The Top 100 Tracks of 2011

Check out One Thirty BPM’s top songs of 2011 in this Spotify playlist.

---

Sure, the opening few seconds of The Decemberists’ “Don’t Carry It All” sounds uncannily like Tom Petty’s “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” but when Colin Meloy begins singing with a previously unmatched confidence and conviction, it is clear that any biting going on is merely coincidental. And, the maturity in Meloy’s voice, along with Peter Buck on guitar and perfect complimentary vocals by Gillian Welch, gel together in a nearly spiritual form, using lyrics with a distinct communistic leaning to, in fact, usher in The Decemberists’ biggest commercial success yet. The King Is Dead saw The Decemberists retreat heavily toward their earlier career sound (probably for the better), but nothing about “Don’t Carry It All” seems like a retread of anything the band had previously recorded. A great album opener, it’s also a great way to lead off the top 50 of our favorite songs of 2011.

– Philip Cosores

---

Much like the rest of The Weeknd’s output, “The Birds (Part 1)” thrives on artistic contradiction. It’s the closest Abel Tesfaye has ever come to crafting a straight-up pop anthem, with a larger-than-life chorus and an instrumental energy far removed from the downcast musical space most of his work inhabits. And yet, the subject of the song’s narrative couldn’t be further separated from its tone. With a desperation that is unsettlingly vivid, Tesfaye pleads with a women not to fall for the manipulative traps he sets with such ease – a warning against himself in a moment of moral clarity. It’s yet another side to the increasingly dense story The Weeknd is crafting through his trilogy of albums – and one of the rare instances in which Tesfaye’s character appears to have a conscience. But much like any artistic narrative presented through a lens of absolute darkness, the good only serves to strengthen the tragedy of the inevitable downfall. This isn’t a story that could ever end well – nor should it. One of the most thrilling aspects of The Weeknd’s music is its willingness to plunge deep into unrelentingly bleak realities. And in “The Birds (Part 1),” the story couldn’t be bleaker.

– Cole Zercoe

---

With its impeccable blend of warmth, creativity and musical savvy, “17” plays out like a how-to manual for a bedroom track. The scruffy lo-fi sheen is executed to a T, and Trevor Powers’ mantra proudly sits smack dab in the middle: “Don’t stop imagining / The day that you do is the day that you die.” His creaky, childish voice conjures up some lucid images, fierce emotions and takes you back to some strange places that you’d either forgotten about or thought you would never end up visiting again. Powers pours everything he has into it, and it shows. “17” is an amalgamation of 22 years of memories and experience, but it feels like a lot more than that.

For my money, The Year of Hibernation is the bedroom project of the year. As his thoughts seep through the crackling in your headphones, Powers hits on something profound. There’s a longing to explore, a primal impulse that exists within all of us but we’ve been told to repress. On “17,” not only does it all come rushing back, it hits with such fervency that you’ll wonder why it waited so long to make its return.

– Brendan Frank

---

Steve McQueen, for our younger readers, was for a time the coolest actor around. In fact, his nickname was literally “The King Of Cool.” Think about that a second and ask yourself if there is possibly a better nickname to have bestowed upon you. Now, it is tough to say exactly what the song “Steve McQueen” has to do with the actor Steve McQueen, but the song seems to be about living for the moment, something that Steve McQueen, as an avid racer and thrill seeker, could easily be related to. Musically, the soaring synths and the rocket ship of a climax rival “Midnight City” as the most memorable musical accomplishment from M83’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. But, though the song’s hooks and emotional swells are clearly spelled out, the song is successful without pandering, almost as if being epic was just part of main-man Anthony Gonzalez’s nature. Just an idea, maybe we should bring back the “King Of Cool” moniker for a certain musician. Just sayin’.

– Philip Cosores

---

The Roots returned in 2011 album Undun captures the soulful spirit they became revered for. There’s no better example of that on Undun than “Make My.” And you can’t talk about The Roots without mentioning ?uestlove’s sexy smooth drumming, and especially on “Make My,” the prolific drummer is at his very finest. For me, The Roots have always been about gorgeous simplicity, a perfectly executed but never overdone balance of vocals and instrumentation, a trait which rings true on “Make My.” Featured on the vocals is one of hip hop’s fastest rising stars, whom we’ve championed on our year end lists many times this year, Big K.R.I.T.. The southern rapper’s equally smooth voice is the perfect compliments to The Roots’ music, a combination that seems destined for future projects. Undun is maybe the surprise album of the year, and “Make My” is a gorgeous and spirited microcosm of the album.

