2011 in Music

With the Annual Australia Music Awards (the ARIAs) held last weekend, though I'm not too sure that many the the albums below will end up on any list at the end of the year.,I thought that I'd take some time to look over some of the music which has been running through my head this year. Being able to listen to new music via NPR; Daytrotter and Noisetrade has been great. I've downloaded some great Christmas songs via Noisetrade to increase my stocks a little.

But, here's a short list of the new music I've heard through 2011 (to date):

• Boy & Bear (Moonfire), 
• Florence + the Machine (Ceremonials), 
• Fleet Foxes (Helplessness Blues), 
• The Hawk in Paris (His & Hers), 
• Hayley Westenra (Paradiso), 
• Switchfoot (Vice Verses, with a great addition being Hello Hurricane - Live), 
• Marketa Irglova (Anar), 
• Lisa Hannigan (Passenger), 
• Laura Marling (A Creature, I Don't Know), 
• Katherine Jenkins (Daydream), 
• Mark Geary (Songs About Love, Songs About Leaving),  
• Rachael Yamagata (Chesapeake), 
• Rebecca St. James (I Will Praise You), 
• Gemma Hayes (Let it Break), 
• Sara Groves (Invisible Empires), 
• Sarah Jarosz (Follow Me Down), 
• The Middle East (I Want That You Are Always Happy), 
• Elizabeth Marvelly (Home), 
• The Civil Wars (Barton Hollow).

The ten which stand out at the moment are: Marketa Irglova, The Civil Wars, Switchfoot, Elizabeth Marvelly, Gemma Hayes, Rebecca St James, Mark Geary, Lisa Hannigan, Fleet Foxes & Sara Groves.

Though it would be remiss of me, not to mention a few albums that I've listened to quite a bit - the bonus material from the Achtung Baby reissue; the album featuring cover versions of each track from Achtung Baby. 2011 has also been the 20 Anniversary of R.E.M's Out of Time, and the 10th Anniversary of the late Mic Christopher's Skylarkin', and The Frames' classic For the Birds.

My favourite new artists for the year at the moment are William Fitzsimmons (I bought Goodnight this year), and the Kiwi singer Elizabeth Marvelly, whose CD Home has become one of my all time favourites, because of the memories it brings up.

At the moment I'm really looking forward to Andrew Osenga's Leonard the Lonely Space Alien, which should be out next year.