The 50 Best Songs of 2011
by DANISH AZIZ
From the audio animated gif of "Is This Power" (is that a YTMND?) to the viral video villainy of Kreayshawn/Rebecca Black/Lana Del Rey, 2011 was nothing if not meme-orable. The list presented below is guaranteed to be 50 of the 300 best songs of the past twelve months. Many of the songs were featured on our best of the half year list, but we've tried to adjust the rankings to give some shine to songs that haven't already been featured, so take these rankings as seriously as you should.
1 "Is This Power" - The Field (mp3)
2 "The Morning" - The Weeknd (mp3)
3 "How I Roll" - Britney Spears (mp3)
4 “I’m On One”- DJ Khaled f. Drake, Rick Ross & Lil Wayne (mp3)
5 "It's Not Real" - Dead Gaze (mp3)
Araab Muzik
6 "Make It Happen" - Araab Muzik (mp3)
7 "Motivation" - Kelly Rowland (mp3)
8 "Anteroom" - EMA (mp3)
9 "Last Night At The Jetty" - Panda Bear (mp3)
10 "Le Troublant Acid" - KZA (mp3)
11 "212" - Azealia Banks (mp3)
12 "Getting Me Down" - Blawan (mp3)
13 "Everything Goes My Way" - Metronomy (mp3)
14 "Ghetto" - The Dream (mp3)
15 "Neon" - Dark Sky (mp3)
16 "Gentle Persuasion" - Doug Hream Blunt (mp3)
17 "Ten Years"- Shocking Pinks (mp3)
18 "Out Getting Ribs" - Zoo Kid (mp3)
19 "Stolen Dog" - Burial (mp3)
20 "Ego" - Four Tet, Burial, and Thom Yorke (mp3)
21 “Zan with That Lean” - Soulja Boy (mp3)
22 "Headlines" - Drake (mp3)
23 "Twerk It" - LDFD (mp3)
24 "Yardman Riddim" - Balistiq Beats (mp3)
Nurses
25 "Fever Dreams" - Nurses (mp3)
26 "Gucci Gucci" - Kreayshawn (mp3)
27 "I Got AIDS"- Lil B (mp3)
28 "Der Tanz der Gluehwuermchen" - Dominik Eulberg (mp3)
29 "Tell Me (Kingdom Edit)" - Jacques Greene (mp3)
30 "Mindkilla" - Gang Gang Dance (mp3)
31 "Another Naive Individual Glorifying Greed and Encouraging Racism" - Big Krit (mp3)
32 "Vanessa" - Grimes (mp3)
33 "Powa" - Tune-Yards (mp3)
34 "Guitar Solo"- Danny Brown (mp3)
35 "I'm God" (instrumental) - Clams Casino (mp3)
36 "I'll Take Care of U (Special DJ version)- Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx (mp3)
toro y moi
37 "Still Sound"- Toro y Moi (mp3)
38 "Swerve the Reeping of All That Is Worthwhile" - Shabazz Palaces (mp3)
39 "Hope" - Munchi (mp3)
40 "Every Minute Alone" - WhoMadeWho (mp3)
41 “On My Level” ft. Too Short - Wiz Khalifa (mp3)
42 "Chrysalis Records" ft. Trust - Egyptrixx (mp3)
43 “Slime” - Sleeping Bag (mp3)
44 "High Together" - Siriusmo (mp3)
45 "Battle for Middle You" - Julio Bashmore (mp3)
46 "You Always Start It" - xxxy (mp3)
47 "Survive It" - Ghostpoet (mp3)
48 "Songs for Women" - Frank Ocean (mp3)
49 "Hey Muma" - Cam'ron & Vado (U.N) (mp3)
50 "The Breaks" - Planningtorock (mp3)
Danish Aziz is the senior contributor to This Recording. He is a writer living in Portland. You can find his best songs of 2010 here. He tumbls here and twitters here. You can find an archive of his writing on This Recording here. He last wrote in these pages about the best singles of the half-year.
