It’s that time of year again. Every other publication has been hard at work pushing out their lists throughout December but we are never ones to rush things. So we thought a nice time to put these out might be Christmas day for you to enjoy while your waiting for dinner to appear or maybe are in that post dinner coma phase.
Either way this is a little something for you all to consider on your Christmas day. We asked the reviewers and photographers on Team Goldenplec to tell us their favourite international albums, favourite Irish albums and favourite gigs from 2011. We also asked our photographers to pick one of their amazing snaps taken in 2011 for Goldenplec as their favourite for the year. Here is the top 5 international albums based on the nominations from our team (this is cumulative votes from the submitted nominations with the most amount of votes topping the list).
#5) Bon Iver – Bon Iver
Saranne Murray – An immense album from a great musician. Beautiful, Complex, Effortless.
David Dooley – An expansive, textural blanket of sound. Repeated listens are needed to unravel each layer of sound on this album.
#4) Battles – Gloss Drop
Kieran Frost – Immense experimental rock, you just can’t help but dance.
Loreana Rushe – Glossier than an apple drop from a sweet shop. Awesome!
#3) Patrick Wolf – Lupercalia
Vanessa Monaghan – A delightful piece of intelligent pop, melded with angelic orchestration? Yum!
Aidan Cuffe – A masterfully crafted album with an infectious hook that will knock you out.
#2) Adele – 21
Ros Madigan – A master-class album taken from an artist who will be around for a long time to come. The soundtrack to my summer (sounds odd I know).
Sean Cullivan– The smash hit of 2011, Standout vocals, big, brilliant and powerful. Her personality resonates throughout, you can’t auto-tune that.
#1) The Black Keys – El Camino
Conor Skinnader – What do you do after releasing an album as brilliant as ‘Brothers’? Simply release one the following year that’s just as good. Hands down, one of the albums of the year.
Sean Noone – Good old fashion rock and roll that sonically kicks your ass. Big hooks, pounding drums and bluesy vocals.