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 CHRIS HARMS
Editor
1. THE HORRORS – Skying (XL/Remote Control): Maturity, poise and great, sweeping-vista pop music – not things The Horrors where initially known for. Here’s to evolution.
2. ST VINCENT – Strange Mercy (4AD/Remote Control): Annie Clark’s songwriter quirkiness undergoes a metamorphosis into tightly controlled art-rock, but minus the pretence that implies. Genuinely exciting stuff.
3. REAL ESTATE – Days (Domino/EMI): If a shady tree on a sunny day could make blissful, jangly pop music, it would sound like this.
4. METRONOMY – The English Riviera (Warner): Joseph Mount’s nightlight-wearing electro outfit unexpectedly created one of the year’s most elegantly constructed and engaging albums, chock-full of brilliant and memorable tunes.
5. TOTAL CONTROL – Henge Beat (Fuse): A lot of current bands claim to be influenced by post-punk, but not many could make an album that sounds like a lost classic of the period. A compelling Australian album built on bursts of punkish guitar, growling synths and snatches of motorik rhythms.
6. WYE OAK – Civilian (Spunk/EMI) / I BREAK HORSES – Hearts (Bella Union/Co-Op): Tied at #6, Wye Oak took lonely folk and drenched it in guitars, while I Break Horses created the year’s best excursion into shoegaze pop. Both were dreamy delights.
7. WASHED OUT – Within & Without (Pod/Inertia) / NEON INDIAN – Era Extrana (Popfrenzy): At times feeling like they belong to the same double-album, Washed Out’s flotation tank wistfulness and Neon Indian’s growing pop sensibilities were almost enough to make ‘chillwave’ not seem like a dirty word.
8. GANG GANG DANCE – Eye Contact (4AD/Remote Control): Layered, crystalline synths and rhythmic focus characterised Gang Gang Dance’s best album to date, 11-minute opener Glass Jar existing as the perfect way to enter their strange, singular world.
9. ACTIVE CHILD – You Are All I See (Spunk/EMI): Pat Grossi’s Hauntingly unique vocals and sublimely melodramatic synth soundscapes are purpose-made to capture the imagination.
10. CUT COPY – Zonoscope (Modular/Universal): It didn’t break any new ground for the band, but Zonoscope exists as solid proof that Cut Copy still know how to create catchy and danceable electro-pop better than anyone else.
Honourable Mentions: FEATHERS – Hunter’s Moon, VERONICA FALLS – Veronica Falls, MODESELEKTOR – Monkeytown, M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, BRITISH SEA POWER – Valhalla Dancehall, CULTS – Cults, CRAFT SPELLS – Idle Labor.
 EMILY WILLIAMS
Assistant Editor
1. TUNE-YARDS – Whokill (4AD/Inertia): “What’s the bizness, yeah?” I’ll tell you what is it – Merrill Garbus and Whokill. 10 tracks of rambunctious, brash and considered elements form one punch through your heart … and another for your head. There is so much going on here – horns, ukulele, loops, drums, samples – and the volume of her best instrument, her voice, coalesce to create the most fun and though-provoking LP of 2011. Bravo.
2. CULTS – Cults (In The Name Of/Sony): The subversive motives behind pop music have always yielded some of its best examples, not that Cults are trying for anything too evil on their self-titled debut, just a tempered dark to their Spector-pop sheen. Opening with a quote from Jim Jones, and later running with footage from Jonestown post-cyanide poisoning on otherwise whimsical single Go Outside, gives you an idea of these film-kids’ agenda.
3. REAL ESTATE – Days (Domino/EMI): Having caught these guys at SXSW 2010 playing under cherry blossom on a green in Austin I was enchanted. When they released Days, an ode to their New Jersey hometown – something they were yearning for while on tour – I was immediately taken back to my own suburban youth: summer afternoons, double-dinking and yabby-ing. Dream pop’s layered guitars, an element of ‘jam-band’ that only translates live and a quiet, sweet honesty permeate Days.
4. WILCO – The Whole Love (Anti-/Warner): Thank you, Wilco. Just, thank you. The Whole Love is the album fans have been waiting for, delivered with such shoulder-shrugging nonchalance many would think to dismiss it. Don’t. It is a sterling effort from a band who know each other so well they can meld three ‘sort-of ideas’ into one sweeping whole.
5. GANG GANG DANCE – Eye Contact (4AD/Remote Control): When they played recently a friend simply said “Other bands, give up. Gang Gang Dance win music.” And in a lot of ways he’s right – no one is creating sprawling electronic music with such an identifiable human touch. Pulling from endless influences it’s a seamless LP, pretty on the outside but intricately laced upon further inspection.
