Before 2021 ends, I wanted to put up a shout out to something that’s intrinsically tethered to the year: 2011. Many things about 2011 don’t feel like they’re ten years old, but here we are. Ten years ago, this blog was one year old, I graduated high school, my family moved states and I started college. Obviously a big year for me, personally. This was also the year I started really digging into music as it was coming out, marking release days, relentlessly posting on the blog here, training to have my own radio show and engaging in Reddit communities about music. I didn’t think I’d want to have a career in the music biz, but this seemed like a watershed year. It helped that a lot of great albums popped into the mix, making it easy to revisit. 

Below you’ll find my original list of Top Albums from 2011. It went up around early December and looking at it now, it looks pretty on par with what I was actually listening to at the time, except at the bottom. In the early blog days sometimes I’d add an album that I thought was cool and would make me look cooler if I listed it, despite listening to maybe one song off of it at the time. Don’t judge me! I’ve done one other Revisiting post in the past, for 2013, because I had grown discontent about the albums that I had listed as my favorite of the year. This time around, I wanted to see how my tastes have changed ten years down the line, as well as highlight all the great albums that people may have forgotten to the sands of time that celebrated their birthdays this year.

Warm Visions’ Top 50 Albums of 2011 (2011 Version):

1. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
2. Stuart Duncan, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer & Yo-Yo Ma – The Goat Rodeo Sessions
3. Panda Bear – Tomboy
4. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
5. White Denim – D
6. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up
7. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact
8. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Spirit
9. The Weeknd – House of Balloons
10. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
11. Atlas Sound – Parallax
12. Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde
13. Ford & Lopatin – Channel Pressure
14. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
15. Battles – Gloss Drop
16. Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital
17. Cut Copy – Zonoscope
18. Neon Indian – Era Extraña
19. Nerves Junior – As Bright As Your Night Light
20. Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica
21. Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting
22. James Blake – James Blake
23. SBTRKT – SBTRKT
24. Tune-yards – WHOKILL
25. Youth Lagoon – Year of Hibernation
26. Real Estate – Days
27. Active Child – You Are All I See
28. Lady Gaga – Born This Way
29. Toro Y Moi – Underneath the Pine
30. Cults – Cults
31. Portugal. The Man – In The Mountain In The Cloud
32. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
33. The Black Keys – El Camino
34. Korallreven – An Album by Korallreven
35. Björk – Biophilia
36. Wild Beasts – Smother
37. Washed Out – Within and Without
38. The Field – Looping State of Mind
39. Iceage – New Brigade
40. Dum Dum Girls – Only In Dreams
41. Fucked Up – David Comes To Life
42. Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread
43. Yuck – Yuck
44. Thundercat – Golden Age of the Apocalypse
45. Born Gold – Bodysongs
46. A$AP Rocky – LIVE. LOVE. ASAP
47. Destroyer – Kaputt
48. Cities Aviv – Digital Lows
49. Kendrick Lamar – Section.80
50. Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials

Just giving a cursory look at this – pretty ok! You can tell that I was absolutely enamored with and still clinging onto my fiddle upbringing by listing The Goat Rodeo Sessions at #2. I don’t think I’ve revisited the album since then, but at the time it was definitely a major one. Lady Gaga’s Born This Way was also an unabashed favorite of mine during the year, I even connected with some people on my college orientation about it. Otherwise – lots of acts on here that I don’t listen to much at all anymore: Black Keys, Portugal. The Man, Lady Gaga. Interesting! Let’s check in on how I’m feeling about these albums now:

Warm Visions Top 50 Albums of 2011 (2021 Version):

1. Destroyer – Kaputt
2. Panda Bear – Tomboy
3. Grouper – A|A
4. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
5. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
6. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up
7. Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972
8. The Caretaker – An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
9. Julianna Barwick – The Magic Place
10. Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica
11. Burial – Street Halo
12. The Weeknd – House of Balloons
13. Danny Brown – XXX
14. Real Estate – Days
15. Elite Gymnastics – RUIN
16. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact
17. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Spirit
18. James Blake – James Blake
19. Yuck – Yuck
20. Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde
21. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges
22. Floating Points – Shadows
23. Bill Callahan – Apocalypse
24. Dirty Beaches – Badlands
25. Death Grips – Exmilitary
26. The Field – Looping State of Mind
27. Thee Oh Sees – Carrion Crawler / The Dream
28. Björk – Biophilia
29. Wye Oak – Civilian
30. Neon Indian – Era Extraña
31. The Men – Leave Home
32. Ford & Lopatin – Channel Pressure
33. Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting
34. Peaking Lights – 936
35. Macintosh Plus – Floral Shoppe
36. Chelsea Wolfe – Apokalypsis
37. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra
38. Machinedrum – Room(s)
39. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
40. Clams Casino – Instrumental Mixtape
41. Korallreven – An Album by Korallreven
42. Frank Ocean – nostalgia, ULTRA
43. Saintseneca – Last
44. Pictureplane – Thee Physical
45. Mr Twin Sister – In Heaven
46. A$AP Rocky – LIVE.LOVE.A$AP
47. Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital
48. Washed Out – Within and Without
49. Pure X – Pleasure
50. Rustie – Glass Swords

If you’re keeping track at home, this list has 26 records that my initial 2011 list did not. That’s quite a bit of turnover! Focusing on the new albums for a moment, I wanted to give shine to Rustie’s Glass Swords, as listening back to it now reminds me of how so many people were trying to rip off this sound for the three years that followed. Pure X’s Pleasure is a hazy dreamworld that I didn’t have the patience to appreciate back in the day. I’m a full-blown Mr Twin Sister stan, so I had to include In Heaven. Pictureplane’s Thee Physical is still a blast to listen to, Saintseneca’s debut LP reinforces their high-quality homespun folk borne out of the punk realm, not sure how I didn’t have Nostalgia, Ultra on the first list, along with UMO. Danny Brown XXX is fantastic. We know this. The Men’s Leave Home and Machinedrum’s Room(s) are both massively overlooked for the year. And Wye Oak’s Civilian has come on like gangbusters over the last few years. Jenn Wasner can do no wrong.

