2011: A Year In Music

The slew of year end lists that tend to consume the internet never ceases to amuse me. Ranking art is in many ways a pointless exercise. My list of 2011’s best (insert art form here) will never be the same as yours. Still, as HitFix columnist Melinda Newman expressed in her Top Albums of 2011 piece, best of lists offer the opportunity to expose readers to music that they might not  have listened to otherwise.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve read upwards of twenty Best Albums of 2011 lists to familiarize myself with any albums that I might have missed during the calendar year. Some, like Wild Flag’s eponymous debut, P.J. Harvey’s Let England Shake, and Radiohead’s The King of Limbs garnered admiration from me more than adulation, which is why they don’t appear on my list. Others, like Common’s The Dreamer/The Believer, Robin Thicke’s Love and War and M83’s Hurry Up We’re Dreaming I simply didn’t get to sit with long enough to include.

The list below is reflective of my year in music. It features 40 terrific albums that I implore you to seek out, if you haven’t already. Remember, Spotify is your friend.

A Musing On Misogyny In Rap Music

Earlier this morning, Think Progress’ Alyssa Rosenberg posted an article accusing rapper Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) of blatant misogyny. In the piece, Ms. Rosenberg goes to great lengths to illustrate her point, citing several different songs and outlining the specific lines in those songs that she found most offensive. The evidence is all there, and yet I couldn’t help but disagree with the thesis of her piece.

Top Albums of 2010

Though I created this site to serve predominantly as an outlet for my thoughts on television, I will occasionally post about other subjects. Those of you who diligently follow my work know that I cover music news for Modern Mystery Blog. As such, I contributed to their list of 2010’s Best Music.

If you click over to that link, you’ll see what my favorite music videos, songs, and albums of 2010 were. Alas, we were only asked for our Top 3 albums. So, I wanted to share my thoughts on some of this year’s other top albums.