claire's 11x11 tunes snapshot

hey remember when npr put out their "listeners pick of their favorite 25 albums of 2011"? i do. every album on there is golden. but then i started to think, why the f is james blake #25? clearly, there are some pretty uneducated npr listeners out there. bon iver could hardly get along with out his buddy james this year, lets not forget the breakout release of 'fall creek boys choir':

if you had forgotten, or maybe were not aware, lest you never forget now. behold the power of james blake and justin vernon. 

so here's my idea: too many greats were missed on this list. so i am going to revise the suggested top 25 albums with my own favorites... just my top 11 for 2011,hence 11x11 (25 is too daunting, choosing favorites is hard to do)! some may be not that new to you, others may be just as good as new, and some are hopefully familiar and well loved. i hope that you find some great tunes regardless, and become much more musically enlightened than your average npr listener.

1. James Blake, James Blake, "Limit to Your Love"

2. Bon Iver, Bon Iver, "Hinnom, TX" 

3. Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, & Chris Thile, The Goat Rodeo Sessions, "Attaboy"

4.  Radiohead, The King of Limbs, "Bloom"

5. Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues, "The Shrine/An Argument"

6. The Head and The Heart, The Head and The Heart, "Rivers and Roads"

7. Jessica Lea Mayfield, Tell Me, "Our Hearts are Wrong"

8. Sufijan Stevens, All Delighted People, "All Delighted People"

9. Eliot Lipp & Jasia 10, How We Do: Moves Made, "Move It"

10. Chikita Violenta, TRE3S, "Roni"

11.  Vetiver, The Errant Charm, "Can't You Tell"

12. Gold Panda, Companion, "Quitters Raga"

Honorable Mentions

*Mumford & Sons, Laura Marling, and Dharohar Project

i just learned about this the other day, must have been living under a rock or something. i would be totally into this, i just need some time for it to grow on me...

* Yann Tiersen, Dust Lane, "Dust Lane/Dark Stuff"

yes, its release was october 2010, but it was new to me in 2011