6. ST VINCENT – Strange Mercy (4AD/Remote Control): Annie Clark is a bit of a wonder, and the moment people lapse into forgetting that, she comes back to slap you with her velvet glove. Strange Mercy covers curious territory, but you know what I said about pop being subversive? It’s on subtle display here, as is her serious guitar chops. And if I have to read “She plays guitar like a man!” one more time I’ll scream. It’s hard to leave sex out of Strange Mercy, but please, let’s try for that last point, hey?
7. THE HORRORS – Skying (XL/Remote Control): I refused to see The Horrors at Splendour in 2007 – I thought their emergence from a puff of dry-ice in a south London bedsit purely a product of the NME. And it was. But Primary Colours and now Skying illustrate music made by music-lovers, keen ears and subtle confidence. There’s bruised romanticism and nods to the Bunnymen in their ‘80s-inflected pop, but any shoegaze-tendencies are lifted by swirling synths, throbbing undercurrents and the steady voice of Faris Badwan.
8. TV ON THE RADIO – Nine Types Of Light (Interscope/Universal): An impressively buoyant release, chiming, shimmering and bursting with an energy and positivity fans of the band may find affronting, or soft, and that’s just fine, cause I’m still pretty damn giddy with its unabashed attitude: love. All the more poignant in the wake of bassist Gerard Smith’s death, Nine Types Of Light looks forward.
9. METRONOMY – The English Riviera (Warner): A sense of place is important to some, and what people make of where they came from will occasionally inform insecurities, calcifying over the decades. Thankfully, Joseph Mount has taken his hometown – Totnes, Devon – and reimagined it to a soundtrack of the ‘70s, all smooth Fleetwood Mac and Steely Dan-chime. Pretty sure a place with a highest average temp of 20 degrees has never sounded so LA, and danceable.
10. YUCK – Yuck (Universal): You know what I like to do in summer? Take drives down to the beach, blast the music and sing-along so no one can hear my dulcet tones. Yuck made my favourite guilty-pleasure thowback album this year, pulling on everything from Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr and the unabashed joy of what being 21 should be.
Honourable Mentions: FRIENDLY FIRES – Pala, STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS – Mirror Traffic, FEIST – Metals, BRITISH SEA POWER – Valhalla Dancehall, AUSTRA – Feel It Break, BEASTIE BOYS – Hot Sauce Committee Part II, PLAID – Scintilli, M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, TORO Y MOI – Underneath The Pine
 JODY MACGREGOR
Staff-writer, sub-editor and columnist
1. DARREN KORB – Bastion (Supergiant): This is a video game soundtrack. Whether that says something about the music industry in 2011 or my listening habits is up to you. This dusty cowboy trip-hop is one of a handful of albums this year that sounded genuinely unlike anything else and served as a reminder that we haven’t used up all the combinations of sounds yet. There are still plenty of strange places worth exploring and that’s something that matters.
2. TOM WAITS – Bad As Me (Anti-/Warner): The sound of Tom Waits confronting death and beating it to the ground with a guitar he borrowed from The Rolling Stones.
3. DELS – Gob (Big Dada/Inertia): Sometimes when you forget rap is poetry. Dels is here to remind us.
4. DAS RACIST – Relax (Greedhead): The award for most earworms goes to Das Racist. It’s so naggingly catchy there are moments where I hate it, but I quickly swing back to loving it again.
5. BALL PARK MUSIC – Happiness And Surrounding Suburbs (Stop Start/EMI): The name’s well chosen because there aren’t many albums that have made me as happy as this one.
6. TUNE-YARDS – Whokill (4AD): I’m glad I didn’t have to review this album because it came out in April and I still don’t know how to describe it except to say that it’s like totally really good.
7. ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI – Moment Bends (Modular/Universal): After briefly reinventing themselves as a tropicalia band, they reinvented themselves as club pop and it sounds even better. Whatever they do next, I’m on board.
8. PHAROAHE MONCH – W.A.R. (We Are Renegades) (Duck Down/Shock): Thank God the trend for concept albums hasn’t ended yet, because Monch’s transmission from a totalitarian future works as a single entity in a way that his music normally doesn’t and it’s great.
9. MOGWAI – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (Spunk/EMI): Both the best album title of the year and one of the best albums. By Mogwai standards it’s quite approachable, but that’s compared to post-rock polyphony not known for being friendly to new listeners.
10. APERTURE SCIENCE PSYCHOACOUSTICS LABORATORY – Songs To Test By (Valve): Yep, another video game soundtrack, this time for to Portal 2. Actually, it’s three volumes of classical chiptunes, a glitch opera that players of the game only heard a fraction of. Which is a shame, because it’s all excellent.
 DENIS SEMCHENKO
Geared Editor
1. THE ANTLERS – Burst Apart (Pod/Inertia): Quite possibly the darkest-themed album of the ‘00s, 2009’s Hospice was an undisputed masterwork and on this less-depressing follow-up, the Brooklyn trio strengthen their reputation as indie-noir-pop masters. Peter Silberman’s soaring, damaged tenor cuts you in half on sublime songs like I Don’t Want Love and Putting The Dog To Sleep.