– Erik Burg

---

Now this is a jam. Smack dab in the middle of their terrific album Eye Contact, Gang Gang Dance plopped down the most energetic, rave-ready track they’ve ever recorded. That intense yet catchy synth line reminds me of that on The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” though I’m hesitant to make any further comparison between this New York art-pop group and that Swedish electronic duo because… because, well, that comparison’s been made a lot, and I’m not sure how valid it is overall. Like, is it just because both groups feature atypically emotive female vocals? Is it the presence of uptempo synth pop that makes this comparison so seemingly apt? Whereas the Knife — especially on Silent Shout — seek to combine catchy levity with more sinister atmospheres, I think Gang Gang’s goal is different. I think “MindKilla” is a party starter; it’s this band’s Jock Jam, a singalong-worthy romp through Ibiza by way of Brooklyn. It’s less concerned with abstraction than songs found on their earlier releases; instead, it seems focused on getting the listener to move his feet and nod along. Let’s not overthink this; don’t fear the mind killa.

– Josh Becker

---

“I am the dragon,” Nas abruptly declares mid-verse. This shouldn’t be a Nas that surprises us, but recent years have found the NY god tripping between rants at the new school and empty political discourse, rattled by divorce. “Nasty” is the most important track Nasir has released in years: simple swagger over inspired boom bap, the true King is having fun again. The annoyance with the state of rap is still there, but it’s been downgraded to a chuckle and a shake of the head – what’s it matter when he’s killing ‘em? 2011 should have been a grand year for Nas, but the album this cut so promisingly foreshadowed hasn’t come. At year’s end, this only adds to this single’s strength: pop it on, it still excites just as much as the first play. He needs to hurry up with that album, but Nas still has us with this one.

– Chase McMullen

---

The youthful optimism behind Lykke Li’s voice on Youth Novels has been replaced with a pained world-weariness on “Love Out of Lust,” while subdued primal percussions and a persistent but faint whistle melody bring a fantastical feel that hypnotizes rather than heartbreaks. What could have been another delicately heart-wrenching number is now something foreboding. Rather than wallowing in sadness, Li is channeling it as a weapon.

Upon the release of “Love out of Lust,” Li cited the song as her personal favorite from Wounded Rhymes, and it’s easy to see why. In addition to standing out as bleakly melancholic on an album borne out of lost love and the subsequent devastation, the matured subtlety and sophistication exhibited on “Love out of Lust” also perfectly encapsulates the transformative nature of Wounded Rhymes. “Dance ‘cause you must” and “dance while you can,” we shall, for “Lust” is the moment of catharsis that makes the more forceful moments of Wounded Rhymes possible.

– Frank Mojica

---

Within four minutes of Celestial Lineage opener “Thuja Magus Imperium” Wolves In The Throne Room find the piece of orchestral, naturalistic transcendence they’ve been searching for since 2007’s Two Hunters. The track opens with resonate chimes and vocal collaborator Jessika Kenney’s crystalline voice accompanied by shiftless, pillowy synths before dive bombing into thundering mountains of black metal riffage, Nathan Weaver’s shrieking growl splitting the sky with tearful desperation. The song’s mid-section, while just as violent and breakneck as anything this group has managed, finds a weightless inhuman serenity in its all-encompassing tremolo melodies. It’s an effortless sequence, simultaneously superior and beholden to everything that has come out of the WiTTR encampment.

– Will Ryan

---

There exists a tendency to judge modern musicians not on the merits of their output but by their influences. Interestingly, such a judgement is rare in the field of commercial pop music and tends to surface more in the ‘indie’ or ‘alternative’ field. Thus, what is for all intents and purposes and brilliant song, can be given the somewhat passive-aggressive descriptor of ‘clearly influenced by the Velvet Underground’. It would be easy to judge Dum Dum Girls on such a standard. They cite The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Ronettes, and Mazzy Star as influences. “Coming Down” is produced by Sune Rose Wagner of Raveonettes fame, another musician partial to retro throwbacks. But the problem with explaining away music by reference to what has influenced it is that you undersell the intangibles – “Coming Down” is a perfect case in point. The loaded sorrow in Dee Dee Penny’s vocals, the mournful progression, and melancholic vibe transcend paint-by-numbers shoegaze (or whatever you want to call it) and push this track into a space of its own. “Coming Down” is a beautiful effort from a band clearly capable of beautiful things.

– Liam Demamiel

[100-76] [75-51] [50-41] [40-31] [30-21] [20-11] [10-01]