum blast by Tom Waits, they stayed in my CD player for long stretches of this year.