We’ve spent the last two days unveiling numbers 50-11 in our top 50 songs of 2011, and now the time has come to unveil what Muso’s Guide’s hefty panel of writers nominated as their top 10 songs released this year. It’s been a pretty diverse selection thus far, and the top end of the chart is no different.

10. Wild Beasts – Reach a Bit Further

9. Ghostpoet – Cash and Carry Me Home

8. PJ Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder

7. Radiohead – Lotus Flower

6. The Horrors - Endless Blue

5. Metronomy – The Bay

4. Yuck - Get Away

3. Metronomy - The Look

2. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

1. Lana Del Rey - Video Games

It got so buried in the sea of ‘is she real, OMG her real name isn’t Lana’ sideshow, that it’s easy to forget how great a song Video Games is. True, it might already have become an albatross around her name, bringing about expectations of her debut album that simply can’t be lived up to, but that doesn’t matter for now. Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present to you Muso’s Guide’s official favourite song of 2011…

Yesterday we posted numbers 50-21 in our Favourite Songs of the year countdown, and we’re edging ever closer to the Top 10. Today sees us revealing the bottom half of our top 20, which can be enjoyed below, in tantalising reverse order of course.

20. Nicola Roberts – Lucky Day

19. Rihanna feat Calvin Harris - We Found Love

18. Little Dragon - Ritual Union

17. Adele - Rolling in the Deep

16. Ghostpoet – Liiines

15. Bombay Bicycle Club – Shuffle

14. Battles ft Matias Aguayo – Ice Cream

13. M83 – Midnight City

12. Wild Beasts – Lion’s Share

11. Johnny Foreigner - (Don’t) Show Us Yr Fangs

Come back tomorrow when we’ll be unveiling the official Muso’s Guide Top 10 songs of 2011.

Last week we unveiled our top 50 albums of the year, but as regular Muso’s readers will know, we get just as excitable about the good old song as we do about full length albums. So with that in mind, over the next three days we’re going to be unveiling which songs our writers have voted their top picks of the year. Enormous thanks are due to Mitchell Sterling who did us proud in fulfilling his annual chore sifted through the emails from the Muso’s Guide staff, compiling them into something resembling a logical order.

Without further ado, here are picks 50 through to 21. Check back tomorrow for 20-11 and then on Thursday we’ll be unveiling our top 10 songs of the year.

50. The Leisure Society – You Could Keep Me Talking
49. St. Vincent – Cruel
48. Friendly Fires – Hawaiian Air
47. Hannah Peel – The Almond Tree
46. Jamie xx – Far Nearer
45. James Blake – The Wilhelm Scream
44. Radiohead – Codex
43. Jessie Ware – Strangest Feeling
42. Drake – Headlines
41. The Horrors – Still Life
40. Slow Club – Where I’m Waking
39. Telekinesis – Please Ask For Help
38. Arctic Monkeys – The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala
37. The National – Think You Can Wait
36. Nicki Minaj – Super Bass
35. Bjork – Crystalline
34. Death Cab For Cutie – You Are a Tourist
33. Coldplay – Paradise
32. SBTRKT – Wildfire
31. Junior Boys – Banana Ripple
30. British Sea Power – Who’s in Control
29. Beyonce – Run the World (Girls)
28. The National – Exile Vilify
27. Active Child ft. How to Dress Well – Playing House
26. Azealia Banks – 212
25. Beyonce – Countdown
24. Lady Gaga – Marry the Night
23. Bon Iver – Holocene
22. Girls – Honey Bunny
21. The Saturdays – All Fired Up

Numbers 20-11 will be up tomorrow, and the top 10 will be posted on Thursday.

PJ Harvey

Welcome to the fifth and final part of our albums of the year countdown – for the rest of the week, we’ll be bringing you our favourite albums of 2011, as voted for by our writers. Earlier this week, we revealed 50-41, 40-31, 30-21 and 20-11. We’ll bring you our favourite songs of the year next week. All in all, 24 lists were totted up by Mitchell Stirling, and votes were cast by Tom Bolton, Paul Brown, Sam Cleeve, Jane Corcoran, Lucy Dearlove, Rosie Duffield, Ben Dufton, Paul Faller, Stephen Ferdinando, Paul Gettings, Alex Kavanagh, Dannii Leivers, Steve McGillivray, Kenny McMurtrie, Jim Merrett, Greg Salter, Natalie Shaw, Andrew Schagen, Harley Sherman, Stef Siepel, Mitchell Stirling, Stephanie Stevens-Wade, Antonio Tzikas, and Russell Warfield. This list, and everything else that we do, would not have been possible without them and all our other writers – thank you!

10. Friendly Fires – Pala

After the sleeper success of their debut, Friendly Fires’ return was anticipated by many, and they didn’t disappoint. Pala is pure escapism – a carnival for a year when you might just have needed some distraction from the real world. The songs came in the colours of the parrot’s feathers on the LP cover – ‘Live Those Days Tonight’ and ‘Hawaiian Air’ in particular sounded like colour and sunshine and, briefly, forgetting everything else.

