Criteria: These music albums from the year 2011 were chosen for their immediate and lasting popularity, impact, influence, and acclaim from critics and musicians. This list does not include 'Greatest Hits' albums.
Edited By: Ryan
1. 21 - Adele 2. Take Care - Drake 3. Born This Way - Lady Gaga 4. Watch the Throne - Jay-Z and Kanye West 5. Bon Iver - Bon Iver 6. 4 - Beyoncé 7. Wasting Light - Foo Fighters 8. Let England Shake - PJ Harvey 9. Barton Hollow - The Civil Wars 10. 50 Words for Snow - Kate Bush 11. Talk That Talk - Rihanna 12. Undun - The Roots 13. James Blake - James Blake 14. Making Mirrors - Gotye 15. El Camino - The Black Keys 16. David Comes to Life - Fucked Up 17. W H O K I L L - tUnE-yArDs 18. Civilian - Wye Oak 19. + - Ed Sheeran 20. Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes 21. Ceremonials - Florence + The Machine 22. Hurry Up, We're Dreaming - M83 23. Tomboy - Panda Bear 24. Goblin - Tyler, the Creator 25. Nine Types of Light - TV on the Radio 26. Black Up - Shabazz Palaces 27. Past Life Martyred Saints - EMA 28. Mylo Xyloto - Coldplay 29. Torches - Foster the People 30. Collapse into Now - R.E.M. 31. The King is Dead - The Decemberists 32. Hot Sauce Committee Part Two - Beastie Boys 33. Kaputt - Destroyer 34. Bad as Me - Tom Waits 35. Biophilia - Björk 36. Gloss Drop - Battles 37. Underneath the Pine - Toro y Moi 38. Strange Mercy - St. Vincent 39. Father, Son, Holy Ghost - Girls 40. Suck It And See - Arctic Monkeys 41. The King of Limbs - Radiohead 42. Smoke Ring for My Halo - Kurt Vile 43. So Beautiful or So What - Paul Simon 44. The Light of the Sun - Jill Scott 45. Arabia Mountain - Black Lips 46. Cole World: The Sideline Story - J. Cole 47. Wild Flag - Wild Flag 48. Tha Carter IV - Lil Wayne 49. Femme Fatale - Britney Spears 50. The Big Roar - The Joy Formidable 51. XXX - Danny Brown 52. The Whole Love - Wilco 53. Belong - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart 54. Up All Night - One Direction 55. Noel Gallagher's Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds 56. The R.E.D. Album - Game 57. Skying - The Horrors 58. Wounded Rhymes - Lykke Li 59. Blue Slide Park - Mac Miller 60. Cults - Cults 61. Days - Real Estate 62. Codes and Keys - Death Cab for Cutie 63. Section.80 - Kendrick Lamar 64. Only in Dreams - Dum Dum Girls 65. Never Trust a Happy Song - Grouplove 66. Wit's End - Cass McCombs 67. Stronger - Kelly Clarkson 68. The People's Key - Bright Eyes 69. Metals - Feist 70. Dye it Blonde - Smith Westerns 71. Zonoscope - Cut Copy 72. Yuck - Yuck 73. Slave Ambient - The War on Drugs 74. A Creature I Don't Know - Laura Marling 75. Cloud Nothings - Cloud Nothings 76. Fallen Empires - Snow Patrol 77. Lasers - Lupe Fiasco 78. Vows - Kimbra 79. Parallax - Atlas Sound 80. My Head is an Animal - Of Monsters and Men 81. Apollo Kids - Ghostface Killah 82. Join Us - They Might Be Giants 83. What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? - The Vaccines 84. Build a Rocket Boys! - Elbow 85. Camp - Childish Gambino 86. Different Gear, Still Speeding - Beady Eye 87. Burst Apart - The Antlers 88. Kiss Each Other Clean - Iron & Wine 89. Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls 90. Coastal Grooves - Blood Orange 91. England Keep My Bones - Frank Turner 92. The Papercut Chronicles II - Gym Class Heroes 93. Rolling Blackouts - The Go! Team 94. Blood Pressures - The Kills 95. A Different Kind of Fix - Bombay Bicycle Club 96. The English Riviera - Metronomy 97. Move Like This - The Cars 98. Go-Go Boots - Drive-By Truckers 99. Mirror Traffic - Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks 100. All Eternals Deck - The Mountain Goats
DigitalDreamDoor Editor Picks for 2011
Ryan's choice - An unheralded great album from 2011
• Hello Sadness - Los Campesinos!
Lew's choice:
• Mission Bell - Amos Lee
Note: Yearly album lists go by earliest 'release date'. Not necessarily the year an album peaked in the U.S. charts.
