Top Albums of 2011

It’s that time again kids. Let’s go over the top ten albums from a year. It was actually a good year for music overall. Let’s start with the bad stuff so you can end on a positive note.


Radiohead “King of Limbs” was a horrible and ugly piece of crap. That is the nicest thing I can say about it.

On to the good stuff.

(1 to 10 scale where 10 is very good, 5 is neutral and 1 is very bad)

10 – Elbow “Build a Rocket Boys” 6.8 ☆
This is the weakest entry from Elbow in a long time. It was too slow across all songs and somewhat monotonous. That said, they are some decent slow, flowy songs.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/02 Lippy Kids.mp3″]Lippy Kids[/gplayer]

9 – Cake “Showroom of Compassion” 7.2 ☆
Just another good showing from Cake as usual.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/01 Federal Funding.mp3″]Federal Funding[/gplayer]

8 – Incubus “If Not Now, When?” 7.7 ☆
Many people really had nothing but vitriol for this album. I am not with them. It wasn’t amazing and only has a handful of memorable songs but it did give me a pleasant listening experience.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/08 In The Company Of Wolves.mp3″]In The Company Of Wolves[/gplayer]

7 – Jeff Martin “The Ground Cries Out” 8.0 ☆
This effort from “The Tea Party” frontman shows his huge contributions to his band. Good solid rock with a special flavor.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/02 Queen Of Spades.mp3″]Queen Of Spades[/gplayer]

6 – Soundgarden “Live on I-5” 8.8 ☆
While it is not an album of new material this deserved to be up in this list because it contains some great material. This album has some of the best live performances I have ever heard from Soundgarden.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/02 Searching With My Good Eye Closed.mp3″]Searching With My Good Eye Closed[/gplayer]

5 – Rich Robinson “Through a Crooked Sun” 9.2 ☆
Rich’s effort this year has surpassed his previous album “Paper”. He displays very well what he brings to The Black Crowes’ table in this great album.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/01 Gone Away.mp3″]Gone Away[/gplayer]

4 – The Devil Whale “Teeth” 9.4 ☆
I only heard of “The Devil Whale” this year and missed the previous album. “Teeth” has great stuff packed into it and is good representation for Salt Lake City Utah.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/Golden.mp3″]Golden[/gplayer]

3 – Foo Fighters “Wasting Light” 9.5 ☆
Usually by this point in a career bands just put out boring, routine stuff. The Fighters are not following the same old path.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/02 Rope.mp3″]Rope[/gplayer]

2 – Explosions in the Sky “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” 9.9 ☆
It was hard to not place this one in the number one slot and I had to take it down to the billionths decimal place to be able to break the tie between it and the number 1 choice. All instrumental (besides some yelps and such) and no good for anyone without an attention span, this is another amazing album by these guys from my hometown, Midland Texas.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/01 Last Known Surroundings.mp3″]Last Known Surroundings[/gplayer]

1 – The Parlor Mob “Dogs” 9.9 ☆
Seriously, get this album. It is packed full with great guitars, drums and vocals throughout. I can only find a couple of nit-picky things with this album that bring it to a 9.9 on my scale. It truly is one of the best albums I have ever heard. Whether it is heavy, fast or flowing that you are looking for this album has it.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/01 How It’s Going to Be.mp3″]How It’s Going to Be[/gplayer]
[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/07 Hard Enough.mp3″]Hard Enough[/gplayer]

As usual I am open to suggestions or friendly reminders as to why I am wrong or what I missed.