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9. Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise

“Just like space is a vacuum – except for the hulking great lumps of stuff within it, this planet being one of them – Space Is Only Noise is minimal techno in the sense that it’s actually constructed from a chattering web of disparate genres and influences, from Tom Waits to Panda Bear. If nothing else, the Chilean ex-pat should be commended for out Lynching David Lynch.” Jim Merrett

“There’s something about midnight that heightens ones senses, isn’t there? In previous years I have often picked the album I defer to when on the midnight commute to my little ol’ home for the top spot. This album just has that midnight, distant vibe all over it. Emotion through a sense of disconnect, like you are watching events unfold in life as opposed to being part of it. Or maybe I’m just thinking this for the French cinema bits thrown in there. Jaar has this very rare sense of knowing when to use what kind of sound. And in music, that is a gift, and an important one at that. Not to mention that the actual songs that come out of it are tremendous, especially that killer combo smack down in the middle of the album. The songs ‘Problems with the Sun’ and ‘Space is Only Noise If You Can See’ are such great examples of not only Jaar’s musical skills, but also how they can be turned into good songs.” Stef Siepel

“Dance music for people who don’t feel like dancing, would prefer to listen to musique concrete, but aren’t averse to beats that bounce like a giant rubber band. De la bombe!” Tom Bolton

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8. Metronomy – The English Riviera

Joe Mount, with the help of his band of musician, re-imagined his hometown in the south west of England on The English Riviera – it became a place of romantic possibility and summer escape. The appeal came not just from Mount’s tender imagination, but also his band’s patience with a number of elements that could have derailed the whole thing – those liquid basslines are inviting rather than cheesy, and the textures and attention to detail gesture towards ‘70s soft rock without getting mired in pastiche. The English Riviera seems genuinely thoughtful and sincere, as well as featuring the best songs of Metronomy’s career.

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7. The Horrors – Skying

“The Horrors finally find their sound, a great psychedelic album and one that restored my faith in the band.” Antonio Tzikas

“While not the quantum leap forward that 2009′s Primary Colours represented, Skying saw The Horrors consolidate their sonic progression with another fine collection of songs – as well as finally earning a deserved chart breakthrough, (on their own terms, no less). From the driving, look-laiden likes of ‘I Can See Through You’ and ‘Still Life’ to sprawling, brilliant epics ‘Moving Further Away’ and ‘Oceans Burning’, Skying moulds The Horrors’ myriad influences into a sound that is very much their own.” Paul Faller

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6. Ghostpoet – Peanut Butter Blues And Melancholy Jam

“Probably one of the most addictive albums of the year, this took over my life for a little while. A nocturnal soundtrack that had the ability to seep into your mind.” Jane Corcoran

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5. Radiohead – The King Of Limbs

While the release came out of nowhere, the content didn’t. Sitting somewhere between the tenderness of In Rainbows and the crunchy electronica of Kid A, The King Of Limbs was at once a futurology lecture and a Radiohead history lesson. Colder than its immediate predecessor and not the massive paradigm shift of the band’s mid-career albums, this was no less a joy to actually listen to and the only real complaint is its all too brief length. And since when is being left wanting more a bad thing?” Jim Merrett

“Not to everyone’s taste, Radiohead continue to defy expectations. A darker, shorter and more brooding album than In Rainbows, it continues Thom Yorke’s fascination with electronica while keeping a firm grip on their signature sound.” Alex Kavanagh

“A lot was said about Radiohead’s previous album to this, In Rainbows. Was it a return to form after their more experimental phase? While everyone was still figuring this out, along came The King of Limbs. Now nobody was thinking about it as this was most definitely a brilliant Radiohead album – this was Radiohead back to their glorious best.” Steve McGillivray

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4. Wild Beasts – Smother

“The baffling omission of Smother from the Mercury Prize shortlist turned out to be but a minor blip in the continued ascent of Wild Beasts. The band adopted a more pared down, less-is-more aesthetic than on previous records, which has been exquisitely combined with their thought-provoking, intimate lyricism to produce one of the year’s most stunningly beautiful records.” Paul Faller

“The clue’s in the title: smooth, insinuating, sinister, replete with thinly veiled threats sung in unsettling falsetto. Wild Beasts make seriously complex music, but resistance is futile.” Tom Bolton

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3. James Blake – James Blake

“The fact that the record is self titled ought to have provided a clue to the ‘where are the fucking beats?’ naysayers. This isn’t a quasi-sequel to ‘CMYK’ – it’s a standalone artistic statement; an invitation from James Blake for us to re-evaluate his craft with completely fresh ears. Still laced with an incredible – if sparing – sense of rhythm, the album is a fabulous exercise in restraint, of doing more with less, and the possibilities of subtle build and release. Incredibly simple-but-effective shifts in texture frequently push these songs into unduly emotive territories, even when (or especially when) Blake’s vocal is accompanied only by piano, or nothing at all. To get angry that the record didn’t meet preconceived notions of what it would (or should) have sounded like is ridiculous. He can go back to proving himself as an unparalleled dance producer in due course. But for the moment, we’ve been happily introduced to a second Blake – one with an abundance of soulful atmospherics and a keen ear for vocal harmony. There’s more than enough room on my iPod for both Blakes.” Rusell Warfield

“An interesting and at times haunting album that pushes sound in new directions. Blake’s cover of ‘Limit To Your Love’ is undoubtedly a highlight.”  Rosie Duffield

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2. SBTRKT – SBTRKT

“SBTRKT’s debut album was worth the wait – paring down and smoothing out element of grime, techno, dubstep, garage, jungle and, yes, pop, he produced one of the most listenable and coherent album of the year. For a debut, this is no mean feat. Meanwhile the guests shone – Yukimi Nagano makes ‘Wildfire’ her own, Roses Gabor relishes the spotlight on second half highlight ‘Pharoahs’ and Sampha brings a sense of melancholy and sense of self awareness that wins you over from the off. Stunning while also intimate, I’m genuinely excited to see where SBTRKT takes us next.” Greg Salter

“After a string of remixes, the bedroom producer reveals himself, sort of. A tight, poppy debut that owes as much to Detroit techno and Chicago house as it does to south London dubstep. But not even the bassline wobbles are enough to shake off that mask.” Jim Merrett

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1. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

“Believe the hype. PJ Harvey makes what many consider to be her best record yet, a profoundly moving ode to an England that exists only in our imaginations, at once desperately sad and romantic.” Alex Kavanagh

“Clearly deserved (though totally pointless) winner of this year’s Mercury Music Prize, another artist still producing excellent work in her prime.” Kenny McMurtrie

