Pitchfork's Top 50 Tracks of 2011 List

Once again, we're taking this week to count down the best albums and songs of the year. So far our year in music coverage has included The Year in Photos, The Best of Pitchfork.tv, The Worst Album Covers, and The Top Music Videos.


50. Atlas Sound - "Mona Lisa"
49. Katy B - "Broken Record"
48. Kreayshawn - "Gucci Gucci"
47. Battles [ft. Matias Aguayo] - "Ice Cream"
46. Ty Segall - "Goodbye Bread"

45. Drake - "Headlines"
44. Nicolas Jaar - "Space Is Only Noise If You Can See"
43. Panda Bear - "Last Night at the Jetty"
42. Jay-Z & Kanye West - "Otis"
41. Frank Ocean - "Novacane"
40. Burial - "Street Halo"
39. Shabazz Palaces -"Swerve... the reeping of all that is worthwhile (Noir not withstanding)"
38. Purity Ring - "Ungirthed"
37. A$AP Rocky - "Peso"
36. Jamie xx -"Far Nearer"
35. Charli XCX - "Stay Away"
34. Cut Copy - "Need You Now"
33. AraabMuzik - "Streetz Tonight"
32. Cold Cave - "The Great Pan Is Dead"
31. The Field - "Then It's White"
30. Clams Casino - "Motivation"
29. Jai Paul - "BTSTU (Edit)"
28. Danny Brown - "Monopoly"
27. The Rapture - "How Deep Is Your Love?"
26. Beyoncé -"1+1"
25. Soulja Boy - "Zan With That Lean"
24. Kurt Vile -"Jesus Fever"
23. Adele - "Rolling in the Deep"
22. Bill Callahan - "Riding For the Feeling"
21. Drake -"Marvins Room"
20. Gang Gang Dance: "Glass Jar"
19. Lana Del Rey: "Video Games"
Lana Del Rey is an extremely unlikely indie fave, but that's OK-- it doesn't look like the rest of the world knows what to do with her, either. It's not often that you come across a breakout artist who so thoroughly disguises her own level of awareness or intent. Listening to "Video Games" for the first time, hearing those chords paired with that voice, was a true WTF moment. Literally: "What the fuck am I hearing right now? Who is this person and where did she come from?"

Among other things, "Video Games" is Del Rey's withering critique of the dehumanizing desires and stunted emotional capacities of men, and it would be powerful enough even if she were just momentarily putting on the guise of a tragic sex kitten in order to make her point. The fact that her overarching persona is more or less inextricable from that cartoonish bombshell, however, adds another fascinating, unnerving layer to the performance. The song's net effect was a mixture of that opening sense of mystery tempered with what we learned (or didn't learn) about a woman once known as Lizzy Grant. As a song, it should be too over-the-top to work-- the stereotypical tastefulness of the music, the breathiness of Del Rey's vocals, the utter sadness and desperation so blatantly present in the lyrics. But it clicks because she never winks, not even when the tape stops rolling and the cameras are turned off. --Josh Love
18. St. Vincent: "Cruel"
17. Oneohtrix Point Never: "Replica"
16. Tyler, the Creator: "Yonkers"
15. The Weeknd: "The Morning"
14. Girls: "Vomit"
13. tUnE-yArDs: "Bizness"
12. Jay-Z / Kanye West: "Niggas in Paris"
11. James Blake: "The Wilhelm Scream"
10. DJ Khaled [ft. Drake, Rick Ross, and Lil Wayne]: "I'm on One"

It was the year's most ubiquitous mixtape beat, dominating radio and bringing together three of hip-hop's biggest stars. The instrumental, with producer 40's atmospheric texture wedded to a memorable, addictive, slashing melodic loop, is a masterpiece of subtle confidence and understated strength that sustains through implied gesture rather than obvious show of skill. It frames some of the more evocative lyrics of the year, the best of which come from Rick Ross' middle verse, from the purple flowers burning his chest to his supremely over-the-top sexual conquests in London. But it's Drake's chorus that really gives the song its power and spurs its hedonistic internal logic. As the beat's melancholy drifts along, the 25-year-old rapper mixes his past, present, and future into a heady brew: "I don't really give a fuck, and my excuse is that I'm young/ And I'm only getting older, somebody should have told you...." --David Drake
09. Azealia Banks: "212"

It's quite an achievement at this stage in the game to get noticed via dirty talk, but the first time you hear "212" that's what sticks with you. Azealia Banks' perfectly timed, sweet-voiced threat as the track drops out ("Imma ruin you, cunt") is the song's hotline to virality, its VIP pass to buzz.

