Best of 2011 Round-up

Happy New Year. Just a quick hello to land you with a list of 46* (edit - make it 48) albums that did the rounds many times in here in the past year. Another great year for pop music, I think you'll agree. A couple of other miscellaneous highlights underneath. I'm not bothering with lots of links and pictures and videos in this post - that's what the rest of the blog is for, go digging and you'll find. Most, if not all, of the list have been represented in these pages over the last year. And I might also mention that interviews with Crystal Stilts, Efterklang, (The) Caseworker, Hotels, Josh T. Pearson and Neville Skelly from the year gone by are also over there on the right hand side of the page. I may well have left a few people out, and there were a few borderline cases - if anyone has any particular beef with me on what's below, give me a shout. I'm all on for, like, engagement. Say no more.

(I'm making one exception, I can't get enough of this)

The Last Sound: Only the Lonely Know the Glow is Failing from Osaka Records on Vimeo.

Albums
St Vincent – Strange mercy (4AD)
Tune-Yards – whokill (4AD)
North Sea Radio Orchestra – I a moon (The Household Mark)
William D. Drake – Rising of the lights (Onomatopoeia Records)
The Doomed Bird of Providence – Will ever pray (Front & Follow)
Bill Ryder-Jones – If… (Double 6)
The Phoenix Foundation – Buffalo (Memphis Industries)
The Go! Team – Rolling blackouts (Memphis Industries)
Dutch Uncles – Cadenza (Memphis Industries)
Essie Jain – Until the light of morning (Light of Morning)
Julianna Barwick – The magic place (Asthmatic Kitty)
John Stammers – John Stammers (Wonderful Sound)
Gablé – Cute horse cut (LoAF)
Josh T. Pearson – The last of the country gentlemen (Mute)
Grimes – Halfaxa (Lo Recordings)
Nils Frahm & Anne Muller - 7 fingers (Erased Tapes)
Emphemetry - A lullaby hum for tired streets (Time Travel Opps)
Hotels - On the casino floor (Hidden Shoal)
Toro y Moi - Underneath the pine (Carpark)
Julia Kent - Green and grey (Tin Angel Records)
Left with Pictures - In time (Organ Grinder Records)
Damon & Naomi - False beats and true hearts (Broken Horse)
Connan Mockasin - Forever dolphin love (Because)
Crystal Stilts - In love with oblivion (Fortuna Pop)
Antonymes - A licence to interpret dreams (Hidden Shoal)
Metronomy - The English Riviera (Because)
EDM - Night people (Western Vinyl)
Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Everything's getting older (Chemikal Underground)
Josh Ottum - Watch TV (Tapete Records)
A Winged Victory for the Sullen – A Winged Victory for the Sullen (Erased Tapes)
Various Artists - Our lives are shaped by what we love: Motown's Mowest Story 1971-1973 (Light in the Attic)
Roll the Dice – In dust (Leaf)
Eden Ahbez – Eden’s Island (Trunk Records)
Peter Broderick – Music for Confluence (Erased Tapes)
Nils Frahm – Felt (Erased Tapes)
Apparat – The devil’s walk (Mute)
Dark Captain – Dead legs and alibis (LoAF)
Rachael Dadd – Bite the mountain (Broken Sound Records)
Barry McCormack – Small mercies (Hag’s Head)
Land Lovers – Confidants (Popical Island)
The Beach Boys – The Smile Sessions (Capitol)
Various Artists - The Roots of Trash and Garage (Chrome Dreams)
Grizzly Bear (and others) - Blue Valentine OST (Lakeshore Records)
Jean-Claude Vannier – Electro Rapide: Experimental Pop Instrumentals from Jean-Claude Vannier's Vintage Vaults (Finders Keepers)
Neville Skelly – Poet and a dreamer (Setanta)
*Olafur Arnalds - Living room songs (Erased Tapes)
*Gang Gang Dance - Eye contact (4AD)

Also moved by
Record Labels
Liz Green
Other Lives
The Last Sound
Patrick Kelleher & His Cold Dead Hands
Rozi Plain
(The) Caseworker
Dum Dum Girls
Low
Cloud Control
Tarwater
Larsen feat. Little Annie
Anna Calvi
Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
Peaking Lights
My Brightest Diamond
Pepe Deluxé
Bruce Haack
The Scaramanga Six
Mint Julep
Ryan Gosling & Michelle Williams

Films
Blue Valentine
Incendies
An Island

Gigs
Efterklang (Savoy Theatre, Cork)
Crystal Stilts (Grand Social, Dublin)
Fleet Foxes (Marquee, Cork)
Ryan Francesconi (Triskel Christchurch, Cork)
Thread Pulls (Crane Lane Theatre, Cork)
Josh T. Pearson (Crane Lane Theatre, Cork)
Johann Johannsson (Triskel Christchurch, Cork)