2. STATELESS – Matilda (Ninja Tune/Inertia): In the perfect world, Leeds’ Chris James would have been spoken about in the same exalted tones as Thom Yorke and co. Four years after Stateless’ jaw-dropping S/T debut, this moody, arresting album places a stronger accent on razor-sharp guitar riffs and violin parts and blurs whatever lines between electronic rock and downtempo.
3. ZOMBY – Dedication (4AD/Remote Control): A stunning stylistic reinvention by the artist previously known for floor-rattling dubstep mixes and homages to early ‘90s rave, the filler-free Dedication is going to remain 4AD’s pride in the years to come. Dripping with brain-worming synth hooks instead of shuddering sub-bass, finest cuts Witch Hunt, Things Fall Apart and Mozaik are unforgettable slices of futuristic electronica.
4. BIBIO – Mind Bokeh (Warp/Inertia): These days, the ‘folktronica’ tag just doesn’t stick to Stephen Wilkinson anymore. Firmly established as one of Warp Records’ flagship artists, the West Midlands prodigy marries trippy guitar excursions and blissed-out vocals with lo-fi funk grooves and skittering beats on his sixth – and best – album.
5. DESTROYER – Kaputt (Pod/Inertia): AKA the album most Ravers seem to agree on this year. Long known as a sonic and lyrical chameleon, the erstwhile New Pornographer Dan Bejar hits the songwriting goldmine with this delectable, California-soaked collection of smooth sophisti-pop. Not so much “bad sneakers and a pina colada” as Gucci loafers and a Malibu Sunrise.
6. KURT VILE – Smoke Ring For My Halo (Matador/Remote Control): The War On Drugs’ former guitarist hops off the Freak Train, writes simple, touching acoustic-led songs, wins an entirely new fanbase and – improbably – manages to avoid various songwriter-related clichés. Classy, genuine and infinitely better than anything Vile’s major inspiration Lou Reed has made in the past decade.
7. EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (Spunk/EMI): Without doubt one of the world’s most consistent instrumental rock acts, the Texas four-piece roll down the delay on album number six – their most subdued and organic-sounding effort to date. Plenty of hackle-raising guitar lines, too.
8. LYKKE LI – Wounded Rhymes (LL Recordings/Warner Music): In terms of “Scandinavian impact”, Lykke Li is to 2011 what Robyn was to 2010. By now an accomplished original artist, the Swedish siren dispenses killer radio-friendly hooks (I Follow Rivers), ‘60s girl-pop (Sadness Is A Blessing) and torchy gospel (Silent My Song) with equal ease.
9. EMIKA – Emika (Ninja Tune/Inertia): The Berlin-residing English girl of Czech extraction, Emika – or Ema Jolly to her friends and family – showcases her sensual vocals and classical piano chops on this dark, intoxicating post-dubstep outing. A major breath of fresh air for the sagging, commercialism-ruined genre, with nary a “wub-wub” to be heard.
10. THE BLACK ANGELS – Phosphene Dream (Blue Horizon/Warner): Released in Australia a good nine months after its US launch, the Austin, Texas garage-psychedelicists’ mighty third album gives off plenty of Bad Vibrations, vintage drone and political consciousness.
Honourable Mentions: MY MORNING JACKET – Circuital, THE MOUNTAIN GOATS – All Eternals Deck, THE KILLS – Blood Pressures, LAMB – 5, JONO MCCLEERY – There Is, APPARAT – The Devil’s Walk, MODESELEKTOR – Monkeytown.
 CHAD PARKHILL
Senior Reviewer
INTERNATIONAL TOP 10
1. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints (Souterrain Transmissions/Spunk): A record like Past Life Martyred Saints can save your life. That may sound hyperbolic, but it’s true: Erika M Anderson’s début, with its blend of folk, blues, noise music, and metal, will resonate with anyone who has gone through – or is going through – some fucked-up times. And given that I had an almightily fucked-up 2011 myself, it’s a shoo-in for my number one album of the year.
2. ST. VINCENT – Strange Mercy (4AD/Inertia): If this list weren’t completely subjective, this finely-wrought album of killer hooks, gorgeous production values, sophisticated arrangements and witty lyrics would be number one. A near-flawless album, and one so well-sequenced that you never want it to end.
3. DESTROYER – Kaputt (Merge/Inertia): The latest left turn in a career defined by such manoeuvres, Dan Bejar’s latest album sees him explore the exquisite bad taste of eighties soft rock, white-boy disco, and smooth jazz – but it’s the engaging songwriting and his wonderful, acerbic lyrics that impress even more than his ability to rehabilitate the worst impulses of an excessive decade.