So she's an internet novelty? Hardly. "212" works because its popcraft and its shock tactics are each other's Trojan horses-- concentrate on one and the other sneaks up on you. One reason "ruin you, cunt" feels like such a payoff is that Banks spends an entire verse of quick, unshowy rapping setting up its run of vowels. Banks uses the peaks, breakdowns, and drop-outs of Lazy Jay's bouncy "Float My Boat" to give her Minaj-style vocal-shifts some context: from sassy and chatty during the build ups to cartoon rage as the synths rear up around her at the song's end. If it were judged only on its visceral thrill, "212" would still be one of 2011's best, an unashamed banger in a mostly mid-tempo year. But the more you dig into the song, the more you can hear details and decisions that suggest a scary degree of pop talent. --Tom Ewing

08. Cass McCombs: "County Line"

07. Beyoncé: "Countdown"

The first Destiny's Child singles were broadsides backed up by joyful jitter-funk, kiss-offs aimed at bad boyfriends, lackluster lovers, and guys who just couldn't take a hint. Losers who creep around behind their trusting partners' backs, lames who flood inboxes with unwanted advances, frauds, and misers of all stripes. Beyoncé made telling them off, crushing their egos, and sending them home to mama sound like a total blast. As recently as "Irreplaceable", an older and wiser Ms. Knowles was finding empowerment in relationships gone wrong, sounding less aggrieved than emboldened by finally laying down the law. I mean, do I even need to bring up "Single Ladies"?

But Beyoncé's been enjoying domestic bliss for some time now, and on the evidence of "Countdown", Jay-Z has yet to get on her bad side. If anything, his devotion has ignited Queen B's most delirious hymn to being head-over-heels since "Crazy in Love". This track is a virtuoso performance from singer and producers alike, so giddy with the thrill of having someone have your back that it can't sit still. The tempo shifts are like a smitten lover trying to calm herself down only to start babbling about how awesome everything is all over again a moment later. "Countdown" can't stop spinning out new musical ideas every few seconds because maybe this zinging synth riff or this crazy orchestral percussion crescendo will help you catch the feeling, too. Beyoncé cycles breathlessly through every vocal trick at her command, from church choir ululating to fierce fast-rap, and somehow it's both overwhelming and infectious, coming off like the most emotionally affecting sound effects record ever recorded. Sure, we've all been in love. But it's doubtful we've ever sounded this damn excited about it. --Jess Harvell

06. Destroyer: "Kaputt"

05. Real Estate: "It's Real"

04. Nicki Minaj: "Super Bass"

Nicki Minaj's sea-parting verse on Kanye West's "Monster" dared you to imagine how much more twisted the game would be on her own turf. So it was a resounding bummer when her first proper album, Pink Friday, ended up so deferential to the strictures of pop radio; tepid tracks like "Your Love" and "Right Thru Me" curbed her boundless imagination in favor of easy hits.

Considering its ubiquity this year, it's easy to forget that the song that got Minaj back on track-- and what's become the most successful single by a female rapper since Missy Elliot's 2002 hit "Work It"-- wasn't even supposed to be a single. "Super Bass" was originally a Pink Friday bonus track and only later released as a single in the U.S. due to the demand of fans, including Taylor Swift. Unlike the softer cuts on Pink Friday, "Super Bass" reinvents the love song as something that's never mawkish but instead contagiously gleeful. The carbonated beat and Minaj's exuberant verses find the perfect alchemy of idiosyncrasy and pop appeal. The result is one of those impossible-not-to-love mega-hits-- even harder to find these days given the internet's tendency to help us all burrow into our respective niches-- that momentarily levels the ground between music critics and little girls in tutus: We're all just singing along. --Lindsay Zoladz

03. EMA: "California"

02. Bon Iver: "Holocene"

I had never knowingly heard a Bon Iver song until this past summer. I hadn't avoided Justin Vernon's music; I just never sought it out. I'd read about the cabin in the woods, and that was enough to suggest that it probably wasn't for me. Then, one night in July, driving around Portland, Oregon, shuttling another load of boxes between my mom's old house and her new assisted-living home, I found myself transfixed by an unfamiliar falsetto streaming from the speakers of my rental car, faltering and fumbling, a mirror of my own emotions.

"Holocene", the song that got me, has remained moving in the months since, in moods sunny and stoic as well as worn out and wrung dry. Beneath the surface beauty of the chiming guitars and close harmonies, far more ambivalent tensions are at play-- pedal steel sighing against muted vibraphones, weary handclaps, a quiet squall of clarinets. The rising and falling chord changes create a sense of motion that develops throughout the whole song, a tide-like ebb and flow that ends with an abrupt denouement, so swift it withholds almost as much pleasure as it yields.

It doesn't hurt that the lyrics are vague enough to lend themselves to open-ended interpretation. ("Hulled far from the highway aisle," I read, and feel none the wiser, even after trying out various homophones.) The way they're overdubbed, consonants garbling together at the edges of Vernon's fraught falsetto, only further smudges their intelligibility. Beyond the cryptic references presumably knowable only to Vernon and his intimates, we're left with a few boldly declarative statements: "At once I knew I was not magnificent," surely a universal feeling, at least outside the 1%; and "I could see for miles, miles, miles," a tweak on an old staple from the Who, but with the drama inverted, the horizon internalized and turned back upon itself. Anyone who's ever driven late at night towards an unknown destination will recognize this stretch of road. --Philip Sherburne

01. M83: "Midnight City"

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