“Objectively speaking, Let England Shake is one of the year’s most outstanding artistic achievements, and I’d personally rank it as the best thing PJ Harvey has ever put her name to. To take on the subject of war without resorting to “WAR IZ BAD” tubthumping is commendable in itself – Harvey takes the far more restrained approach of narrating the horrors of war as seen through the eyes of the soldiers who were there. In doing so, however, she paints a more damning portrait of war than any protest song could ever hope to – and that’s the true genius of Let England Shake.” Paul Faller

“Polly Harvey’s songs are entirely original but sound as though they’ve existed for ever, or at the very least since the 17^th century. Weighed down by history, buoyed up by melody, England all over.” Tom Bolton

Tune-Yards

Welcome to the fourth part of our albums of the year countdown – for the rest of the week, we’ll be bringing you our favourite albums of 2011, as voted for by our writers. Earlier this week, we revealed 50-41, 40-31 and 30-21 – check in tomorrow when we’ll finish with 10-1. We’ll bring you our favourite songs of the year next week. All in all, 24 lists were totted up by Mitchell Stirling, and votes were cast by Tom Bolton, Paul Brown, Sam Cleeve, Jane Corcoran, Lucy Dearlove, Rosie Duffield, Ben Dufton, Paul Faller, Stephen Ferdinando, Paul Gettings, Alex Kavanagh, Dannii Leivers, Steve McGillivray, Kenny McMurtrie, Jim Merrett, Greg Salter, Natalie Shaw, Andrew Schagen, Harley Sherman, Stef Siepel, Mitchell Stirling, Stephanie Stevens-Wade, Antonio Tzikas, and Russell Warfield. This list, and everything else that we do, would not have been possible without them and all our other writers – thank you!

20. Katy B - On A Mission

“Whether you were coming at dubstep (or one of its myriad spin-offs) from the angle of a die-hard fanatic, or someone recently converted after its appropriation by the mainstream, Katy B’s On A Mission was an album everyone could rally around. I watched her perform these phenomenal pop songs at Shepherd’s Bush Empire a few months ago, and she was an incredible performer – thrillingly, there’ll be plenty more to come from her.” Greg Salter

“Ok, this album isn’t great all the way through – but it was a breath of fresh air when it came out, and ‘Katy On A Mission’ and ‘Lights On’ really show what Katy B’s about. A good crossover album for the dubstep genre.”  Rosie Duffield

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19. Frank Ocean – Nostalgia/Ultra

“Where it once used to be good and proper to actively dislike R&B, Frank Ocean is one of several new artists reinvigorating the genre with a previously absent depth and creativity. Still Odd Future’s best release.” Alex Kavanagh

“I’m tempted to draw Frank Ocean out of the pigeonholes that he’s been lumped into – Odd Future and R&B. He seems too separate from the former, forging his own distinctive path, while one genre, like the latter, doesn’t do him justice. And the reason I played and played this album/mixtape/whatever this year wasn’t to do with the brief hype surrounding his origins or a belated embrace of R&B by indie fans, but rather his effortless knack with melodies, sheer creativity and particularly his incredible storytelling – Ocean has an eye for the tiny details as well as the big picture, which is why I imagine him occupying a space somewhere between R Kelly and Joni Mitchell. He’s unique, and just getting started.” Greg Salter

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18. Zola Jesus – Conatus

“It’s impossible to talk about Zola Jesus without mentioning *that* voice, and for good reason – her operatic tones are some of the most powerful and distinctive you’ll hear today. But equally striking are the varied electronic soundscapes that she wraps around that arresting voice, and her third album Conatus proved to be no exception. Be it the spacious, ominous sounds of ‘Avalanche’, the glitchy industrial whirring of ‘Vessel’, the hypnotic likes of ‘Hikikomori’ and ‘Ixode’, or the fragile melancholy of ‘Skin’, it’s a consistently captivating record that deserves recognition as one of the year’s best.” Paul Faller

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17. Ben Howard – Every Kingdom

Drawing on fairly out-of-time influences like John Martyn and Nick Drake (take that, Ed Sheeran), Ben Howard‘s popularity seemed to spread by word of mouth this year, to the point where his debut album, Every Kingdom, landed straight in the top 10 on release. Back in October, Jane Corcoran was smitten: “This is a very poignant and beautiful debut from the unquestionably talented musician. Comparisons may be inevitable but it is likely that in a few years, a young singer-songwriter just starting out will be citing Every Kingdom as one of their most significant influences”.

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16. A Winged Victory for the Sullen – A Winged Victory for the Sullen

“A collaboration that pits the otherworldly expanse of Stars of the Lid’s Adam Wiltzie’s ambient vernacular against the hushed intimacy of composer Dustin O’Halloran’s plaintive piano textures. In the process, it does away with the monotony that’s undoubtedly put many people off the ambient canon in the past, offering something that’s at once incredibly tranquil and never stale.” Sam Cleeve

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15. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes

“Wounded Rhymes is another deliciously quirky offering from someone who is lesser known but just as mad as Lady Gaga. There isn’t a bad song on this album.” Rosie Duffield

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14. Girls – Father, Son and Holy Ghost

“Whenever anybody listens to a record, their response to it is inevitably going to be coloured by their specific mood and state of life at the time – a fact which helps to account for my complete adoration of Girls’ Father, Son, Holy Ghost. I thirstily consumed these songs at a point in my year which was simultaneously impacted by the life-derailing collapse of my health (please, no sympathy cards) and falling hard for an unimaginably terrific new woman (please, no Facebook stalking). Christopher Owens provides the perfect musical articulation of emotionally confusing circumstances. As I hazardously swung from optimism to nihilism to excitement to depression, it was nourishing to hear a voice which accurately conveyed love, despair, longing, joy and desperation, not just by turn, but at once. In terms of both lyricism and melody, Father, Son, Holy Ghost is a textbook exercise of directness and simplicity, hitting each nail squarely on the head, while completely evading triteness. Take seven-minute centerpiece ‘Vomit’, beginning with a softly picked arpeggio, before royally unfurling into a full blooded climax of organ, gospel singers, and distortion – a suitably emotional backdrop to the longingly simple refrain “come into my heart”. A perfect marriage of sound and sentiment, Father, Son, Holy Ghost absolutely brims with heart from start to finish.” Russell Warfield

