The Top Twenty Albums of 2011

Here's my top twenty albums of 2011. The top album of the year is The Wild Swans - 'The Coldest Winter In A Hundred Years', but the other nineteen are pretty good too.

Look forward to receiving your lists and recommendations.

1. The Wild Swans - The Coldest Winter In A Hundred Years

2. Wild Beasts - Smother

3. John Foxx & the Maths - Interplay

4. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

5. The Horrors - Skying

6. Wire - Red Barked Tree

7. Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know

8. The Decemberists - The King Is Dead

9. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

10. Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow

11. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

12. The Unthanks - Last

13. Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys

14. TV on the Radio - Nine Types Of Light

15. Metronomy - The English Riviera

16. Battles - Gloss Drop

17. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

18. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo

19. P J Harvey - Let England Shake

20. Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials

All the albums are available to preview or purchase from the Amazon widget on the right hand panel of this site.

The Best Album of 2011

The Wild Swans tribute to drummer Pete de Freitas who died in a motorbike accident 22 years ago.

My top album of 2011 is The Wild Swans - 'The Coldest Winter In A Hundred Years'.
I only discovered this brilliant album in October but I've not stopped playing it ever since. I've been a fan of the Wild Swans since the 1980's (Revolutionary Spirit being a personal favourite) but I had thought their moment had passed until this latest release.

Original member and lead singer Paul Simpson has gone through numerous line-ups which have included many famous Liverpudlians such as Pete de Freitas (Echo and the Bunnymen), Ian Broudie (Lightning Seeds), Chris Sharrock and Ian McNabb (Icicle Works).

However, the latest incarnation which includes Ricky Rene Maymi (Brian Jonestown Massacre), Les Pattinson (Echo and the Bunnymen), Mike Mooney (Julian Cope/Spiritualized), and Steve Beswick (Slipstream) have come up with a masterpiece.

This is an epic album with soaring tunes and evocative lyrics, it is music to be savoured.
It is the album The Wild Swans always threatened to make in the 80's and 90's but have only now got around to making.

'The Coldest Winter in A Hundred Years' has had limited publicity and has been criminally neglected by the critics, but it is deserving of your attention. Buy the CD or download a copy now.

http://www.thewildswans.co.uk/