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Special Feature
SoundsXP Writers Poll - The Best Albums, Songs and Live Acts of 2011
Article written by
Paul M - Dec 11, 2011
Beyonce dreams..
We have once again cogitated, deliberated, and drunk too much strange blue stuff. And after that, we cobbled up a list of the very finest moments of the past twelve months. We've been running these polls for over ten years now and each year it reminds us just how much great music is still being produced. Unlike many of our previous efforts, no one act hoovered up (last year it was Standard Fare, the year before it was The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, who wandered off with a bag load of awards) so the final lists take even us by surprise.
And pardon us if we get slightly smug, but the thought of our top twenty live acts playing on the same bill, even if only in our befuddled booze soaked nappers, would make even a bronze statue slightly moist.
Anyway, enough of the wibble, here's what our writers deemed the best of 2011:
Albums:
1000 Pictures
1. Pete & the Pirates - One Thousand Pictures
2. Dan Michaelson - Sudden Fiction
3. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
4. Cults - Cults
5. Widowspeak - Widowspeak
6. Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls
7. Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde
8. Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams
9. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
10. Still Corners - Creatures of an Hour
11. Fair Ohs - Everything Is Dancing
12. Real Estate - Days
13. Peaking Lights - 936
14. tUnE-yArDs – WhoKill
15. Those Dancing Days - Daydreams & Nightmares
16. Beirut - The Rip Tide
17. Arctic Monkeys - Suck it And See
18. Summer Camp - Welcome to Condale
19. Help Stamp Out Loneliness - Help Stamp Out Loneliness
20. The Strokes - Angles
Tracks:
Bedroom Eyes
1. Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes
2. Pete & The Pirates - Half Moon Street
3. Future Islands - Balance
4. Woods - Pushing Onlys
5. Rosie Taylor Project - Sleep
6. Cults - Go Outside
7. Widowspeak - Gun Shy
8. Anna Calvi – Blackout
9. Damon & Naomi - Walking Backwards
10. Dignan Porch - Surge
11. Guards - Don't Wake The Dead
12. Cults - Abducted
13. Beirut - East Harlem
14. Smith Westerns - Weekend
15. Wye Oak - Civilian
16. Veronica Falls - Bad Feeling
17. Comet Gain - Working Circle Explosive
18. The Strokes - Games
19. Two Wounded Birds - Midnight Wave
20. Evans The Death - Threads
Live act:
Two Wounded Birds
1. Two Wounded Birds
2. tUnE-yArDs
3. Fresh and Onlys
4. Darren Hayman
5. Dignan Porch
6. Singing Adams
7. No Cars
8. Sarandon
9. Veronica Falls
10. The Fall
11. The Loves
12. James Yorkston
13. Let’s Wrestle
14. Billy Bragg
15. Cults
16. Blanche Hudson Weekend
17. Jeffrey Lewis
18. Future of the Left
19. Shrag
20. British Sea Power
Compilation albums:
Before the Fall
1. Various Artists - Before The Fall
2. Various Artists - ¡Chicas! Spanish Female Singers 1962-1974
3. Various Artists - Late Night Tales with MGMT
4. Dolly Mixture - Remember This
5. Brian Jonestown Massacre - Singles Collection 1992-2011
6. Robyn Hitchcock - Chronolology
7. Various Artists - Late Night Tales - Trentemøller
8. Various Artists - Northern Soul's Guilty Secrets
9. Kourosh Yaegmaei – Back from the Brink (Pre-Revolution Psychedelic Rock from Iran 1973-79)
10. Various Artists - Rough Trade 10: Counter Culture
Reissue albums:
Psychocandy
1. Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
2. Hefner - Dead Media
3. Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
4. Beach Boys - Smile
5. The Zombies - Odessey & Oracle
6. Raincoats - Odyshapes
7. Long Ryders - Native Sons
8. Sad Day For Puppets - Shift Another Colour
9. Suede - Dog Man Star CD+DVD Box Set
10. Jesus and Mary Chain – Munki