4. GANG GANG DANCE – Eye Contact (4AD/Inertia): The opening words of this album are “I can hear everything – it’s everything time,” and the closing words are “Live forever.” That should give you an idea of the ambition and themes of Eye Contact, which – after several lacklustre recording jobs – finally captures and does justice to Gang Gang Dance’s unique aesthetic and songwriting approach.
5. BILL CALLAHAN – Apocalypse (Drag City/Spunk): Bill Callahan’s albums haven’t really been the same since he dropped the Smog moniker, but Apocalypse comes the closest yet to equalling any of his near-miraculous run of Smog albums and EPs between 1995 and 2005 – it’s the work of a great songwriter firing on all cylinders.
6. WYE OAK – Civilian (Merge/Spunk): Wye Oak’s conceit is pretty simple – take Americana-inspired folk songwriting and play the tunes with more volume and feedback than Sonic Youth – but they do both parts of the equation so well that the results are always impressive.
7. CULTS – Cults (In The Name Of/Sony): When I first heard Cults’ self-titled début, I assumed it would be a short-term sugar rush of an album, a collection of lovely – but ultimately disposable – Holland-Dozier-Holland-indebted pop ditties. But behind the simple façade, this album has the songwriting chops and emotional heft to stick around.
8. TUNE-YARDS – Whokill (4AD/Inertia): Merrill Garbus’s first album under the typographically-challenged moniker tUnE-yArDs demonstrated her songwriting chops, but hid them under a cheap and nasty recording. W H O K I L L, her second, is a leap forward in recording quality, giving full life to her strange and addictive mixture of Afro-pop, folk, and hip-hop.
9. THE WEEKND – House Of Balloons (self-released): Much ink has been spilled over The Weeknd’s début mixtape, House Of Balloons – about the anonymity of crooner Abel Tesfaye, about the project’s questionable gender politics, about R&B for white hipsters – but in the end, it’s a dark and seductive ride through a nightmarish world of money, drugs, and objectification: the demonic flipside to the average R&B’s track’s fantasy music clip.
10. PLANNINGTOROCK – W (DFA/Universal): Janine Rostron’s second solo album copped a lot of lazy Fever Ray and The Knife comparisons, but those with the patience to look below the gender-bending surface will find in W the expression of an idiosyncratic instrumentalist and arrangement genius.
 LOCAL (IN THE LOOSE SENSE OF THE TERM) TOP 10
1. LOST ANIMAL – Ex-Tropical (Sensory Projects): Very few début records sound as fully-formed as this, the first solo outing of St. Helens’ Jarrod Quarrell. With its combination of Quarrell’s menacing, deranged vocal performance and cheesy post-reggae and tropical kitsch, it’s an intriguing brew of an album – utterly captivating, and utterly unlike any other Australian record released this year.
2. GEOFFREY O’CONNOR – Vanity Is Forever (Chapter Music): In an interview with Rave, Geoffrey O’Connor claimed that he rejected the ‘80s revival’ tag – but when one of your songs gleefully appropriates the slow-burning synth tones of Berlin’s Take My Breath Away, it’s a hard charge to avoid. Fortunately for his listeners, there’s fantastic songwriting and clever lyrics underneath O’Connor’s meticulous hi-gloss coating.
3. MY OWN PET RADIO – Unidentified Flying Collection Of Songs (Mucho Bravado): Brisbane’s Sam Cromack is best known these days as the lead singer of Triple J-fêted indie darlings Ball Park Music, but he also writes and records laptop pop in his bedroom under the My Own Pet Radio moniker. As you’d expect, it’s something of a clearinghouse for the ideas that wouldn’t work as BPM songs; but you might be surprised to hear that these quirky, lopsided songs have more charm and emotional heft than their better-known siblings.
4. HTRK – Work (Work, Work) (Mistletone): London-via-Melbourne trio HTRK emerged from the tragedy of founding member Sean Stewart’s suicide as a duo with a new sound and a steely determination to honour Stewart’s memory by finishing the album they were working on. A synthesised hallucination of sleek glass and stainless steel, it’s completely different to their past grimy post-punk, but equally powerful.
5. TOTAL CONTROL – Henge Beat (Iron Lung/Fuse): Australia is in the midst of a punk and garage explosion – see, for example Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Royal Headache, and Brisbane’s own Kitchen’s Floor – but, for my money, the best Australian punk album of this year was ‘supergroup’ Total Control’s synth-punk masterpiece Henge Beat, which blends grimy garage with cold wave to devastating effect.
6. UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA – Unknown Mortal Orchestra (Spunk/EMI): Ruban Neilson’s post-Mint Chicks project relies on a pretty simple trick, but one played for maximum impact: crunchy hip-hop breakbeats provide the backbone for demented psych guitar noodles, all wrapped up in hooky pop structures. It’s an uncannily familiar transmission from another musical world, but most of all it’s profoundly fun.
7. BATRIDER – Piles Of Lies (Two Bright Lakes): Batrider’s Sarah Chadwick has a remarkable voice – a nasal Kiwi drawl that drips with a mixture of laconicism and disdain – and on this release she matches it with a dirgy, strung-out form of grunge rock to create the perfect soundtrack to venting your spleen.
8. OSCAR + MARTIN – For You (Two Bright Lakes): Oscar + Martin embody the Two Bright Lakes signature sound: intricate percussion, delicate melodies, vocal harmonies, self-conscious ‘quirkiness’. They also happen to have the strongest pop nous and the strongest melodies. Watch out for these guys, they’re gonna be big (or, at least, ought to).
9. BEN SALTER – The Cat (MGM): Brisbane’s own Ben Salter joins the ranks of Gareth Liddiard, Mike Noga, and Glenn Richards in making an elder-statesmanly solo record, the kind of thing that pays no attention to trends and focuses solely on craftsmanship. But – here’s the kicker – he’s better at it than most of his peers in that rarefied space.
10. GOTYE – Making Mirrors (Eleven/Universal): It seems as though the listening public couldn’t escape Gotye this year, just as music critics and the online commentariat couldn’t escape tired arguments about Wally De Backer’s lack of authenticity or whatever. But beyond all that, Making Mirrors is a strong and intelligent pop album whose tight sequencing and clever songwriting make up for a few dud patches.
 MATT THROWER
Senior Reviewer
1. DESTROYER – Kaputt: Seemingly beamed from an alternate universe where Ariel Pink-esque art-pop is reinterpreted by Gaucho-era Steely Dan. Smooth and irresistible.
2. TORO Y MOI – Underneath The Pine: Sunshine and light permeate this blissed-out album of psychedelic beats and hazy pop songs from the immensely imaginative Chaz Bundick.
3. ROYAL HEADACHE – Royal Headache: Sydney combo bash out some of the most spirited and exciting lo-fi pop I’ve heard in years.
4. PJ HARVEY – Let England Shake: An epically bleak, imaginative and passionate work from a restless creative spirit. There are many pretenders, but Peej remains a true original.
5. CUT COPY – Zonoscope: Although it wasn’t greeted with the almost universal excitement that met predecessor In Ghost Colours, Zonoscope still proves Cut Copy to the be the masters of technicolour house-y pop songs.
 ALASDAIR DUNCAN
Senior Writer and columnist
1. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming: This sublime double album is the record Anthony Gonzales has been building to his whole career; a collection of hazy, beautiful synth pop songs and smaller ambient pieces, it unfolds with a sense of mystery, and leaves you with a feeling of unbridled joy.
2. METRONOMY – The English Riviera: ‘70s soft rock titans Fleetwood Mac and Steely Day were obvious influences on this album, but rather than just imitate them, Joe Mount created an impeccably-sequenced and impossibly-seductive album, where live and electronic elements snap into place with uncommon ease.
3. FRIENDLY FIRES – Pala: Friendly Fires specialise in songs that capture the energy of the early ‘90s rave era for those too young to have been there the first time. From the opening rush of Live Those Days Tonight to the shimmering Balearica of Helpless, Pala is an album of rapturous indie pop anthems.
4. CUT COPY – Zonoscope: Drawing on Technique-era New Order and produced by The DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy, Zonoscope is packed with hypnotic acid house jams, twinkling synth lines and lengthy cosmic disco tracks. Its highlights, Tracks like Need You Now, Take Me Over and Corner Of The Sky, are pure head-rush.
5. HOLY GHOST! – Holy Ghost!: New York’s Holy Ghost! specialise in crafting addictive analogue disco tracks, whose crisp drumbeats and nagging bass lines draw you into a state of near-euphoria. Their debut album is so suave and slick, it even features a cameo from Michael McDonald of The Doobie Brothers.
6. ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI – Moment Bends (Modular/Universal): Moment Bends is Architecture In Helsinki’s most effusive album to date – the production is so slick and shiny at first that you don’t notice the quality of the songs, but once they start to sink in, every single one of them is tremendous.
7. BENI – House Of Beni (Modular/Universal): This rambunctious debut sees the former Riot In Belgium guy collaborate with a host of guest vocalists, including Mattie Safer and Sam Sparro. There are squealing acid lines, rolling piano loops and classic house sounds galore, and the tunes sound great on or off the dance floor.
8. BRITNEY SPEARS – Femme Fatale (Sony): Look, if it helps, don’t think of this as Britney album, think of it as a group of the world’s finest pop producers competing to see who can craft the hookiest house and dubstep-inspired tracks, delivered by a purpose-built chart robot. Actually, no, think of it as a Britney album.
