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 Man/machine returns - John Foxx and the Maths on tour

Electronic music pioneer John Foxx has returned to form with a superb new album 'Interplay'.
Now joined by synthesizer connoisseur Benge, Hannah Peel and Serafina Steer, plus other lumineries of the current electronic scene, Foxx has produced his best work since the days of early Ultravox.

John Foxx and the Maths are a modern collaboration made in heaven or should that be in a synthesizer workshop? Interplay is an electronic album to saviour and which befits our alienated times. There is no doubt that this latest album is on a par with the best music produced by seminal Kraftwerk.

The band will be touring the UK in October. Don't miss this opportunity to to see one of the great innovators of electronic music.

Tour dates

Thursday the 13th of October, 2011 – Leamington Spa Assembly Hall, Spencer Street, Leamington Spa Warwickshire CV31 3NF
 Telephone : 01926 523 001, Web : http://www.leamingtonassembly.com/

Thursday the 20th of October, 2011 – Bristol Thekla, The Grove, East Mud Dock, Bristol BS1 4RB 
Telephone : 0117 929 3301 (venue) / 0845 413 4444 (tickets), Web : http://www.theklabristol.co.uk/

Friday the 21st of October, 2011 – Manchester Academy 4, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PR
 Telephone : 0161 275 2930, Web : http://www.manchesteracademy.net

Saturday the 22nd of October, 2011 – Liverpool Stanley Theatre, 160 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool L3 5TR 
Telephone : 0151 794 6868, Web : http://www.lgos.org

Sunday the 23rd of October, 2011 – Glasgow Arches, 253 Argyle Street, Glasgow G2 8DL Telephone : 0141 565 1000, Web : http://www.thearches.co.uk/

Monday the 24th of October, 2011 – York Duchess, Stonebow House, York YO1 7NP
 Telephone : 01904 641 413, Web : http://www.theduchessyork.co.uk

Tuesday the 25th of October, 2011 – London XOYO, 32-37 Cowper Street, London EC2A 4AP
 Telephone : (off-site) 0207 729 5959, Web : http://www.xoyo.co.uk

Thursday the 27th of October, 2011 – London XOYO, 32-37 Cowper Street, London EC2A 4AP
 Telephone : (off-site) 0207 729 5959, Web : http://www.xoyo.co.uk

Friday the 28th of October, 2011 – Holmfirth Picturedrome, Market Walk, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire HD9 7DA
 Telephone : 01484 689 759, Web : http://www.picturedrome.net