Rex Kickass

Toro Y Moi, Washed Out, Blackbird Blackbird, Memory Tapes are a great place to start.

Thanks for the kudos. Much appreciated. I have to say, this has been a year where I've really fallen in love with Chillwave music. There has been some really interesting downtempo electronic stuff coming out. All sounding vaguely organic and lo-fi, but still just really kind of catchy and grabbing.

1. The Decemberists - The King Is Dead (highest rank #1 Tex) Spin Review - http://www.spin.com/reviews/decemberists-king-dead-capitol

Kanye West/Jay-Z - Watch the Throne (Highest Rank: #1 Gooch) Huffington Post Review - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/08/w...z_n_921182.html

3. My Morning Jacket - Circuital (Highest Rank: 2 - knightni) Pitchfork Review http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15471-circuital/

Top three albums are up next. If you're wondering why the Black Keys album ranked higher than the Foo Fighters album, despite the fact that the Black Keys album never ranked as high on anyone's list as the Foo Fighters did - its because the Black Keys were on more lists, than anyone else.

4. Black Keys - El Camino (Highest Rank: #2 PlaySumFnJourney) http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16098-el-camino/

5. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light (Highest Rank: #1 PlaySumFnJourney) NME Review http://www.nme.com/reviews/foo-fighters/11966

6. Adele - 21 (Highest rank: #1 knightni) NY Daily News Review http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-02-22...-southern-blues

7. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (Highest rank: #2 BigEdWalsh) Pitchfork Review: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15363-...lessness-blues/

8. Wilco - The Whole Love (Highest Rank: #6 PlaySumFnJourney) Chicago Tribune review http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09...w-john-stirratt

9. Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (Highest Rank: #7 knightni) LA Times Review http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog...e-part-two.html

10. Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys (Highest rank: #7 PlaySumFnJourney) (Billboard Review)

11. (tie) Metal Chocolates - III (Highest Rank - #1 BigSqwert) NPR - http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2011/07...etal-chocolates

11. (tie) Bright Eyes - The People's Key (Highest Rank: #1 Cali) Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumrev...1#ixzz1jDa6Ni2L

11. (tie) Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is an Animal (Highest Rank: #1 BigEdWalsh)

11. (tie) Gil Scot-Heron/Jamie xx - We're New Here (Highest Rank - #1 RexKickass)

15. (tie) Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What (Highest Rank #2 Tex) More bad news for the recently deceased: According to Paul Simon, the afterlife is a bureaucratic bummer as bad as the DMV. The second song on his first solo album in five years, the deeply philosophical “So Beautiful or So What,” kicks off with one of the most memorably deadpan lines in Simon’s already-packed canon: “After I died and the make-up had dried, I went back to my place.” To crack open a celestial beer? Not so much. From there, “The Afterlife,” with its zydeco-inflected shuffle, paints a picture of the freshly dead filling out forms and waiting in line to catch “a glimpse of the divine.” Ah, but the vast unknown is a slippery beast. “All that remains,” Simon sings, “when you try to explain is a fragment of song.” LA Times Review - http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog...or-so-what.html

15. (tie) Gui Borrato - III (Highest Rank: BigSqwert - 2) Brazilian electronic producer Gui Boratto got his start working in advertising and making pop music, two worlds where superficial sheen and polish are of paramount importance. It's easy to see the connection from his earlier life to his current solo work, for Kompakt and other labels: His tracks are vibrant, ear-pleasing candy of the most licensable order, and his full-length albums have thus far stuck to a fairly simple formula: one or two big, dreamy, tastefully sun-kissed vocal house anthems selling the surrounding tangents into minimal techno. Pitchfork Review - http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15892-gui-boratto-iii/

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 9, 2012 -> 09:02 PM) None of my list yet... I'm pretty sure that they'll be coming up soon though. Sorry man, You fell off my excel sheet, I made corrections though. Didn't change a lot, because you had more of the top 20 on your list than anyone else!

15. (Tie) Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean (Highest rank #2 - Cali) From the Pitchfork review: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15033-...ch-other-clean/

15. (tie) Chickenfoot - III (Highest rank #2 - The Gooch) Amazon Review http://www.amazon.com/Chickenfoot-III/dp/B005ELZKWS

15. (tie) Toro Y Moi - Underneath the Pine (highest rank #2 Rex Kickass) About.com review http://altmusic.about.com/od/reviews/fr/To...th-The-Pine.htm

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 9, 2012 -> 11:01 AM) He's playing to win. This is his last race IMHO. I'm still feeling someone knocks Romney out but a third person reaps the rewards. I think that person would be Huntsman.

Started with the first five of our top 23 albums of 2011. (We had a five way tie for 18th.) We determined how the rankings would go using a point scale for each ranking. If an album was on multiple lists, it got bonus points - so an album that would be ranked 8th by one poster and 9th by another poster, would be considered higher on the list than something that was #1 or #2 by a single poster. Discuss the list here!