PMA’s 40 Best Albums of 2011

Click on the turntable on the left to listen to a continuous stream of music featured on Pretty Much Amazing - updated every day. For more, you can check out the Best Songs of 2012.

This time of year is perfect to catch up and reflect on the music that has released throughout the past 11 and a half months. We started our annual year-end summary of favorites earlier this month with our 100 favorite songs of 2011. We took a look at our favorite long-form releases with our 5 Favorite Mixtapes and 5 Favorite EPs of 2011 lists, and then our 30 Honorable Mentions of the Year. We wrap up our year-end retrospective with our 40 favorite albums of 2011. After this, we can officially look to 2012 – and we’re already excited about several of the albums lined up. *Note: Links lead to Spotify streams.

See also:
Our 30 Honorable Mentions
Our Favorite Mixtapes & EPs of 2011

BEST ALBUMS of 2011

40 Wild Beasts – Smother

Wild Beasts – “Loop the Loop”

39 Smith Westerns – Dye it Blonde
38 Austra – Feel It Break
37 The Horrors – Skying

The Horrors – “Still Life”

36 Nicolas Jaar – Space is Only Noise
35 Iceage – New Brigade
34 Beyoncé – 4

Beyoncé – “Countdown”

33 Feist – Metals
32 The Roots – undun
31 EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints

30 The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient
29 Twin Sister – In Heaven

Twin Sister – “Kimmi In A Rice Field”

28 Active Child – You Are All I See
27 Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx – We’re New Here
26 Wilco – The Whole Love

Wilco – “Art of Almost”

25 Black Lips – Arabia Mountain
24 Atlas Sound – Parallax
23 Zola Jesus – Conatus

Zola Jesus – “Vessel”

22 Korallreven – An Album By Korallreven
21 Destroyer – Kaputt

Read on for our Top 20…

by Luis Tovar on December 30, 2011 ‡ 373 reactions