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Listen to the 10 best songs of 2011 as selected by Time Out's team of music critics.
The Time Out editors have all picked their favourite events and moments of 2011. See if you agree with them.
Time Out's experts celebrate the city's finest moments on record
The country’s most distinctive and consistently adventurous singer-songwriter turned her attention to England’s bloody history, conflicted identity and uncertain future, forging a very modern kind of folk music in the process.
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After a brace of killer remixes Aaron Jerome’s debut as SBTRKT is a plateful of awesome guests including Yukimi Nagano of Little Dragon, rising star Jessie Ware and long-term collaborator Sampha, whose velvety tones give this polished collection some serious soul. Future-pop excellence.
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Adele Atkins bestrode the globe like Optimus Prime, although with an old school soul-belter of a voice and an assured knack for songwriting which the popular Autobot is sorely lacking.
Easily the gravelly voiced godhead’s best work since ‘Bone Machine’ and a comparative laff riot by his standards. This sprawling romp across genre borders is infectiously enthusiastic and, dare we say it, almost poppy.
It was the moment that Joseph Mount went mainstream – with a Mercury Music Prize nomination – and about time too. His third album, a love letter to the Devon coastline, is expertly crafted – inventive instrumentation, groovy basslines, and surprising yet memorable melodies. With ‘The Bay’ at the record’s pinnacle, this is Metronomy in high-def: widescreen, wonderful.
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Traditionally, Sub Pop don’t release hip hop. But then, neither does hip hop usually dip its brush into a madcap sonic palette of ragtime, West African rhythms, juddering digibass, grinding horrorshow beats and shimmering soul horns. Add in the oblique, rhyme-light raps and this is one hell of an abstract sonic adventure.
The ‘soundtrack to an imaginary film’ concept reaches its apex with this under-radar concept album featuring vocal contributions from Jack White and a shockingly animated Norah Jones.
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The diamond brilliant melodies of ‘Lights On’ and ‘Katy on a Mission’ have already taken digi-futurism to the pop masses. But Ms B’s encore was even better: jazzy double bass grooves, bruising crack house, punchy rave-pop and horn-strafed organ funk. Yowzer.
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The Texan quartet’s latest was a wild and carousing, physically exuberant but terrifyingly tight-focused ride through blues, prog, acid rock, country, jazz fusion, folk, punk metal and more. It’s playful, but awesomely pro. It’s experimental but has grooves. It’s pretty much perfect.
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Just about barely qualifying as an album, considering its quantum superposition as a suite of apps, four-dimensional live experience and sprawling pseudo-scientific experiment, ‘Biophilia’ is one of the year’s most ambitious outings.
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