Michael Miller's Sure-To-Infuriate-But-Still-Reasoned Top 10 Albums of 2011

By Michael Miller

Disclaimer: When discussing any best of the year list, preference trumps quality. So really this list should be titled, "My favorite albums of the year." However, in order to be provocative, and to get the people going, the title will be THE "Top 10 Albums of the Year" (Editor's note: I altered this title slightly. It's my blog and I title blogs as I wish. Onwards!). When rating music, I am under the impression that music is about 80 percent taste and 20 percent quality. For example, I don't like too much opera, but I can understand the quality behind it. I cannot, however, understand how anyone would like my eight year old cousin singing "Happy Birthday" over and over. I personally enjoy a wide variety of music, which you hopefully will be able to see from the list below.

Now to the list. It is ten albums, obviously, three honorable mentions, with a paragraph of explanation/description for each album. This year was incredibly tough to rate, with more music to listen to than ever. I tried to sample everything I could this year, but there is no doubt I missed some great stuff along the way. Keep an open mind when reading/rating, and check out these bands/artists if you haven't heard of them before! So without wasting anymore time, here are the best albums of the year.

Honorable Mentions: Kanye West and Jay-Z - Watch The Throne. James Blake - James Blake. Feist - Metals.

10. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

I was at a country western-themed this year, and as I walked in, my friend and I joked about the odds of Fleet Fox coming on. Much to our surprise, it did. What Fleet Foxes has accomplished with their sophomore album is a better version of what they did on their first album: great vocals, swaying melodies, and something for everyone. They are soon to attain the "You can't hate this band" status. With this album, Fleet Foxes solidified a fluke: combining a-capella vocals with folk music and making it sound good. We can only look forward to their next installment of this weird genre.

9. Radiohead - The King Of Limbs

The King of Limbs was not In Rainbows. The King of Limbs was not OK Computer. It was not Kid A, and it was not The Bends. This was a negative to many critics. Radiohead did not continue the accessibility of In Rainbows, and it did not revert back to the crazy experimentation of Kid A. The King of Limbs is something new entirely, though. Radiohead tried something new, and it came out sounding pretty damn good. With a band this established, do we really want them to stay stagnant? Do we want them to ever have the same sound when one of their main strengths is sounding different but familiar? Personally, I like the familiar sound of Thom Yorke's voice coupled with the unfamiliar sound structure in all of their albums. Don't settle with Radiohead. Want more. They gave us more with The King of Limbs; appreciate it for what it is. I am not sure what that is yet, and I'm not sure I ever will. Isn't that perfect with this band?

8. Summer Camp - Welcome to Condale

Can being a poor band's Arcade Fire get you on this list? You betcha. Summer Camp is a new British pop rock band with a slew of members in which both men and women sing. Much like Arcade Fire's The Suburbs epitomized suburban life, Welcome to Condale creates a small town that seems all too familiar. The title track is an ear worm that should be considered on any Song of the Year list. With short, quick, poppy vocals to contradict slower, elongated guitar riffs, a pleasing sound escapes a weird base, the town of Condale. In summary, the album as a movie would be in the space between Super 8 and To Kill a Mockingbird.

7. Adele - 21

Adele had herself a year. 21 found that rare space in music where not only did it make a crap ton of money, but critics also drooled over it. We all have heard wonderful about it, so I will offer some advice to Adele's future career while pointing out certain flaws in the album (pretentiousness at its best). Remember, I still consider this a fantastic piece of art.

First off, Adele, for your next album, write all of your own songs. You can collaborate with song writers, but in the credits of your album, your name should be first and only on the majority of songs. Not one of many. If you are going to sing about personal stuff, fans have to know it is coming from you, and you alone. Also, you did a heartbreak album. Don't go back. Reinvent yourself on a different emotional plane. Lastly, you have an opportunity to not become the next Beyonce, Whitney Houston, or Madonna. Limit your ballads and look for new approaches to the new sound you have already achieved. Oh, and quit smoking. It's bad for your vocal chords.

