From Karl Buhre of Alouatta's upcoming debut solo EP "Fieldwork".

The prospect of whittling down my list of 2011 favorites to a standard top 10 or even 20 just didn't seem quite so appropriate this year so I've opted instead to break up my selections into a few compartmentalized and highly subjective niches. When I reflect back on the year just passed, this is the method that makes the most sense to me, and besides, music is not a contest and many of these records simply cannot withstand side-by-side scrutiny. Hopefully you'll agree, but if not, there's always the comments section.

BEST ROCK/POP

For lack of a better signifier, here are a few of my favorite releases that don't fit neatly into a clever subgenre.

Peter Bjorn and John - Gimme some
I feel bad for everyone who can't move beyond "Young folks". PB&J has always been and continues to be a fantastic powerpop band and their latest album might just be their best.

Penny Century - Friends and family
A grower, not a shower. I found myself returning to this record time and time again, discovering new things to appreciate almost every time. A deeply nuanced work masquerading as sweet indiepop.

Cut City - Where's the harm in dreams disarmed?
A fitting swan song that their final release should be a perfect encapsulation of modern goth/pop/postpunk.

Kaka - The two
Brilliant, addictive and secretly subversive once you start digging into the lyrics.

BEST SCENE: Black Hole Crew/Nekromantik Norway

Excellence in consistency, consisently excellent. While no one release blew me away quite like Okkultokrati's "No light for mass" or Haust's debut LP "Ride the relapse", the Oslo horde has been regularly churning out some of the finest punk/metal/hardcore in the world today.

Key selections:
Dark Times - s/t CS
Årabrot - Solar anus
Årabrot/Okkultokrati - split 12"
Okkultokrati - Ingen veit alt 7"
Okkultokrati/Haust - Black Hole X-mas 7"
Problems - 2011 CS

ALSO SEE: Hubro & HOOB Records

Allow me to step outside my confort zone a moment to also recommend to you the not-exactly jazz labels Hubro and HOOB Records, based in Norway and Sweden respectively. Both are delivering an amazing array of excellent genre-breaking music and, while I may not be intimately familiar with the circles they travel in, I can confidently say that almost every single release they've put out is well worth investigating.

Key selections:
The Splendour - Delphian palace
Thus:Owls - Harbours
Splashgirl - Pressure
Huntsville - For flowers, cars and merry wars
1982 - Pintura

BEST INSTRUMENTAL/SOUNDTRACK

Matti Bye & Mattias Olsson - Elephant and castle
Wheezing vintage organs and the clatter of clever percussion combine to create one of the most satisfying and creepy albums of the year.

BEST METAL

Execration - Odes of the occult
Much in the same way that Obliteration's "Nekropsalms" stood head and shoulders above the rest back in 2009, Execration's "Odes of the occult" expands on the same template established by their countrymates and adds a hefty does of epic doom to their filthy death metal, thus easily enabling them to (ahem) obliterate the competition.

ALSO SEE:
Dödsvarg - Livet är en dödsorsak
Mr. Death - Descending through ashes
Rising - To solemn ash

BEST EPs

2011 was an amazing year for EPs and many of these titles I have listed make up my absolute favorite releases of the year.

Grande Roses - Hide
Hands down, the best rock record of the year. Vital and passionate in an era when so many feign indifference or hide behind irony, no one else comes close.

Kite - IV
Even if you think that they'll never write another song as good as "Ways to dance", or even if you think they already did, Kite has never had a 100% fully satisfying release until this. Five songs, all synthpop anthems.

The Psyke Project - Ebola
As said before, forget the other half of this split -- it doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned. The Psyke Project is brutality personified; every time you think they couldn't get any heavier, they do.

In These Woods - s/t
Technically a late 2010 release, but who is really paying attention to anything new in late December? Classic Swedish indie guitar-rock is saved from extinction yet again.

Alouatta - DIY
Melodic mid-tempo punk played by dudes who are old enough to know better, but also old enough to do it just right.

FOREIGN JUNK

Not appropriate to waste words on these here, in this forum, but these records are all excellent and well worth checking out:
Austra - Feel it break
Charles Bradley - No time for dreaming
The Devil's Blood - The thousandfold epicentre
Royal Headache - s/t

Ryan Adams
I pretty much gave up hope about Ryan Adams after 2002 and 2003's "Demolition" and "Rock N Roll". Uninspired rock'n roll standards isn't exactly what made my heart skip a beat when I heard "Heartbreaker" for the first time.
So I was all the more pleased, when his new album "Ashes & Fire" turned out to be his finest moment since "Heartbreaker".

