1.The Black Keys – El Camino – the best album these guys have done.  Sorta like if a ‘60s garage band was given a top producer and told to play like T Rex, Led Zep or even Bruce Springsteen.  Aggressive riffage ensues with even a Stairway To Heaven homage (Little Black Submarines). Lonely Boy is a great single, but Gold On The Ceiling is even better (thankfully the lead singer keeps the falsetto from last album Brothers in check).  Danger Mouse production.

2.Beady Eye – Different Gear, Still Speeding – I don’t get the title either so don’t worry.  A Noel-less Oasis didn’t seem like a good idea, but darn if this isn’t a great in-your-face rock album with Liam’s best Lennon-like vocals.  The Roller is an Instant Karma chameleon while he sings “I’m gonna stand the test of time like Beatles & Stones” on another song – we’ll let you know in 40 years mate.  Not a bad song in the bunch including Three Ring Circus.

3.Cashier No. 9 – To The Death Of Fun – on an import CD only, but worth looking for.  Imagine Phil Spector producing the pastoral side of Pink Floyd.  Low key and intelligent sounding.  Oh Pity, Make You Feel Better.

4.Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers – Rare Bird Alert – gentle original bluegrass banjo album with nice cameos by Dixie Chicks and especially Paul McCartney.  Who knew he fit Americana so well on this excellent Buy For Me The Rain-like song Best Love.  Yellow-Backed Fly sounds like Bradley’s Barn era Beau Brummels.

5.Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare – great to see that Alice still can rock and even better to see him team with his old mates from the classic era band (give us more!) and Bob Ezrin.  His sense of humor is still intact on pop surf rocker Ghouls Gone Wild.  Good Stones rip too on I’ll Bite Your Face Off.

6.Adele – 21 – heartening to see that you don’t need to wear meat or show lots of cleavage to sell a lot of records if you have a great voice.  Here’s hoping that the throat surgery was successful and this isn’t her swan song.  Rolling In The Deep is great, but give me the drum stomp of Rumour Has It.

7.Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band – How I Go – no longer some young phenom, he’s now an established heir to the blues rock guitar God throne.  Buy the bonus version as the extras are good as well.  He does a great Beatles cover in Yer Blues, but give me the scorching The Wire.

8.Julian Lennon – Everything Changes – by now, we all know how much Julian sounds like his dad.  Yet he seems to lack dad’s love of rock and roll (next time, could you at least try a rocker please?).  Still, his piano driven ballads are mighty fine on this import-only release.  He even dabbles in Eastern music with the use of sitar (Disconnected).  Dad would be proud the hear Lookin’ 4 Luv and Invisible.

9.Rival Sons – Pressure & Time – every so often a young band comes along and gets compared to Led Zeppelin’s bombastic blues rock riffage.  Gotta say they remind me more of Whitesnake.  Nice glitter beat on Burn Down Los Angeles but I prefer the retread Zep of Pressure & Time.

10.The Decemberists – The King Is Dead – perhaps their most accessible album due to Peter Buck of REM on ringing guitars (notably Calamity Song), but they are still saddled with a lead singer that is an acquired taste.  Colin Meloy sings with an oddly inflected flat voice meaning this Americana band could use a 2^nd lead singer to take the load off at times – still his voice fits well on folk and the sea shanty-like Rox In The Box.

11.Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – on old Oasis albums, since he wrote most of the songs, played the guitars and seemed to sing better than Liam, it was assumed that his solo album would out-Oasis Liam & company.  Well, which Gallagher’s LP is the best this year is up to you, but I give little brother the edge over this surprisingly low-key affair lacking in guitars.  On Stop The Clocks he sings “What if I’m already dead – how would I know?” – gee, why so happy, Noel?  Make mine the Arthur era Kinks klone The Death Of You & Me.

12.Sloan – The Double Cross – these Canucks always make smart guitar pop and by now have likely achieved the US success they ever will (read – limited).  Too bad as their albums are always listenable.  Unkind, Beverly Terrace.

13.Glen Campbell – Ghost On The Canvas – a poignant punctuation to a long recording career with the news he has Alzheimer’s issues.  Not as good-a material as on his last one (Meet Glen Campbell), but well-produced and more personal.  The cover track is excellent as is the intense Strong.

14.Fountains Of Wayne – Sky Full Of Holes – these guys know how to make a great sounding power pop album – and how to ruin many of the songs with cringe-worthy overly cute lyrics (“She’s been afraid of the Cuisinart” – why guys? WHY!?).  Not as rockin’ as Stacy’s Mom, but still good with tracks like the intensely building Cold Comfort Flowers & Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart.

15.Mayer Hawthorne – How Do You Do – guess Andrew Cohen didn’t sound enough like an R&B singer to him hence the name change, but he still looks white & geeky in the Buddy Holly hornrims.  Who cares how you look if you have the chops though and on this album he makes like a Hall & Oates 2011.  The Walk & Hooked.

16.Opeth – Heritage (deluxe) – of a piece with the next CD hence the positioning side by side, Steve Wilson has seemingly mentored this Nordic metal band giving them prog appeal (and thank heavens they dropped the growly vocals on this release) – he turns up on mellotron as well.  The deluxe version has a cool 3-D cover, but oddly also the 2 best tracks are the bonuses found only on that version.  The Pyre & Face In The Snow.

17.Steven Wilson – Grace For Drowning – lacking the occasional great tracks from his last solo affair, Porcupine Tree and Blackfield frontman Wilson put out this 2 CD album that feels important but takes a lot of patience to enjoy.  After remixing King Crimson albums recently, it’s not a surprise that many of the songs sound like mid-period Crimson prog.  Return To Form A Star & Postcard.