6. Anthony Hamilton - Back to Love

Two years ago, rhythm and blues was dead in the water. Trey Songz, Mario, and T-Pain destroyed everything that was good about the genre. The days of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell were lost in oblivion. Then last year, Odd Future's Frank Ocean entered the scene, R. Kelly (Yes, the R. Kelly) made an album called Love Letter, Raphael Saadiq became more famous, and Beyonce made the best album of her life. The genre is not back to the days of Otis Redding and Ray Charles, but singers like Anthony Hamilton give us hope. Back to Love is soulful. Like R&B should be.

5. M83 - Hurry Up We're Dreaming

Quality trumps quantity. My father has been telling me this for about 15 years. M83 disagrees. Hurry Up We're Dreaming has 22 songs, some forgettable, a couple ear worms, and a few (Chris Collinsworth voice) phenomenal songs. This is the Speakerboxx/Love Below of Techno music. Techno is hard to classify M83 as. Like it is, but it's not. Check the album out and you will be impressed, and end up with the same problem as I did.

4. Wilco - The Whole Love

Wilco is back!

3. The Roots - Undun

Hip/Hop has evolved into numerous things, none of which have anything to do with 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Trying. However good that album was, this evolution is for the best. Hip/Hop is now critically acclaimed and is no longer seen as a genre intended for suburban kids pretending to have it tough. With the rise of sampling, excellent production, and independent labels, it is becoming a genre with loads of different styles and mediums. Childish Gambino produced his whole album by himself, concentrating less on beats and more on lyrics. Kanye West and Jay-Z had a different big-time producer on each track of their Watch The Throne. Hip/Hop is different, very different, from any other musical genre because of the difference within itself. All hip/hop no longer sounds the same. Tyler the Creator showed the world that "chorus" is just another word in the song structure of Hip/Hop and Rap music.

The Roots are the backlash of the evolution. They are classic. They are refined. The tracks "Make My" and "On Time" from Undun are contradicting tracks that hold the same essence -- old school hip/hop mixed with original instrumentals. The Roots, if anything, are consistent. They show up on an album and prove that hip/hop is about more than just beats and lyrics. They take a classic approach that throws 50 Cent out of the window, and reverts further back than Tupac and Dr. Dre. The Roots have the same original hip/hop sound, whatever the heck that may be.

2. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

With this album, Justin Vernon showed that one man can sound like one hundred men, and can indeed do it over and over again. "Holocene" is my track of the year, with "Calgary" in a close second. The album mystifies to say the least. If Bon Iver ends up completely dissolving traditional band structure, we shouldn't be surprised. This next year, we should all be begging for more.

1. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy

St. Vincent's Wikipedia page starts like this: "Annie Erin Clark (born September 28, 1982) is an American multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter who performs as St. Vincent." This is the truth but it could not be further from the truth. Annie Clark plays the guitar incredibly. Her songs are original, and haunting. She is not a singer/songwriter in any sense of the traditional word. With the rise of the female vocalist/musician in indie music this past decade (best thing since Radiohead), St. Vincent can be seen as blurred among the crowd of musicians like Feist and Florence and the Machine. She should not be. Strange Mercy is complex, to the point that Adele's head would be spinning with curiosity as to what it all means. Strange Mercy is simple, with repetition of lyrics similar to Bon Iver or James Blake. The album is 11 tracks deep, all 11 having meaning and sounding great. The albums is complete, and thought out as a whole masterpiece. What puts it ahead of Bon Iver is the unforgettable tracks that become ingrained in one's head after a few listens. And the good kind of ingrained. I believe Strange Mercy could revive a life, or make the hardest human being break down and cry. If that is a little too much, so be it. St. Vincent had the best album of the year.

Michael Miller is a History major and English minor studying at the University of Illinois. Hurl any angry criticisms about his album selections at his Twitter handle, @MichaelKirkpat.