Following South by Southwest, it appeared as if everyone suddenly kicked off tours everywhere. Chicago’s Metro hosted some fabulous gigs (e.g. Wild Flag, Porcelain Raft), New York exploded with buzz bands, and California offered up two unique festivals (Paid Dues, Coachella). Our photographers snapped shots night after night, making April one of our busiest months on the live circuit in a long, long time. Naturally, they had a blast.

Event: Wild Flag at Chicago’s Metro (4/5)
Photographer: Michael Roffman
What Michael Says: “It helps when you’re sort of crushing on an artist. Once Carrie Brownstein turned toward the camera, I think my eyes shattered. Thank god the lens didn’t.”

Event: Cloud Nothings at Chicago’s Schubas (4/6)
Photographer: Michael Roffman
What Michael Says: “I’ve listened to Attack on Memory probably 58 times by now. So, I kind of knew when he’d scream.”

Event: People Under the Stairs at Paid Dues 2012
Photographer: Joseph Engel
What Joseph Says: “Because my background is mainly in punk rock and hardcore music, live hip-hop can often be a bit dull to photograph. People Under the Stairs brought energy and movement that was more than just swagger, and I think that passion really comes out in this photo.”

Event: The Horrors @ New York City’s Music Hall of Williamsburg (4/10)
Photographer: Harley Brown
What Harley Says: “The Horrors not only look like rock stars, they’ve got the absurdly erratic lighting to prove it. When it was bad, I wanted to throw my camera at frontman Faris Badwan’s stupid striped t-shirt; but when I lucked out with shots like this luminous head-bang, it was really fucking good.”

Event: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis at San Francisco’s Rickshaw (4/10)
Photographer: Summer Dunsmore
What Summer Says: “Photographing Kitty, Daisy & Lewis was about catching that moment in which their respective personalities, their individual identities as performers, shined through. During “Don’t Make a Fool Out of Me”, Lewis Durham exuded a classic masculinity, and his features provided a natural palette – I just took the shot.”

Event: Alabama Shakes at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom (4/11)
Photographe: Nate Slevin
What Nate Says: “It was a charm to fall under the southern spell of Brittany Howard and her Alabama Shakes. This enchanted moment came at the tail end of the set — at the height of their wild magic.”

Event: Porter Robinson @ Coachella 2012
Photographer: Ted Maider
What Ted Says: “Dub-step is this weird new phenomenon between punk rock and electronic dance music; somehow you get intense mosh pits to strangely structured beats. But Porter Robinson stirred the pot far more than any other DJ I have ever seen. Not bad for a 19-year-old nerd.”

Event: Willis Earl Beal at D.C.’s Rock and Roll Hotel (4/24)
Photographer: Drew Litowitz
What Drew Says: “Willis Earl Beal was an unhinged enigma onstage. You could see flashes of light shining through the darkness of his impenetrable mystique, though. I tried to capture the physical light that mimicked the figurative, a moment where Beal was outlined by some sort of normalcy. Though, we still shivered anxiously wondering where he’d take us next.”

Event: The Beach Boys @ New Orleans Jazz Festival 2012
Photographer: Michael Roffman
What Michael Says: “There’s a lot of humor with this photo; in a way, it sort of summarizes the reunion on the whole – they’re old, but they’re having fun with it. Also, I was close enough to read the Tommy Bahama tag on Mike Love’s shirt.”

Event: Tortoise at Chicago’s Empty Bottle (4/28)
Photographer: Jeremy D. Larson
What Jeremy Says: “John McEntire is the most animated member of Tortoise by a mile. He’s not always on drums, but when he sits down at the kit he feels it just like that face for the entire song. I took maybe 50 rapid-fire shots of McEntire and this was the best mug he made.”

For a band that capitalized on such an Internet-fueled genre as “chillwave”, it’s somewhat ironic that Small Black were touring on little to no online ripples since last year’s Moon Killer Mixtape. Sure enough, the Brooklyn band threw in only one new song with a handful of tunes culled evenly from their self-titled EP and New Chain LP from two years ago. That might have been a death sentence for any other band—especially since Moon Killer’s predominant guest, Das Racist’s Heems, didn’t make a hoped-for surprise onstage appearance (what can I say? I’m an eternal optimist)—but Small Black’s multifaceted performance exemplified high quality over novelty.

Their drums sat low and heavy in the mix, keeping the beat so the bassist could provide the melody, much as a guitar would. The booming, epic “Photojournalist” almost took the roof off the venue and “brand new track” “Min Max”’s surprisingly sexy funk made me look forward to whatever Small Black comes out with next. Like truly compelling electronic acts, the band overcame the necessary stasis of standing behind cheap Casio keyboards by dancing onstage to their own irresistible rhythms and synthesizers, trying their best to appeal to every listener’s innate sense of rhythm. I only wished the audience was moving and enjoying itself as much as the guys performing in front of them.

So it was an admittedly painful stretch adjusting to The Horrors’ unnaturally ear-piercing distortion, like their instruments were being electrocuted to death. Once I settled into that key change, what struck me most about the London garage-nee-“Zombie Punk” outfit was how much the baby-faced band members looked like they were still in middle school, yet at the same time, total fucking rock stars. As soon as I noticed the bassist had the same haircut as Nikolai Fraiture, I realized the whole band looked like The Strokes. More importantly, they acted like them.

Unlike Small Black, who basically invented their own genre, The Horrors linger in the long shadow of shoegaze innovators The Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. Fortunately, they more than hold their own with guitarist Joshua Hayward’s unbelievable guitar skills, effects pedal manipulation, and the band’s masterful control over their walls of noise. Like on “Dive In”, when vocalist Faris Badwan breathes, “Let it go!” and the entrancing raga reverb disappears and suddenly you’re left with your own ringing ears before the song builds back up again, instrumental layer by layer.

That’s all without going on record that Joshua Hayward may be one of the best guitarists of our generation. His fingers skittered up and down the neck of his ’62 Jaguar as though possessed, and he operated the two horizontal feet of effects pedals in front of him with the dexterity of a tenured studio engineer. Hayward almost knocked over an amp during “Three Decades” while trying to create as much distortion as possible; but he could also just as quickly pull back with the rest of the band for the quieter moments, like Badwan’s ironic soliloquy on “Who Can Say”. If The Horrors are this preternaturally talented now, I can only imagine where they’ll be in a few years.

Small Black Setlist:
Pleasant Experience
Photojournalist
Bad Lover
Maximum Minimum
Moonkiller
New Chain
Despicable Dogs

The Horrors Setlist:
Changing The Rain
Who Can Say
I Can See Through You
Scarlet Fields
Dive In
Endless Blue
Sea Within A Sea
Still Life
Moving Further Away
Encore
Mirror’s Image
Three Decades
Oceans Burning

What: UK Goth rockers The Horrors go all Gorillaz-meets-Pink-Floyd in the music video for “Changing The Rain”. The band’s latest album, Skying, is out now via XL Recordings.

Directed by: Pete Fowler

With Coachella 2012 taking place over two weekends, a number of the festival’s bands will spend the days in between performing sideshows. Presented by the festival’s promoter, GoldenVoice, the docket includes Bon Iver, Jeff Mangum, Pulp, Refused, M83, St. Vincent and tUnE-yArDs, Arctic Monkeys, Madness, Miike Snow, The Horrors, ASAP Rocky, and more. The full schedule is available in poster form above, and ticketing information for each show can be found on the GoldenVoice’s website.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

During last night’s NME Awards, Florence and the Machine’s Florence Welch joined The Horrors on-stage for a performance of their top song “Still Life”. Stereogum points us to some fan footage, which you can check out below.

Both acts also walked away with awards; Flo earned Best Solo Artist and Best Track (“Shake It Out”), while The Horrors picked up Best Album (Skying).

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

Last December, UK goth-rockers The Horrors visited London’s well-noted rock venue The Garage. The performance was filmed for Fred Perry’s Subculture video series, and you can watch the outfit deliver Skying’s ”Chasing The Rain” below.

With tight shots of the band bathed in electric-colored lights and wider cuts to the jam-packed audience, the clip purveys a sense of intimacy, as if you may already be stepping on someone’s toes. The choice of venue, a step down in capacity from the band’s recent shows, also gives the track’s ambient tinge a new set of dimensions to move and bellow in.

Skying is out now via XL Recordings. For your chance to see The Horrors live, check out their remain tour schedule below.

The Horrors 2012 Tour Dates:
03/02 – Dublin, IE @ O2 Arena *
03/04 – Dorset, UK @ Bournemouth International Centre *
03/05 – Cardiff, UK @ Cardiff Motorpoint Arena *
03/06 – Nottingham, UK@ Nottingham Capital FM Arena *
03/08 – London, UK @ London Alexandra Palace *
03/09 - London, UK @ London Alexandra Palace *
03/10 – London, UK @ London Alexandra Palace *
03/12 – Glasgow, UK @ SECC *
03/13 – Birmingham, UK @ Birmingham LG Arena *
03/15 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Evening News Arena *
03/16 – Newcastle, UK @ Newcastle Metro Radio Arena *
04/09 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
04/10 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
04/11 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
04/13 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/16 – San Francisco, CA @ Bimbio’s 365 Club ^
04/17 – San Francisco, CA @ Bimbio’s 365 Club ^
04/19 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern ^
04/20 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/16 – Sheffield, UK @ Leadmill
05/12 – Dublin, UK @ Academy
05/13 – Belfast, UK @ Mandela Hall
05/15 – Glasgow, UK @ O2 ABC
05/16 – Sheffield, UK @ The Leadmill
05/18 – Birmingham, UK @ HMV Institute
05/19 – Manchester, UK @ The Ritz
05/20 – Cardiff, UK @ Solus, Cardiff
05/22 – Portsmouth, UK @ Portsmouth Pyramids Centre
05/23 – Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy
05/25 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy
06/09 – Lutterworth, UK @ Stanford Hall
07/05-08 – Kinross, UK @ T in the Park 2012
07/12-15 – Benicàssim,ES @ Benicàssim Festival
08/08-13 – Budapest, HU @ Sziget Festival
09/06-09 – Isle of Wight, UK @ Bestival

* = w/ Florence and the Machine
^ = w/ The Black Angels

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

UK post-punk rockers The Horrors definitely plan to use their Delta Sky Miles this year. Still in support of last year’s CoS Top Star-earning Skying, the gothic collective sports a touring itinerary rivaling that of Indiana Jones, James Bond, and Jason Bourne, all combined. On January 19th, the international fellowship kicks off in Oxford, eventually taking the Brits to Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, China, Japan, and back to the UK come March for dates with Florence and Machine. With two Coachella appearances set in April, The Horrors will return stateside for a series of dates surrounding the festival, including a pair in San Francisco with The Black Angels. Then, you guessed it, they’re back in the UK.

Peep the full itinerary below (via Brooklyn Vegan), along with the video for “Still Life”.

The Horrors 2012 Tour Dates:
01/19 – Oxford, UK @ Oxford Academy
01/20 – Bristol, UK @ The Trinity Centre
01/22 – Norwich, UK @ Norwich Waterfront,
01/28 – Brisbane, AU @ Alexandria St.
01/30 – Auckland, NZ @ Silo Park
02/02 – Sydney, AU @ Metro Theatre
02/03 – Melbourne, AU @ Forum Theatre
02/04 – Melbourne @ Footscray Community Arts Centre
02/05 – Sydney, AU @ Sydney College of the Arts (SCA)
02/10 – Perth, AU @ Fowler’s Live and Unisa West Courtyards
02/11 – Perth, AU @ Perth Cultural Centre
02/14 – Bandung, ID @ Sabuga Convention Hall
02/16 – Hong Kong, CN @ KITEC Auditorium
02/17 – Taipei City, TW @ Legacy
02/18 – Tokyo, JP @ Hostess Club Weekender
02/22 – Doornroosje (Nijmegen), NL @ 6525 EL
02/23 – Eindhoven @ Effenaar
03/02 – Dublin, IE @ O2 Arena *
03/04 – Dorset, UK @ Bournemouth International Centre *
03/05 – Cardiff, UK @ Cardiff Motorpoint Arena *
03/06 – Nottingham, UK@ Nottingham Capital FM Arena *
03/08 – London, UK @ London Alexandra Palace *
03/09 - London, UK @ London Alexandra Palace *
03/10 – London, UK @ London Alexandra Palace *
03/12 – Glasgow, UK @ SECC *
03/13 – Birmingham, UK @ Birmingham LG Arena *
03/15 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Evening News Arena *
03/16 – Newcastle, UK @ Newcastle Metro Radio Arena *
04/09 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
04/10 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
04/11 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
04/13 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
04/16 – San Francisco, CA @ Bimbio’s 365 Club ^
04/17 – San Francisco, CA @ Bimbio’s 365 Club ^
04/20 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
04/16 – Sheffield, UK @ Leadmill
05/18 – Birmingham, UK @ HMV Institute
05/19 – Manchester, UK @ The Ritz
05/20 – Cardiff, UK @ Solus, Cardiff
05/22 – Portsmouth, UK @ Portsmouth Pyramids Centre
05/23 – Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy
05/25 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy

* = w/ Florence and the Machine
^ = w/ The Black Angels

“Still Life”:

Other notables include St. Vincent, Arctic Monkeys, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, Justice, Mazzy Star, M83, Explosions in the Sky, Childish Gambino, Flying Lotus, Destroyer, Cat Power, Madness, SBTRKT, Beirut, Amon Tobin, DJ Shadow, fIREHOSE, Miike Snow, The Rapture, M. Ward, Jimmy Cliff with Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong, The Horrors, Buzzcocks, James, EMA, Girls, tUnE-yArDs, and more.

The lineup also packs Wild Flag, ASAP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Neon Indian, Santigold, Modeselektor, The Big Pink, Wu Lyf, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, The Head and the Heart, Laura Marling, Company Flow, AraabMUZIK, Kaskade, Le Butcherettes, Real Estate, Wild Beasts, La Roux, Thundercat, Azealia Banks, Kasabian, Goyte, Manchester Orchestra, Black Lips, Atari Teenage Riot, and more. Check out the full lineup below or at our Festival Outlook.

Update: Tickets go on sale Friday, January 13th at 10:00 AM PT. According to Pop & Hiss, three-day passes are $285, three-day with shuttle are $335, and VIP are $665.

At this year’s Record Store Day – the April one, not the November shindig – I felt something that hadn’t occurred to me in probably 10 years. I felt excited to hold a record. Standing in line, clutching the inside of my far-too-thin hoodie (thanks, Chicago wind), I paced back and forth in my mind, thinking, God, I hope I get this album. The item in question? Big Star’s unreleased Third.

Of course, I didn’t get it. Nobody did. The store didn’t even receive a copy. So, instead, I spent a couple bucks on some singles, bit my lip, and went home somewhat satiated. But, for the 45 minutes prior to that moment, it was something slightly alien, but moreover familiar. There used to be a time when you couldn’t get an album.

Not everyone can remember that feeling, but they should. Prior to the digital revolution, music was somewhat of a privilege. As a child, you might spend weeks saving up money for something that takes less than two clicks to grab now. Don’t get me wrong — it’s liberating. But value gets partly tossed aside now. It really shouldn’t.

The album is by far the most integral facet of the music industry. People throw out EPs, toss in singles, but albums really mean something. If it’s even halfway decent, it’s essentially then a collection of perfected thoughts, emotions, and creations that are meant to be consumed, examined, and experienced. This year, we had far too many experiences – seemingly overloaded by an open-door policy of music thanks to Spotify.

That didn’t stop us, however, from finding 50 albums we thoroughly enjoyed.

