Most Anticipated Albums of 2011

(via stereogum.com)

To tackle the cliché head-on, if you’re a big music fan, every year is a good year for music. People (and their Droids) seem more cynical than ever, but only a true curmudgeon could make it through any given 12 months without liking anything (well, the mid ’90s had a couple grim moments). That said, 2011 appears to have more than enough to keep even the angriest amongst you smiling amid the steady unemployment, nostalgia-act reunions, oil spills and explosions, celebrity sickness/divorce/death, chillwave, and even Glee.

Kanye West and his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy owned the latter part of 2010 — with the news of his five-song 2011 Watch The Throne collaboration with Jay-Z, he may very well own a chunk of next year, too. Speaking of owning: 2010 — also known as the year post-Merriweather Post Pavilion — was a somewhat quiet one for Animal Collective outside of ODDSAC and Avey Tare’s Down There. The next one brings us the next best thing to a new AC collection, Tomboy, Panda Bear’s much anticipated followup to 2007’s Person Pitch. We’ll also have the first proper Aphex Twin full-length since 2001’s Drukqs. In the time after Richard D. James paused, guitars have definitely taken a bit of a backseat in many corners of underground music and for the general listener — think chillwave, witch house, death disco, homemade GarageBand mashes, the sampled guitar-rock of Girl Talk, etc. With this landscape as his backdrop, it’ll be interesting to see how much further James, a popular electronic musician even non-electronic music fans have always liked, can spread his reach. (He’s said he’s recorded six albums worth of material since we last heard from him, so it’ll also be interesting to see how much these outside shifts have influenced his own output.) As far as other long waits, it seems Strokes IV will see the light of day in 2011, or at least that’s what the band says. All in all, the old guard is well represented in the following list: The Cars, Beastie Boys, U2, Foo Fighters, etc. (What year is this again?)

Speaking of our list: We chose the 50 most important or enticing. And while it’s limited primarily to releases that have been confirmed, we have made a few assumptions (e.g., that the Wrens and Avalanches will finish their Chinese Democracies).

Click on an artist name for recent news, and in some cases MP3s, from these forthcoming LPs.

• 01 Aphex Twin – TBA

• 02 Fiona Apple – TBA

• 03 The Avalanches – TBA (via Modular)

• 04 Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee, Vol. 2 (via Capitol)

• 05 James Blake – James Blake (2/07 via Atlas/A&M)

• 06 The Cars – TBA

• 07 The Cave Singers – No Witch (2/22 via Jagjaguwar)

• 08 Cloud Nothings – Cloud Nothings (1/24 via Carpark)

• 09 Cut Copy – Zonoscope (2/08 via Modular)

• 10 Death Cab For Cutie – TBA (via Atlantic)

• 11 The Decemberists – The King Is Dead (1/18 via Capitol)

• 12 Destroyer – Kaputt (1/25 via Merge)

• 13 Dr. Dre – Detox (February via Aftermath/Interscope)

• 14 Fleet Foxes – TBA

• 15 Foo Fighters – TBA

• 16 The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts (2/14 via Memphis Industries)

• 17 PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (2/15 via Island)

• 18 Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean (1/25 via Warner Bros.)

• 19 Krallice – TBA (April via Profound Lore)

• 20 La Sera – La Sera (Early 2011 via Hardly Art)

• 21 Lady Gaga – Born This Way (Interscope)

• 22 Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes (3/1 via LL Recordings)

• 23 Lil Wayne – TBA

• 24 Liturgy – TBA (Thrill Jockey)

• 25 The Lonely Island – TBA

• 26 M83 – TBA

• 27 Jessica Lea Mayfield – Tell Me (2/8 via Nonesuch)

• 28 MINKS – By The Hedge (1/12 via Captured Tracks)

• 29 Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. (2/15 via Sub Pop)

• 30 My Morning Jacket – TBA (ATO)

• 31 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – TBA

• 32 The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Belong (March via Slumberland)

• 33 Panda Bear – Tomboy

• 34 R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now (Spring via Warner Bros.)

• 35 Radiohead – TBA (via Teh Internetz)

• 36 Gruff Rhys – Hotel Shampoo (2/14)

• 37 The Rome (Danger Mouse & Daniele Lupi) – The Rome

• 38 Santigold – TBA

• 39 The Shins – TBA

• 40 Paul Simon – So Beautiful Or So What

• 41 Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde (1/18 via Fat Possum)

• 42 The Streets – Computers And Blues

• 43 The Strokes – TBA

• 44 Tennis – Cape Dory (1/18 via Fat Possum)

• 45 Shugo Tokumaru – Port Entropy (2/15 via Polyvinyl.)

• 46 Toro Y Moi – Underneath The Pine (2/22 via Car Park)

• 47 The Twilight Singers – Dynamite Steps (2/15 via Subpop)

• 48 Kanye West & Jay-Z – Watch The Throne (via Def Jam)

• 49 The Wrens – TBA

• 50 U2 – Songs Of Ascent