My Picks of The Best Albums of 2011- Part 2

10) Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo

Kurt Vile makes sonically dense confessional songs that are sounding less and less lo-hi these days. Not quite singing, but not quite mumbling he leads the listener through an album that sounds part diary and part affirmations. He has crafted a wonderful layered sound that will grow on you with each listen. Unless your ear is strictly tuned to the lo-hi indie scene you probably have never heard of Kurt Vile, but I think you will hear his name more in the future.

9) Middle Brother – Middle Brother

Middle Brother is made up of the frontmen of three bands (Deer Tick, The Dawes and Delta Spirit) which makes this sort of a supergroup of the indie rock world, but you would never know it. The music sounds fresh, not at all like a quickie side project. There is a great cover of the Replacements song Portland on the album full of solid originals.

8) The Black Keys – El Camino

A solid album of Nuggets sounding gems from the duo of Dan and Patrick. Producer/DJ Dangermouse has helped them craft an album of killer hooks and retro sounding modern music. Lonely Boy is a perfect groove driven single that you can imagine blasting out of a hundred AM radios on a warm summer night. This is the perfect summer album that just happened to be released in the winter. There is nothing cold or sterile about this bunch of songs.

7) My Morning Jacket – Circuital

My Morning Jacket are known as the band with the heavy reverb and that high smooth voice of singer Jim James. The music is hard to pin down. Part folk, part psychedelic space prog-rock, part head banging southern rock…on album they can be all over the musical map. On Circuital they still explore, but keep a tighter reign on the directions there explorations take. Not the perfect album that I expect to come from them, but not a let down.

6) PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

I confess. I miss the PJ Harvey of old. The guitars and gravelly blues voice. But this album might just change my mind. This work of art with her voice floating above the music and her lyrics about the great war and England’s place in the world is an intriguing album. It is not easy listening, you won’t be tapping your toes, but it held me captive when I listened to it.