Best Albums of 2011: Ten lists combined into one

Stereogum was nice enough to share not only their Top 50 Albums of 2011, but also those of Paste, Q, Uncut, Mojo, New York magazine (actually a Top 10 list), Rolling Stone, NME, Spin and Pitchfork. I love and hate these year-end lists: love them because I like to know what I’ve been missing, and hate them because the amount of new music that I know nothing about is staggering.

I thought it might be nice to combine these lists into one master list, which would in theory keep the list from being too hipster-y, too mainstream, too British or too American. I gave 50 points to every #1, 49 points to every #2… down to 1 point for every #50. There’s an excellent chance I screwed up the math in several places.

The number that appears after the name of the album is the number of the Top 50 lists it appeared on — the only album to appear on all ten was w h o k i l l by tUnE-yArDs. Enjoy! (Oh, and for the record, my favorite new albums of the year were Elbow’s Build a Rocket Boys! and The Decemberists’ The King Is Dead. I am no longer cool, if I ever was.)

1. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (9)
2. Bon Iver - Bon Iver (9)
3. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo (9)
4. tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l (10)
5. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (7)
6. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (8)
7. Radiohead - The King Of Limbs (7)
8. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost (6)
9. The Horrors – Skying (4)
10. Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne (6)
11. Destroyer – Kaputt (7)
12. The Weeknd - House Of Balloons (3.5)
13. M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (4)
14. Wild Flag - Wild Flag (6)
15. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints (4)
16. Wild Beasts – Smother (4)
17. Drake - Take Care (5)
18. Laura Marling - A Creature I Don’t Know (4)
19. Wilco - The Whole Love (5)
20. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact (4)
21. Adele – 21 (4)
22. Iceage - New Brigade (6)
23. Real Estate – Days (6)
24. Metronomy - The English Riviera (3)
25. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up (4)
26. James Blake - James Blake (6)
27. Tom Waits - Bad As Me (4)
28. Yuck – Yuck (4)
29. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes (5)
30. Josh T. Pearson - Last Of The Country Gentlemen (4)
31. Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi (3)
32. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life (3)
33. My Morning Jacket – Circuital (4)
34. Feist – Metals (4)
35. Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow (4)
36. White Denim – D (4)
37. The Decemberists - The King Is Dead (3)
38. Paul Simon - So Beautiful Or So What (3)
39. Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest (5)
40. Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See (3)
41. The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient (4)
42. Beyoncé – 4 (4)
43. Florence & The Machine – Ceremonials (3)
44. Austra - Feel It Break (3)
45. Lady Gaga - Born This Way (3)
46. Björk – Biophilia (4)
47. Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise (3)
48. Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra (6)
49. The Black Keys - El Camino (3)
50. WU LYF - Go Tell Fire To The Mountain (2)

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   Hugely helpful, thanks Jeff!

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