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13. The Antlers – Burst Apart

“Confession time: I was completely wrong about this record. This is a fine album – tender, gorgeous and embracing. In my initial review, I was babbling some nonsense about the extended, repetitious periods being a little aimless in comparison to the tighter focus of songs like ‘Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out’. But as the year wore on, I came to appreciate the beauty of the ambient stretches, and subsequently to recognise that these movements weren’t ambient at all, but patchworks of subtle intricacy. The snatches of repetitive vocal melody make a perfect counterbalance to the soft textures of colour which swell around them. Songs like ‘French Exit’, gliding on a simple melodic refrain, move emotively through subtly shifting arrangements each verse – slowly, almost imperceptibly, blooming into a damaging climax. Ultimately far more uplifting than its sombre predecessor Hospice, Burst Apart still manages to be every bit as affecting, and every bit as engrossing. It’s a work of sensual power, deserving to be fully inhabited by its listener.” Russell Warfield

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12. Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver

“Bound to be a regular on many ‘best of 2011’ lists, the sophomore effort from Justin Vernon’s Bon Iver project saw the beloved folkie leave his mythical cabin to work in more enabling surroundings. The result is something much bolder and more elaborate than its predecessor, and features striking contributions from a hugely talented array of collaborators (including bass saxophonist Colin Stetson) – the significance of which I didn’t fully appreciate until I saw it recreated live last month.” Sam Cleeve

“Justin Vernon follows up his much-loved debut with something altogether more ambitious. While it retains his previous record’s haunting melancholic beauty, it takes his sound further than For Emma Forever Ago ever suggested he would.” Alex Kavanagh

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11. Tune-Yards – W H O K I L L

“The thing that leaps out of WHOKILL most of all (and there’s a lot of stuff leaping out of WHOKILL) is its sheer sense of joy, and its revelling in the act of treating sound as the playground that it is. Indisputably, Tune-Yards have created the most vibrant melee of ambition and ideas this year, and it’s an absolute blast. Armed with a ukulele, a loop pedal, and an inhuman set of lungs which can switch from tearing a song to shreds to luring it to bed in the space of a breath, Merrill Garbus is a virtuosic performer, allowing for the perfect execution of every single flight of whimsy she chases on this record. Beyond her sheer technical prowess, though, is her dazzling ability to paint her canvases with such a fizzy array of colour – little flicks of guitar run, interlocking vocal loops, horn breakdowns and pounding rhythms all coalescing to create a seemingly effortless kitchen sink approach to creation. At first listen, it’s a real man on the moon experience, an intensely arresting tell-everyone-about-this-now type of record, the most invigorating first spin of a record you’ll make all year. If you’ve not heard it yet, I deeply envy what you’re about to experience.” Russell Warfield

“Merrill Garbus and her merry band of pan lid bashers and saxophonists are pretty peerless in what they do. It’s organised chaos; she’s always in control and this is a record I haven’t tired of since it came out.” Lucy Dearlove

Clams Casino

Welcome to the third part of our albums of the year countdown – for the rest of the week, we’ll be bringing you our favourite albums of 2011, as voted for by our writers. Earlier this week, we revealed 50-41 and 40-31 – check in each day this week for 10 more albums, with 10-1 announced on Friday. We’ll bring you our favourite songs of the year in the following week. All in all, 24 lists were totted up by Mitchell Stirling, and votes were cast by Tom Bolton, Paul Brown, Sam Cleeve, Jane Corcoran, Lucy Dearlove, Rosie Duffield, Ben Dufton, Paul Faller, Stephen Ferdinando, Paul Gettings, Alex Kavanagh, Dannii Leivers, Steve McGillivray, Kenny McMurtrie, Jim Merrett, Greg Salter, Natalie Shaw, Andrew Schagen, Harley Sherman, Stef Siepel, Mitchell Stirling, Stephanie Stevens-Wade, Antonio Tzikas, and Russell Warfield. This list, and everything else that we do, would not have been possible without them and all our other writers – thank you!

30. Tom Vek – Leisure Seizure

“Amid torrid rumours regarding his whereabouts for the last six years (Brixton station! London Fields Lido! Prison!), Tom Vek casually released one of the albums of the year. It’s a perfect progression from 2005′s We Have Sound, a bit more jaded-sounding perhaps, but his brand of clever, glitchy electro pop has only improved with six years’ lying in the cellar.” Lucy Dearlove

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29. Adele – 21

Yes, everyone’s sick of Adele now – ‘Rolling In The Deep’ is the third most viewed youtube video ever, in between a thigh massage and a sneezing panda, and ‘Someone Like You’ has been playing in the background of every vaguely emotional moment of all our lives for about 12 months, whether we liked it or not. But don’t forget that back in January the general feeling was that Adele had made a pretty decent second album, all things considered.

