A Lookback at January - March New Music

We're 1/4th of the way through the year, so I figured this would give me a good chance to talk about some of my favorite albums and songs so far this year and some of the albums that I am most looking forward to in the coming months.

Top Albums January - March 2011

1) Middle Brother - Middle Brother (less than $5 on Amazon)
2) The Decemberists - The King Is Dead ($8 on Amazon)
3) Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde ($8 on Amazon)
4) Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
5) The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Belong ($8 on Amazon)

The Best of the Rest

Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
Destroyer - Kaputt
Tennis - Cape Dory
Devotchka - 100 Lovers
The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck


Middle Brother is my clear favorite album right now. Everything I wrote in my review of the album still holds true even after many more listens since then. It's the only album that I repeatedly return to even if I just listened to it. The remaining of the top 5 could be arranged in almost any order, but they are all solid efforts. The best of the rest are albums that I have listened to a bit but not enough to form a real solid opinion (although I have enjoyed what I've heard).

Albums I Am Looking Forward To In The Next 3 Months

4/5 - Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - Mysterious Power
4/5 - The Kills - Blood Pressures
4/26 - Thao & Mirah - Thao & Mirah (This is a collaboration between Thao Nguyen of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down and Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn of Mirah)
4/26 - Explosions in the Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
5/3 - Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
5/10 - The Antlers - Burst Apart
5/31 - The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From the Vaccines? (This band has been blowing up in the blogosphere and it appears to be for good reason. Their album is streaming here.)
5/31 - Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys (I've recently grown to appreciate Ben Gibbard all again from all of his baseball related tweets. Gotta love an unabashed baseball fan who is also married to Zooey Deschanel.)
5/31 - My Morning Jacket - Circuital
6/7 - Sondre Lerche - Sondre Lerche
6/?? - Bon Iver - ??? (This album has really big shoes to fill...)

And As For Those Songs That Strike My Fancy...

8tracks.com is a website that allows users to upload songs, create mixes, and make those mixes available for others to stream. I made a mix of my favorite songs from the year so far, and they can be listened to below: