My Personal Top 5 Albums of 2011

Yay... My 3rd annual personal Top-5 albums of the year list is here.
I was hoping i could make a Top-10 list this year, but it was hard enough to find 5, and even harder to put them in the right order.
It has become a very diverse list, you might not even like them all, but here they are in random order;

Betty Wright feat. The Roots - The Movie
Living soul-legend Betty Wright made a nice comeback this year with her 17th album /and her first in ten years.
Again an album produced by The Roots (and guests like Joss Stone, Snoop and Lil' Wayne) made it to my Top-5 this year, just like they did with John Legend last year... but even better this time.

Various Artists - Greco-Roman - Gods Amongst Men
Wow, a compilation album in this list?
Yep... so much crap was released this year, that i couldn't even pick out 5 artist- albums.
It's a complilation-album of the relatively new Greco-Roman label, which produces all kinds of hip electronic dance-tunes like this.
Listen to the whole album HERE (via Soundcloud)
btw, the single 'Gabriel' by Joe Goddard (of Hot Chip fame) feat. Valentina is IMHO the best  dance-track of the year... Listen for yourself;


From GrecoRomanMusic ,no copyright infringement intended


Spinvis - Tot Ziens, Justine Keller
The latest album by Dutch singer, composer and poet Spinvis was a pleasant surprise this autumn.
I am a fan since his first album and always liked the style and craftsmanship of this guy.
It is a great combination of dreamy, folky, mainly electronic sounds with somewhat weird lyrics...
Find the whole album HERE (all tracks are downloadable!)

Tinariwen - Tassili
The biggest surprise for me this year was discovering a whole new genre that i had never heard of before.
This African- or Tuareg- blues (or Assouf or Desert Guitar) sounds like the soul of the desert, and is pretty impressive.
Tinariwen is a band of Tuareg-Berber musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali and as soon as you play first track you can imagine yourself sitting on a camel...
A great album with at times a bit depressing, but also soothing and very hypnotizing music.
Watch the 'making of' video to check it out.

(From http://www.tinariwen.com/ ,no copyright infringement intended)

Mint Condition - 7...
Okay, i admit i have a soft spot for slick R&B, Soul and Funk so you may disagree on this one.
The 7th album from Minneapolis' band Mint Condition is really great, and a lot better than their somewhat disappointing 'E-Life' album from 2008.
The band was once discovered by producers-duo Jam & Lewis, twenty-some years ago, and the band has proved once more that they are still brilliant.
I should go and watch them play live when they are in the Netherlands next time because i have heard that their live-shows are amazing.
Check out their latest video "Walk on" HERE

A few albums that were released last month that haven't made it to the list, but are still worth mentioning;
- The new Kate Bush album '50 Words for Snow' is brilliant, but a bit moody for this list, and it feels more like a Christmas album.
- LuLu, the collaboration album by Lou Reed and Metallica wasn't that bad...
- Adele's '21' is still great, but who doesn't already know that.

List from 2009
List from 2010