What of the track listing for my mix CD for the year? (I'm sure I hear someone ask.) The rules: released in some format this year, not so bizarre as totally to disconcert the casual listener, editable down to fit in with twenty four others. This is what 2011's looks like (and it sounds rather nice):
Lightnin' Bug - Ahab (kmvt EP)
Don't Carry It All - The Decemberists (The King Is Dead)
Test Drive - Eat Lights Become Lights (Autopia)
Knots - Lisa Hannigan (The Passenger)
Island Brothers - Bonnie 'Prince" Billy & The Cairo Gang (single)
The Afterlife - Paul Simon (So Beautiful Or So What?)
Dust Bowl Children - Alison Krauss & Union Station (Paper Airplane)
Don't Shake It – Cornershop (The Double O Groove Of…)
Half Moon - Iron & Wine (Kiss Each Other Clean)
America! - Bill Callahan (Apocalypse)
The Way It Goes - Gillian Welch (The Harrow And The Harvest)
Saw You First – Givers (In Light)
Why Don't You Call Me? - James Blake (James Blake)
Whaddya Mean By That? - John Cale (Extra Playful EP)
Bonny Bunch of Roses - June Tabor & Oysterband (Ragged Kingdom)
All My Rage - Laura Marling (A Creature I Don’t Know)
Brothers Under the Bridge - Martin Simpson (Purpose & Grace)
For 12 - Other Lives (Tamer Animals)
Little Emperor - Steve Earle (I’ll Never Get out Of This World Alive)
Everyday Hazards - The Advisory Circle (As The Crow Flies)
Barton Hollow - The Civil Wars (Barton Hollow)
Benediction - Thurston Moore (Demolished Thoughts)
Tamatant Tilay - Tunng/Tinariwen ( Live From The BBC)
Crossing - Wooden Shjips (West)
I'm a Journalist - The Lovely Eggs (Cob Dominoes)
Now available to listen here.