ALBUMS OF 2011 #35 - #31

#35 Destroyer - Kaputt - Poor In Love (MP3) 

A January release date rendered Destroyer’s Kaputt one of 2011’s first great records. Its the ninth studio album from Vancouver’s Dan Bejar, a re-imagining of 1980s synthpop and glamorous shoegaze, laden with female harmonies and brass sections, squealing dance synths and seamless intertwining transitions of close-mic vocals, watery background noise and modern synthesisers.

#34 Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact - Mindkilla (MP3)

Glittering and defiant psychedelic disco with a heavy dance beat, sprawling laser-like melodies and an intense sci-fi feel. ‘Mindkilla’ I find a truly very disturbing and confusing experience, and wonder where people like Gang Gang Dance come from? As far as electronica goes this is some of the most outgoing and tropical and awe-inspiring I’ve come across. Otherworldly pop music.

#33 Lady Lazarus - Mantic - The Eye In The Eye Of The Storm (MP3)

Lady Lazarus is the solo project of Californian singer-songwriter Melissa Ann Sweat; her sound is something of Northern America, and she’s fearless to meddle with the drone in ways markedly similar to Sharon Van Etten. Her vocals are buried in the instrumentation in a similar occasionally raspy manner, skipping and sliding in and out of timings and outlining sparsely told stories in a strong country accent. Manticreminds me of Jessica Jalbert’s stunning ‘Brother Loyola’ a little.

#32 Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT -  Silly Bears (MP3)

Akron/Family are a caricature of what I’d imagine a nightmarish Wolf Parade era-Mount Zoomer (anyone remember Kissing The Beehive?) to sound like. ‘The Cosmic Birth..’, reportedly written next to a Japanese volcano and recorded in an abandoned train station in Detroit, is a purpling guitar-ridden epic, coalesced into the jottings of an over-amplified freak folk jam session. Eclecticism is Akron/Family’s defining feature here as ever. Buy here from Dead Oceans.

#31 Little Dragon - Ritual Union - Ritual Union (MP3)

Little Dragon, a Swedish electronica act formed in Gothenburg in 1996, might have just brokered some real success with their third record ‘Ritual Union’. Interpreting the sparse, sample-based drumming of dubstep in terms of TVOTR and Jamie XX and striking this against the girlish neo-soul vocal of Swedish-Japanese Yukumi Nagano with a band who made their livings as session musicians has won them fans inclusive of Jimmy Fallon, and collaborations with Dave Sitek, SBTRKT, Jose Gonzalez and Gorillaz. With an arrangement which could easily have left their sound icy and unconvincing, comes the forever-repeatable title song ‘Ritual Union’ a sleek, stylish and soulful.

Read the full list / read #30 - #26