-Michael Roffman
President/Editor-in-Chief

50. Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire

In 2011, a record like this with precise craft, honest and bare songwriting, and gorgeous, subtle polish seldom gets made. Ashes & Fire is a mainstay because of its demeanor: authentic, exposed, and sublime. It’s a departure from the soaring years with the Cardinals and the rowdy solo work of yesteryear. Instead, Ryan Adams is mellow and content; his voice gleams from artfully sparse production (see: “Dirty Rain”). A tightly focused survey of the remaining ashes of his past, the album subtly questions what to do with all that history in light of a different self and becomes a modern classic in the process. -Liz Lane

49. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar

The Joy Formidable may very well be the most appropriately named band to make their full-length debut this year. On The Big Roar, the Welsh trio’s brand of hook-laden guitar pop is a delight to behold as Ritzy Bryan’s urgent delivery transforms song after song into something anthemic. Their swirling layers of guitars and rapid-fire percussion pack enough of a forceful punch to live up to the other half of the band’s name. Full of catchy choruses and relentlessly energetic guitar crunches, The Big Roar is a stadium-sized album amidst a sea of clubs. -Frank Mojica

48. Astronautalis – This Is Our Science

On This Is Our Science, Astronautalis, aka Charles Andrew Bothwell, sounds as convincing singing about a turbulent relationship on “Secrets on Our Lips” as he does spitting verses on cryogenic experimenter Robert Nelson on “Midday Moon”. But it’s not just for intellectuals: Bothwell duets with Tegan Quinn on “Contrails” and features rapper P.O.S. on the album’s title track, gaining both indie and hip-hop street cred. This diversity catapulted Astronautalis’ fourth album into the iTunes top 10 downloads when it was released. In addition, producer John Congleton’s signature desperate, moody arrangements add emotional depth to This Is Our Science’s largely intellectual material. -Harley Brown

47. Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread

At just 24 years old, Goodbye Bread is Ty Segall’s fifth full-length, and again he plays every instrument. The stats are impressive, but this spotless collection of West coast garage tunes handily earns this spot. Less howl-y and punky than previous releases, Segall varies his influences from John Lennon (“I Can’t Feel It”) to smokey blues rock (“The Floor”), all loaded with warm, fuzzy reverb. Songs like “Comfortable Home (A True Story)” show the young artist’s growth into a more personal songwriter, his half-languid falsetto more revealing than ever. It’s mellower, sure, but it’s also some of his most carefully considered output yet, leading to some of his best. And there’s still plenty of stomp and roll. -Benjamin Kaye

46. Summer Camp – Welcome to Condale

The cover of Summer Camp’s Welcome to Condale features a woman in a bathing suit doing a keg stand. So appropriate for an album that tempts the imagination, concocting this place called “Condale” where the kids are hot, the music spacey and romantic. The album is jaded Americana (even though the band is from England), conjuring images of the boardwalk, $2 beer specials, and sand in your hair. Their foreign nature only makes their fascination with American culture that much more apparent. This is an album for losing your virginity in the backseat (“Last American Virgin”), getting sunburned by the lake (“Summer Camp”), and smoking your first joint (“I Want You”). It doesn’t attempt to hide the fact that it relishes in the cliché while embracing a nostalgic beauty that makes the frivolity of youth so universal. -Summer Dunsmore

45. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch the Throne

Watch the Throne, likely the most widely anticipated album of the current decade thus far, sounds exactly like what it is: Two of hip-hop’s most powerful overlords reveling in knowing that they’re just that. In barely 45 minutes, Yeezy and Hov plow through the likes of bionic pop-rap (“Lift Off“), borderline-dubstep (“Who Gon‘ Stop Me“), exotic grandeur (“Murder to Excellence“), and bare-bones soul (“Otis”), all of which is – this cannot be overstated – immaculately produced. Plus, with these two guys constantly playing verbal ping-pong, the whole album is indubitably and nearly incessantly fun. And that’s really all it ever needed to be. -Mike Madden

44. Yuck – Yuck

Admittedly, every sound on Yuck’s self-titled debut is one we’ve all heard before. Rather than embracing one particular influence, Yuck seamlessly pays tribute to nearly all of indie rock’s greatest legends from song to song (e.g. Pavement, My Bloody Valentine, and Dinosaur Jr.). Sure, there is a revitalization of the fuzzed-out sounds of the late 80’s and 90’s here, but Yuck also taps into the spirit and emotional highs and lows that made those bands so intriguing in the first place. Sometimes, it’s not what you do but how you do it that matters. -Frank Mojica

43. Mikal Cronin – Mikal Cronin

A few months back, our own Jeremy D. Larson wrote that the tone of Mikal Cronin’s self-titled debut falls “somewhere between Velvet Underground’s Loaded and The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells.” For one, he’s right. Yet moreover, the album exudes this sentimental presence that recalls ’60s mainstays like The Byrds or Jefferson Airplane. It’s a hazy experience that’s quite addicting, like a 151-glazed night in your college heartbreaker’s dorm room. (What? Stay with me, folks.) Check into Cronin’s living room stunner “Hold On Me”, a track that frolics with mousy percussion and cyclical acoustics. It’s a moody think piece. Not moody in the sense that you’re out to scratch the world’s eyes out, but sort of like that welcoming isolation you pine for from time to time. Fact: Sometimes being alone feels better. With a voice and ear like Cronin’s, it’ll always sound better. -Michael Roffman

42. Kendrick Lamar – Section .80

Twenty-four-year-old rapper Kendrick Lamar is a native of Compton, CA, but you’re not likely to figure that out while listening to Section.80. Its beats bear almost nil resemblance to the storied G-funk of the city’s past. Rather, the album is built around electro-tinged, blurry near-boom-bap that gives Lamar more than enough room to do whatever he chooses on the mic, something he takes full advantage of. Plus, his finest verses (found on “A.D.H.D.” and “Fuck Your Ethnicity”) occasionally evoke 2Pac at his least thuggish. No small feat there. -Mike Madden

41. Washed Out – Within & Without

Two years ago, Ernest Greene was just beginning to take Washed Out beyond a childhood bedroom side project. After a year of Sub Pop signage and this full-length debut, Within and Without, Greene is headed beyond being another chillwave act with synths. This album is devastatingly gorgeous, submerging listeners in Washed Out’s world of dense, warm vocals (“Eyes Be Closed”),  gloomy love songs with strings (“Far Away”), and jaunty pop  (“Before”). Within and Without is a kaleidoscope of discovery, uncovering directions Greene’s counterparts have yet to explore. -Lauren Rearick

40. The Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck

All Eternals Deck is a marvel, overflowing by turns with apathy, cheerful quirk, barely contained rage, and quiet wistfulness. And that’s just the first four tracks. John Darnielle’s vocal range is on full display here, laid over desperately driving guitars on 13 tracks as varied as they are meaningful. There are so many juicy pockets of lyrical cleverness here (see: “Estate Sale Sign”, “Prowl Great Cain”, and “For Charles Bronson”) that the album requires repeat listens to soak them all in. Fortunately, we’ve had most of 2011 to do just that. -Megan Ritt

39. Danny Brown – XXX

The greatest treasure of Detroit rapper Danny Brown’s breakthrough mixtape, XXX (an acronym that alludes to sex, drugs, and Brown’s age), is that it delivers as many ridiculous and hilariously clever lines as any other release this year. A brief sampling: “Sorta like Squidward and his clarinet/I’m in ya bitch mouth,” “You softer than Flanders’ son/Don’t make me put hands on son,“ “I‘m higher than Swizz Beatz’s hairline.” Oh, and the oft-dissonant, largely trimmed-down production has its moments, too (“Blunt After Blunt”, “EWNESW”, “DNA”). -Mike Madden

Download

38. Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica

Daniel Lopatin has been making progressively bigger waves with each release since 2008’s Russian Minds, but Replica is easily his best, most accessible full-length to date. Rather than the swirling analog haze that colored his previous work, the album sees Lopatin mine the discarded junk culture of yesteryear for a singular, strangely dystopian vision of the future more akin to that of a science fiction author than a musician. From the piano-laden “Power of Persuasion” to the meditative ambiance of “Submersible”, Replica is remarkable music unlike anything else on Earth, or anywhere else for that matter. -Möhammad Choudhery

37. Real Estate – Days

Ben Folds chronicled the suburbs with white boy angst. Arcade Fire did it with melancholia. Real Estate takes a more laid-back approach, shrouding their simple, yet relatable, lyrics about suburban New Jersey (the songs have straightforward titles like “It’s Real” and “Wonder Years”) in a fog of hazy guitar solos and precise rhythm that could take place anywhere in the nation, as long as it’s not a city. Like a high school summer, it feels relaxed and alluringly repetitious. And isn’t that the point? -Dan Caffrey

36. Bill Callahan – Apocalypse

For anyone who thought Bon Iver was the definitive impressionistic album of the year, Bill Callahan’s latest proves to be its strictly Americana counterpart. Hell, just look at the cover art. With Apocalypse, Callahan turns the Americana landscape into an ocean of sounds. Over a fiddle, an organ, a pedal steel, and reverb swells, Callahan becomes America’s most forward thinking country/folk singer still making music rooted in those old-time standards. “DC-4-5-0,” Callahan laments in the last moments of Apocalypse.  It’s an interesting sentiment, a powerful statement made without any real words. It’s the record’s Drag City serial number. As Callahan closes the door on yet another chapter in his demented world of horses, gunslingers, and cattle prodding, he is well aware that he’s doing so. It’s the question of where he’ll head next that makes the current state of his affairs all the more fascinating. In the meantime, we’re glad he’s leaving off here. -Drew Litowitz

35. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Anonymity and avoiding press in the hyper-mediated blogosphere turns out to be a pretty effective tactic for getting some attention – especially for Unknown Mortal Orchestra, whose music turned out to be as difficult to place on the genre spectrum as it is to put a face on their online presence. With the release of their self-titled debut, the heavy hooks of Bandcamp viral “Ffunny Ffriends” find a home in a tightly performed but cheaply produced space odyssey – an intricate mix of psychedelics, speedy guitar riffs, and otherworldly vocals. Frontman Ruban Nielson’s knack for melody (who can resist “How Can U Luv Me?”) and treating the voice as an instrument proves to be the icing on the cake, validating the weird internet hype and translating the buzz into legitimacy. -Caitlin Meyer

34. Adele – 21

A lot of people may roll their eyes at the inclusion of Adele’s 21 to year-end lists, but you can’t deny the staying power and grip the album has had on popular music. Love her or hate her, you couldn’t walk past a stereo or TV that wasn’t playing Adele this year. Being a pop music juggernaut doesn’t mean the album shouldn’t be respected, however. From the infectious “Rolling in the Deep” to the heart-wrenching “Someone Like You” to the vengeful “Set Fire to the Rain”, the album is solid front-to-back. Adele’s voice is a one-of-a-kind, jazzy, smoky, emotional powerhouse, and the fact that she is still topping charts months after the album was released shows she has a complete right to be on everyone’s year-end list. -Nick Freed

33. Cut Copy – Zonoscope

Leaner, meaner, and with more percussion. That’s the gist of Cut Copy’s excellent (and Grammy-nominated) follow-up to In Ghost Colours. Zonoscope sprawls into epic, tribal sounds and Beach Boys vocal harmonies, retaining its New Order moodiness and evoking sounds of native Australian ’80s new wave. If you went to a festival this summer, chances are you heard one of these hip-shaking beats wafting across a simmering summer vista. Do yourself a favor and listen to them again. Re-live your summer. -Paul de Revere

32. Gotye – Making Mirrors

One-by-one the countries of the world are falling in love with Gotye. The Austrailian multi-instrumentalist’s third album, Making Mirrors, has found its way into U.S. playlists in the wake of his video for “Somebody that I Used to Know” featuring Kimba. In it we see Gotye, with the charming anarchistic boyishness of Sting, singing with the heartrending honesty of Phil Collins. Ultimately it’s Collins’ bandmate Peter Gabriel that Gotye gets compared to the most, and for an obvious reason – the album is a musical wonderland of deeply layered and sophisticated pop sounds the likes of which we haven’t heard since So. From the Miracle Mile-like nuclear romance of “Eyes Wide Open”, to the lavish electro-reggae of “State of the Art”, Making Mirrors is sonically diverse, and with Gotye’s disarmingly genuine lyrics, it pulls madly at our heartstrings. -Cap Blackard

31. Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow

The most precious thing Kate Bush possesses is a rather magical way of thinking, and her latest record reflects this through utilizing an array of idiosyncratic collaborators (Elton John, Stephen Fry, her son Albert “Bertie” McIntosh) and characters ranging from a romantic snowman to a Yeti. Snow is a perfect inspirational touchstone for Bush, because when it falls, it makes everything seem more clear and yet retains a dreamlike quality. 50 Words for Snow is the musical equivalent of a long, yearning sigh, with songs like “Wild Man” and (almost 14-minute-long) “Misty” inhabiting a half-lit world that at different turns takes in driving beats, haunting piano, and spoken word to create the kind of unusual, inventive, and expansive sound Bush has become synonymous with, and she remains a sensual metronome of sorts (especially her voice, so unwavering and true) -  comforting and necessary in this increasingly confusing world. -Siobhán Kane

30. The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient

Despite the subtraction of Kurt Vile, The War on Drugs keep chugging along with their latest effort. Slave Ambient is a 12-track wallop filled with Dylan-esque vocals, instrumentals, and, yes, ambience. Singer/guitarist Adam Granduciel takes us through the rough-and-tumble landscape where we find the catchy, constant stream of “Best Night”, the steady thumping of “Your Love Is Calling My Name”, and the acoustic-driven coda of the elegiac “Black Water Falls”. The guitar play between Granduciel and Dave Hartley is second to no one this year. -Justin Gerber

29. The Men – Leave Home

The Men nailed their demands to the door of the Church of Punk/Hardcore and peaced-out for greener pastures. The melting pot that resulted on Leave Home is an alarm call for purists and tourists alike. It plays like a record-collector’s wet dream with obvious hat-tips to Spaceman 3, Joy Division, The Wipers, and whatever else is in The Men’s milk crates. But there’s no prerequisite to feel the primal churning squalor of  ”L.A.D.O.C.H.”, a song specializing in blunt trauma force to the guts-bag. The cocaine-surf instrumentals, relentless noise punk, and post-punk kraut-rock tunes that quake with the words, “Can you push them away?” over and over are all hurled into a storm of angular guitars, walls of drums, knives, fists, and sweat that doesn’t ever let up. This album’s so far from pure that if you snorted it you’d land straight in the ER. Man, that’s what’s so great about it, though. -Jeremy D. Larson

28. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo

Smoke Ring for My Halo is probably the easiest album to digest in 2011. That is, if you enjoy a good daydream. With his spidery guitar scales, sunset-staring vocals, and uber-melancholic lyrics, Kurt Vile sucks you in. It’s so easy to get lost here. Right off the bat, “Baby’s Arms” acts as a wormhole, to which you’re sliding into repetition and soul-seeking rhythms. From there it’s pure moonshine. Down quick, hard-hitting. Producer John Agnello keeps things at home, as well, which is where Vile belongs. We like our singer-songwriters close to us, and it doesn’t get any more intimate than this. Looking for a friend? Consider this album your new roommate. Just don’t expect him to do the dishes. Though, he’ll certainly keep you company. Always. -Michael Roffman

27. Childish Gambino – Camp

If Drake is the MC who made it cool to rap and emote, then Childish Gambino (aka actor/comedian Donald Glover) helped evolve the style into something far more nuanced and outlandish. Thanks to his comedic background, Gambino peppers his tracks with catchy rhymes and clever quips galore (like the line from “Sunrise”: “I’ve seen it all, like I’m John Mayer’s penis hole”). He’s an MC who understands the power of beats and an appealing production style, which he demonstrates on cuts like the menacing “Bonfire” and the electro-heavy “Heartbeat”. But it’s his wide-open emotional sentiments that make the LP shine outside the confines of its genre. Whether he’s confessing his detachment from the black community in “Backpackers” or sharing the pain of his childhood heartache with “That Power”, Gambino wears his heart on his pink polo shirt, readily rubbing into listeners’ faces at any given moment. Looks like the joke’s on us after all. -Chris Coplan

26. Wild Flag – Wild Flag

Wild Flag aren’t Sleater-Kinney 2.0, and that wound up being a good thing. The highly anticipated debut from the Sleater/Helium/Minders supergroup is a new beast entirely, harder rocking than anything they’ve done before. While Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony’s voices will stir up a few warm, familiar memories, the overdriven guitars and psychedelic keyboard breakdowns make an outstanding case towards a new era for these musicians. Wild Flag stands as an impressive debut, with or without the band members’ all-star pedigrees. -Austin Trunick

25. Panda Bear – Tomboy

The journey of Panda Bear’s latest LP, Tomboy, was more akin to that of a hip-hop album than an indie solo record. After the first single dropped in the summer of 2010, Panda Bear announced a late fourth quarter release for his follow-up to the critically acclaimed, Person Pitch. Like countless rappers before him, Noah Lennox delayed his album again and again, finally releasing it on April 12th. The album is sonically smaller than Person Pitch but not any less ambitious. While wholly longer than its predecessor, the individual songs are short and to the point, resulting in fantastic, succinct blasts of space-age pop like “Last Night at the Jetty” and “Surfer’s Hymn”. -Carson O’Shoney

24. SBTRKT – SBTRKT

London artist SBTRKT has swept the world this year with his self-titled debut LP, rocking festivals and small venues alike. A leading proponent of post-dubstep sprinkled with a tad of R & B soul, his sound provides something astoundingly unique for the music scene: pure, unbridled novelty. “Wildfire” is the album’s standout track, its main synth bass line too infectious to ignore on the dance floor. “Living Like I Do” is stylistically different, evidencing more trance-like influences, and it shows the diversity of the album. Singing about love and heartbreak, with beats sometimes dizzying, sometimes morose, the album is an emotional exposition of SBTRKT’s affinity for the music medium. -Summer Dunsmore

23. The Weeknd – House of Balloons

The Weeknd really took this year by storm, in case you hadn’t been paying attention. It’s been a hurricane of success – the 21-year-old Toronto native is seemingly unstoppable. But it all started with the twisted allure of House of Balloons. From heavy hitting single fodder like “Wicked Games” and “High For This” to unsung heroes like the mellow “Coming Down”, or the Beach House-sampling “The Party & The After Party”, The Weeknd created a cohesive album equal parts grime and glamor. Multiply some of the tightest production this year by Abel’s pure upper register and you’ve got a winner. Now multiply that sum by uber-enticing lyrics of grotesquely beautiful over-indulgence, and what’s the outcome? An album that goes down smooth, but also leaves your esophagus battered, bleeding, and hurting oh so good. -Winston Robbins

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22. Thundercat – The Golden Age of Apocalypse

Super-bassist Stephen Bruner, aka Thundercat, is only 27, but he already has the sort of resume most only dream of, logging performance credits with everyone from Snoop Dogg to Erykah Badu, along with a full-time gig as bassist for thrash-fusion legends Suicidal Tendencies. Someone this good could only play sideman for so long, though. After lending his virtuosic talents last year to Flying Lotus’ magnificent beat odyssey Cosmogramma, Lotus returned the favor by producing Bruner’s stellar debut, The Golden Age of Apocalypse. But make no mistake. This is Thundercat’s Golden Age, his smooth bass runs and smoother falsetto starring throughout. The beat-heavy “Daylight” and dreamy rework of George Duke’s “For Love I Come” are obvious highlights, though Thundercat’s distinctly cosmic presence and unparalleled skill make for essential listening from start to finish. -Möhammad Choudhery

21. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Christopher Owens’ sweet, puppy dog eyes timbre convinces just about anyone that despite substance problems, scars of a former religious cult, heartache, and anxiety, everything is just alright in the present. Father, Son, Holy Ghost harnesses music’s spiritual characteristics in a conspicuous manor, as Owens and his band mates cleverly balance yearning gospel pangs with snotty, west coast retro rock. There’s paranoia (“Die”), choir loft church organ soul (“Vomit”, “My Ma”, and “Love Like a River”), and an overall smart execution of style no matter what Girls’ carefree fuck-it-all style says (see: “Just a Song”). Their sophomore album shows that Girls have honed in on a truly distinct sound that pulls from past influences, but manages to sound wholly original and really, really good. From poppy, riff-heavy opener “Honey Bunny” to the emotional apexes of the final three tracks, Father, Son, Holy Ghost plays as a complete and fantastic album. -Liz Lane

