2011. What wasn’t to love? The rise of weirdo R&B, the fall of chillwave, the end of R.E.M. We started the construction of this list over a month ago. One truly epic and extensive Google spreadsheet later, we arrived at this Top 50. We sorted and sorted and sorted, listened through a TON OF STUFF, “traded jabs” on whether James Blake or Jamie Woon put on the tougher persona, etc. Thanks for reading and we hope y’all enjoy the list!

01. James Blake – The Wilhelm Scream (Buy It) (Read)

02. The Weeknd – The Morning (Buy It) (Read)

03. Lana Del Rey – Video Games (Buy It) (Read)

04. Gotye – Somebody That I Used to Know (Feat. Kimbra) (Buy It) (Read)

05. Britney Spears – ‘Till the World Ends (Buy It) (Read)

06. Maverick Sabre – I Need (Buy It) (Read)

07. Drake – Marvin’s Room (Buy It) (Read)

08. Beyonce – Party (Feat. Kanye West & Andre 3000) (Buy It) (Read)

09. Jamie Woon – Lady Luck (Buy It) (Read)

10. Michael Kiwanuka – I Need You By My Side (Buy It) (Read)

11. Kendrick Lamar – ADHD (Buy It) (Read)

12. The Alabama Shakes (formerly The Shakes) - I Found You (Buy It) (Read)

13. Nneka – My Home (Buy It) (Read)

14. Rihanna – We Found Love (Feat. Calvin Harris) (Buy It) (Read)

15. DJ Khaled – I’m On One (Feat. Drake, Rick Ross & Lil’ Wayne) (Buy It) (Read)

16. Adele – Rumour Has It (Buy It) (Read)

17. Labrinth – Earthquake (Feat. Tinie Tempah) (Buy It) (Read)

18. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Otis (Buy It) (Read)

19. Flo Rida – Good Feeling (Buy It) (Read)

20. Bon Iver – Towers (Buy It) (Read)

21. Azealia Banks – 212 (Buy It) (Read)

22. Big Black Delta – Huggin’ & Kissin’ (Buy It) (Read)

23. Florence + The Machine – What the Water Gave Me (Buy It) (Read)

24. Flight Facilities – Foreign Language (Feat. Jess) (Buy It) (Read)

25. Cults – Abducted (Buy It) (Read)

26. Raphael Saadiq – Good Man (Buy It) (Read)

27. Spector – Never Fade Away (Buy It) (Read)

28. Marina & the Diamonds – Radioactive (Buy It) (Read)

29. Afrojack – Lionheart (Buy It) (Read)

30. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – If I Had a Gun… (Buy It) (Read)

31. Active Child – Playing House (Feat. How to Dress Well) (Buy It) (Read)

32. M83 – Midnight City (Buy It) (Read)

33. Radiohead – Lotus Flower (Buy It) (Read)

34. Madlib & Freddie Gibbs – Thuggin’ (Buy It) (Read)

35. The Rapture – How Deep Is Your Love (Buy It) (Read)

36. NO CEREMONY/// – Hurtlove (Buy It) (Read)

37. Ifan Dafydd – No Good (Buy It) (Read)

38. Bombay Bicycle Club – Shuffle (Buy It) (Read)

39. TOKiMONSTA – Little Pleasures (Feat. Gavin Turek) (Buy It) (Read)

40. Colleen Green – Cujo (Buy It) (Read)

41. Foxes – Youth (Buy It) (Read)

42. Jacques Greene – Another Girl (Buy It) (Read)

43. Grouplove – Gold Coast (Buy It) (Read)

44. Family of the Year – St. Croix (Buy It) (Read)

45. Lucy Rose – Middle of the Bed (Buy It) (Read)

46. LIPS – Everything to Me (Buy It) (Read)

47. Trophy Wife – Wolf (Buy It) (Read)

48. Dev – In the Dark (Buy It) (Read)

49. John West – Lovely (Feat. Pusha T) (Buy It) (Read)

50. Anchorsong – Ghost Touch (Buy It) (Read)

Tags: 2011, 2011 best songs, 212, A.D.H.D., Abducted, Active Child, Adele, Adele Rumour Has It, Afrojack, Anchorsong, Andre 3000, Another Girl, Azealia Banks, best of, best of list, best songs of, Beyonce, Big Black Delta, Bombay Bicycle Club, Bon Iver, Britney Spears, Calvin Harris, Colleen Green, Cujo, Cults, Dev, DJ Khaled, Drake, Earthquake, Everything to Me, favorite songs of 2011, Flight Facilities, Flo Rida, Florence + the Machine, Foreign Language, Freddie Gibbs, from, Gavin Turek, Ghost Touch, Gold Coast, Good Feeling, Good Man, Gotye, Grouplove, How Deep Is Your Love, How to Dress Well, Huggin & Kissin, HURTLOVE, I Found You, I Need, I Need You By My Side, I'm On One, If I Had a Gun, In the Dark, Jacques Greene, James Blake, Jamie Woon, Jay-Z, Jess Higgs, John West, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Kimbra, Labrinth, Lady Luck, Lana Del Rey, Lil' Wayne, Lionheart, LIPS, Little Pleasures, Lovely, Lucy Rose, m83, Madlib, Marina and the Diamonds, Marvin's Room, Maverick Sabre, Michael Kiwanuka, Middle of the Bed, Midnight City, Never Fade Away, No Ceremony, Noel Gallagher, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Otis, party, Playing House, Pusha T, Radioactive, Raphael Saadiq, Rick Ross, Rihanna, Shuffle, Somebody That I Used To Know, Spector, The Alabama Shakes, The Morning, The Rapture, The Weeknd, The Wilhelm Scream, Thuggin, Till the World Ends, Tinie Tempah, TOKiMONSTA, Towers, Trophy Wife, Video Games, We Found Love, What The Water Gave Me, Wolf, year end list

This entry was posted on Monday, December 26th, 2011 at 10:37 pm and is filed under B3Sci Mixtapes, blahblahblahscience, Electronic, Hip Hop, Pop, Rock, Songwriter, Soul, Track Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.