18.Ponderosa – Moonlight Revival – available early in the year, these guys have a Free or Cold Chisel vibe at times with raspy vocals with blues rock domination.  Devil On My Shoulder & Old Gin Road.

19.The Rifles – Freedom Run – chiming layers of gauzy guitars like some 80s band.  Love Is The Key & I Get Low.

20.Listen To Me – Buddy Holly – Peter Asher helmed tribute to the late great singer/songwriter.  The only misstep is the horrible Eric idle attempt at comedy mercifully at the end so you can skip it.  Great lineup with Brian Wilson, Stevie Nicks et al.  Ringo chips in a too short Think It Over while the ELO’s Jeff Lynne rocks up Words Of Love.

2011 Orphan Songs - Not On Top 20 Albums

1.John Ford – Perfect Day – late of the Strawbs & Hudson Ford.  This great Lou Reed cover becomes an intense prog cover here as one of the unreleased tracks on Resurrected – The Best Of & Then Some.

2.Teddy Thompson – Looking For A Girl – The Bella album is all good (like a Chris Isaak or Raul Malo countryish affair), but this song really stands out with great David Kahne production (but are you really looking for a girl who drinks & smokes and takes a lot of drugs, Teddy?).

3. All Time Low – Time Bomb - **guilty pleasure alert** young guys with loud guitars and a snotty attitude always work for me no matter the era.  Don’t know if the kids care anymore, but you sold me with this Dirty Work rocker.

4.Blackfield – Glass House – Steven Wilson’s other band (with Aviv Geffen) put out their weakest album in Welcome To My DNA.  Always has interesting progressive sounds, but in this case the lyrics & music didn’t gel.

5.The Click Five – I Quit! I Quit! I Quit! – the power pop boy band of a few years ago is still trying (and mostly succeeding musically if not commercially) even though they aren’t boys anymore.  Good guitar-driven rock and roll

6.Chris Isaak – Miss Pearl – his Beyond The Sun album of covers in tribute to old rockers from Carl Perkins to Johnny Cash seemed like a great idea, yet you have the give an edge on each song to the original versions.  Isaak rarely growls and cuts loose except on this one which gets the hips shakin’ bigtime.

7.Bowling For Soup – S-S-S-Saturday – how many songs have there been in rock & roll history about all the fun a young guy is gonna have on Saturday night?  Well, I don’t know, but here is another one.  Loud rockin’ guitars.

8.Elton John – Hello Hello – from the Gnomeo & Juliet soundtrack (does anyone figure they came up with the title and the movie was secondary?), Mr. John shows he can still write a great proper Brit-popper mid-tempo track?

9.Los Lobos featuring Arturo Santiago – Walk Don’t Rango – from the excellently weird cartoon Rango comes this spaghetti western meets Dick Dale guitar instrumental.

10.Social Distortion – California (Hustle & Flow) – pure 3-chord Exile era Stones power rocker (Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes is the album).

11.Duane Eddy – Primeval – while it’s great to see Mr. Twangy guitar back some 50 years after his instrumental prime, Road Trip was more low key than twang.  This track, however, had the Link Wray rumble down.

12.The Fire Apes – 3 O’ Clock – from A Life In Letters, standard power pop album with some decent tracks and this standout guitar-based riff rocker.

13.The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – Karmageddon – an unreleased track on the best-of comp Golden Greats No. 1.  These Swedes have done several excellent guitar pop albums deserving your attention over the years.

14.The Bangles – Mesmerized – the critics are falling all over themselves over Sweetheart Of The Sun which, while nice guitar pop, doesn’t seem to have a jump-out track (no Manic Monday, etc.).  Good Nazz cover  in Open My Eyes, but you are left wanting to hear the phased original (sorry ladies).  This song was the best tune here.

15.Def Leppard – Kings Of The World – at the end of the 2 CD live Mirrorball are a few decent studio tracks including this excellent homage to Queen (very We Are The Champions, guys!).

16.Brian Setzer – Hot Love – the Setzer Goes Instru-Mental! Album didn’t gel really except on a few tracks including this trebly surf rocker.

17.Fleet Foxes – Lorelai – liked the cover art better than the CD Helplessness Blues, but this song had gorgeous Beach Boys layered harmonies on a catchy folk bed.

18.The Red Buttons – Caught In The Middle – slight 60ish pop band with an album (As Far As Yesterday Goes) not as good as last one.  This song reeks of early Beatles with wheezing harmonica.

19.The Summer Set – When We Were Young – these next 2 are sort of embarrassing and fit the current model of downloading only the single as the albums aren’t real memorable after the 1 good guitar-pop chorus-driven song.

20.We Are The Kings – Friday Is Forever – ditto (and how many songs have been written about having fun on Friday? – probably as many as about Saturday).

Top bonus material on reissue: The Rolling Stones – Some Girls (deluxe edition) – the bonus 2^nd CD frankly grabs me more than the original album which had too much disco for me.  The bonus tracks are more about the riff-rockers the Stones are known for – and what about the cover of Tallahassee Lassie – cool idea. So Young

Top packaging: The Beach Boys – Smile (boxset) – while it’s great that they finally got the holy grail LP released, frankly it’s kind of anti-climactic coming several years after Brian Wilson’s sound-alike release of much the same material which was my album of the year back then.  This boxset has a great hardback book and a cool 3-D cover if you can afford the sticker shock (which seemed to dominate on other reissues as well by the Who, Floyd & Tull).