20. Tom Waits – Bad As Me

How fitting that in the same year as his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Tom Waits released an album that reminds us precisely why we love and still need the old rain dog. In crisp, vibrant bursts, Bad As Me revisits and revitalizes numerous styles and sounds from across Waits’ nearly 40-year career. But this record is much more than an old beatboxing junkman’s recycling project. Whether it be the tender frankness of lover’s plea “Back in the Crowd”, the cool chill of life’s autumn felt on “Last Leaf”, or the jarring nightmare of wartime romp “Hell Broke Luce”, Waits’ finest songs still shine a brief light upon those who often go unseen and unheard, which is precisely why we need him. Yes, we like to “stomp, whistle, and scream” and “dance with a soldier’s glee” (whatever that entails exactly), but Waits also knows that we need to cry in our beer, howl at the moon, and occasionally have our lives dignified by a stranger sparing a moment to listen to our sad stories. The fact that Bad As Me somehow manages to make it all so goddamn fun is what makes him Tom Waits. -Matt Melis 

19. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life

From a deceptively quiet beginning roars Fucked Up’s epic punk opera, David Comes to Life. Composed of 18 tracks that form four acts, the eponymous David rises and falls through love, loss, and ultimate redemption, which might not be as notable a project if the entire thing wasn’t screamed into your headphones by Fucked Up’s own Damian Abraham. Fortunately, Abraham and his backing guitars manage to ratchet out many levels of emotion amidst the chaos (and if that’s not the sound of heartbreak, then nothing is), turning David into not just another noisy punk album but a meaningful, moving journey through that most universal of emotions – love. -Megan Ritt

18. Atlas Sound – Parallax

Bradford Cox has never been one for compromises, in performance or on record. Every single release under the Atlas Sound moniker or in collaboration with his fellow Deerhunter bandmates has been a thorough representation of his tenacious artistic vision at the current time. Parallax, though in part an homage to the Neil Young and Patti Smith singer-songwriters of yore, is no exception to this trend, replete with Cox’s trademark creative guitar inventions, alien soundscapes, and queer punk attitude. Dealing with neglect, personal perception, and, yes, romance, the album shelters some of the catchiest (“Mona Lisa”), starkest (“Flagstaff”), and most intricate (“Amplifiers”) songs in Cox’s body of work thus far. It is this exact contrast of the candidly sweet with the unabashedly weird and unexpected – the acoustic noise with the controlled studio work – that makes Parallax and Cox’s music in total the unique gift to modern music that it is. -David DiLillo

17. The Horrors – Skying

Skying is a paragon of how to face the pressures of matching initial critical success with a follow-up: Nut up, evolve, and do something people might not expect. The Horrors lock their goth-outlined, post-punk gaze down on their pop-laced shoes and dive into ’80s influences to put together an album encapsulating their progression as a band. Faris Badwan’s vocals have been raised and fleshed out; everything is subtler, tighter, and more atmospheric than 09’s Primary Colours, all of which works to this album’s favor. From the insanely absorbing rumblings and synths of “Changing the Rain” to the spellbinding repetitions of “Moving Further Away”, each track could soundtrack a John Hughes film as easily as a hazy dance scene. By being brave enough to vary their sound, The Horrors are proving to be a band capable of understanding and managing growth – something not every act can accomplish. -Benjamin Kaye

16. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints

The songs feel more captured than recorded, like the studio just happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch the drones, the noise, the insipidness, and the catharsis. The connection between each of the nine tracks is loose; some howl with feedback and noise, while others play at a grunge revival, and then there’s the cantillation of “California”, a homily so raw it has the congregation squirming in the pews. But the wide palate of Erika M. Anderson is the prize of the record. Her knife is sharp and knows who to cut and where and how and can do it in a hundred different ways to leave someone just as marked as she is. Couple that with the cool breeze of a west coast girl who knows how to write a catchy melody, and the masochism of Past Life Martyred Saints really becomes something very real and addictive. -Jeremy D. Larson

15. Radiohead – The King of Limbs

Radiohead has attained a status such that every album it releases is expected to reach groundbreaking heights, introducing the world to some new luminous idea that will set the bar for all pop and rock music yet to come. It’s understandable, because Radiohead has done that a couple of times. But while The King of Limbs doesn’t do that, it does nothing to earn unwarranted hostility either. There are several gems that have etched a permanent place in Radiohead’s oeuvre, including the invigorating “Bloom”, the wordless wonder “Feral”, and, of course, “Lotus Flower”. If Radiohead is finished making instant classics, it will be no tragedy if The King of Limbs is a sign of things to come. -J. Harry Painter

14. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

Over 12 spiritually emotional tracks, Robin Pecknold marries his flawless vocals to harmonies and expertly woven instrumentals, all in a rich and satisfying circle. The songs are charged with memorable, soaring melodies, and Pecknold’s observational, first-person lyrics are teasingly profound. On the title track, Pecknold sings, “If I know only one thing, it’s that everything I see/of the world outside is so inconceivable/that often, I barely can speak.” Fortunately, he still does. A hallmark is usually pretty small to the naked eye. When this record is dusted off in 30 or 40 years, you will surely find the word classic etched somewhere discreet. -Tony Hardy

13. Beyoncé – 4

Born from bits and pieces of Fela Kuti, Broadway musicals, and Lionel Richie, 4 is simultaneously one of Beyoncé’s most musically diverse and personal records. It’s a master class, of sorts, of pop music over the last 40 years. From the mega-sized R&B/show tune/love anthem of “Countdown” to the old-school swag of “Party” featuring André 3000, 4 is a hit factory extravaganza – only with more substance. It’s incredibly personal; far deeper than anything else in her otherwise emotionally available career. Yet it’s also quite compact, doing away with some fluff and filler that plagued her past LPs. Already, we’re bubbling over with joyous anticipation for what 5 has to offer. -Chris Coplan

12. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

This year, bass saxophonist Colin Stetson went from little-known indie symphony stalwart (having backed everyone from LCD Soundsystem to Tom Waits) to a solo force in his own right. Nothing could encapsulate his stratospheric shot to prominence better than his second long-player, a formative mesh of free jazz, thrumming drone, and beautifully structured songwriting. Even more impressive is that the disc is composed solely of single takes without any overdubbing or looping. That’s right. Other than vocal contributions from Laurie Anderson and My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden, the alternately cacophonic and startling, beautiful noises are coming straight from Stetson’s sax, proving his instrumental mastery and writing genius. -Adam Kivel

11. The Antlers – Burst Apart

Burst Apart couldn’t have been more appropriately titled, as it signifies the complete departure from the moving darkness of Hospice, the adherence to genre norms, and, most importantly for the band, The Antlers’ status as a one-man show. The creative talents of Peter Silberman, Darby Cicci, and Michael Lerner seamlessly fuse together throughout Burst Apart‘s 10 tracks to create everything experienced in their live show and, more markedly, a mesmerizing collaborative vision. Dynamism becomes the key word as the record progresses. The shifts from “Rolled Together”‘s hypnotic groove to straightforward rocker “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out” are executed without pause, without the emotive lyrics suffering in the least – proving anew that maybe, as long as you’re The Antlers, you really can have it all. -Caitlin Meyer

10. Drake – Take Care

Hip-hop’s a jungle full of bloodthirsty lions decked out in diamonds and looking for their next target. But suddenly a young lion emerges into a clearing: Drake. While his counterparts are all about pure thuggery and bragging ad infinitum, Drake’s sophomore LP changes the landscape with heartfelt, emotional confessions of lost love and personal inadequacies.

From the baller anthem of “Headlines” to the drunken loneliness and outbursts in “Marvin’s Room”, Take Care is Drizzy’s declaration of his own shortcomings in the middle of a white-hot ride up the charts, a spellbinding narrative if there ever was one. Drake has taken the work of his first, slightly disappointing record and shown himself to now fully understand the delicate balancing act he must endeavor. In essence, Drake has rewritten the rules of the rap game, adding much-needed depth to the swagger contest of modern verse slangin’. All hail the new king of the jungle. -Chris Coplan

9. Destroyer – Kaputt

According to Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar, Kaputt‘s coke rock aesthetic was never intentional. There was no irony, no hidden homage to Roxy Music and latter-day Steely Dan as many music fans and critics thought. It was just how he heard the songs. Whether you believe that insistence or not, the album’s enchanting mood and charismatic weirdness are undeniable. Bejar’s time-traveling tales of cryptic romance and doomed nightlife are laced with electronic drums, smooth jazz flute, and dreamy saxophone, the sonic equivalent to a Thomas Pynchon novel viewed through the glitzy fracture of a disco ball.

Opener “Chinatown” wraps the listener in the record’s world of slowly dying neon, the title track flits back and forth between what’s more appealing, cocaine or women (the band never bothers to decide), and album centerpiece “Suicide Demo for Kara Walker” escorts us through 400 years of the American party scene by way of a brown paper bag. The lyrics are impenetrable, and none of it probably ever happened, but that doesn’t keep us from feeling like we were there. -Dan Caffrey

8. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l

It’s rare to make music that people have never heard before; but on w h o k i l l, tUnE-yArDs have done just that, combining ancient African musical traditions like polyrhythms with looping and other modern technologies. More importantly, with songs like the irresistibly anthemic “Bizness”, Merrill Garbus has expanded from a blog-cherished eccentricity to a universal must-see. Her arrangement of two saxophonists, a bassist, and her own vocal and percussive instrumentation has rarely, if ever, been seen in music history. Not only that, her husky, yet lilting, squawk—which veers from eerie on “Wooly Wolly Gong” to famously siren-imitating on “Gangsta”—demonstrates noteworthy versatility.

With w h o k i l l, Garbus has ascended to the ranks of groundbreaking female artists like Lauryn Hill and MC Lyte, whom she emulates on “Doorstep” and “Killa”, respectively. Like other female artistic idol Bjork, she uses her voice nontraditionally, at times to convey a political message (i.e. call-and-response loops that sound like monkeys, singing the lyrics to “America”, on “My Country). Despite all this ground she’s covered, Garbus continues to challenge herself like on “You Yes You”, when she asks, “What’s that about?” when she starts to sing about personal satisfaction and, thus, perhaps complacency. Songs like the atonal, stop-and-start “Es-so” exemplify w h o k i l l’s aural challenge because it sounds more pleasing with each listen, challenging the listener to meet Garbus on her level instead of vice versa. And, ultimately, the effort is worth it. -Harley Brown

7. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

With Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, M83 set out to capture the stuff that dreams are made of – and succeed. This is nothing new in the world of dream pop and electronica, but M83′s ability to distil childhood longing and teenage nostalgia into spirit lifting, anthemic, synth opuses is second to none. He captures it. If you were a dreamy kid, adventuring at night, and trying to live out your dreams in the day – these songs crystallize that special feeling, that certain time, that tragic, beautiful, ever-fleeing youth. It’s an incredible thing to put on some headphones, curl up in bed, and go back.

Picking up where Saturdays = Youth left off, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming‘s sound matures while its subject matter remains in the same vein. That said, this is not a repeat performance. Anchored by far more analog instruments, and a thematic concept that spans two discs, M83 uses the space he’s created to its fullest with both gripping singles like “Midnight City” and affecting, transcendental instrumentals and interludes. “Claudia Lewis” recaptures the lavish art pop production of the ’80s and lovingly reinstates it as the ideal sound for rooftop dancefloors. “New Map” couples epic modern synth tracks with a smooth 70′s flute and sax arrangement for an exciting new sonic experience. With Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, M83 has proven himself as the most exciting electropop act of the current age – a musical mind inevitably looking back, but always pushing forward. -Cap Blackard

6. James Blake – James Blake

It’s almost hard to remember the pre-Bon Iver owl hoot collaboration days of James Blake, but believe it or not the debut album that took the blogwaves by storm is less than a year old. James Blake is the London post-dubstep singer-songwriter at his most consistent and most focused, with not a misstep to be found through 11 tracks. It’s easy to write Blake off as a one-trick pony if one merely samples a song or two, but this album is so far above that that the criticism is criminally uncalled for.

James Blake isn’t a conceptual journey, but, sonically, each track offers something not heard in the track preceding it. Whether it’s full-on dubstep throbbing as on “I Never Learnt to Share”, straightforward, soulful piano balladry as on “Give Me My Month”, or vocal manipulation and sampling as on “To Care (Like You)”, Blake’s first and so far only full-length album holds the listener’s attention despite being chock-full of unabashed minimalism. It’s not just an extended experiment in fun new sounds, however. There are sing-along moments aplenty, from the Feist cover “Limit to Your Love” to the hook-heavy “The Wilhelm Scream” and sentimental album closer “Measurements”. If Blake has set the bar so high here that he never matches it, that’s one thing, but it cannot be justly denied that the bar is nonetheless high and worthy of all the shameless imitation it will inspire. -J. Harry Painter

5. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light

Badass pop-rock is back, and Dave Grohl is driving the truck. Two things (other than being led by a Nirvana alum) have made Foo Fighters wildly successful for almost 20 years: an acute pop sensibility and a goofy sense of humor. They’re both present on Wasting Light, but there’s something even more important: a thrashing, hard rock attitude and sound that kicks you in the face and makes you want more. Part of this is due to the much lauded return to analog recording on this album, and the garage band sound is quite literal, since it was recorded in Grohl’s garage-cum-studio.

Grohl’s expertly crafted melodies are much more lyrical than a typical hard rock song, but from the opening dissonant strumming of “Bridge Burning”, it’s clear that the Foo Fighters are returning to some of the grungy-ness of that early ’90s alternative sound. Amidst the tight vocal harmonies of “Dear Rosemary” or the power ballad “I Should Have Known” or the über-poppy “Arlandria”, Foo Fighters deliver a bona fide metal track in “White Limo”, with Grohl’s screaming vocals and a heavy chromatic guitar riff. No wonder they put Lemmy in the video. When Grohl said, “never lose faith in real rock and roll music” at this year’s VMAs, this was the sound he meant. -Jake Cohen

4. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

On her ambitious eighth album, PJ Harvey crafts a lush ode to her homeland that is brutal and uplifting, admonitory and exalting. Through evocations of The Great War (WWI) and other conflicts, Let England Shake paints an achingly beautiful picture of a country built on the lives of young soldiers and broken promises, simultaneously praising its glory while lamenting its modern stagnation and bloody history. A polarity of sentiment, grandiose without the pretense, explores the conflict of patriotic love (“The Last Living Rose”) with sociopolitical dissatisfaction (“England”).

The poetic resonance is breathtaking, and Harvey makes you feel it. Her voice, flooded with emotion, soars and swirls amidst autoharps and horns, creating a sonic landscape unlike anything she’s done before. It’s strikingly passionate, with a hauntingly marching momentum that pulls you in to her tales of war and hope. The sound is bolstered by recording in a repurposed church, adding a hallowed echo perfectly suited to the subject. Its success is immutable; the album nabbed this year’s Mercury Prize, making PJ Harvey the first artist ever to receive the distinction twice. Though the music and lyrics give strong grounds to call this album an all-time great, the honors bestowed on it cement its place in the annals of musical, nay, artistic masterpieces. -Benjamin Kaye

3. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up

2. Bon Iver – Bon Iver

Justin Vernon is out of the cabin. With Bon Iver he begins his return to civilization, now accompanied by throngs of sensitive fans and new street-cred courtesy of Kanye West. On this journey, Vernon could have followed the blueprint of For Emma, Forever Ago: churn out new songs dominated by an acoustic guitar and stripped-down production. However, he opted to go in a new direction with a fleshed-out, proper band and Bruce Hornsby as a muse.

Bon Iver needs to be heard in order from beginning to end, as most great albums do. The deceiving hush in the opening moments of “Perth” begins the journey to “Beth/Rest”, a synth-driven, kitchen-sink track with a guitar solo straight out of A Momentary Lapse of Reason that still polarizes fans months after its release. But that’s the beauty of Vernon’s risk-taking throughout the album. He didn’t rest on his laurels and create For Emma: Vol. 2. If anything, he created Bon Iver Mach 2, now with saxophones. The inclusion of the best song of the year, the gorgeous acceptance found within “Holocene”, didn’t hurt the album’s placing as our second-favorite album of the year, either. -Justin Gerber

1. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

“He thought there was going to be so much—more than he had ever dreamed possible… instead there was absolutely nothing.” It’s a line that sounds stripped from the best of Annie Clark’s songs; except that it isn’t. It belongs to Marilyn Monroe, in one of her diaries that dates back to April 1955. But how tragic, and how intimate, is that? Here’s Monroe, one of the most widely sought after figures in the history of pop culture, digressing on the fear of disappointment, especially to a loved one. It’s a recurring element in much of her personal writings. It’s also one of the driving motivations for Clark’s best work to date, Strange Mercy.

“Oh America, can I owe you one,” Clark laments by album’s end on “Year of the Tiger”. It’s one of the most poignant and culturally relevant tracks of the year–a bombastic herald to the States’ end times, when capitalistic whores die at the hands of coffee makers. What bitter, insightful precision. Look to your town squares, your universities, your banks, and your financial districts. It’s a mercurial year for Americans. The track’s sort of wavy, lazy distortion exemplifies that. We’re wary of the errors, we’re indignant of our culture, and we’re starting to wake up.