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28. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life

“A fair amount of the acclaim surrounding Fucked Up’s brilliant David Comes To Life concentrates on the fact that it’s an ‘ambitious’ concept album, lyrically charting the rise and fall of some love affair or other over eighteen tracks. But for me (and in spite of how much fun it is to hear Damien bark lines like “maybe it was my fault and I deserve to be upset / maybe the price of being wrong is a lifetime of regret” with apparent sincerity), very little of my admiration for this record stems from this faintly gimmicky facet of the album. Instead, I have absolutely no qualms whatsoever about singing the praises of this record for no other reason than its being a ferociously fucking good punkrock record.” Russell Warfield

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27. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact

“A hyper-speed journey through human culture, Eye Contact marks the point where Gang Gang Dance’s sonic backpacking crystallised into a great album. Haunting, complex and glitteringly bright, this is a train ride at night through an alien world called Earth.” Paul Gettings

“’Everything time’ from the Dance, an album that leaves nothing out.  Sometimes you may wish it did, but mostly it’s a gleeful, unholy mix that demands you attention.” Tom Bolton

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26. Elbow – Build A Rocket Boys

Elbow built on the momentum of their 2008 Mercury win and the sudden undying affection of the British public (both of which should have been theirs approximately three albums earlier) with this year’s Build A Rocket Boys – festival crowds duly swooned.

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25. Clams Casino – Instrumentals

“Mike Volpe’s reputation and fanbase has only grown and grown over 2011 – this (initially free) Instrumentals mixtape emerged to very little fanfare in the early part of the year but has since received a vinyl pressing. By November, his beats were being singled out for praise on the mixtape that got A$AP Rocky a multi-million dollar record deal. Clams Casino’s music is addictive and strange, marrying hiphop to shoegaze and the atmospheres aspired to by chillwave, and Instrumentals was once of the most rewarding and surprising releases of the year”. Greg Salter 

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24. Grouper – A|A: Alien Observer / A|A: Dream Loss

“Two strong releases from Grouper this year, A|A: Alien Observer and A|A: Dream Loss found her on haunting and evocative form. For music that, at first, doesn’t appear to do much, it doesn’t half reward listen after listen after listen. Evocative, unsettling, and always deeply moving”. Greg Salter

“Maybe it’s a bit of a cheat to have both of these as a single entry, but it’s impossible to choose a winner between them. Submerged and distant, these records still ache with melody and see Grouper adding new sounds and textures to her melodic stormclouds. A solid progression.” Paul Gettings

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23. The Weeknd – House Of Balloons

“Another R&B cross-genre hybrid, these tales of drug-fuelled lust and heartbreak set to a backdrop of psychedelic reverb draw you in from the first tune. House of Balloons sounds special at once and lingers long in the memory.” Alex Kavanagh

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22. Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow

“The enigmatic High Queen of Pop returns with a stunning concept album. As idiosyncratic as ever, and more indulgent than usual, 50 Words For Snow is a reminder (if any were needed) of the true genius of Kate Bush.” Alex Kavanagh

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21. Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older

“Never a truer word spoken. Melancholic at times, hilarious at others – ‘Glasgow Jubilee’ should be the theme tune for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.” Kenny McMurtrie

“What to say about this? A work of total and utter genius. If you want life, big, horrible, normal, everyday life then this is it. Bleak, terrifying, depressing and heart warming in equal measures this is life as most people know it – warts and all. Aidan Moffat is probably the only guy that could pull this off and here with Bill Wells he certainly has. This album has more emotion in it that the majority of bands manage in a lifetime. Magnificent.” Steve McGillivray

Cass McCombs

Welcome to the second part of our albums of the year countdown – for the rest of the week, we’ll be bringing you our favourite albums of 2011, as voted for by our writers. Yesterday, we revealed 50-41 – check in each day this week for 10 more albums, with 10-1 announced on Friday. We’ll bring you our favourite songs of the year in the following week. All in all, 24 lists were totted up by Mitchell Stirling, and votes were cast by Tom Bolton, Paul Brown, Sam Cleeve, Jane Corcoran, Lucy Dearlove, Rosie Duffield, Ben Dufton, Paul Faller, Stephen Ferdinando, Paul Gettings, Alex Kavanagh, Dannii Leivers, Steve McGillivray, Kenny McMurtrie, Jim Merrett, Greg Salter, Natalie Shaw, Andrew Schagen, Harley Sherman, Stef Siepel, Mitchell Stirling, Stephanie Stevens-Wade, Antonio Tzikas, and Russell Warfield. This list, and everything else that we do, would not have been possible without them and all our other writers – thank you!

40. Youth Lagoon – The Year of Hibernation

“One of the few newcomers to make my own personal year-end list, this bedroom recording project of Trevor Powers reconfigures our perceptions of what can be done on small budget – a monumental record whose rousing anthems are fully deserving of the accolades they’ve been awarded.” Sam Cleeve

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39. Bombay Bicycle Club – A Different Kind Of Fix

“Personally, one of my most anticipated albums of the year. After showing they had the ability to switch seamlessly between electric and acoustic with I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose and Flaws, this album cemented their place as one of the strongest and most promising bands this country has to offer.” Jane Corcoran

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38. Beyonce – 4

“Beyonce – a woman behind some of the greatest singles of the last fifteen years (‘Bills, Bills, Bills’, ‘Say My Name’, ‘Crazy In Love’, ‘Singles Ladies (Put A Ring On It’) but never someone who’s impressed over a whole album… until 2011. On 4, Beyonce brings her strongest set of songs of her career to date, taking in Prince-style balladry (‘1+1’), Diplo-sampling-himself feminist anthem (‘Run The World (Girls)’) and off-the-wall whirlwind romance (‘Countdown’). Add in Glastonbury, the VMA pregnancy reveal, video after video after video and, the greatest of honours, an ITV special presented by Steve Jones, and it’s been quite a year, even by her standards.” Greg Salter

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37. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up

“Stripped down to its underwear, hip hop still has a pulse, and it’s dark and heavy. As pitch-black in tone as the title suggests, what at first sounds like listening to Flying Lotus and Outkast at the same time slowly envelopes the listener, with scuzzy loops and lyrical tendrils lodging deeper into your brain.” Jim Merrett

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36. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

Another heavily-praised, intricate and refreshingly unique LP from Annie Clark – Strange Mercy provided some killer singles and a further deepening in her songwriting. While Strange Mercy isn’t always easy to love, Clark feels like a necessary and welcome voice in 2011’s musical landscape.

