10. The Head and the Heart—“The Head and the Heart”
Accessible folk-pop comes pretty cheap these days; it seems as though everywhere you turn there’s a Mumford or a Tallest Man. The Head and the Heart don’t transcend their genre, but they do something even better—they perfect it. So you can love their debut album in an entirely guilt-free way—at least until they win a Grammy.
9. Those Darlins—“Screws Get Loose”
“Screws Get Loose” finds this Tennessee girl-rock quartet shedding their country roots and arriving at a sound that mixes riot grrrl feistiness and chillwave distortion. On “Be Your Bro,” one of the Darlins sings of wanting to be “just friends” with a guy who wants more—“I just want to run and play in the dirt with you, you just want to stick it in.” Oh my.
8. St. Vincent—“Strange Mercy”
Annie Clark just keeps bringing it on “Strange Mercy,” her third album as St. Vincent. The twee indie darling sounds anything but here, proving with her jagged guitar bursts and frankly sexual lyrics to be cut from the same cloth as lady-rock icons PJ Harvey and Bjork.
7. Yuck—“Yuck”
Yes, the nineties are back. This retro fad may just be another dreary revival, but Yuck is definitely the best of a bad thing. The British quartet have mastered the sound of Pavement, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Jr—they don’t imitate the nineties, they are the nineties.
6. Atlas Sound—“Parallax”
Shocker: Bradford Cox has made another great album. The Deerhunter frontman continues to evolve at an ideal pace; for this release, he’s stripped his sound of some of its signature distortion, upped the “pop” in his patented indie-pop formula, and still manages to never make a single misstep.
5. Smith Westerns—“Dye it Blonde”
The glam-rock sound returns with the Smith Westerns, cocky young up-and-comers who are simultaneously completely charming and wildly irritating in that cocky young up-and-comer way. Most importantly, they sound like kids (and they are kids; each member hovers near the 20-year mark), which, in an indie rock climate that seems to be growing older by the minute, is delightful.
4. John Maus—“We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves”
Yes, John Maus is a philosophy PhD candidate who made the year’s most dated album, and yes, that’s its title. But “We Must Become” is so much more than an eighties throwback and loving tribute to the likes of New Order and Bauhaus, it’s—oh wait. It is nothing more than an eighties throwback. But it’s such a great album that, for once, being a throwback is enough.
3. The Raveonettes—“Raven in the Grave”
Though they win few accolades (and few spots on most year-end best-of lists), the Raveonettes keep on trucking, and unlike most bands, keep getting better and better. “Raven in the Grave” sums up what they’re all about: girl groups plus shoegaze, heavy on the distortion and with extra gloom. Yum.
2. Tune-Yards—“W H O K I L L”
On her second album with Tune-Yards, Merill Garbus let the world know that she’s arrived. It’s rightfully one of the most acclaimed records of the year—her rhythms are innovative, her voice earth-shattering, her album a thing of beauty.
1. EMA—“Past Life Martyred Saints”
2011 was a great year for women in indie-rock, but no female artist made the impression upon me that Erika M. Anderson, or EMA, made with her debut album. Take, for instance, the single “California,” my favorite song of the year, which features Anderson half-speaking, half-singing over a droning guitar, telling tales of those she left behind in South Dakota after heading west. The album is gorgeous, haunting, intimate, and my pick of the year.