But there’s a deeper sense of self-awareness that Clark exhibits here. It goes back to Monroe. She hints that, despite the culture’s pre-conceived notion that all is equal, it’s anything but that. People scoff at the misogynistic, heavily racial days of Mad Men every Sunday (y’know, when it returns), but it’s not too far off today. It’s still, in many ways, a man’s world, and Clark underscores this error. On “Surgeon”, she cries out how she “spent another summer on [her] back” and of things that let her “get along, get along,” and later on the title track, she insists she’ll remain by her “lost boys.” This idea couldn’t be any more boldly stated than on “Cheerleader”, where she calls members in her family “honest thieves,” chalking it up to an America “with no clothes on.” So, why stay? As she suggests later into the album on “Champagne Year”, “it’s not the perfect plan, but it’s the one we got.”

It’s dense, morose stuff, though you wouldn’t really notice. Clark has spent far too much time etching out adventurous rhythms, crossbreeding genres in each track; you’d be remiss to even acknowledge some of its lyrical madness. It’s a delightful listen with a foreboding underbelly, if you will. Take the transition from funky treading to its synth-laden baths at the end of “Dilettante”, for instance. That’s the sort of stuff a guru carves out. But, Clark proves worthy of that title earlier on (if she hadn’t via 2009′s Actor) with “Cruel”, this year’s most attractive pop song with the most invaluable question of ‘em all: “How could they be casually cruel?” Is she being rhetorical, or does she desire an answer? Hopefully the former, because quite pathetically nobody has the answer. Christ, what does that say about us? -Michael Roffman

50. Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire
49. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar
48. Astronautalis – This is Our Science
47. Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread
46. Summer Camp – Welcome to Condale
45. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch the Throne
44. Yuck – Yuck
43. Mikal Cronin – Mikal Cronin
42. Kendrick Lamar – Section .80
41. Washed Out – Within & Without
40. The Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck
39. Danny Brown – XXX
38. Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica
37. Real Estate – Days
36. Bill Callahan – Apocalypse
35. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra
34. Adele – 21
33. Cut Copy – Zonoscope
32. Gotye – Making Mirrors
31. Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow
30. The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient
29. The Men – Leave Home
28. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo
27. Childish Gambino – Camp
26. Wild Flag – Wild Flag
25. Panda Bear – Tomboy
24. SBTRKT – SBTRKT
23. The Weeknd – House Of Balloons
22. Thundercat – The Golden Age of Apocalypse
21. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
20. Tom Waits – Bad As Me
19. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life
18. Atlas Sound – Parallax
17. The Horrors – Skying
16. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
15. Radiohead – The King of Limbs
14. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
13. Beyoncé – 4
12. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
11. The Antlers – Burst Apart
10. Drake – Take Care
09. Destroyer – Kaputt
08. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l
07. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
06. James Blake – James Blake
05. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
04. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
03. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up
02. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
01. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

I promised the staff I would not go all Masterpiece Theater with this intro, so I’ll be brief. Our Annual Report has reached its halfway point with our Top 50 Songs of the Year. The many flags of our staff are hoisted high — and we couldn’t be happier with what we’re saluting. From Cults’ very first song to Tom Waits’ thousandth song, we put up the tracks that left us with more thoughts, feelings, and impressions than any other. We think we done good.

But just to make sure the world still spins on its axis, let us know what you think we missed from our list and what you liked in the comments. We thrive on that stuff.

Additionally, we’ve got the de rigueur Top 50 Songs of the Year Spotify playlist for you, a quick link to purchase the song on Amazon, and an easy ctrl-c +ctrl-v list for you at the very end immediately following our #1 song of the year.

As always, our profuse thanks for reading, enjoy these tunes, and we’ll see you again next week for the second half of our 2011 Annual Report.

-Jeremy D. Larson
Content Director

50. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”

At age 24, Ellie Goulding’s folktronica turned heads across the world, especially with “Lights”. Remixed from here to high heaven by killer producers, sampled by Lupe Fiasco for his latest mixtape, and dropped by DJs looking to get well-dressed girls on the dance floors from the Bay Area to Eastern Europe, its appeal lies in its honest vocals, minimalistic beats, and stark, raving energy. It’s Goulding’s first charting single in the U.S. and Canada, and judging from the widespread allure (and the thousands who camped near her stage at festivals nationwide), it likely won’t be her last. -Paul de Revere

49. Cults – “Go Outside”

Going from relative obscurity to indie stardom isn’t anything new, but the way Madelline Follin and Brian Oblivion of Cults did it with such New York coolness and style still seemed incredibly refreshing. By the time the mainstream caught wind of Follin’s adorably unique, helium-filled balloon voice, “Go Outside” was already a bona fide song of the summer contender. Its lyrics are like a mantra for anyone in a going-nowhere relationship, delivered in an irresistibly sweet, poppy tone. And how can you not dig that crazy glockenspiel solo? -Gilles LeBlanc

48. Big K.R.I.T. – “Country Shit” (Remix)

The original version of “Country Shit” showed up on last year’s K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, but this remix, featuring all-new bars from Ludacris and Bun B, goes harder in every way. Over a chopped and looped vocal sample and thunderous bass, K.R.I.T. delivers an unusually aggressive verse for “the folk in Texas that’s forever wreckin’ with the Styrofoam cup and the purple fluid.” This is a rave-up, no doubt, and it just might be the greatest Dixie rap get-together this side of “Int’l Players Anthem”. -Mike Madden

47. Mikal Cronin – “Apathy”

So much good came out of the fertile ground of the San Francisco psych/garage scene this year, and Mikal Cronin’s debut LP may be best in show simply because he’s got the hooks. “Apathy” digs in with stopgap verses and a vintage 60’s underground sound. Cronin is wrestling with that all-too-real twentysomething identity crisis; he’s a man who’s sure he doesn’t want apathy or empathy. Or everything. Or anything. His generation struggles with defining themselves, and finding a fine line between slacker and sincere is difficult. This loud and splashy confession pretty much nails that frustration. -Jeremy D. Larson

46. Cold Cave – “The Great Pan Is Dead”

The primal themes and screams of Wesley Eisold on “The Great Pan Is Dead” could have been penned by the Vikings or the Huns or some dodgy Germanic tribe. It’s ostentatious like an arena song with more than enough of Eisold’s hardcore/noise/new wave bent to make it sound like it could have been out on Wax Trax! Records. “Yeah/I will come running/gunning through the years/hunting heart/crushing fears,” except Eisold makes it seem like he’s going to do this while completely on fire. All the while, at its core, it’s just a romantic ode to someone who warrants truly epic imagery — imagery that would fall flat without the high-stakes propulsion of the music below it. If love songs are played in Valhalla, this may be the only thing allowed. -Jeremy D. Larson

45. Das Racist – “Michael Jackson”

“I’m fucking great at rapping!” With those five words, Himanshu “Heems” Suri embraces the new identity that he, Victor “Kool A.D.” Vazquez, and Ashok “Dap” Kondabolu have forged as Das Racist. Where elsewhere they’ll make you wonder whether this whole rap thing is just a lark, here D.R. take the simple to the nth degree. Whether it’s that ultimately basic brag, the “Michael Jackson/a million dollars/you hear me?/holler” chorus, or A.D.’s lithe “You go girl, it’s your world”, this song embraces the brilliance of simplicity. The beat kills, and references to Richie Valens, “Parenthood”, and McGuyver all smashed together somehow just makes sense. -Adam Kivel

44. The Horrors – “Still Life”

To be one of the 50 best songs of the year, at least one element of your introduction has to grab attention. With “Still Life”, The Horrors gave us three options. There’s the wobbly tape loop that gradually fades in, the body-vibrating drumbeat, and the bell curve synth melody. All that before we even get to the vocals! Faris Badwan sounds cautious, almost fragile, in the speak-sing verses. Once the chorus kicks in and the melody lights up, though, he richly belts out line after line, guaranteeing a sing-along from even the most casual fan. -Joe Marvilli

43. Bill Callahan – “Riding for the Feeling”

Bill Callahan is one of America’s most low-profile existentialists. “Riding for the Feeling” is a great example of why. Callahan’s smooth baritone lightly jogs along his own acoustic strumming, impressionistic organ, reverb-soaked electric guitars, and salt-and-pepper drums to craft a statement of beautiful futility. Mr. Callahan is capital letters THE TRUTH, and he spits a lot of it: “With intensity, a drop evaporates by law/In conclusion, leaving is easy when you’ve got some place to be.” How ’bout that for some cold, hard facts? But as the song progresses, it becomes clearer and clearer that the place Callahan has to be doesn’t really exist–that he’s just riding somewhere else, merely riding for the feeling. And so are we. -Drew Litowitz

42. Dum Dum Girls – “Coming Down”

A single of anguish, “Coming Down” is the side of Dum Dum Girls no one has ever seen. During the six-minute ballad, the ladies leave the mystery of their personas to find bliss in the wake of something awful, the death of front woman Dee Dee Penny’s mother. The same fuzz can still be found, but this time there’s more emotion and urgency. Penny wanted fans to feel something, and it’s hard not to at 3:31 with Penny’s declarations of departure. Lo-fi becomes a thing of careful beauty on “Coming Down”. -Lauren Rearick

41. Lykke Li – “I Follow Rivers”

Though it’s called Wounded Rhymes, Lykke Li’s second LP could have easily been titled Wounded Rhythms. For proof, take a listen to “I Follow Rivers”. The melody drunkenly sways alongside her vocals, ranging from subdued verses to triumphant choruses. Clanging, hollow beats don’t just stick to the tempo, but occasionally flair and boost the background up. The woozy synth line remains laid-back but isn’t sloppy. Instead, it loosely drives the song forward without becoming the focal point. That’s saved for Lykke Li’s playful performance. On an album with as many heavy songs as this one has, that’s certainly a breath of fresh air. -Joe Marvilli

40. Wilco – “One Sunday Morning”

Jeff Tweedy warns us that this majestic 12-minute closer to The Whole Love is long in the very first line, but it’s a caution that proves to be moot. Despite the length and refusing to change its basic rhythm or structure, the song never tires, keeping the listener’s attention by sneaking in layer upon layer of instrumentation at strategic moments, then pulling it away. The whispering patter of Mikael Jorgensen’s piano may not drive the melody but blossoms and wilts at the mention of key words like “bells” and “the Bible.” Lyrically, it’s in the same vein as Sky Blue Sky closer “On and On”, a meditation on the relationship between Jeff Tweedy and a past acquaintance that only they understand. But its autumnal feel and confessional tone mean something different to everyone, the perfect tune for looking back on the year in non-linear terms. -Dan Caffrey

39. Liturgy – “Generation”

Brooklyn’s Liturgy have spent the last couple of years working up quite the shitstorm in metal circles for their admittedly ostentatious attempts at re-conceptualizing the genre from the ground up in what they call “transcendental black metal”. Critical response to their latest LP Aesthethica, was pretty much split down the middle largely for that reason. But all talk about the band’s perceived pretension is shot to bits by the initial blast of noise that kick off the album’s best track, the starkly minimal instrumental “Generation”. Seven minutes of blazing guitars and cracking snares, this slab of molten no-wave fury is more akin to early-day Swans than anything remotely “transcendental”, or even “black metal” for that matter. Even so, they’ve catalyzed progress and conversation in a genre that has, for decades now, stagnated in Norse Mythology and church burning scandals. Who says you need corpse paint to rock? -Möhammad Choudhery

38. Washed Out – “Amor Fati”

Washed Out’s Ernest Greene continues to distance himself from chillwave, creating one of the year’s most danceable tracks in “Amor Fati”. Fans have come to expect an inclusion of synths, but it’s the addition of an infectious chorus from Greene that makes for an unexpected moment of pop. The prominent vocals provide a break of warmth from the chillwave lull of its counterparts. Its latin title “amor fati” translates to love of fate. If this is where Greene’s destined, we’re lovestruck, too.   -Lauren Rearick

37. Adele – “Rolling in the Deep”

Each year, there comes a song that is seemingly everywhere, from non-stop radio play to appearances in TV ads and basic cable shows. In 2011, that song was Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”. Musically, it appealed to a plethora of audiences, as if it were assembled from an equal number of dark, bluesy soul tunes and light, airy disco tracks. The vocals are among Adele’s finest, with an undercurrent of immense wisdom driving forward the larger-than-life, emotionally devastated cries of pain and confusion. But it’s the song’s overall sentiment, of having immense romantic regrets and laying every last one of them on your ex, that made this cut such a massively universal experience. Rare is the track that can mend wounds and help sell the iPhone 4S, but “Rolling in the Deep” does all that and more. -Chris Coplan

36. AraabMUZIK – “Streetz Tonight”

Don’t let the trance label deter you. AraabMUZIK’s Electronic Dream is an atmospheric trip from beginning to end. Best experienced as a whole, there are moments that jump out from the rest, perhaps none more than “Streetz Tonight”. Here, AraabMUZIK dials back his trademark drum machine ingenuity in favor of woozy synth grooves and airy, simplistic female vocals for a different, more laid-back type of head rush. -Austin Trunick

35. Tom Waits – “Hell Broke Luce”

Listeners had to be surprised the first time they heard this jarring, psychotic, nightmarish romp through a combat zone. “Hell Broke Luce” takes the form of a deranged boot camp march (“I had a good home, but I left, right, left”), with the time between Waits’ grating barking filled with banging and clanging, in-and-out guitars, sampled machine gun fire, and even a tuba during one brief lull. Lyrics include drill sergeant/grunt vulgarities, embittered questioning of authority, and lines that suggest the soldier protagonist sees himself as forever severed from the person he was before the war. (“What did you do before the war? /I was a chef, I was a chef/And what was your name? It was Jeff, Jeff”). I have no basis to judge whether or not Waits has captured the hellish realities of war on “Hell Broke Luce”, but I can say that if you’re listening to this track while out walking, it’ll keep you in step. Left, right, left. –Matt Melis

34. Kurt Vile – “Jesus Fever”

Ars longa, vita brevis, as the old adage goes: “Art is long, life is short.” On Kurt Vile’s “Jesus Fever”, the heartland rocker deals with this inevitable fate, all over a jangly progression that feels curated by Lindsay Buckingham circa 1975. One biting line: “When I am a ghost, I’ll see no reason to run/When I’m already gone/If it wasn’t taped, you could escape this song/But I’m already gone.” The lesson? Art is forever. In the digital age – especially a booming one like this year’s – that line takes on a whole new meaning. Art is forever… and everywhere. Now, how meta would it be if kids are listening to this in 100 years? Guess we’ll never know. -Michael Roffman

33. The Black Keys – “Lonely Boy”

“These guys just don’t stop. The late-in-the-year arrival of “Lonely Boy” signaled a much anticipated dose of the Akron blues mongers, even though fans were still simmering from 2010’s Brothers. El Camino’s complete rip-roaring genius aside, the stealthy emergence of the lead single’s video of a solitary man dancing his ass off became an instant sensation as “Lonely Boy” could be heard leaking out from city bus riders’ headphones for a good week after its internet landing. And for good reason. The song is an infectious smack in the face of gritty blues riffs and powerful, rockabilly-influenced fury. Dan Auerbach’s muddy guitar rips into the single as Patrick Carney’s attack drums and a smattering of quirky backing keys propel the song into a spaced-out rock stratosphere where Mark Bolan and blues greats serve as ruling deities. As our own Harley Brown attests, the Keys are at the height of their game, and “Lonely Boy” is Exhibit-A of their zenith status. -Liz Lane

32. Battles – “Ice Cream”

When Gloss Drop single “Ice Cream” dropped, it was the test for many of whether Battles would be the same after losing frontman Tyondai Braxton. The verdict? Not exactly the same, but that is no disappointment. The track wades familiar territory for Battles while placing itself among the trio’s more accessible work. Guest vocalist Matias Aguayo shines with a keen impersonation of Braxton’s trademark vocal manipulation over an irresistible, glitchy two-chord jam. Recommended with a scoop of cake batter on a waffle cone, but maybe not in the bathtub. -J. Harry Painter

31. Kate Bush – “Wild Man”

50 Words for Snow is a rare album themed to winter holiday months while not being pigeonholed as a Christmas album. “Wild Man” is a testament to that. It’s a seven-minute journey through the snowy crags of Tibet, name-dropping countless faraway places and romanticizing the fabled Yeti as only Kate Bush could. That said, it’s a very different Bush song in a lot of ways, with guest vocalist Andy Fairweather Low providing the chorus and Bush swapping out her usual vocal stylings with a husky Mark Knopfler-esque dialogue for most of the track. The sweetness of Bush’s words and the song’s misty, musical veil make it easy to mistake “Wild Man” as a love song, but that’s not quite it. It’s a tribute to the mysteries still hidden in the natural world and the figments we chase, rounding the corners of distant hills, just out of reach. -Cap Blackard

30. Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire – “The Last Huzzah” (Remix)

This Mr Muthafuckin’ eXquire remix, paying homage to Craig Mack’s “Flava in Ya Ear remix”, dilutes the year’s cattle call of mixtapes, guest spots, and debut LPs down to the strongest collective showing from any five rappers on a single track. Everyone’s got their fuel, whether its Despot’s “vodka soda,” Danny Brown’s “straight shots of Cuervo,” or El-P’s “straight shots of Sterno.” The track’s an ode to getting lit up, a celebration of skill and saying, “Fuck it all.” If these five guys stumble into 2012 with this much moxy, the same as Biggie, Craig Mack, LL Cool J, and Busta Rhymes did back in 1994, they’ll be the ones coming up big and making great comebacks. -Jeremy D. Larson

“The Last Huzzah” (Remix) (feat. Despot, Das Racist, Danny Brown & El-P)

29. The Strokes – “Under Cover of Darkness”

It is the oft-used “return to form,” right? The yearning Julian Casablancas vocals and the doo-wop exchange between the guitarists and drummer Fab Moretti. Top it off with another great solo courtesy of Nick Valensi, and you have the makings of classic Strokes. We may not be talking about Angles years from now, but I’ll let you know the moment this song finally stops dancing around my head. -Justin Gerber