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35. Cass McCombs – Humor Risk

Hardly the LOL-tastic change-up from Wit’s End’s almost unrelenting despair that the title may have suggested, Humor Risk is still an example of Cass McCombs trying something different – it’s looser and more spontaneous, with more variations in mood and characters, and suggests that you’ll do well not to pigeon hole or second guess this most promising songwriter. Fittingly, it sits one place behind McCombs’ other 2011 LP on our list.

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34. Cass McCombs – Wit’s End 

“It takes some doing to make a song like ‘County Line’ sound like a feel-good pop number, but placed alongside the rest of the songs on Wit’s End, that’s exactly what happens. After easing us into his dark landscape with a bona fide chorus and soft ‘woah-uh-oh-uh-oh’ hooks during his opening track, Cass McCombs then submerges us into his gauntlet of tortured lullabies; tiny snatches of melody and delicately strummed acoustic guitars stretched to lengths of up to ten minutes, channeling loneliness, darkness and morbidity with excruciating accuracy. As an immersive mood piece, it’s one of the year’s best works, while also frequently managing to find moments of tender beauty in its gruelling exploration of solitude and deathly certainties.” Russell Warfield

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33. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar

By the time The Big Roar arrived early in 2011, it felt like The Joy Formidable had been waiting, biding their time just under the radar for at least a couple of years. They’d clearly channeled all that potential into their music as The Big Roar is a huge, thunderous LP that has picked up more and more fans as the year has gone on.

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32. Jamie xx and Gil Scott Heron – We’re New Here

“A concept many would never had thought of, but Gil Scott Heron‘s beautiful poetry and Jamie XX’s genius ability to remix resulted in something very special.” Jane Corcoran

“A captivating and inspired record, its significance was only heightened by the sad death of Gil-Scott Heron earlier this year, while solidifying Jamie XX’s reputation as one of the most exciting producers around.” Alex Kavanagh

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31. M83 – Hurry Up! We’re Dreaming

“A journey through electronica – diverse, epic, magical, shamelessly indebted to ‘80s pop music and all the better for it. Anthony Gonzalez’ brilliant double album is his finest work by far.” Alex Kavanagh

Wye Oak

Welcome to the first part of our albums of the year countdown – for the rest of the week, we’ll be bringing you our favourite albums of 2011, as voted for by our writers. Check each day this week for 10 more albums, with 10-1 announced on Friday. We’ll bring you our favourite songs of the year in the following week. All in all, 24 lists were totted up by Mitchell Stirling, and votes were cast by Tom Bolton, Paul Brown, Sam Cleeve, Jane Corcoran, Lucy Dearlove, Rosie Duffield, Ben Dufton, Paul Faller, Stephen Ferdinando, Paul Gettings, Alex Kavanagh, Dannii Leivers, Steve McGillivray, Kenny McMurtrie, Jim Merrett, Greg Salter, Natalie Shaw, Andrew Schagen, Harley Sherman, Stef Siepel, Mitchell Stirling, Stephanie Stevens-Wade, Antonio Tzikas, and Russell Warfield. This list, and everything else that we do, would not have been possible without them and all our other writers – thank you!

50. King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine

Back in March, few would have predicted the year that King Creosote and Jon Hopkins were about to have – even as he praised Diamond Mine to the rooftops, our reviewer Steve McGillivray was left lamenting that “The only downside to this album is that it’s pretty much likely to be ignored by the public at large, which is a real shame”. One Mercury nomination later and this duo, who have for so long produced distinctive, strong bodies of work on their own, had something of a moment in 2011.

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49. Tim Hecker – Ravedeath 1972

“In a church in Reykjavik, Hecker’s ambient organ music builds slowly, relentlessly into disquieting discord, even punishing feedback. There’s a humming in the air and something is stirring, unable to find peace.” Tom Bolton

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48. Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See

“There is a school of thought that suggests that Arctic Monkeys have become progressively worse with each passing record. Anyone who thinks this, however, is utterly mistaken - Suck It And See is the sound of a band both very much comfortable in its own skin and sounding as effortlessly confident as ever. From gorgeous indie-pop (‘She’s Thunderstorms’) to wilfully ridiculous rock stompers (‘Brick By Brick’), they barely put a foot wrong here. Alex Turner is also on fine lyrical form, demonstrating his tender side with tracks like ‘Piledriver Waltz’ and ‘Love Is A Lazerquest’, as well as his trademark wit on ‘Reckless Serenade’ and ‘Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair’. Doubters gonna doubt, but Suck It And See is a fine addition to the Arctic Monkeys canon regardless of what they think.” Paul Faller

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47. Yuck – Yuck

A divisive album – several of our writers loved Yuck’s debut LP, while several others steered well clear. How you felt about Yuck may well have depended on whether you experienced the ramshackle ‘90s indie that the band clearly love the first time around. Either way, the band clearly made an impression in 2011.

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46. Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness

“The most recent set from Los Campesinos! sees them adopt a more mature sound at points. Sure, Hello Sadness still features bursts of youthful exuberance (‘Songs About Your Girlfriend’) and Gareth’s lyricism is as devastating as ever, particularly on the chorus of the title track. But songs like ‘The Black Bird, The Dark Slope’ and the heart-wrenching ‘To Tundra’ feel like the sound of a band pushing harder than ever to surpass themselves – and succeeding.” Paul Faller

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45. Wye Oak – Civilian

“Civillian came out way back at the beginning of 2011 and has stayed at the forefront of my mind since. Being a two piece, I’m never not amazed at the complexity and depth of the sound Wye Oak produce. The album starts with the buzz of an expectant crowd and boy are they rewarded, getting an album packed with guitar driven indie-rock, reminiscent of another two piece close to my heart, Giant Drag. Brilliant stuff.” Steve McGillivray

“Breakthrough album from Andy and Jenn, credibility well earned with a set of memorable tracks with a well defined US indie sound. Buy this if you’re fed up of waiting for the new Mazzy Star.” Tom Bolton

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44. New Look – New Look

In our original review in October, Antonio Tzikas found much to love in the minimal, patient synths of New Look’s debut album: “As an album, New Look is a fully accomplished affair, the quality of the songs and the inspired and original production point to all the signs of a totally realised artistic vision. The two sides of the record are distinguished by the centrepiece; six minute long, sombre, anthemic single ‘The Ballard’, the real highlight of the album and a true showcase of the songwriting and lyrical brilliance New Look are obviously capable of.”

