Looking Back at 2011: The Top 20 Albums of the Year (Part 2)

10. Biophilia - BjorkThere's a lot of white noise that surrounds an album release by Icelandic songstress Bjork these days. Coming along with this one was a different iPad app for every song. There was chatter about the different instruments she utilized for the making of the album, including a gamelaste, a pipe organ that was played through pushing buttons on the aforementioned iPad, and, oh yeah, a mutha flippin' Tesla coil. There were the concerts, in which she rocks a wig that looks like a massive twist of cotton candy and, to my eyes at least, struggles with the unpredictability of using a Tesla coil as one of the main instruments for several of your songs. Here is the thing though: if you listen to the album, none of this stuff matters. It's there in the dancing chimes and wailing drum-and-bass that is "Crystalline." It's there in the chaotically playful sound experiment, "Hollow," and the more delicate Vespertine throwback "Virus." It's there in the organ-and-percussion blast of rousing beatfest "Mutual Core." And always there is that voice, the one that in album closer "Solstice" is proven to be perhaps the least innovative instrument on the album, but also the most valuable.

Time for a Random List: The Top Twenty Songs of 2011 (All Genres Included)

20. "Sister" - The Black Keys
19. "End of Time" - Beyonce
18. "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" - Coldplay
17. "Welcome to the Jungle" - Jay-Z and Kanye West
16. "Tomboy" - Panda Bear
15. "Into Your Alien Arms" - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
14. "No Future Shock" - TV on the Radio
13. "Long Burn the Fire" - Beastie Boys
12. "The Words That Maketh Murder" - PJ Harvey
11. "New Lands" - Justice
10. "Jack Sparrow" - The Lonely Island featuring Michael Bolton
9. "Nuclear Seasons" - Charli XCX
8. "Super Bass" - Nicki Minaj
7. "Born This Way" - Lady Gaga
6. "Moves Like Jagger" - Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera
5. "Crystalline" - Bjork
4. "Helplessness Blues" - Fleet Foxes
3. "Claudia Lewis" - M83
2. "Last Friday Night" - Katy Perry
1. "Bloom" - Radiohead

Honorable Mention: "Cruel" - St. Vincent; "Taken for a Fool" - The Strokes; "Do I Wait" - Ryan Adams; "Forget That You're Young" - The Raveonettes; "Holdin' on to Black Metal" - My Morning Jacket
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Five Reviews of Five CDs in Five Sentences: Gaga, The Strokes, and More

Angles - The Strokes
The New York-based quintet is just four albums into their career and it is clear that they have no idea what sort of band they want to be. Frontman Julian Casablancas' love for electric sheen has seaped into the band's repertoire and they seem to have forgotten how to do what they do best: write memorable choruses and epic, dueling guitar lines. For every awesome track, like "Taken for a Fool," it seems like you get two uninspired ones, like "Call Me Back," a dirge-like piece of business with odd time shifts and horrific vocoder interludes (the world would be a better place if they never recorded a song like this again). Word is Casablancas couldn't even bother showing up for the recording of this album, choosing to record his vocals on a different coast than the band. If they can't come up with better than this next time, perhaps they should all stop showing up for work?