9. THE RAPTURE – In The Grace Of Your Love (DFA/Modular/Universal): The songs veer from syncopated punk-funk jams to psyche-rock freak outs and swivel-hipped disco and house tracks, but thanks to Luke Jenner’s yelping vocals and that familiar, super-tight rhythm section, this is unmistakeably a Rapture album, and a comeback worth waiting for.
10. FRED FALKE – Part IV (Work It Baby): Fred Falke is one of the producers who set the blueprint for the French house sound, and his long-overdue debut album brings classics like Omega Man together with new tracks like the deliriously good Look Into Your Eyes. A certain pair of robots might take note.
 KRISSI WEISS
Senior Writer
1. FLORENCE + THE MACHINE – Ceremonials: Florence and her harp-driven, rhythm-heavy Machine managed to create a follow-up to Lungs that surpassed that debut with sophisticated songwriting, evolved dynamics and a cohesiveness that was devoid of predictability.
2. GOTYE – Making Mirrors: This whole album took De Backer out of his bedroom and into a world of irresistible left-field pop. While the media has managed to destroy the likes of Somebody That I Used To Know with their usual formula of saturation, Making Mirrors has so much more to offer than flash-in-the-pan singles.
3. COLD WAR KIDS – Mine Is Yours: With a sophomore slump, Cold War Kids had a lot to prove with this album and they came out firing. Gone was the chaotic time-signature changes of We Used To Vacation and the irritating repetitiveness of Something Is Not Right With Me, replaced with an album of jangly indie that was heavy on guitars and a little lighter on piano than previous releases.
4. FINK – Perfect Darkness: Ever since Fin Greenall stepped away from his electronic beginnings (albeit sketches of them into a new concept) and into the land of the singer-songwriter he has truly found his voice. While Sort Of Revolution showed signs of great songwriting, Perfect Darkness managed to combine heavy lyricism with light melodies.
5. LYKKE LI – Wounded Ryhmes:
The emotional purging that Li underwent during the writing of this album is evident at every epic chorus and reverb-drenched strike of a drum. This is an album in the purest sense of the word with no one song prevailing over the other. From start to finish, you enter Li’s world of space and echo.
6. TV ON THE RADIO – Nine Types Of Light (Interscope/Universal): Shrouded in loss and upheaval, TV On The Radio managed to make an album that, once again, was almost impossible to define. Being unable to pin a band down can sometimes be a great asset while at other times, it can alienate the audience. Who cares really? When you make music this good, you can afford to lose a few naysayers on the way.
7. GROUPLOVE – Never Trust A Happy Song (Warner Music): The vocals are almost gurgled while the harmonies are chaotic yet this indie-pop album gets into your mind like an earworm. Although this was a slow grower, the nursery-rhyme melodies are catchy as hell. It may not be music revolution but sometimes you just want a bit of fun.
8. JOAN AS POLICEWOMAN – The Deep Field (PIAS/Liberator): No longer just Mrs. Jeff Buckley, Joan Wasser emerged from the role of musical side-kick some time ago and has taken her blend of indie philosophy and precise production into the world that is The Deep Field. Angular melodies and ‘70s soul swirl around an album that is her most joyous to date.
9. OTHER LIVES – Tamer Animals (PIAS/Liberator): Having never heard of them, I had absolutely no expectations on listening to this album. With instrumentation that combined brass, woodwind and strings along with a traditional line-up of guitars and drums, Other Lives take folk and fill it with the sort of production you would expect from a band like Radiohead. Emotions run deep on this album with joy and tragedy walking side by side.
10. RADIOHEAD – The King Of Limbs (Self-released): To be honest, I hated this album on first listen; it takes time to understand what Yorke and Greenwood are trying to say here. The rhythms aren’t easy to grab onto and the melodies seem disjointed yet, with time, it manages to make sense. They push boundaries and, as a result, the audience is forced to as well.
Honourable Mentions: THE JEZEBELS – Prisoner, KURT VILE – Smoke Ring For My Halo, LAURA MARLING – A Creature I Don’t Know, BALL PARK MUSIC – Happiness & Surrounding Suburbs, TUNE-YARDS – whokill
 MITCH ALEXANDER
Senior writer and Rave On podcast host
1. MASTODON – The Hunter: If Mastodon was a member of the X-Men, they would be Wolverine – brutish yet cunning and dangerous in close quarters – they’re the best at what they do. Plus there’s the facial hair. Every duelling guitar line and frenetic drum fill is exactly where it needs to be, and not doing a concept album this time resulted in their most muscular and bone shattering effort yet.
2. MY MORNING JACKET – Circuital: The hillbilly hippies from Louisville, Kentucky, lose the squelchy synths and get back to ripping guitar solos and infectious melodies. Giant bears, playing non-ironic flying Vs and talking up Rush in interviews means these guys will never be too cool, and it’s just how I like it.
3. KASABIAN – Velociraptor: As pub rockers with a synthesizer, they were entertaining. As a frightful force of arena rock with an encyclopedic knowledge of British music, they are unstoppable. Coming to a sweaty moshpit near you…and most of the civilised world.
4. WUGAZI – 13 Chambers: Albums mashing two artists together can be hit and miss, rarely worthy of repeated listens. But fusing Fugazi’s rhythm section with the Wu Tang Clan’s masterful rhymes allows for a refreshing look at both. It’s made of deep cuts too, borrowing from the truly messed up first Gravediggaz album with brilliant results.
5. FELICE BROTHERS – Celebration, Florida: Sure, as a group of guys that began in New York, they could be accused of playing a part, some vaudeville conjuring of ramshackle country rock. And if they didn’t do it so damn well I’d be pointing fingers with you. Eighth album now with added drum machines and Auto-Tune…no, really.
 PATRICK PERRIER
Scale Models
1. THE WONDER YEARS – Suburbia, I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing: The third album from the band that proved to the world pop-punk was still very much alive, didn’t disappoint and towered over all other contenders for the crown this past year.
2. THRICE – Major/Minor: Quitting while you’re ahead seemed the name of the game when the kings of post-hardcore’s past continued to evolve into an organic alt-rock powerhouse then went on indefinite hiatus.
3. MASTODON – The Hunter: Seamlessly incorporating more influences into their already formidable arsenal didn’t sit well with the narrow-minded but seriously, this was the shit.
4. BLINK 182 – Neighbourhoods: Many thought it would never happen and many didn’t care. The former were stoked and the latter don’t know what they’re missing in this mature album that our fart-joke friends had to make to prove their legacy.
5. HEARTSOUNDS – Drifter: Like last years Until We Surrender, this band continued to blow minds with their boy/girl vocal interplay, cautious catchiness and shredding riffage.
 NILS HAY
Writer
1. BIG SCARY – Vacation: One of my first ever reviews was of Melbourne duo Big Scary’s single Hey Somebody. I loved the earnestly tender acoustic passages and fuzzy DIY garage sound they brought together. Their debut album, Vacation, continues this theme, visiting indie rock swagger, sincere affection, solitude and heartache in a 40-minute round trip and easily becoming my favourite Australian album of 2011.
2. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming: If Saturdays=Youth put M83’s shoegaze on the map outside their native France, this, their sixth album should cement that place. While familiarity has dulled the sense of wonder that came with the previous release, it’s more than made up for with over an hour of overwhelming beauty.
3. GANG GANG DANCE – Eye Contact: Until recently, I knew nothing of this experimental Manhattan outfit and – since first listen – I’ve been hooked. Shades of The Knife, Crystal Castles and wide swaths of Asiatic-influenced electronica have brought big praise for the quintet and finally I understand why. And agree.
4. FOSTER THE PEOPLE – Torches: Torches was the debut release Mark Foster and his band of indie pop devotees used to prove they had more than Pumped Up Kicks up their sleeve. Much of it is a keyboard/synth-driven soundtrack to sunlit capering and high-fives, and with summer upon us once again, that’s just fine.
5. BEN FOLDS – The Best Imitation Of Myself: A Retrospective: Being a long-time fan, Ben Folds’ retrospective practically defaulted onto this list. While the first CD showcases some of Folds’ most-loved work from the last 19 years, discs two and three – with their rarities, demos and live tracks – are the kind of thing completionist fans like me will covet for years.
 DARRAGH MURRAY
Writer
1. DESTROYER – Kaputt: Kaputt is an intriguing, addictive, and surprisingly complex record. Beneath the retro veneer and the flamboyant saxophone melodies, lurks Dan Bejar’s brilliantly abstract lyrics that are difficult to deconstruct, yet will not stop you from trying. It’s a breezy experiment in nostalgia that ignites imaginations.
2. WITCH HATS – Pleasure Syndrome: From the Cormac McCarthy-inspired The Bounty to the sinister bass line that churns through Ashley, Pleasure Syndrome sees the band move away from their aggressive garage rock, instead lacing their brutally themed tunes with doses of pop sensibility. One of the best Australian records of 2011.
3. WILD BEASTS – Smother: I find it unfathomable to dislike Wild Beasts, even though ignorant cynics might find Hayden Thorpe’s counter-tenor voice gimmicky. The dreamy, sexual, Smother is the group’s best work to date and one that clearly separates them from the usual gang of mediocre NME-hyped groups that dominate UK indie rock.
4. KITCHEN’S FLOOR – Look Forward To Nothing: Local ruffians go slightly less low fidelity and release a record that’s not only replete with great sludgy and grungy hooks, but also uniquely captures a less glamourous and probably more familiar malaise of ordinary humans. They call it downer pop but I call it fucking brilliant.
5. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints: The debut solo record of Erika M. Anderson is harrowing, painful, but thoroughly compelling experience, giving a viciously honest peak into Anderson’s struggle with self-harm and drug abuse. Difficult to listening to the frightening Marked without shivering.
 TOM HERSEY
Writer and columnist
1. FUCKED UP – David Comes To Life: David Comes To Life is a sentimental rock opera about the cyclic nature of existence. On its own, David… is the most involving record of the year, but Fucked Up truly outdid themselves and released a series of 7-inch singles, aesthetically linked music videos and even a faux compilation LP (David’s Town probably deserves its own entry in this list) in companion.
2. THE DWARVES – The Dwarves Are Born Again: “Fuck life and death/ we transcend time and space” 25 years into a career, punk rock deviants The Dwarves laid down another album chock full of brilliant sloganeering and scum punk credos with The Dwarves Are Born Again. Who else could write songs like The Dwarves Are Still The Best Band Ever?
3. EARTH – Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1: On Angels Of Darkness, doom legends Earth pushed towards an orchestrated melodious sound further than they ever had before. The result was five of the most beautiful songs the band has ever produced. Part two of the album is set to be released in February next year.
4. CAVEMAN – R.Hoak Demos: In a year when grindcore drummer extraordinaire Rich Hoak released ‘real’ albums with both his bands (Brutal Truth and Total Fucking Destruction), his most interesting release was a minimalist demo that sounded something like the Neanderthals in 2001: A Space Odyssey could have made if they had found a double-kick drum set and saxophone instead of that monolith.
5. ROYAL HEADACHE – Royal Headache: Equal parts soul and fuzzy, lo-fi punk noise, the debut full-length of Sydney garage denizens Royal Headache was one of the year’s most fun records.
 MADELEINE LAING
Writer
1. DICK DIVER – New Start Again: This album came to me completely out of nowhere, but from the first listen I was completely enraptured by its laconic slacker charm. Taking cues from classic Aussie bands, notably The Go-Betweens, New Start Again sounds immediately familiar and likeable and so lazily sunny that it puts a grin on my face on every listen.
2. THE MIDDLE EAST – I Want That You Are Always Happy: Maybe it’s good that The Middle East broke up after releasing this album, it’s hard to imagine them topping this sprawling, dark folk masterpiece. At times stark and impenetrable but with moments of warmth and startling beauty, this album rewards commitment; continuing to reveal new moments of subtle perfection with every listen.
3. PJ HARVEY – Let England Shake: At first seeming jaunty and almost tame musically, the deeper you go the more unnerving this album gets. With tense and disturbing lyrics mostly based on World War I sitting on top of folk rhythms and the strange jangly strum of the autoharp. It’s an ambitious and stunning work from an artist with nothing to prove.
4. RADIOHEAD – The King Of Limbs: I think that the best thing about being a Radiohead fan is never knowing what they’ll do next. Others decried TKOL’s lack of “tunes” and its coldness after the comparative cuddle that was In Rainbows. However I found skittish rhythms, spiralling guitar and sincerely unhinged vocals, as well as trademark moments of heartbreaking beauty, and loved this album for what it was.
5. BRIGHT EYES – The People’s Key: Conor Oberst is “still angry with no reason to be,” but he’s run out of ways to make us understand through straight storytelling. The frustration therefore comes out in explosive songwriting; huge chorus’s burst out of barely restrained verses and increasingly abstract metaphor. Possibly Bright Eye’s last album, it’s their weirdest, densest, but most fully realised effort.
 LINDSEY CUTHBERTSON
Writer
1. BALANCE AND COMPOSURE – Separation: Separation is an album that sunk its hooks into me from the very first listen, and I’ll be happy if they never come out. Balance And Composure’s debut album is a remarkable feat, running the gamut of dynamic musical landscapes that move you in that special way that outstanding music always should.
2. DEFEATER – Empty Days & Sleepless Nights: I love this band for many reasons, but mainly for their progressive approach to composing melodic hardcore and their intellectual lyricism as they create a post World War II American world. Empty Days & Sleepless Nights contains all of these qualities, but on a more expressive level than ever before.
3. TOUCHÉ AMORÉ – Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me: In 20 minutes the members of Touché Amoré explore more personal issues and cover more ground than some bands do in a lifetime. Parting The Sea… was short, sharp and hit you where it hurts.
4. THE WONDER YEARS – Suburbia I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing: What do you get when you mix melody with a lyrical concept that’s half autobiographical story telling and half Allen Ginsberg-inspired musical poetry? The new album by The Wonder Years, that’s what. Suburbia… is intellectual pop punk at its best.
5. LA DISPUTE – Wildlife: La Dispute has hit another level of musicianship on album number two, and vocalist Jordan Dreyer turns in the performance of his life on one of the most confronting and inspiring releases of the year.
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