The Top 50 Albums Of 2011: #10-#2

#10
Battles
‘Gloss Drop’
(Warp)
Its gestation may have been troubled, but ‘Gloss Drop’ ended up being a difficult second album in the best possible sense. Battles always promised complicated, thrill-seeking angularity and gymnastically wanton dance shapes, but, here, they delivered to hitherto unexpected degrees. Making Gary Numan still sound like The Future after thirty-something years (‘My Machines’) was impressive enough, but including a quick session of steel-band cheerleading between the time shifting globe trotting of ‘Africastle’ and the preposterously positivist dubpocalypse of‘Sundome’ was practically cavalierly ingenious. As a salvo in Battles’ waron mediocrity, ‘GlossDrop’ was unquestionably victorious.
Iain Moffat

#9
The Vaccines
‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?’
(Columbia)
Perhaps the most sparkling praise we could offer The Vaccines is that their debut album didn’t crumple under the weight of our expectations, after a back-breaking landslide of hyperbole greeted their rise to fame. Yep, against all odds, the urgent screams of ‘Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)’ set the tone for an album that answered the most sneering of cynics. It’s a record that is as retrospective as it is forward thinking, as daring as it is mainstream and as brilliantly poppy as it is clever. Despite the amped expectations, The Vaccines’ debut didn’t fall short.
Matt Glass

#8
Girls
‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost’
(Fantasy Trashcan) 
Second album syndrome? Forget it. The poignant magnificence of Girls’ 2009 debut may have been less evident on this follow-up, but ‘Father,Son, Holy Ghost’ proved Christopher Owens and Chet ‘JR’ White still have ideas in abundance. An album of contrasting emotions, the opening salvo sees ‘Honey Bunny’ revelling in redemptive West Coast sunshine, in contrast to ‘Die’’s furious Deep Purple homage. As‘My Ma’’s sorrowful sigh gives way to the gospel tinged euphoria of ‘Vomit’, it’s not unfair to ponder that Girls make the sort of music that seems somewhat unfashionable until someone does it with this degree of panache.
Will Fitzpatrick

#7 
Wild Beasts
‘Smother’
(Domino Recording Co.)
Wild Beasts never fail to deliver the slinky, smutty goods. Third album ‘Smother’ finds Kendal’s horniest spread eagled at the foot of their four-poster, regaling us with tales from between the sheets against an increasingly sparse musical backdrop. Switching the skittering guitars for smooth electronics, Hayden Thorpe’s falsetto still soars; ‘Albatross’ and ‘Lion’s Share’ tapping into the polite nature hiding the animalistic heart of this truly unique band. With ‘Smother’ marking another scintillating evolution, Wild Beasts’ ongoing ascension continues apace.
David Renshaw

#6
PJ Harvey 
‘Let England Shake’
(Island/Vagrant)
The story of PJ Harvey’s tenth album is almost too perfect. ‘Let England Shake’ made her the first two-time winner of the Mercury Music Prize, ten years on from her first win, and ten years since the beginning of the war that provided so much inspiration for its content. The most focused concept album of her career, it also marked the culmination of a decade of experimentation. From the clanging, skipping title track to the morose depictions of the dead in ‘The Last Living Rose’, Harvey has never been more relevant, nor more popular – what a combination.
Daniel Ross

#5
Bombay Bicycle Club
‘A Different Kind Of Fix’  
(Island) 
A collective sigh of relief was emitted from pent up fans when Bombay Bicycle Club’s third LP arrived. ‘Flaws’ might’ve been, err, flawless, but its finger plucking and tender tremors were but a gentle jab from Jack Steadman; we craved for their frontman to pepper us with his artistic ammo. ‘A Different Kind Of Fix’ parades the band’s eclectic pallet with grace, ‘Lights Out, Words Gone’’s neat little disco guitars, the wonkytonk fun of ‘Shuffle’, ‘Your Eyes’’s swelling, rabble-rousing outro, all delicately punctuated with the ghostly ‘Still’. And the best part? There’s so much cleverness yet to come.
Harriet Gibsone

#4    
Smith Westerns
‘Dye It Blonde’
(Fat Possum)   
New bands don’t often tick every box on the music industry’s fickle wish list, but brothers Cameron and Cullen Omori andtheir best buddy Max Kakacek have done it. With insatiably moreish tunes and enviable cool to satisfy the fans, and flawless songwriting to pacify the labels, ‘Dye It Blonde’scored an A+. Yet its true beauty lies within the musical narrative.Beneath mouth-watering guitars and loved-up, good time tales, is an indie-pop coming of age story. Ignoring hometown backlash and tactless references to their youth, Smith Westerns made a sumptuous second record that you can’t help but fall for. Hard.
Ben Homewood

#3  
The Horrors
‘Skying’ 
(XL Recordings)
2011 was the year that The Horrors proved they no longer had something to prove. Once lambasted for their impeccable look (which many claimed was more noteworthy than their sound) the London based fivesome retorted, first with ‘Primary Colours’ and then with ‘Skying’ – the ultimate we-told-you-so record –managing to achieve chart success and, with single ‘Still Life’, a hither-to unprecedented spot on the Radio 1 playlist. ‘Skying’ mixes krautrock, psych soundscapes and epic choruses with their own dark ragged spirit to compelling effect. Dizzy heights indeed; we await their next move with bated breath.
Camilla Pia

#2  
Metronomy
‘The English Riviera’
(Because Music)
It’s not so much that Joe Mount’s done a total 360º over the past few years, but by god has he grown. ‘The English Riviera’ takes all the forays of ‘Nights Out’ and expands on them 100-fold. The strut is sultrier, the bass is funkier, there’s ballads, there’s dancefloor-killers; it’s the Torquay coast and the Parisian canal front and it’s all so, so, cleverly, subtley understated. Nothing forces itself or demands your attention, and yet you leave knowing you’ve discovered something very special. More than for any other band, 2011 was Metronomy’s game-changing year.
Lisa Wright

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