Favorite Things 2011

Last year I asked a handful of friends and colleagues to send me year-end lists of their favorite things to share here at The Disinhibitor, and the response was vibrant and totally interesting, and it left me with tons of new music and poetry and art to investigate this year.

I'll start posting this year's lists from individual contributors over the holidays as they come in, and you're welcome to submit your own list of favorite things (movies or books or music or art shows or happenings or achievements: anything you were particularly excited about this year) by emailing me here: michaelthomascross{AT} hotmail com. You're also welcome to add commentary if you have the time and/or inclination, but this is certainly not necessary!

To get us started, here are the records I listened to the most this year while commuting to and from classes. I listened to a lot of music this year, really A LOT (I often commute upwards of two hours a day!), and these were the records I most often returned to...



Alexander Turnquist: As the Twilight Crane Dreams in Color (VHF)
Andy Stott: Passed Me By / We Stay Together (Modern Love)
A$AP Rocky: LiveLoveAsap (self-released)
Atom TM: Programmiert Den Scheiß Aus Sich Raus (Rather Interesting)
Battles: Gloss Drop (Mute)
Blackout Beach: Fuck Death (Dead Oceans)
Blut Aus Nord: 777 Sect(s) / The Desanctification (Debemur Morti Productions)
Drake: Take Care (Young Money)
Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX: We're New Here (XL)
Harpoon: Deception Among Birds (Seventh Rule)
James Blake: Enough Thunder (Universal Republic)
Jamie XX: Essential Mix (BBC)
Julian Lynch: Terra (Underwater Peoples)
Klaus: Tusk (R&S)
Kuedo: Severant (Planet Mu)
Machinedrum: Room(s) (Planet Mu)
Marsen Jules: Nostalgia (Oktaf)
Marsen Jules Trio: Les Fleurs Variations (Oktaf)
Nguzunguzu: XLR8R Mix
Sepalcure: s/t (Hotflush)
Thundercat: The Golden Age of Apocalypse (Brainfeeder)
Tim Hecker: Dropped Pianos (Kranky)
Trash Talk: Awake (True Panther)
Vladislav Delay: Vantaa (Raster-Noton)
Wavves: Life Sux (Ghost Ramp)
The Weeknd: House of Balloons/Thursday (self-released)