Arab Spring/Occupy Wall Street
Who knew that 2011 would be a year of mass revolution? Dictatorial leadership, whether it be military or economic in nature, took quite a blow this year. And anyone who fights injustice of any kind, is a hero in my book.

Hot Snakes
Reunion! European tour-dates! I've got a ticket to Berlin, December 4th!
Life is good.

Obits/The Night Marchers
"Moody, Standard and Poor", the follow-up to Obits debut album "I blame you", was everything I wanted and more. Even further removed from the Rick Froberg canon of Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes, Obits are delving deeper into the American rock'n roll stew. And it smells great!
Also, The Night Marchers released two amazing new songs on their "Thar She Blows/All Hits" 7" release.

"Så Jävla Metal"
A documentary that is, more or less, a complete chronicle of sSwedish metal history, that's highly entertaining, and made by one of my closest friends and former bandmates?
Hell yeah, it made the list!

Tinariwen
"Tassili", Tinariwen's first release on the Anti label, was the perfect soundtrack to the televised news of protests and demonstrations during the Arab Spring. Mostly acoustic, warm and earthy, it was the sound of a better future for the entire Arabic community.

Iron & Wine/Bon Iver
Two of my favorite (so-called) singer-songwriters, released albums that caught me somewhat off-guard. "Kiss each other clean", the new Iron & Wine album, is filled to the brim with retro-sounding rock'n dub goodness, while still retaining the intimacy we've come to expect from Samuel Beam.
On the other hand, the new Bon Iver album is still quite a conundrum to me. Maybe it's just the leap from the bedside recordings on "For Emma, forever ago" to the fully arranged, studio sound on Bon Iver that's got me feeling a bit ambivalent. The jury's still out on this one.

"Pearl Jam Twenty"
I wasn't really that into Pearl Jam back in the days, although I did like their debut album. But after watching this documentary, where Cameron Crowe chronicles their entire career from the start in Mother Love Bone, I find myself appreciating them in a brand new way. Their no-compromise attitude towards the music industry, makes most "punk" bands look like corporate dummies. Go figure...

Twopointeight
After six years, Twopointeight finally released the follow-up to their self-titled debut. Their second album (aptly titled Twopointeight II) may lean a bit much on the broad-legged stylings of Springsteen and the like, but who cares? With impeccable songwriting, enough raw power to light up Wembley Stadium, and some of the best vocals recorded since the late Joe Strummer, this is the best punk/rock to come out of Sweden in a looooong time!

Feist
I love maple syrup and hockey just as much as the next guy, but what would really convince me to visit the North-American equivalent of Sweden, is Leslie Feist. More commonly known as just Feist, she made my head explode the first time I heard "I feel it all", off her 2007 album "The reminder". A perfect pop song, a less than perfect album.
Well, this year she released "Metals", and my head is fine. Don't get me wrong, the album is great, actually it's better than "The reminder". But there aren't any head-exploding songs on it, which is okay, but still a bit disappointing.

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Karl Buhre is the singer/guitarist/mastermind of Swedish rockers Alouatta. He is currently working on the final mixes of Alouatta's debut album, as well as his own first solo recording, a four song EP. Both of which to be released some time next year.
https://www.facebook.com/alouatta

Atom Notes: Finns doing that PacNW Wipers thing with a healthy dose of angular guitar-rock ala Hot Snakes. Maybe not quite as hot as Alouatta, but not too shabby either. Not at all. New album out on Combat Rock Industry soon.

01. Theresa Andersson - Birds fly away
02. TALK 1
03. Nitad - Pengaproblem
04. Parken - Jar har varit vilsen, Lisa
05. Hello Saferide - Anna
06. Alouatta - Animal
07. TALK 2
08. Bloodbath - At the behest of their death
09. Anders Teglund - I whisper, he lives
10. Familjen - Huvudet i sanden (ft. Adam Tensta)
11. TALK 3
12. Mikko Singh - Laodi majra
13. They Live - My favorite color is gold
14. Massgrav - Vuxenliv
15. Snøras - Lucid river
16. TALK 4
17. Lassus - Tummen upp
18. BJ Nielsen - Tummen upp
19. Ass - Tummen upp
20. The LK - Tummen upp
21. TALK 5
22. Quagmire - I've got a gun and I'm... afraid to use it

Reminder: My show on Sirius Left of Center (channel 26) airs Sundays at 11pm ET with repeats on Monday at the same time.