Getting into stuff that had already been on there, Destroyer was in my Top 10 favorite albums of the decade, so that’s a no-brainer at the top of the list. Still amazing, still so good. I’ve been going through a bit of a Tomboy phase in 2021 to celebrate its anniversary and it’s grown on me a lot (I say that because I kind of stuck it low on my decade list – sorry Panda Bear!). Grouper’s monumental A|A is holding down the #3 spot and could very likely jump to #2, but let’s be real, all this doesn’t matter that much. Bon Iver fell quite a bit, as did Washed Out, Handsome Furs and Ford & Lopatin. Yuck shot way up because after listening to so many records like theirs over the last ten years, I realized that they’ve done it the best. 

For things that have dropped off, M83’s Hurry Up We’re Dreaming has dropped in favor considerably just because it’s loaded with filler and interludes. Just not an easy album to jump back into. There are plenty of other great albums on that first list from Youth Lagoon, SBTRKT, Kendrick Lamar, Wild Beasts, Cults, PJ Harvey, Battles, Fucked Up, Thundercat, Ty Segall that are still fantastic, but have just slowed down in my favor since their release.

And since I’m a stat guy that likes to break down my own habits, let’s consult my last.fm account to see what my most listened-to albums of 2011 have been since I started using the service:

Most listened-to albums of 2011 (as of 12/27/2021):

1. John Maus – We Must Become The Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
2. Ford & Lopatin – Channel Pressure
3. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
4. Destroyer – Kaputt
5. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up
6. The Caretaker – An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
7. Washed Out – Within and Without
8. Grouper – A|A : Alien Observer
9. Neon Indian – Era Extraña
10. Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972
11. Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica
12. Rustie – Glass Swords
13. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact
14. Burial – Street Halo
15. Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde
16. Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting
17. Panda Bear – Tomboy
18. Real Estate – Days
19. Thee Oh Sees – Carrion Crawler / The Dream
20. Korallreven – An Album by Korallreven

So one thing you might immediately notice is the #1 most listened-to album is not in my renewed Top 50 list. As much as I love We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves, the man was there on January 6, 2021. Not about to get political here but anyone who was rooting for an armed rebellion of the government isn’t ok in my books. If you’re able to look past that, the album is really damn good.

Another major issue in accurately documenting what my listening habits have been since 2011 is that half of the year’s listening data is completely gone. Halfway through the year I got a laptop computer where my music library resided. The previous listening from my iPod was logged on my parents desktop computer, which was then wiped clean when we moved later that year. Similarly, I don’t think last.fm catalogs previous listens from your iTunes library. So because I didn’t start actively scrobbling until 2013, I don’t think we have an accurate depiction of what my listening was like in that year. I’ll have the same roadblock when I eventually look back at 2012, which I’m sure will be full of delights.

One thing this does illuminate though is which albums have really stuck with me over the last ten years. Pitiless became an obsession of mine in 2016 and 2017, subject to repeated listens at least every day for a few weeks. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory: all these records show up on my revised list, so it makes sense that I’ve been listening to them steadily throughout the decade.

Now I’d like to take the time to highlight a few albums from 2011 to potentially reignite your memory, pay service to some quality, well-known records that are now ten years old, or maybe illuminate some great records you hadn’t heard of before. Happy 10 years!

• Algernon Cadwallader – Parrot Flies
• Amen Dunes – Through Donkey Jaw
• Andy Stott – Passed Me By / We Stay Together
• Araabmuzik – Electronic Dream
• Austra – Feel It Break
• The Babies – The Babies
• Balam Acab – Wander / Wonder
• Balkans – Balkans
• Blood Orange – Coastal Grooves
• Blouse – Blouse
• Bodies of Water – Twist Again
• Born Gold – Bodysongs
• Braids – Native Speaker
• Brown Recluse – Evening Tapestry
• Cities Aviv – Digital Lows
• Clive Tanaka y su Orquesta – Jet Set Siempre 1º
• Connan Mockasin – Forever Dolphin Love
• Crystal Stilts – In Love With Oblivion
• Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien
• Devon Williams – Euphoria
• EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints
• Friendly Fires – Pala
• Holy Ghost! – Holy Ghost!
• Holy Other – With U
• Julia Holter – Tragedy
• James Ferraro – Far Side Virtual
• Katy B – On A Mission
• King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
• Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
• Light Asylum – Light Asylum
• Liturgy – Aesthetica
• Male Bonding – Endless Now
• Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres
• Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
• Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire – Lost In Translation
• Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise
• The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong
• Preslav Literary School – La Réflexion Du Tir
• P.S. Eliot – Sadie
• Ponytail – Do Whatever You Want All The Time
• The Psychic Paramount – II
• Puro Instinct – Headbangers In Ecstasy
• The Rapture – In The Grace Of Your Love
• Ryley Walker & Daniel Bachman – Of Deathly Premonition
• Sandro Perri – Impossible Spaces
• The Sandwitches – Mrs. Jones’ Cookies
• Sleep ∞ Over – Forever
• Steve Hauschildt – Tragedy & Geometry
• Sun Araw – Ancient Romans
• Tim Hecker – Dropped Pianos
• A Winged Victory For The Sullen – A Winged Victory For The Sullen
• Young Fathers – Tape One
• Zola Jesus – Conatus