28. Beirut – “East Harlem”

The way Beirut toys with sense of place is so darn impish and charming. With the title and lyrics of “East Harlem”, you can’t tell whether Zach Condon is crooning about Amsterdam or New Amsterdam (NYC). Yet, at the same time, the details hardly matter. In this song about distance, you don’t know where you are for sure; you’re too lost in the sonic neighborhood or city block Condon has constructed. “Uptown, downtown” can seem like a “thousand miles between us” when you’re intent on studying the gorgeous detail of “East Harlem”, this city-song of blinding lights and gorgeous brass melodies. Go on, dwell in it. Stay awhile. -Paul de Revere

27. The War on Drugs – “Come to the City”

The anthemic centerpiece on one of the year’s most road-ready albums, “Come to the City” is to be played either with the windows down while  drifting along highways or in a stadium/field of a thousand pumping fists. It’s that kind of Arcade Fire-meets-Tom Petty power spun over reverberating organs and snapping drums that makes you want to lean your head out the car window and let the emotion wash over you with the wind. With Kurt Vile off on a solo career, frontman Adam Granduciel’s contemplative lyrics get to shine on their own. “I’ve been drinking up the sweet tea/It was made just for me,” he sings in a Dylan-esque warble. It was made for you, too, so drink up. -Benjamin Kaye

26. Frank Ocean – “Novacane”

If the majority of Odd Future is the id, then R&B crooner Frank Ocean is the ego. His depravity is just as endless, but he exemplifies his more reserved, complicated side on Nostalgia, Ultra standout “Novacane”. The beat is a monstrous amalgamation of hip-hop bass, random, glitchy noises, and, most important of all, a solid groove that sounds stuck between genres and intentions. Establishing a drug-fueled storyline involving porn stars and a trip gone bad, Ocean paints a picture of a stunted youth in search of the next big high to cure what ails him. The diagnosis for Ocean’s soul is grim, but the pursuit of absolution never sounded so intoxicating. -Chris Coplan

25. Girls – “Vomit”

“Vomit” is an anthem of solitude. Like Elliott Smith and Nirvana before him, Christopher Owens struggles with his own opiate addiction. This song is a declaration of an inescapable torment, an unanswered longing, a tender futility. The beginning guitar riff echoes with loneliness like a flickering lightbulb in a dark room. Owens repeats the line “looking for love” as he and Chet White descend into instrumental insanity: A guitar solo wracked with distortion erupts, an organ hums beneath, and melismas sound out through the song’s climax. “Vomit” is its own manifesto, expressing the belief that madness is freedom, that pain is inspiration. -Summer Dunsmore

24. Beastie Boys – “Make Some Noise”

Hip-hop is always boasting how it’s a young person’s game, but “Make Some Noise” proved that the Beastie Boys are dogs who still have some bite left in them. The fortified funk they sic on us at the start of Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is aggressive, witty, and sweeping. It’s classic Beastie Boys… and then some. In light of their recent setbacks – from “MCA” Adam Yauch’s struggle with cancer to the album’s various delays – the Brooklyn legends ferociously returned to the spotlight. This single is a testament to that. While there’s a lot of wax-scratching nostalgia going on, there’s just too much energy at hand to ignore. So, when Yauch says, “The best is yet to come, and yes, believe this,” we most certainly do. -Gilles LeBlanc

23. Real Estate – “It’s Real”

A good-natured single, “It’s Real” by Real Estate defines California surfer rock. It’s a song about puppy love, as singer Martin Courtney croons, “I carved our names into a tree/I walked on decomposing leaves/I skated on a frozen sea/It’s real as far as I can see.” It does what indie music does best: weaves poetic, charming lyrics with a hooky chorus. However, it’s unique to many other love songs, which usually express the pains of heartbreak or the dark side of obsession; this love song is a revelry, an exposition of energy and enthusiasm that comes with the fascination for a loved one. It’s real. -Summer Dunsmore

22. Childish Gambino – “Bonfire”

Donald Glover plays the clueless Troy Barnes on Community. So, why take his nom de rhyme, Childish Gambino, even the slightest bit seriously? Because of “Bonfire”, dummy. The lyrics encapsulate Gambino’s wit (“This Asian dude, I stole his girl, and now he got that Kogi beef”) and even offer up the nastier side of the MC’s rainbow-colored personality (“The shit I’m doin’ this year? Insanity/Made the beat then murdered it, Casey Anthony”). It’s also got one of the LP’s most beloved and recognizable beats, equal parts bouncy club anthem and gritty garage rock jam. But really, it’s Gambino’s impassioned and visceral delivery style, like he’s barking at the listener, that makes this track a true burner. -Chris Coplan

21. Fleet Foxes – “Helplessness Blues”

Fleet Foxes’ titular track off Helplessness Blues is a lovely distillation of their sound, with the spectral doves of musicians like Roy Harper and Van Morrison flitting around for company. It’s such an epic poem that five minutes can hardly contain its beauty or its magnificent scope, which ranges from jangling folk to heavyweight, ethereal rock. By now, everyone knows the group’s sublime harmonies are their namesake, but when entwined with urgent guitar work and despairing language, it only adds deep emphasis to that fact. Feeling helpless has rarely felt so nourishing, building up to what can only be called a dappled sunlit kind of music, “my light in the dawn.” -Siobhan Kane

20. Radiohead – “Lotus Flower”

Anybody who heard Thom Yorke’s live versions of “Lotus Flower” back in ’09 and ’10 never could have imagined what it would morph into when it eventually made its way onto this year’s The King of Limbs, a surprise in and of itself. That finger-picked guitar ballad is now long forgotten thanks to the skittering rhythms, distant hand claps, and other ridiculous noises that now constitute “Lotus Flower”. The song is as dub-dance-y as Radiohead has ever sounded, with a backdrop culled from fractured loops of god knows what. But what makes “Lotus Flower” so noteworthy is how Yorke embodies it: with a healthy dose of croon-swagger. Confidence hasn’t always been Yorke’s vocal forte, but he straddles the line so perfectly between that and melancholy that it opens up a lot of doors for what Radiohead is capable of. That’s a shitload of open doors, by the way. -Drew Litowitz

19. Cut Copy – “Need You Now”

It’s a tough feat to render six minutes of addicting hooks. But that’s what Cut Copy managed to do with “Need You Now”. That explains why it opens the Australian outfit’s latest LP, Zonoscope: Hit ‘em with a punch, snag ‘em with a hook. Vocalist Dan Whitford employs a slick baritone throughout, which certainly pushes this number ahead, but it’s when he lets loose four minutes in that the heat turns up. While not as immediate as tracks like “Take Me Over” or “Where I’m Going”, it’s all about the payoff sometimes, and you won’t find a better one than here. It’s so heavy they need a downer at the end to bring things back to element. Talk about a trip. -J. Harry Painter

18. Neon Indian – “Polish Girl”

Ever wondered if the Super Mario coin-grab effect could be sampled successfully in a song? Welcome to the world of Neon Indian. Alan Palomo’s wistful cadence tells of lost love on Era Extraña standout “Polish Girl”, while spaced-out 8-bit synths evoke the longing, inescapable feelings of shoegaze. Yet, the result is a blissful four and a half minutes itching for a spin on the dance floor. With “Polish Girl”, Neon Indian has traded their signature chillwave stylings in favor of a dreamy spin on dance pop and set the new standard for retro chic. -Frank Mojica

17. Drake – “Take Care”

“Take Care” is one of six or seven tracks that could easily be deemed the best of the batch from Drake’s enigmatic, epic sophomore album of the same name. Set firmly atop impeccable (and unconventional) production by Jamie xx, the track soars with an unstoppable, sensual hook by hip-hop diva Rihanna: “If you let me, here’s what I’ll do/I’ll take care of you.” I defy any heterosexual man to refuse that offer. But what makes this track stand out more than anything is the potency with which Drake raps. As he battles insecurity, brutal honesty, and harsh reality, we see the side of Drake that was promised from the beginning – the talented side. -Winston Robbins

16. Jamie xx – “Far Nearer”

Between his masterful Gil Scott-Heron collab/remix LP We’re New Here, the slew of top-notch remixes he put out (including a HUGE rework of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”), and a couple of choice spots on Radiohead’s TKOL RMX compilation, Jamie xx’s huge 2011 quelled any and all doubts that he could succeed out of the shadow of the xx. And all that goes without mentioning “Far Nearer”, his debut solo release and crowning achievement to date. Built around a sun-drenched Caribbean steel drum line and a mangled Janet Jackson vocal, it’s a dance anthem for the ages and one hell of a way to launch one’s solo career. How’s that for setting the bar high? -Möhammad Choudhery

15. The Mountain Goats – “High Hawk Season”

Revolution hung thick in the air this year, and John Darnielle’s prescient salvo seems to be the people’s anthem that never was (meanwhile, 3EB turned this in). Darnielle’s boilerplate solo voice/acoustic guitar is backed by a four-part male a capella chorus that, despite The Mountain Goats’ obscene prolificacy, paves whole new avenues for a guy who’s been doing this for a long, long time. Darnielle’s vocals vary in dynamics and enunciation, causing the words to teem with frustration and resolve, something arena-worthy with just doo-wop harmonies and earnest songwriting. Sadly, Post-Barbershop-Quartet is not a genre I can throw on Pandora…yet. -Jeremy D. Larson

14. The Weeknd – “Wicked Games”

House of Balloons is fraught with tracks that are going to make you wish you lived a different, sexier life, but not one of them is more powerful than “Wicked Games”. As The Weeknd croons in his phenomenal upper register, “Bring your love baby, I can bring my shame/Bring the drugs baby, I can bring my pain,” you might honestly find yourself wishing you were addicted to codeine and emotionless sexual encounters. The track’s appeal to everyone’s dark side is endless. And while most listeners won’t ever pick up a Styrofoam cup full of prescription cough medicine and Jolly Ranchers to get faded, the song provides insight into a twisted life of beauty with a deep layer of abhorrent immorality looming just below the surface. -Winston Robbins

13. The Throne – “Niggas in Paris”

It’s still baffling that one of the hardest-hitting tracks on Watch the Throne contains a Will Ferrell sample from the figure skating parody Blades of Glory. “No one knows what it means, but it’s provocative,” Ferrell explains. “It gets the people going!” The long-anticipated collaborative record between rap’s reigning monarchs is a celebration in excess, but it comes packed with knowing winks like this one. Jay-Z and Kanye West roll in with a slow burn on top of piercing synth loop, gaining momentum as the song unravels, propelling one another into top form on this explosive club-pleaser. It’s Jay-Z’s methodical, fast-firing approach that sets the stage for West’s urgent, free-flowing (if a bit bonkers) rhymes; on an album grounded in the spirit of a healthy competition between the two powerhouse emcees, it’s on “Niggas in Paris” that they come together as a single, unstoppable hip-hop dream team. -Austin Trunick

12. Destroyer – “Kaputt”

In the world of the album’s title track, drugs and women are indiscernible — two intangible forces that are meant to be chased across clubs, kingdoms, and radio airwaves around the globe. Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar never catches either one, but decides to write a song about it and dedicate it to America, a fact that he blatantly states in the final verses. Amidst wind effects, slowed-down disco bass, synthesized bleeps, and foggy trumpet, the band topples the fourth wall, then builds it back up again to continue their quest across time, space, and celebration for a high they may never get, but in turn bestow upon their audience. -Dan Caffrey

11. Wild Flag – “Romance”

“Romance” is the most unabashedly pop song on Wild Flag’s self-titled debut. More Bow Wow Wow than Bikini Kill, it shows a different, deliriously infectious side of this burgeoning supergroup. With a ringing, crunchy guitar punch over pounding surf drums, it’s the killer hook in the chorus that will keep you coming back again and again. (If you’re not tapping your toes by the time it gets to the hand clap-driven “shake, shimmy, shake” breakdown at the song’s climax, you’re probably not a warm-blooded human.) Straight-up rock and roll this irresistibly catchy is a rare treat in this day and age; “Romance” should be finding its way onto feel-good mixtapes for a long, long time. -Austin Trunick

10. Foo Fighters – “Rope”

The glorious possibilities of a three-guitar attack in Foo Fighters is truly felt with this tune from Wasting Light. With Pat Smear having officially returned to the lineup, the band created some of their most aggressive music to date. The echoing intro gives in to a track that bops between pop and alt-rock, before launching into Chris Shiflett’s thrash-metal solo near the song’s conclusion. Of course, it’s Dave Grohl’s constant that ties it all together. That being the tireless Taylor Hawkins, who proves once more why he’s one of the finest drummers in the game today, yesterday, and tomorrow. As the first single, “Rope” announced the return of the Foo, and in hindsight, it’s the cattle call that would go on to cement the band as the biggest rock act on the planet. They’ve had a good year. -Justin Gerber

9. James Blake – “The Wilhelm Scream”

The first thing anybody who listens to James Blake’s true breakout track notices is how undeniably incessant it is. It’s a classic study in repetition.

With Blake’s cyborg croon evaporating into palm-muted guitar masked as a digital processor, interspersed with the sound a black hole makes when you throw the whole genre of dubstep into it, the song slowly explodes into a haze of static, processed synth-organ, and the deepest bass around. It’s like a noised-out tribute to every sub-genre of reggae-inspired dance music, that both mourns its present dilution in the mainstream and celebrates the places it still has yet to go.

What’s most interesting about “The Wilhelm Scream”, though, is what this repetition means to Blake and why he’s created this song in the first place. At its core, the song is Blake re-envisioning something he must have heard incessantly over the past few years: his own father, soft rocker James Litherland’s “Where to Turn”, from his 2006 album, 4th Estate. Under this context, the song becomes a manifestation of Blake’s nostalgia and love for his pops — his memories and emotions aurally orchestrated into an infectious haze of confused sounds that come together perfectly. Cool, right? -Drew Litowitz

8. SBTRKT – “Wildfire”

As SBTRKT, Aaron Jerome has been one of the year’s most buzzed-about breakout artists. On “Wildfire”, the masked producer recruits 2011’s must-have collaborator, Yukimi Nagano (of electro-soulsters Little Dragon), for the year’s essential dance floor jam. Between a bassline that can only be described as downright filthy and the irresistible allure of Nagano’s velvety vocals, “Wilfire” is pure sonic sensuality. Drawing inspiration from South London post-dubstep to house to R&B, “Wildfire” takes everything that ever made someone dance in the past 20 years and spins it into something futuristic. As it deftly defies any single label, SBTRKT’s scorching style on “Wildfire” is a reflection of how the future will one day remember 2011. -Frank Mojica

7. EMA – “California”

Equal parts Psychocandy, Sinead O’Connor, Patti Smith, and Lou Reed, Erika M. Anderson’s (aka EMA) “California” turns heads with its aggressive-yet-vapid delivery and lyrics that spin tales of reckless abandonment. “What’s it like to be small-time and gay?” she crudely asks mid-song. “What does failure taste like? To me it tastes like dirt,” she asks and answers herself towards the end. It’s a slow shuffle that never really leads to an anthemic release as its rusty sprawl suggests, but that’s sort of the point. On paper, it’s just as seclusive and cyclical.

Sort of like madness. Anderson’s a native of South Dakota, so one has to wonder what her perspective is here. Here’s a supposition: It’s the struggle that California – the land of dreams and mystery, as suggested even by the likes of Steinbeck – isn’t what it appears to be. It’s a wasteland. It’s a falsity. But, she’s not alone there. When she says, “Fuck California,” so do we. Because if there’s anything we’ve learned from reality television, MTV, or reading short bios on any musician who’s ever surfaced on the Sunset Strip, California breeds a special sort of crazy. Anderson may never find her small-town roots again (“Schizophrenic rules the brain”), but she’s created one powerful ode to it. One of the best of its kind. -Michael Roffman

6. St. Vincent – “Cruel”

If you’re going to write a rock song around a single riff, it better be a ridiculously good one, something that you’re happy to get stuck in your head. There have been a few that fit the bill in indie rock over the last few years; Modest Mouse’s “Float On” and MGMT’s “Kids” come to mind. Add St. Vincent’s “Cruel” to that exclusive list. Annie Clark writes a completely oddball, vaguely old-timey verse melody, complete with saccharine background strings. But when she sings “oo-eh-oo-eh-oo-llll” on the titular lyric, that distinctive synthesizer riff comes into focus and simply owns you. It’s silly, it’s uplifting, it’s catchy, and it can completely carry the song. Throw in a majorly danceable backing track, a languid distorted guitar solo, and Clark’s wispy but powerful voice, and it’s indie rock gold. -Jake Cohen

5. tUnE-yArDs – “Bizness”

Merrill Garbus’ wonderful first single from her second record, w h o k i l l, reflects her decision to focus some aspects of the live experience into studio recordings, and certainly, the wild energy of “Bizness” is hardly constrained by the medium of a record. Perhaps this is what makes her great: The medium of music is the vehicle through which she has chosen to convey her creativity, but it cannot bind her. “Bizness” begins with the kind of vocal gymnastics that brings to mind David Longstreth dancing in a frying pan — lovely, gloopy, roaming sounds that also act as a warm vocal harpsichord of sorts.

Then there is the percussive aspect. The way Garbus layers sounds and percussion is a joy to hear, the military beats, along with a kind of skeletal, clickety-clack kind of sound that reconnects to her fascination with African rhythms. Her world is one that is anchored by a childlike sense of wonderment, and when the arresting, strident horns step in, you cannot help but smile. This is also because you sense her giddy reverie in taking apart traditional song structures and building them up again in her own image. When she sings “I’ll bleed if you ask me,” you really believe it, because her thoughtful sincerity is clear, amidst the revels. The visual accompaniment to the song (the video directed by Mimi Cave) is a perfect rendering of tUnE-yArDs’ ethos – to reach out to the child in all of us, keeping us young, keeping us strong, keeping us dreaming. -Siobhan Kane

4. Beyoncé – “Countdown”

At this point in her exceptional career, Beyoncé has transcended the traditional confines of pop diva status. Her latest album, 4, is full of the finest cuts of her career, be it for their infectious, poppy nature or for their demonstration of real, relatable emotional displays. And one could easily say “Countdown” is the best song on that album and leave it at that. To do so, however, is to discredit a track that is not only great, but a step above on a record whose primary notion is of stepping further into sonic grace.