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43. Summer Camp – Welcome to Condale

“Welcome To Condale is just a really great, retro-yet-current sounding record. It takes you back to the Brat Pack films of the ‘80s and all that teen angst – but in a good way.” Rosie Duffield

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42. The Field – Looping State of Mind

“Incredible work from Axel Wilner, I’ve been a big fan of The Field for around two years now, since hearing ‘Everyday’ for the first time. The new record is never off my iPod, perfect to slip into a trance that’ll let you lose hours. I do a lot of train travel on my own and this record is prefect for the journey” Antonio Tzikas

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41. Drake – Take Care 

“2011 started with me rolling my eyes at Drake’s guest verse on ‘What’s My Name’ and never quite getting all the way through Thank Me Later, but ended with Take Care on repeat. I think people love Drake for the same reasons others hate him – the minimalist production (though who else in hiphop is drawing on influences like James Blake, Clams Casino and The Weeknd?), his tendency to draw his songs out, his occasionally clumsy rhymes, the way he makes his fame/money/girls lifestyle sound like a right hassle sometimes. No other album distilled everything I loved and obsessed about in music in 2011 in one sprawling whole and, though it could definitely be trimmed, no other album had quite so many highlights – ‘Headlines’, ‘Take Care’, ‘Lord Knows’, ‘Make Me Proud’, ‘Marvins Room’.” Greg Salter

Laura Marling

Here’s our round-up of some of our favourite records from the last three months, covering July, August and September. In April, we brought you our editors’ picks of the albums of the year so far, then in July we gave you our choices from the next three months. Below you’ll find a mixed bag of critically lauded albums you may already have heard, and a few hidden gems that you might have missed. Here’s 11 for the third quarter of 2011!

Active Child – You Are All I See 

If You Are All I See didn’t quite manage to maintain the quality of its early singles throughout its run time, it’s still a unique and admirable feat and could only have been released in 2011. Pat Grossi’s falsetto is set within these great baroque, synthetic musical structures, but still manages to be strangely meditative.

Azari & III – Azari & III

Azari & III’s debut does for ‘80s house what Hercules And Love Affair did for disco a few years ago. The band sound like they’ve immersed themselves in house’s history and ethos – in the process, they’ve produced an album that sounds like a tribute and a celebration, while also being incredibly difficult to resist.

The Field – Looping State Of Mind

We’ve got a review on the way for this, and The Field’s newest release has been doing the rounds digitally for a few weeks. It’s a definite return to form, building on the ambient textures of From Here We Go Sublime and Yesterday And Today with hypnotic beats and a more immediate sense of structure.

Machinedrum – Room(s)

Machinedrum’s Travis Stewart is one half of Sepalcure, who have an album due in November. His solo outing, Room(s), sounds a little like Mount Kimbie’s ghostly music but rooted much closer to Chicago house. It might be a little reductive to call this a sun-kissed Burial, but Machinedrum toes a similar line across pure dance textures and emotion.

Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know

We’ve got a lot to look forward to if we can come to expect Laura Marling to turn out an album of the quality of A Creature I Don’t Know every year or so – the Joni Mitchell comparisons are maybe a bit tired, but it’s not unreasonable to look at Joni’s run from Clouds to Hejira and wonder if Marling’s capable of something similar.

Jono McCleery – There Is

Much has been made of James Blake and Jamie Woon’s approach to songwriting, heavily influenced by the textures of dance and electronica, though Jono McCleery’s recent album on Ninja Tune perhaps achieves what they set out to do with more subtlety. There Is is a quiet, patient album, that might just win you over if you give it time.

Remember Remember – The Quickening

Remember Remember’s album could be easily passed by – sitting down to listen to eight instrumental tracks by a seven piece band may sound like a test of patience rather than an enjoyable listening experience to itchy modern ears – but The Quickening is a nuanced, beguiling album, brilliantly realised and frequently touching.

Nicola Roberts – Cinderella’s Eyes

It’s been a Robyn-less year so far, which has obviously been difficult for everyone – luckily Nicola Roberts’ solo record occupies similar forward-thinking-and-intelligent-but-definitely-catchy-and-good-pop ground. The only downside to Girls Aloud reforming next year will be that she won’t be able to follow this up immediately.

Shabazz Palaces – Black Up

Hiphop on Sub Pop? Who’d have thought that the label best known for giving us Nirvana and Mudhoney would be putting out one of the best hiphop records of 2011? Black Up sounds like a cross between Flying Lotus and Clipse – and it’s the immersive, relentlessly inventive and slightly paranoid listen that you’d expect from that comparison.

The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient

Fronted by Adam Granduciel, The War On Drugs sit somewhere between Dylan and Sonic Youth. Their new record finds them honing their blend of folk and experimental textures, chucking synths and drum machines into the mix for good measure. Slave Ambient could very well be classic rock songwriting reinvented for 2011.

Youth Lagoon – The Year Of Hibernation

To describe Trevor Power’s debut as Youth Lagoon as ‘bedroom pop’ is to do the ambitions and ideas on display here a great disservice – The Year Of Hibernation may have started in one room, but it bursts far beyond that across its eight beautifully realised main tracks.