From the initial wail of Bey’s voice to the marching band vibe, the track is the heart and soul, the lifeblood of a record that is a dynamo of R&B gold, both new and old. Queen B has built an empire of love songs and tributes to her boo(s), but none, be it on this album or the three before, come off as easily and thoroughly as they do here. We dare anyone to resist falling under the spell of the chorus where, like a Gucci-wearing version of The Count, Beyoncé counts down the ways in which she loves her man. It’s everything we love about Beyoncé: the sing-along-ability, the bombastic nature, and the beat that digs its nails into your hips to make them shimmy all night. Count it any way you want, this number’s a shining gem in Beyoncé’s bangin’ catalog. -Chris Coplan

3. M83 – “Midnight City”

A Parisian M83 fan said to me this year that Anthony Gonzalez is “the best French music producer, more famous in [the] U.S. than France.” So what’s made “Midnight City” and its double album source, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, catch fire like it has in the States this year? Well, “Midnight City” is a great single, for one. And it’s in a Victoria’s Secret commercial, which doesn’t hurt its exposure stateside, either. Surely, at this point, M83 has never been more popular than they are right now. And this year, a lot of that gets chalked up to “Midnight City”.

But look deeper. “Midnight City”, like all of M83′s music, touches on feelings valued deep within the American heart: light, innocence, and youth. M83 just shrouds them behind synth sheen and vocal processing on Gonzalez’s voice. When you imagine its abstract, misty mood piece in the classic Americana setting of Lover’s Lane or Makeout Point, it clicks. The narrator and a girl look out over how “the night city grows” a “mutating skyline.” “The city is my church,” Gonzalez sings. “It wraps me in the sparkling twilight.” It’s so gorgeous and wondrous, how can you not weep from its beauty? And how many songs this year have done that? O beautiful, for spacious skies, indeed. -Paul de Revere

2. Tyler, The Creator – “Yonkers”

Cast aside all preconceived notions or any conclusions that you may have drawn about Odd Future for just a second. Try and get back to the moment when you first heard “Yonkers”. Whether you were a longtime fan or you were victim to the viral video that got tossed around for a few weeks, it moved you. It moved some to anger, and it moved others to excitement; regardless of direction, though, it moved you. There are few times in life when a song will force you to stop everything you’re doing because you’re too busy picking your jaw up off the floor. Even fewer are the times when those selfsame songs are written and produced by a 19-year-old. Much criticism has been cast in the direction of this song and at Tyler in general; many found his lyrics involving misogyny, brutal violence, and even rape to be supremely offensive. And ultimately, that’s a decision best made on an individual basis. But you cannot deny that, for better or worse, “Yonkers” is one of the most powerful hip-hop singles in recent memory. Still sends chills down my spine. -Winston Robbins

1. Bon Iver – “Holocene”

For as often as Justin Vernon’s cabin hibernation is parodied, doesn’t it sound just a little enticing? Leaving it all, sequestering yourself away from a world that won’t stop spinning? In some ways, Vernon never left that seclusion. The songs on Bon Iver may sprawl and breathe more, but they’re still born form Vernon’s desire for privacy and escape. They’re rural, surreal, and separate, and “Holocene” captures the essence of Vernon’s world, just as he tries to capture the essence of our current epoch.

The song pivots around the lyric “All at once I knew/I was not magnificent” and the garden of romantic words and loosely related imagery around it. Acoustic crescendos push the plot along, and the band’s woodwind and found sound arrangement provide the scenery. Whole ages of emotions advance and recede throughout its course, yet it manages to stave off melodrama.

Vernon recalls three hazy memories in three verses and gives them context with that pivotal lyric — an ego check. These are the lasting moments that Vernon hangs on to through it all. Can we find meaning outside of ourselves and inside missed connections or little moments we have with friends and family? This truly is what outlasts things. Now, none of this ideology is revolutionary, but Bon Iver renews its vows in the context of 2011 — a year of exponential speed and growth, of revolution and dissatisfaction, of disillusionment and displacement across whole swaths of culture and class. “Holocene” is that moment of reflection on the escape vessel as you float away from the wreckage and towards Bon Iver’s world. If escapism is increasingly how we deal with our problems, that ubiquitous cabin in the woods sounds better and better with each coming year. -Jeremy D. Larson

50. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”
49. Cults – “Go Outside”
48. Big K.R.I.T. – “Country Shit” (Remix)
47. Mikal Cronin – “Apathy”
46. Cold Cave – “The Great Pan is Dead”
45. Das Racist – “Michael Jackson”
44. The Horrors – “Still Life”
43. Bill Callahan – “Riding For the Feeling”
42. Dum Dum Girls – “Coming Down”
41. Lykke Li – “I Follow Rivers”
40. Wilco – “One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)”
39. Liturgy – “Generation”
38. Washed Out – “Amor Fati”
37. Adele – “Rolling in the Deep”
36. AraabMUZIK – “Streetz Tonight”
35. Tom Waits – “Hell Broke Luce”
34. The Black Keys – “Lonely Boy”
33. Kurt Vile – “Jesus Fever”
32. Battles – “Ice Cream”
31. Kate Bush – “Wild Man”
30. Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire – “The Last Huzzah” (Remix)
29. The Strokes – “Under Cover of Darkness”
28. Beirut – “East Harlem”
27. The War on Drugs – “Come to the City”
26. Frank Ocean – “Novacane”
25. Girls – “Vomit”
24. Beastie Boys – “Make Some Noise”
23. Real Estate – “It’s Real”
22. Childish Gambino – “Bonfire”
21. Fleet Foxes – “Helplessness Blues”
20. Radiohead – “Lotus Flower”
19. Cut Copy – “Need You Now”
18. Neon Indian – “Polish Girl”
17. Drake – “Take Care”
16. Jamie xx – “Far Nearer”
15. The Mountain Goats – “High Hawk Season”
14. The Weeknd – “Wicked Games”
13. The Throne – “Niggas in Paris”
12. Destroyer – “Kaputt”
11. Wild Flag – “Romance”
10. Foo Fighters – “Rope”
09. James Blake – “The Wilhelm Scream”
08. SBTRKT – “Wildfire”
07. EMA – “California”
06. St. Vincent – “Cruel”
05. tUnE-yArDs – “Bizness”
04. Beyoncé – “Countdown”
03. M83 – “Midnight City”
02. Tyler, the Creator – “Yonkers”
01. Bon Iver – “Holocene”

In recent weeks, UK goth rockers The Horrors have covered Beyoncé’s “Best Thing I Never Had” and David Bowie’s “Suffragette City”. In both instances, the band took distinctive sounds and turned them into their own slices of post-punk creepiness. Now, the band continues a similar approach with their remix of Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary”, from the upcoming album Born This Way: The Remix. What was a campy romp of pop music farce has been stripped down to its most essential and haunting. Be it a cover song or a remix, the band has mastered their sound well enough to consume even the largest pop giants. Check it out below (via NME).

Then, for comparison’s sake, the Gaga original.

Born This Way: The Remix his stores November 21st via Interscope Records.

Born This Way: The Remix Tracklist:
01. Born This Way (Zedd Remix)
02. Judas (Goldfrapp Remix)
03. The Edge of Glory (Foster the People Remix)
04. Yoü And I (Wild Beasts Remix)
05. Marry the Night (The Weeknd & Ilangelo Remix)
06. Black Jesus (Michael Woods Remix)
07. Bloody Mary (The Horrors Remix)
08. Scheiße (Guena LG Remix)
09. Americano (Gregori Klosman Remix)
10. Electric Chapel (Two Door Cinema Club Remix)
11. Yoü And I – (Metronomy Remix)
12. Judas (Hurts Remix)
13. Born This Way (Twin Shadow Remix)
14. The Edge of Glory (Sultan & Ned Shepard Remix)
15. Judas (Röyksopp’s 30 Pieces Mix) (iTunes Bonus Track)

What’s that saying – “Lightning in a bottle?” That perfectly describes The Horrors‘ recent cover of David Bowie’s always-anthemic hit “Suffragette City”. Captured for Channel 4′s One Take, the UK post-punk rockers gunned out their visceral, nail biting cover on one try (hence the title of the program), fine tuning Bowie’s juggernaut aggression. Catch the clip below, courtesy of ClubSeatUK, and then head over to Facebook to download the track.

The Horrors’ latest CoS Top Star-earning LP, Skying, is currently available everywhere.

Lady Gaga has unveiled the tracklist for her upcoming Born This Way remix album and it comprises a lot of familiar names. Due for release on November 21st via Interscope, the 14-track compilation features contributions from The Weeknd, Foster The People, The Horrors, Wild Beasts, Röyksopp, Goldfrapp, and Twin Shadow, among others. Below, you can check out Wild Beasts’ remix of “Yoü & I”, along with the full tracklisting.

The remix album will be available as both a standalone release and as part of a three-disc set titled The Collection, which also includes a live film and the original Born This Way album.

“Yoü & I” (Wild Beasts Remix)

Born This Way: The Remix Tracklist:
01. Born This Way (Zedd Remix)
02. Judas (Goldfrapp Remix)
03. The Edge of Glory (Foster the People Remix)
04. Yoü And I (Wild Beasts Remix)
05. Marry the Night (The Weeknd & Ilangelo Remix)
06. Black Jesus (Michael Woods Remix)
07. Bloody Mary (The Horrors Remix)
08. Scheiße (Guena LG Remix)
09. Americano (Gregori Klosman Remix)
10. Electric Chapel (Two Door Cinema Club Remix)
11. Yoü And I – (Metronomy Remix)
12. Judas (Hurts Remix)
13. Born This Way (Twin Shadow Remix)
14. The Edge of Glory (Sultan & Ned Shepard Remix)
15. Judas (Röyksopp’s 30 Pieces Mix) (iTunes Bonus Track)

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

Why do English rock bands love our pop stars so much? Is it some geeky form of appropriation or the pasty ones hoping to steal them away from their rapper/athlete husbands? Regardless, like The Vaccines or Two Door Cinema Club before them, UK goth rockers The Horrors tackled Beyoncé’s “Best Thing I Never Had” during their recent visit to the BBC Radio 1. Reworking the song from fierce anthem to a decidedly Smiths-ian weep-fest, the lads struck the perfect balance between the sass of the original and their own depressing sound. Check it out below (via Cover Me).

And, for comparison’s sake, check out the music video for the original:

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

UK post-punk outfit The Horrors are put through a kaleidoscope in the psychedelic new video for “I Can See Through You”, from their recently released LP, the CoS Top Star-earning Skying. Watch it below.

Hey, who said festival season was over? A certain All Tomorrow’s Parties event, the inaugural U.S. I’ll Be Your Mirror, just took Asbury Park, New Jersey by storm (sort of literally, but that’s okay because it was inside!) and it surely qualifies as a festival. That’s right, while every other festival is in its 10th year and booking the same 250 acts as the festival preceding it, ATP just swoops in with an unglamorous but effective idea and declares itself a contender for U.S. festival of the year!

At least as far as the music goes. What other American festival in 2011 booked two rare acts to play two shows each? Jeff Mangum performing what amounted to an intimate Neutral Milk Hotel greatest hits set and Portishead playing its first U.S. shows since Coachella 2008. What other American festival provided a platform for pioneers from the golden age of hip-hop like Ultramagnetic MC’s and Public Enemy, as well as underground heroes like Company Flow? With apologies to Best Coast, what other American festival was willing to forgo flooding its bill with indie hype in favor of superb avant-garde acts like The Album Leaf and Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra?

And it’s not just the music; it’s the little things. Where else can headliner and co-curator Adrian Utley walk unnoticed amongst the commoners to check out a band? At what other festival can Utley’s bandmate Geoff Barrow greet fans in a crowded bowling alley without being ambushed for autographs and photos? At what other festival are you surrounded by people who are there for the music, not just to be seen? Where else are you not limited to $8 Heinekens or trapped inside the grounds all day?

I’m not making the argument that I’ll Be Your Mirror was the best festival this year; I’m just saying it’s a contender. Pound for pound, anyway. I mean, if Herman Cain…well, you get the point.

-Harry Painter
Senior Staff Writer

Feature photo by Joe Parker.

Friday, September 30th

The Album Leaf – Paramount Theater – 5:30 p.m.

Friday opened after business hours, and if early band The Album Leaf was a sign of things to come, people were in for a treat. Jimmy LaValle’s group kicked off the weekend with a flurry of driving drums, electronics, and avant-garde rock.

The Christmas lights that were the backdrop for the Paramount during the whole weekend fit The Album Leaf’s aura quite nicely; and thank goodness this was an indoor fest, because seeing The Album Leaf outside in the sun is unimaginable. Um, even though they played songs called “Rising Sun” and “Falling from the Sun”. Just go with it.

Chavez – Convention Hall – 6:30 p.m.

In contrast with The Album Leaf, Chavez‘ light show was decidedly modest. Chavez, fronted by a baseball capped Matt Sweeney, played a screeching brand of fuzzy ’90s rock. The sound was off for these guys, and it’s not the sort of band for which one wants to deal with bad sound.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw – Paramount Theater – 7:30 p.m.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

Former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes also plays accordion and has traveled to exotic locales like Hungary and Romania. His band A Hawk and a Hacksaw plays music meant to sound like it’s from these places. As Barnes announced the next song was a tribute to his memory of the sound of “country music from western Romania”, he put on a poncho, fake white beard, and carrot nose and danced around, and ran up and down the aisles. It was about as fun and as pointless as it sounds.

Shellac – Convention Hall – 8:30 p.m.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

It’s always enjoyable seeing a hard rock band at a festival and watching people not know what to do. It took seven songs for people to realize it was okay to mosh to Shellac, the trio led by engineer and guitarist Steve Albini.

Shellac somehow finds it possible and fully tenable to get metalheads amped up while playing songs like “Wingwalker” and making airplane arm motions, or “End of Radio”, in which Albini delivers a monologue about his snare drum directed at an imaginary alien civilization. Shellac’s crunching, 17/8-time head-banger could be about anything and it would hit just as hard. It happens to be about squirrels.

The band took extended time outs to take questions from the audience. Unsurprisingly, each member had a witty response to any question asked; subject matter ranged from the band’s favorite Republican Presidential candidate (“Sarah Palin; she’s hilarious”) to the band’s favorite instrument (i.e. sex toy, of course).

Reggie Watts – The Berkeley – 9:30 p.m.

Comedian/beatboxer Reggie Watts had a tough act to follow in Shellac, but he got the job done. He came out with a shy persona, stumbling into a microphone drumming session and twiddling knobs awkwardly. The bulk of his set consisted of a looped a cappella song over which he spouted gibberish and non sequiturs. Watts gave a nod to the nerds by line dancing, gauging the “energy frequency response” on either side of the room, and later showing off his suspenders as he laid down a flow. It can’t be overstated Watts has tremendous musical talent alone, and the funny is a bonus.

Saturday, October 1st

Beak> – Convention Hall – 2:30 p.m.

Geoff Barrow’s other band aired some new tracks at ATP, and by all accounts the new album will be worth a listen. Like many of the bands picked for ATP, Beak> was focused primarily on rhythm; in particular, the band displayed elements of krautrock, and sprinkled in plenty of knob mastery and sound effects. The show ended with some delightful post-rock fuzz.

Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog – Paramount Theater – 3:00 p.m.

Here’s what the world needs more of: experimental rock bands that emphasize the rock side of the equation. Not that there’s anything wrong with the other side, but how about some balance?

While Newark native Marc Ribot and his Ceramic Dog shouldn’t be pigeonholed as a rock band, they were sure heavy on the extended noise jams at ATP. The trio was marked by a riotous rhythm section and Ribot’s spoken-word vocals, a phenomenon that was strangely commonplace at the festival.

Silver-Qluster – Paramount Theater – 4:30 p.m.

Silver-Qluster, the collaboration between Simeon of Silver Apples and Hans-Joachim Roedelius of Cluster, played one song for an hour. Whether that’s a positive is up to personal taste, but those who got it loved it. Those who didn’t get it will be forgiven for thinking they walked into the most fucked up planetarium of all time.

The set began with entrancing ambient synth sounds, swirly lights, and smoke, which lasted 10 minutes before a minimalist MacBook beat kicked in. For the next 50 minutes, Roedelius turned his knobs ever so slightly while Simeon threw in creepy samples, dancing now and then in his goofy hat, which earned applause. Those who weren’t fast asleep gave a standing ovation.

The Horrors – Convention Hall – 5:00 p.m.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

While the heart of ATP lies in the ’90s, The Horrors are a lot closer to being an ’80s throwback. Playing dressed in black leather amidst even more smoke than Silver-Qluster, The Horrors delivered a helping of passable post-punk; nothing memorable.

Battles – Convention Hall – 6:45 p.m.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

Without Tyondai Braxton, Battles aren’t quite the same band; there’s just a certain aesthetic missing from their performance that was so enjoyable before. It’s either the afro or the vocal loops.

Both were missing for Mirrored tracks “Atlas”, which featured samples of schoolchildren singing the munchkin lines, and “Tonto”, which was something of a disaster. The new stuff (“Africastle”, “Ice Cream”, “Sweetie & Shag”) was the focus anyway, and it shined. Battles work their asses off — clench-faced drummer John Stanier was dripping wet from head to toe by the end — and have never been about a singer anyway.

Side note, it’s criminal to give your audience tinnitus when half of it is on its way to catch Swans immediately afterwards.

Ultramagnetic MC’s – Convention Hall – 8:15 p.m.

Kool Keith is clearly the star of Ultramagnetic MC’s, and they know it. That’s why TR Love and Ced Gee, accompanied by KutMasta Kurt, came out and performed two songs on either side of Keith’s unused mic, before Keith finally showed up, and not quietly. Black Elvis was adorned in a sweater inside a military jacket, accompanied by shades, a keffiyeh, and blue jeans.

People were just confused for those first two songs, but Ultramagnetic MC’s quickly won the crowd over performing the catchiest songs from the early part of their catalog, including “Two Brothers with Checks (San Francisco, Harvey)”, “Ease Back”, “Make it Happen”, and of course “Poppa Large”. Keith is always obligated to play his Dr. Octagon hit “Blue Flowers”, and he did, but it felt out of place here, taking the place of what could have been another track from their classic Critical Beatdown.

TR Love (“Portishead is my peoples!”) and Kool Keith (“Hopefully we all tour together”) both proclaimed their respect for Portishead  as they closed the set and left the crowd satiated for the 45-minute wait.

Portishead – Convention Hall – 10:00 p.m.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

Portishead‘s first of two performances was the first time Convention Hall looked anywhere close to full. If there were any justice in this world, there wouldn’t have been an empty seat in the house, and the room would have been bursting at the seams with kids trying to sneak in. Then again, the security checked wristbands Sunday night, so perhaps the kids were in full force.

Regardless, Portishead met its call of duty, and then some, to front the bill the band handpicked itself. Beginning with opener “Silence”, also the opener of Portishead’s three-and-a-half year old most recent album Third, the Bristol troupe demonstrated itself to be able to command a crowd with sheer presence, a presence that permeated the building at least until the fleeting display of mortality that colored a botched attempt at late 2009′s Amnesty International single “Chase the Tear”.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

Radiohead’s new touring drummer was on hand for the weekend, and while Clive Deamer (who has contributed to Portishead’s studio efforts) was superb, a little miscommunication between Deamer and Geoff Barrow led the band to skip “Chase the Tear” and move on to “Cowboys”.

The rest of the set was much the same as the last time Barrow, Beth Gibbons, and Adrian Utley graced the states, all the way back in April 2008. Portishead concentrated heavily on Third material but indulged the fans in hits like “Mysterons”, “The Rip”, and “Over”, which prompted a surprisingly widespread singalong. Utley appeared to be winging it much of the time, but there could be no faulting his precision on “Glory Box” and the stripped-down “Wandering Star”, which comprised a bass-wielding Barrow sitting opposite Gibbons, whose work here was tearjerkingly heartfelt. If you have a chance to witness that vibrato closer to Halloween, take it.

“We Carry On” ended the night with a bang, and the bright-smiling, relatively tiny Gibbons uncharacteristically diving off the stage. She showed tremendous class and shook nearly every hand in the front row before rejoining her equally cheery bandmates for good byes.

Sunday, October 2nd

Anika – Paramount Theater – 2:15 p.m.

Beak> collaborator Anika‘s speak-sing is a little reminiscent of Kim Gordon, until her keyboardist starts scaling some gothic rock organ lines that won’t be found in the most melancholy Portishead tracks. A fine opener, the singer/songwriter closed on a high note with a less-than-inspiring but unique, robot-voiced “Once in a Lifetime” cover.

DD/MM/YYYY – Convention Hall – 2:45 p.m.

Photo by Joe Parker

One’s first thought when he happens upon a band with awful hair playing in front of a Halloweenish skull backdrop under a blue-purple light is not to stick around. The lack of a real name doesn’t help much either. But then one notices the drummer has a NEU! t-shirt, and something about the dueling synths accompanied by atmospheric guitar noises and deceptively impressive vocals makes DD/MM/YYYY worth the time. The band loathes the boring concept of genre, as it does assigning permanent instrument duties. The Canadians also apparently loathe each other, because this was “the last show in the U.S. ever,” and they are calling it quits. What a shame.

Jeff Mangum – Paramount Theater – 3:30 p.m.

It’s hard to come to terms with the reality that the highlight of Sunday happened at 3:30 in the afternoon. Jeff Mangum was originally scheduled for 4:00 p.m., but like much of Sunday, he was switched around at the last minute. This may explain some of the empty seats, but many seats were left unfilled throughout. Still, being that most people only had tickets to one of Mangum’s two performances for the weekend, the energy was impeccable.

As was the unofficial and impromptu theme of the weekend, Mangum invited audience participation and question and answer sessions. Indeed, the Neutral Milk Hotel frontman acted a bit uncomfortable, perhaps out of his element, in the formal environment. He went out of his way three or four times to make sure the crowd knew it was allowed to sing along and even “shout at me if you want” — song requests and declarations of love ensued. The back-and-forths continued for most of the afternoon, giving the place an extra air of intimacy, as if the guy with a guitar in a sweater sitting on a stool under a spotlight wasn’t intimate enough.

Mangum played everything a Neutral Milk Hotel fan could hope for out of a Mangum show, and in the right order. Opening with “Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two” into “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”, Mangum established early on that the set would be heavy in material from the album which shares the latter’s title. Surrounded by four acoustic guitars, he continued with a couple of On Avery Island selections before delving into “Oh Comely”. Mangum worked particularly hard on that one, spitting a wad after a difficult high note.

The show included a couple of rarities in the non-album song “Engine” and a cover of Roky Erickson’s “I Love the Living You”. Mangum ended the show where he began, requesting that people “fucking sing the song” if they knew the words to “Two-Headed Boy”. The standing ovation was implied, but the room gave him one anyway.

Deerhoof – Convention Hall – 4:15 p.m.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

San Francisco’s Deerhoof followed DD/MM/YYYY in Convention Hall and continued the pattern of frantic instrument swapping, not to mention outright weirdness. It’s confusing that this band has been around for so long, however, and had such a decorated career, and not become much more of a big deal (DD/MM/YYYY, for one, praised them earlier). Sure, it’s a little strange — and hilarious — for a band that rocks so hard on “Milk Man” to later close with a song like “Gore in Rut”, wherein singer Satomi Matsuzaki jumps around with two fingers above her head and sings “bunny bunny bunny bunny”, but that’s kind of the appeal. These guys need fame and money, like soon.

Earth – Paramount Theater – 5:15 p.m.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

Mogwai’s cancellation left Sunday with a minimal helping of instrumental post-rock, but Earth was hardly an unacceptable option. Still, Earth played a set full of subtle yet lush, meandering songs that maybe didn’t mesh with the extra comfortable chairs — or maybe it was the cello. Selections included new songs “Father Midnight” and “Old Black”, as well as “Blackwaterside” and “The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull”.

Company Flow – Convention Hall – 5:45 p.m.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

The Convention Hall wasn’t ideal for hip hop, nor for anything else, really, as far as acoustics are concerned. But Company Flow made the best of the situation, aptly commanding a modest crowd, much of whom seemed unaware of who the group was. Still, El-P thanked the crowd for still “giving  a shit” about Co. Flow “after all these years.” Rapping their lungs out on tracks like “The Fire In Which You Burn” and “Patriotism”, both El-P and Big Juss demonstrated skills deserving of whatever love was reciprocated.

J.G. Thirlwell’s Manorexia – Paramount Theater – 6:45 p.m.

Composer J.G. Thirlwell came out with an unconventional collection of folks, including a string section, a pianist, and a percussionist. Thirlwell himself contributed a sampler to the mix, which comprised experiments in dynamics that would make the Pixies blush. It was a bizarre phenomenon, sandwiching Manorexia between Company Flow and Public Enemy, but Manorexia proved to be the must-see of late Sunday afternoon.

Public Enemy – Convention Hall – 7:15 p.m.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

The decorated hip hop group featuring reality TV sideshow Flavor Flav and afterthought Chuck D was originally scheduled for an hour like everyone else, but then Mogwai postponed its tour, and ATP decided to give Public Enemy a full two hours to perform their 1990 landmark LP Fear of a Black Planet and whatever else Flav and Chuck deemed worthy of the audience’s time.

Chuck D began by assuring fans they’d get their money’s worth, but already had some ground to make up after letting DJ Lord and some dancers occupy the first 10 minutes before Flav and Chuck came out. When they did, they knew how to entertain but too often appeared to be killing time — it’s only an hour-long album, y’all.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

Flavor Flav offered an autographed clock to the best tweet of the night, thanked everyone for watching his various VH1 programs, and introduced his grown daughter to New Jersey. Chuck D waxed political over Occupy Wall Street and Troy Davis. But amongst all the fluff Public Enemy delivered most of what fans wanted, albeit not at an ideal pace.

Chuck D asked more than a few times how low the bass could go as they delivered hits from Black Planet like “911 Is a Joke” and “Welcome to the Terrordome”, as well as throwing in outliers like “Bring the Noise”, “He Got Game”, and “Don’t Believe the Hype”, for which they invited a fan (who AV Club points out was rock critic Christopher R. Weingarten) onstage.

And who knew Flavor Flav could play bass and drums?

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra – Paramount Theater – 9:00 p.m.

Photo by Sohrab Nafici

Godspeed You! Black Emperor was unfortunately not booked for America’s version of ATP, but the festival was able to land Efrim Menuck’s other band Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. The five-piece was four parts orchestral post-rock, and one part punk. Fans wandering into the Paramount were just as likely to walk into a beautiful violin arrangement as a heavily distorted jam in 9/4 time accompanied by Menuck’s nasal vocals. Or a tirade about Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose portrait was on upside-down display, and who Menuck so fondly described as “our Nixon”.

Portishead – Convention Hall – 10:00 p.m

The energy was still there for Portishead’s second night and most attendees’ final show for the weekend. The band didn’t change the setlist or even the set order much, the only exceptions being replacing “Hunter” with “Nylon Smile” and adding “Chase the Tear”, making it the band’s first performance of the song on this side of the pond.

However, where the song variation lacked, Portishead made up for it in a host of goodies. Beyond the gift of “Chase the Tear”, a few friends came on board to drop some exclamation points here and there. Chuck D jumped back on stage during the breakdown of “Machine Gun” and laid down a verse from “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” — the same song Portishead’s contemporary Tricky covered for Maxinquaye track “Black Steel”. It felt like a cheap little wink, but it made for a much-needed distinction between night one and night two. Simeon of Silver Apples fame, who performed the day before with Silver-Qluster, later came on stage for some spooky electronics on “We Carry On”, after being introduced as a “new friend” of the band’s.

Gibbons, apparently having had enough Saturday, opted not to crowd surf this time around but again offered her hand to everyone in the front row. Simeon joined the other six on stage in waving their farewells before calling it a weekend.

Thought Forms – Asbury Lanes – 11:30 p.m.

Elsewhere on Thought Forms‘ tour, the English trio signed to Geoff Barrow’s Invada Records will serve as opener for Barrow’s Portishead. At ATP New Jersey, however, the band was the post-headliner bonus, appearing on a tiny stage in the bowling alley down the street. The line to get in extended to the end of the block for the intimate helping of piercing noise rock, led by a two-guitar attack and one of the hardest working drummers at the festival, who looked ready to pass out by night’s end.

The Culture of ATP: I’ll Be Your Mirror

Gallery by Joe Parker and Sohrab Nafici

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Local favorites The Stepkids opened things up with their retro, jazzy R&B stylings. Performed while mind-bending projections were projected onto the trio, who were decked out in matching all-white getups and playing all-white instruments, The Stepkids’ set had to be seen to be believed (video below!). The trio got things going early with their brand of funky psychedelia, showcasing their stunning virtuosity and irresistible groove as they offered an exciting preview of their forthcoming, self-titled debut full-length (out September 27th on Stones Throw Records), while throwing in several of their well-received singles to keep the crowd going.

The Horrors took the stage right on time and almost immediately broke into Skying‘s opener, “Changing the Rain”. Guitarist Josh Hayward and synthman Tom Cowan exhibited the track’s more sprawling tendencies (it stretches to nearly nine minutes on the album’s deluxe edition) before breaking into fan favorite “Who Can Say” off of Primary Colours. Though the tracks varied little from their studio form and the jammier sections – which mostly consisted of Hayward drawing out feedback and reverb-y notes off of his amp stack – grew tired rather fast, the band played with veteran ease, hardly even leaving the stage before their encore. Instead, they let the feedback at the end of “Still Life”, Skying‘s lead single and best track, ring out for a minute or two before they returned for a spirited take on “Mirror’s Image”. Frontman Faris Badwan cut a dashing figure as he shifted about moodily onstage, occasionally throwing in a “Thank you, you’re a lovely crowd” between songs. The Horrors closed their set with a sprawling take on Skying‘s “Moving Further Away”, the album’s longest cut, stretching the track to its sprawling, furthest extent before thanking the crowd for the last time. Although their 11-song set was criminally short, it was more than enough to warrant the heaps of praise they’ve been receiving of late.

Setlist:
Changing the Rain
Who Can Say?
I Can See Through You
Scarlet Fields
Dive In
Three Decades
Endless Blue
Sea Within a Sea
Still Life
Mirror’s Image
Moving Further Away

Yep, all of that. And more. Here’s just a small taste of three nights at MFNW from Mikala Taylor from BackstageRider.com.

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From the first mechanical gear of “Changing The Rain”, it’s apparent just how much better everything sounds. The textures are more varied, the guitar work is subtle, and the vocals are stronger. There are no “standard” tracks here. Every number attempts something at least a little differently, and succeeds for the most part.

Throughout, the synthesizer work of Tom Cowan is especially noteworthy, but every track has its unique breath of fresh air. “You Said” is full of abrasive, buzzing noise that slides into the background. “I Can See Through You” opens with a disco-meets-early-’90s synth that demands dance floor attention, until a downpour of heavy guitar insists on moshing, instead. “Endless Blue” contains a hazy, summer feel supplemented by a masked horn section.

Highlights abound here. First up is the single “Still Life”, complete with looped tape effects, a bell-shaped keyboard pattern, and a slamming drumbeat. Faris Badwan’s wavy wording in the verses, and the straightforward belting in the chorus just sticks to your brain. A couple tracks later, the eight-minute “Moving Further Away” arrives. Keyboard arpeggios bounce back and forth among shakers and drums, while the mid-section’s low-key guitar acts as a quasi-anti-solo. The notes and sounds spread out dramatically, letting the reverb and occasional silent gap transport the listener to the next part. Oh, and then there’s the battle of sound between iridescent synths and the caw of seagulls. Groovy.

The Horrors have always made their influences clear to see. When you hear a song like “Who Can Say”, you can tell which artist made an impact on their sound for that piece. With Skying, the band has moved on to their own distinct personality by simply evolving. Don’t believe us? Well, as Badwan says, “You’re never certain of anything/unless you go in.”

It’s fitting that The Horrors, those impeccably dressed UK Gothic rockers, named their third LP Skying. Apparently British slang for tossing or throwing something upward, the video for the LP’s first song “Still Life”, which is available for watching above via Pitchfork.tv, makes us want to do just that: toss our cookies. Call it the end result of a long weekend hangover, but the bright psychedelic swirls are making us regret last night’s 10th mojito.

After watching the clip, focus your attention below and stream Skying in full. You can then purchase your own copy beginning August 9th via XL Recordings.

Summer always feels like it’s owed to me — not like it’s a reward, but rather a lump sum payment for the debt that winter worked up. It’s taxing, that winter. If you work indoors all day, you could quite possibly go days at a time without seeing the sun and then Seasonal Affective Disorder (or, you know, SAD) kicks in and the world just seems like it’s blowing a freezing wind in your face at all hours of the day. I don’t envy those who live in subtropics because you don’t deserve summer. That’s right, you’re just a buncha jerks doing jerk things in the relatively warm air all year long. You take 65 degree evenings for granted whereas it’s a dream come true when the first evening hits where it you don’t have to put on another article of clothing to go outside.

What I’m getting at is that there’s an aura around summer that makes everything that much more special including the music you play. The song playing in the car with the windows down, or at the cookout, or late at night relaxing outside — summer is about freedom and these albums that are dropping soon are set to soundtrack any number of specific moments you may encounter during the next couple months. What song is going to define this summer?

For me, every summer can be loosely fit between the bookends of Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” and Violent Femmes’ “American Music”,  but maybe it’s time to shelve those records and find some new ones. Yeah?

-Jeremy D. Larson
Content Director

Beyoncé – 4

We live in truly chaotic times. Pop music is dominated by the avant pop of Lady Gaga and the “I bet she’d be sticky if I touched her” trash pop of Ke$ha. But with all the queens vying for the crown, when Beyonce drops her fourth solo LP tomorrow, that game of thrones is all but over and done. While 2008′s I Am…Sasha Fierce brought the public booming radio hits, 4 offers up “minimalist” ballads and creations influenced by Teena Marie and Fela Kuti musicals. And with a rare cameo by Andre 3000, along with production and writing by Kanye West, No I.D., Babyface, and newcomer/OFWGKTA’s Frank Ocean, 4 has the power to be one of the most dominant records of Queen B’s entire career. How ya like that, Shakira? -Chris Coplan
Release Date: June 28th via Columbia

“Girls (Run the World)”

Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital

Sex sells. I mean, for all you XY’s out there, sometimes summer often becomes about “hot chicks”. As you can see from the non-Best Buy version of the album art, Dan Boeckner, lead singer of Handsome Furs, knows the score. However, the actual music on the album is empirically less sexy. The industrial synths and anti-establishment lyricism may not prove to be the strongest of aphrodisiacs, but a Handsome Furs album is always ready to party. Couple that with Wolf Parade bandmate Spencer Krug’s solo album, and it’ll be like they never decided to go on an indefinite hiatus. Now that’s a sexy thought. -Jeremy D. Larson
Release Date: June 28th via Sub Pop

“Repatriated”

Incubus - If Not Now, When

There’s something to be said about stamina; no, not the little blue pill. For the past 16 years or so – since 1995, specifically – Incubus have been pummeling fans with their blend of loose funk rock and hard alternative jams. This July, the California quintet, still led by one Brandon Boyd, flex their muscles again with their seventh studio effort, If Not Now, When. Sure their fans from the early days have traded in their bongs for baby bottles, but everything evolves and Incubus have perfected their song writing craft. Boyd has once again entranced us with his infectious lyrics and melodies, while Mike Einziger’s guitar work is nothing short of seductive. So far, the album’s first single, “Adolescents”, is the perfect soundtrack to those long summer days and memorable nights. And if you don’t expect the hard rock anthems of yesteryear, you’ll instead find something warm and curious. Nothin’ wrong with that. -Daniel Torres
Release Date July 12th via Epic Records

“Promises, Promises”

Cool Kids – When Fish Ride Bicycles

No matter how many mixtapes, features, singles and the like rappers dole out, people keep asking about the album. Chicago’s Sir Michael Rocks and Chuck Inglish, aka The Cool Kids, have been pestered about When Fish Ride Bicycles at least since their much-loved 2008 EP The Bake Sale. Finally, on July 12th, those questions will be answered. With production from Pharrell and Travis Barker, as well as appearances from Ghostface, Bun B, and more, the LP looks to justify all that hype. If there’s more of the same old school hip hop revival beats (and with a track called “Penny Hardaway”, it looks that way) and more of the Cool Kids brilliantly self-aware rhymes, this should outlive the summer biking and ride into best of the year conversations. -Adam Kivel
Release Date: July 12th via Green Label Sound

“Swimsuits” (feat. Mayer Hawthorne)

Portugal. The Man - In The Mountain In The Cloud

Skeptics insist that releasing an album per year risks quality, that true creative genius can’t be brought to fruition that often. Well, haters gonna hate, and Portugal. the Man‘s heavily anticipated sixth album in as many years, In The Mountain In The Cloud, is due July 19th. Dangling the new material over fans’ heads through 30 second teaser videos on the band’s YouTube channel, releasing “Sleep Forever”, an extended two song music video (via IFC), and littering set lists with new tracks such as “Got It All This Can’t Be Living Now” and “Senseless” have furthered the hype – and rightly so. The band sounds more together and intense than ever — as John Gourley wails “You got it all til the revolution”, it’s pretty clear that the revolution is imminent. What it comes down to is this: when the guys that brought us “AKA M80 The Wolf”, “Lay Me Back Down”, and all of The Satanic Satanist are saying that this release will be their best, it’s time to expect greatness. -Caitlin Meyer
Release Date: July 19th via Atlantic

“Got It All This Can’t Be Living Now”

Theophilus London – Timez Are Weird These Days

If James Bond and Kool Moe Dee could somehow have a child, that offspring would be Theophilus London.  The Brooklyn MC/pseudo-singer may have only been on people’s radars for a short time, but he’s already culled an impressive Rolodex of friends courtesy of his February debut EP, Lovers Holiday, including Sara Quin of Tegan & Sara, Beyonce’s baby sister Solange Knowles, and TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek. Now, with his debut album Timez Are Weird These Days dropping July 19th, the genre-blending rapper has hit the big time with Warner Bros., imported some of those collabos onto the full-length, and is prepared to take the rap world by storm. Last name London, first name Bomb Diggity. – Chris Coplan
Release Date: July 19th via Warner Brothers

“Last Name London”

Little Dragon – Ritual Union

In 2010, Swedish electronic soulsters Little Dragon went from Gothenburg’s best barely-kept secret to band-on-everyone’s-radar thanks to a collaboration and support slot with Gorillaz. This summer, the childhood friends will release their third album, Ritual Union, and continue performing mesmerizing live gigs, including sets at the Roskilde and Outside Lands Festivals. Little Dragon has been showcasing tracks from Ritual Union during their 2011 tour and on their American television debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Word on the street is the upcoming third album will bridge the gap between the R&B and jazz infused sound of their self-titled debut and the irresistible electro-pop of Machine Dreams. -Frank Mojica
Release Date: July 26th via Peacefrog/EMI

“Ritual Union”

Moonface - Organ Music, Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped

With Wolf Parade on an indefinite hiatus, the temporarily defunct band has members turning to their solo projects, Spencer Krug included. Krug will be lending his vocals and instrumental work to his first full length, Organ Music not Vibraphone like I’d Hoped, under his moniker Moonface. If his Dreamland EP was any indication, this full length promises to feature Krug’s prominent yelps and tunes heavy on organs, or “random half-pop songs.” Fans will have a chance to check out Krug going solo when he takes Moonface on the road this summer. -Lauren Rearick
Release Date: August 2nd via Jagjaguwar

“Fast Peter”

The Horrors – Skying

If you heard the Horrors’ 2009 album, Primary Colors, you already know why Skying is a must-listen. Their last record was a breakthrough success, winning over critical adoration and picking up a Mercury prize nomination. Now, they’ve returned with a self-produced LP, a first for the band. The first single, “Still Life”, is awash in reverse synths that explode like fireworks for the chorus. Joseph Spurgeon’s sharp drumming cuts through the atmosphere and Faris Badwan’s vocals are smoother than ever. If you’re not convinced yet, give the song a listen. You quickly will be. -Joe Marvilli
Release Date: August 9th via XL

“Still Life”

Game – The R.E.D. Album

In the ebb and flow of rap music, Game‘s fourth LP couldn’t come at a better time. Call it the natural rhythm of the genre or just the state of the world, but hip hop as a whole is in dire need of some good old fashioned gangsta rap. With the long-delayed effort finally dropping on August 23rd, the world will get its nickel-plated shot in the grill with an album that’s been in the final works since 2009. Reportedly featuring cameos from Lil Wayne, Drake, Chris Brown, and Lupe Fiasco, along with production from Cool and Dre, The Neptunes, and a reunion with West Coast cohorts Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, The R.E.D. Album could more than make up for the delays with some of the most hard knock rhymes and bangin’ beats to hit the streets this summer. Hopefully. -Chris Coplan
Release Date: August 23rd via Aftermath/Interscope

“Red Nation” (feat. Lil Wayne)

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Mirror Traffic

Stephen Malkmus had a lot to live up to post-Pavement.  While his self-titled solo debut was a perfect collection of charismatically bizarre yet hooky tunes, the album was unfairly compared to the work of his former legendary act.  Time has been kind over the years, with Malkmus and crack backing band The Jicks developing their own fan base over four excellent albums rife with spacey effects, classic rock musicianship, and the singer’s trademark wordplay and playfully macabre imagery. All of this makes Mirror Traffic something to look forward to, as evinced by first single “Senator.”  It’s as close to political as SM is ever likely to get (the refrain barks “the senator wants a blowjob!”), and it perfectly marries Pavement’s experimental flourishes with The Jicks’ meaty jam band chops. -Dan Caffrey
Release Date August 23rd via Matador Records

“Senator”

Beirut – Rip Tide

Based on Zach Condon’s oeuvre, the fact that he spent the winter in upstate New York recording the album, and perhaps by the cover art above for the first single “East Harlem”, you might think that Beirut‘s Rip Tide will be another lonely, wintery album. But no, it belongs smack dab on this list. “I write sad songs when it’s nice outside”, said Condon about the album. “I write warm and happy songs when I’m up to my neck in snow for three months.” The pep in the step of “East Harlem” is sunshine enough, but those string and horn arrangements brighten up the whole track. And when you include the other tracks at their live show, Beirut’s album will make the grass waver in the wind all summer long. -Jeremy D. Larson
Release Date August 30th via Pompeii Records

“East Harlem”

Male Bonding – Endless Now

A year ago, Male Bonding were cutting their teeth on some opening slots for tours across the globe serving up rough punk gems. But then they dropped “Bones” — a six-minute race to the finish that stakes new claim in the long-since abandoned town of pop punk. The UK trio aren’t a nostalgia act, but for anyone with a soft spot for those early aught bands like Jimmy Eat World or Saves the Day, Male Bonding is sort of like the next logical step if those lyrics about high school don’t really cut as clean as they used to. -Jeremy D. Larson
Release Date September 30th via Sub Pop

Red Hot Chili Peppers – I’m With You

For this legendary quartet of Californicators, there hasn’t been such a drastically publicized lineup change since Dave Navarro popped up on One Hot Minute — an album that saw major sonic landscaping, favoring relentlessly dark subject matter. I’m With You is slated to be guitarist Josh Klinghoffer’s studio debut with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, following the departure of experimental wailer John Frusciante, so the questions become: Will the new sound be too jarring? Will the Peppers remain a summertime rock staple? Will this be romanticized like By The Way, or reckless and lust-laden circa Mother’s Milk?

I bought the ’06 double-album, Stadium Arcadium, one summer late, but it was played on repeat for the better part of three months. Barring all band membership inquisitions (given Klinghoffer’s live performance history), I’m With You garners immense anticipation by virtue of West Coast bravado alone. -David Buchanan
Release Date August 30th via Warner Bros.

The Horrors are set to unleash their third LP, Skying, on July 26th August 9th via XL Recordings. In support of the release, the UK-based goth-rock outfit will spend most of the next five months touring the globe. Their North American leg, which follows a series of festival appearances in the UK, Europe, and Japan, kicks off on September 7th in Vancouver, BC. From there, The Horrors will slowly make their way south, hitting Seattle and Portland for Musicfest NW, before playing four shows in California and three in Texas. They’ll close September with stops in Minneapolis and Chicago and then kick off October with a series of shows along the East coast, including an appearance at ATP I’ll Be Your Mirror in Asbury Park, New Jersey (via Baeble Music).

Below, you can find the band’s complete upcoming itinerary as well as an mp3 for their new song “Still Life”. Tickets for the North American leg go on sale Friday, June 17th.

The Horrors 2011 Tour Dates:
06/15 – Glasgow, UK @ Oran Mor
06/16 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 3
06/17 – London, UK @ York Hall
06/23 – Cornwall, UK @ Eden Project
06/24-26 – Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury Music Festival
07/03 – London, UK @ Wireless Festival
07/08 – Azzano Decimo, IT @ Fiera Della Musica
07/16 – Ostrava, CH @ Colours Of Ostrava
08/06 – London, UK @ Field Day
08/13-14 – Tokyo & Osaka, JP @ Summer Sonic
08/18-20 – Kiewit-Hasselt, BE @ Pukkelpop
08/26 – Reading, UK @ Reading Festival
08/27 – Leeds, UK @ Leeds Festival
08/28 – Paris, FR @ Rock en Seine
09/07 – Vancouver, BC @ Venue
09/08 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
09/09 – Portland, OR @ Musicfest NW
09/12 – Pomona, CA @ Glass House
09/13 – Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit Bar
09/15 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
09/16 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah
09/17 – Tucson, AZ @ Plush
09/19 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
09/20 – Dallas, TX  @ The Prophet Bar
09/21 – Austin, TX @ The Parish
09/23 – St. Louis, MO @ Firebird
09/24 – Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock
09/25 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
09/27 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
09/28 – Montreal, QC @ Cafe Campus
09/30 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
10/01 – Asbury Park, NJ @ ATP I’ll Be Your Mirror
10/03 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
10/04 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
10/11 – Norwich, UK @ Waterfront
10/12 – London, UK @ Roundhouse
10/14 – Birmingham, UK @ Academy 2
10/15 – Manchester, UK @ The Warehouse Project
10/16 – Leeds, UK @ Cockpit
10/18 – Brighton, UK @ Digital
10/19 – Edinburgh, UK @ The Liquid Room
10/20 – Liverpool, UK @ The Kazimier
10/21 – Oxford, UK @ Academy 2
10/23 – Bristol, UK @ Trinity
10/24 – Portsmouth, UK @ Wedgewood Rooms
10/25 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
10/26 – Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms
10/27 – Southend, UK @ Chinnerys

Other confirmed notables include Neurosis, Blitzen Trapper, Sebadoh, Handsome Furs, Little Dragon, The Antlers, YACHT, The Horrors, The Thermals, Kylesa, Ted Leo, Crooked Fingers, Twin Sister, Sharon Van Etten, The Joy Formidable, The Vaccines, and Blind Pilot.

If that weren’t enough, this year’s bill also includes Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Charles Bradley, Thee Oh Sees, Avi Buffalo, Cass McCombs, Phantogram, Rhett Miller, Big Freedia, Givers, Ty Segall, EMA, Dam-Funk and Master Blaster, Shabazz Palaces, Tennis, Centro-matic, The Moondoggies, PS I Love You, The Gaslamp Killer, Dirty Beaches, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and The Soft Moon. Click here to view the complete lineup.

Festival wristbands and tickets for shows at Pioneer Courthouse Square, Crystal Ballroom, Roseland Theater, and Aladdin Theater go on sale on Friday, June 3rd. Festival wristbands are on sale at two price points: 1.) $115 for an all-inclusive wristband that gets you into all three outdoor shows and the rest of the five-day festival. 2.) $70 for a ticket to one of the three outdoors shows (Band of Horses, Explosions in the Sky, or TBD band) and admission to the rest of the festival. For further information, visit the festival’s website.

After spending the early part of 2011 as one-half of Cats Eyes, Faris Badwan is returning to his full-time duties as frontman of the UK gothic-rock outfit The Horrors. The band will release their third LP, Skying, on July 26th via XL Recordings, and you can hear an early preview in the form of “Still Life”. The track, which was debuted by BBC 1′s Zane Lowe, is available to stream below.

The Horrors will spend much of the summer on the European festival circuit, with appearances scheduled for Glastonbury, Field Day, Pukkelpop, and Reading and Leeds. They’ll also hit the U.S. in late September for a set at ATP’s “I’ll Be Your Mirror” in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Click here to find their complete touring schedule.

Skying Tracklist:
01. Changing the Rain
02. You Said
03. I Can See Through You
04. Endless Blue
05. Dive In
06. Still Life
07. Wild Eyed
08. Moving Further Away
09. Monica Gems
10. Oceans Burning

The London-based quintet continues its surge with a digital EP called Fire Escape, which will be sliding through your local Intertube July 13th (via The Audio Perv). The title track, which appeared on last year’s LP Reservoir, has been made over by such names as TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, The Horrors, Toro y Moi, and Grammy-winning producer Tom Elmhirst, who has worked with Mark Ronson, Hot Chip, and Amy Winehouse.

Very soon, the band will host a music video for the track on its site. It’s likely to be worth watching, being that it’s directed by Jamie Thraves, a guy who’s done videos for Radiohead, Death Cab for Cutie, and Coldplay. May as well start refreshing the page now — and while you’re there, check out the other EP the band has up. It’s a free live EP recorded from Fanfarlo’s first tour at various college radio stations. Gosh, this band is on fire.

First and foremost, the followup to 2005′s Demon Days will be titled Plastic Beach and, according to Albarn, it’s “the most pop record I ever made.”  It also might be his most eclectic; Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Barry Gibb, Mos Def, and The Horrors are all confirmed as guest contributors. Yeah, seriously.

There is no release date for Plastic Beach quite yet as the album is only “nearly finished.” That said, Albarn also revealed that he has reunited with Flea and Tony Allen for a completely unrelated new album. The trio had previously collaborated on the Africa Express project. So, you’ll have more thoughts of anticipation to hold you over…

For its 18th edition, Australia’s largest outdoor music event has tapped the likes of Muse, The Decemberists, The Mars Volta, the newly unretired Lily Allen, Peaches, Rise Against, Mastodon, Kasabian, Dizzee Rascal, Powderfinger, Ladyhawke, the Horrors, and Girl Talk.

However, as Undercover reports, David Bowie, who had been heavily rumored to be participating in this year’s event, is missing from the initial lineup. Good thing initial only means initial, eh?

Big Day Out kicks off on January 15th in Auckland, New Zealand, before hitting the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and concluding in Perth on January 31st. Tickets, ranging from $132 – $140, are available via bigdayout.com.

Damon Albarn, the main force behind The Gorillaz, recently invited the Hot Topic poster children down to his studio, 13, to work on the followup of the 2005 album Demon Days.

In an interview with BBC, Horrors bassist Rhys Webb revealed how it all went down, explained Albarn initially sent him an email saying only “Would you guys be able to come down to my studio at some point?”

When they met up, Albarn expressed his adoration for the band and asked them to collaborate on the new Gorillaz album.

“He played us a lot of tracks he’d been working on and musically they were just in a really similar place to where we were at the moment — rhythmically and the instruments that were going through the sound — so it made perfect sense for us,“ Webster explained.

Previous Gorillaz collaborations have included Dan The Automator, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, D-12, Redman, Dangermouse, and De La Soul. However, The Horrors are the first guitar based band to collaborate on a Gorillaz album, which was one of the reasons they were chosen for the job.

In return for their talents, Albarn mixed The Horror’s new single, “Whole New Way,”, as the band was not happy with the original version.

As previously reported, the new Gorillaz album is due out sometime soon, however, neither title nor release date for the project has yet to been revealed.

The fun will kick off on August 22nd at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City. Three more NYC shows follow, with one show at Webster Hall and two at Terminal 5, before Trent and Co. hit Chicago for a two-night stand at the Aragon Ballroom on August 28th and 29th. Then, it’s on to Los Angeles for four shows, with the Hollywood Palladium, Henry Fonda Theater, Wiltern Theatre, and Echoplex all a piece of the action. Along the way, NIN will also headline this year’s Virgin Festival Ontario.

Pre-sale tickets for all dates begin Friday, July 17th at nin.com. General on sale will follow on July 31st.

Nine Inch Nails 2009 N. American Tour Dates:
08/22 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom *
08/23 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall *
08/25 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 *
08/26 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5
08/28 – Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom ^
08/29 – Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom ^
08/30 – Toronto, ON @ Virgin Festival Ontario
09/02 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium ^
09/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theater ^
09/05 – Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern Theatre
09/06 – Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex

* = w/ The Horrors
^ = w/ Mew