R.E.M., c. 1983

Last Wednesday 21st September, R.E.M. announced that they are to split, after nearly 30 years of making music together. On their site, the band said,

“To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.”

We wanted to commemorate R.E.M. calling it a day in our own small way, so below you’ll find our writers reflecting on their favourite R.E.M. songs.

‘Pilgrimage’ by Paul Stephen Gettings

Pilgrimage, from R.E.M.’s album debut Murmur, encapsulates so many things I love about the band.  Peter Buck’s guitar, creaking with the rust of an ancient pitchshifter, sounds completely unique but unmistakably him. Berry’s drums, clattering around in a thick, heavy cloud. That crisp piano. Stipe and Mills deftly deliver a verse that is an obscure and mysterious mutter, followed by a chorus as anthemic and harmonious as any of their ‘90s chart-smashes. When I hear this song, I get the clearest picture in my mind’s eye. I can see the four of them, playing together in the snaking Kudzu vines of the Georgia Railroad, back in 1983.

‘Nightswimming’ by Jonno Hopkins

Most people have a drop-off point with R.E.M. Mine’s Up. Similarly, most people have a starting point. Mine’s Monster. I always felt that Monster belonged to me. However, my favourite R.E.M. track is undoubtedly ‘Nightswimming’. I was 8 when Automatic For The People came out. As far as I was concerned Now That’s What I Call Music was all there was, until I heard ‘Nightswimming’. Listening to it now is like opening up a box of photographs. Michael Stipe’s vocals don’t get any better. Naïve, knowing and beautiful they crack and crown; coupled with sweeping orchestral accents the song paints pictures with gloriously broad strokes. It’s timeless and fleeting, repetitive, yet transitory. The older I get, the more its message of a reckless adolescence resonate. It always has me reaching for the volume; restraining myself from leaving it on repeat for fear that I’ll grow weary of it.

‘The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite’ by David Lichfield

Tempting as it was to opt for something from Fables Of The Reconstruction, I’ve selected the R.E.M. single I feel best sums up my childhood fandom, and the band’s era of melancholic poppy intrigue. Majestic, timeless and exquisitely melodic, ‘The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite’ was released as the fourth single from the band’s commercial high watermark Automatic For The People in early 1993, and is perhaps one of the best examples of Michael Stipe’s often hard-to-decipher lyrical ingenuity, as noted by a competition ran at the time by the much-missed Smash Hits, which attempted to clarify what on Earth the chorus consisted of word-wise (the band’s management eventually corresponded with the publication to put them out of their misery). Somehow, as with countless works of R.E.M-crafted genius, you got the feeling Stipe’s bizarre, almost stream-of-consciousness words (maybe because of the way the music carried them) meant nothing and everything at the same time.

Though Peter Buck was less than complementary over it in the ‘In Time’ sleevenotes, it did make the final tracklisting for that compilation, unlike the similiarly childlike ‘Shiny Happy People’. It’s easy to hear the avant-garde yet accessible songcraft of acts like Arcade Fire in its candy-coated melodies, spine-tingling chord drop going into the middle-eight, elegant string section and characteristic sense of wonder and magic that coloured so much of their work. Essentially joy distilled into musical form, played by a band whose sense of trust in each other always seemed to shine through in their compositional skills. There was always an innocence and sense of purity to R.E.M. records which made them one of the best bands to grow up with and use as a gateway to similarly credible music. Even in an era of disposable music, records like this retain an untarnishable value.

‘Lotus’ by Steve McGillivray

I was never really a fan of R.E.M. At the time they were at their peak they were very uncool to me. Songs like ‘Losing My Religion’ and ‘It’s The End of the World As We Know It’ were decent enough but they just didn’t grab me. It took the intervention of Belle and Sebastian to change my mind. A sometime acquaintance of mine, Richard, was also the drummer (and still is) of the Glasgow band. They had been invited to Athens, Georgia whilst in the US for signing talks. Given access to pretty much anything they wanted to take from the R.E.M. archive, he returned with bags full of albums and fanclub exclusives for a mutual friend. Since said mutual friend already had Up he gave me his copy. Never one to turn down free music, I figured it might not be so bad, having heard some tracks during our nightshifts at work where we’d each play some of our CDs. ‘Lotus’ was the track that I was immediately drawn to, and was my gateway to the back catalogue of R.E.M., so for that reason it remains my favourite track. I resisted as long as I could, but they got me in the end.

‘Second Guessing’ by Greg Salter

I played Reckoning endlessly in the summer before I went to university – I played it while I revised for my exams, I played it when I went on holiday with my friends I would leaving in a few months, I played it while I scoured newspapers to find a place in clearing after my exam results didn’t turn out as expected, and I’m pretty sure it was the first record I put on as I unpacked in halls. All that isn’t particularly unusual – everyone has records that soundtrack a particular time – but there was something about Reckoning’s slippery, ambiguous qualities (right down to the snake on the cover) that made it particularly malleable over that time. On the album’s second side, at the start, there’s ‘Second Guessing’ – musically it’s perhaps the most immediate moment on the album, all forward momentum and harmonies. And at the centre there’s the ludicrously simplistic chorus – “Here we are” – which actually turned out to say more than enough for me at that time.

‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’ by Stef Siepel

I don’t think I love any R.E.M. song more than ‘It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’. The sheer energy, the pace of it, the abundance of references to culture, politics, and so on: this song is packed full of everything. I also like the clip with the boy and his dog in that old house and all the memorabilia floating around in there. The idea that everything changes – and today it changes at breakneck speed – but you know what, whatever happens, I feel fine. I’m okay. Everything is surging, moving, going, coming, and you are in the eye of hurricane and you don’t care and just weave your way through it. This sense of everything going on around you and you feel disconnected from that. What you sometimes see in movies where the character is in focus and the rest around the character is swirling – that’s how I always spun this one.