Here we are then, AU’s favourite records of 2011, as voted for by our staff and freelancers. Click here for part 1, here for part 2, here for part 3 and here for part 4.

We’ve built a Spotify playlist containing a track from each album (where available) which you can find here, and if you think we’ve lost our minds, tell us about it by email , Twitter and Facebook.

10. Wild Beasts – Smother (Domino)

The Kendal boys have always done passion. However, whilst breakthrough Two Dancers concerned itself with couplings of a physical nature, their third album found the quartet move their focus beyond the mere flesh. Sparse instrumentation and hypnotic grooves create the perfect environment for meditations upon profound longing. Quiet and contemplative, Smother is an album to make your very soul ache. Francis Jones

09. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l (4AD)

The boldly stylized w h o k i l l was the second full-length release by tUnE-yArDs, aka New England’s Merrill Garbus. A wonderful mesh of every genre under the sun, it was a densely polyrhythmic, unashamedly feministic tour de force tackling issues such as police brutality, image and power. M.I.A? Who? Brian Coney

08. SBTRKT – SBTRKT (Young Turks)

Aaron Jerome’s debut album emerged in June as a supremely accessible blend of all things funky, housey, dubsteppy and bassy. And with a series of blistering live shows this year, SBTRKT moved out from behind the mask and got people’s attention. This debut LP is a glorious curation of quality electronic music blended with the impeccable vocals of the likes of Sampha and Roses Gabor and the best part is, it’s likely only a taste of what lies ahead. Adam Lacey

07. Yuck – Yuck (Mercury)

A glorious throwback to vintage freak-scene alt-rock, Yuck mixed distorted, Mascis-inspired riffs (‘Holing Out’) with infectious vocal hooks (‘Get Away’), lilting indie anthems (‘Georgia’) and languid balladry (‘Stutter’). It may have been shamelessly derivative but it was also endlessly replayable: none more so than the guitar-shredding heroics of epic closing track ‘Rubber’. Daniel Harrison

06. The Horrors – Skying (XL)

Shape-shifting Essex-boys The Horrors continued their steep artistic curve with their (as of now) career-defining masterwork Skying. Whilst ‘09’s fêted Primary Colours was heavily indebted to psyche rhythms and Krautrock, Skying shifted focus, effortlessly channelling the spirit of Eighties new wave and synth-pop. Combining expansive songwriting with increased technical nous, The Horrors hit the creative sweet-spot with track-after-track of epic, life-affirming music. Where next for Faris, Joshua & co? Eamonn Seoige

05. Bon Iver – Bon Iver (4AD)

Having ensured his place as everyone’s favourite folkie, and having dipped his toes for the first time into the big, bad world of commercial hip hop – culminating with Justin joining Kanye West on stage at Coachella, and looking for all the world like someone’s crazy uncle who had just wandered blithely onstage while trying to find the toilets – it doesn’t look like Justin Vernon is going to stop until his career has spanned every music genre ever invented. Unsurprisingly, Bon Iver is a glorious musical hodge-podge, where the edges of folk, funk, electro and gospel inextricably converge and bleed into each other with enviable ease – from the glacial stateliness of ‘Perth’, to the pretty, sax-infused country-pop of ‘Towers’, to the Styrofoam synths of the notorious ‘Beth/Rest’. Luckily, as the musical landscape whirls around him, Justin’s voice – that high, keening, heart-breaking wail – remains a blessed constant. Katherine Rodgers

04. Metronomy – The English Riviera (Because Music)

2011 saw the continuing trend of the ‘de-criminalisation’ of certain musical styles, and Devon’s Metronomy made full use of this on their third album, unleashing 11 tasteful art-funk nuggets of pure English pop. With slinky basslines and crisp drums anchoring most of the music, it was up to the sleek keyboards and arch vocals of Joseph Mount to provide the hooks, songs like ‘The Look’ and ‘She Wants’ sounding like future hits in some alternate galaxy, where soft-focus Eighties videos were still in vogue, and Bryan Ferry’s age was lower than his waistline.Choosing to represent their curiously English worldview through the medium of smooth funk, Metronomy proved that every musical style is now fair game, and that we’re all prepared to absorb something good, regardless of what style it’s in. Steven Rainey

03. And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs (Richter Collective)

This year ASIWYFA became the best-known Irish rock band this side of Snow Patrol, touring relentlessly in support of second album Gangs. After graduating from Smalltown America to Dublin’s Richter Collective, they kicked off a journey packed with high points. DJ Zane Lowe was left speechless after playing ‘Search: Party: Animal’ on Radio 1, and they finished the year with a US release on Sargent House, home to fellow alt-rock heroes Hella and Russian Circles. The strength of Gangs is in its energy: eight explosive instrumentals including ‘7 Billion People all Alive at Once’, which captures the same joy as ‘Don’t Waste Time Doing Things You Hate’ from their debut. Their award for Best Live Act at this year’s Northern Ireland Music Awards was tempered by the departure of founding guitarist Tony Wright, but the band begin 2012 with new guitarist Niall Kennedy installed alongside their trademark confidence and grace. Kiran Acharya

And So I Watch You From Afar – Search:Party:Animal by AU Magazine

02. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (Naïve)

You thought M83 had peaked with the sunburst nostalgia of Saturdays=Youth? He was only getting into his stride. Anthony Gonzalez continues to be obsessed with the fact he grew up in the 1980s – a combination of real and imagined nostalgia – but his sixth album’s specific appeal lay in its wild-eyed ambition. In an age where proper albums are becoming less and less important, Gonzalez set out to make an old-fashioned double-album inspired by another epic about growing up – The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. The amazing thing is, he pulled it off. Wisely limiting himself to a total of 75 minutes (he could have fit it on one CD if he’d wanted to), Gonzalez produced a perfectly sequenced album of ebb and flow – joyous pop (‘Midnight City’), towering synth (‘Echoes Of Mine’), swooning ballads (‘Wait’), bracing noise (‘This Bright Flash’). A masterpiece of concept and execution. Chris Jones

01.  PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (Island)

In magnificent year for music, one album towered above all others. When PJ Harvey’s eighth album won the Mercury Prize in September, it must have been the easiest choice ever for the judging panel. Let England Shake was Polly Jean’s thesis about war and the crumbling of a shambolic empire. As a piece of art, the album’s impact would elevate a magnificent set of songs above the constraints of a single artistic genre.

Although Harvey focused on the Great War for a large proportion of her inspiration, Let England Shake resonated throughout 2011. With a wave of revolutionary uprising enveloping numerous Middle Eastern countries and continuing military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, the year was littered with the brutal loss of lives. Whether it was a soldier being killed by a landmine, or a protester slain by sovereign forces, the central tenet of Let England Shake remains depressingly valid today; that the visceral reality of war is an indiscriminate loss of life – usually young lives – and that the victim’s blood seeps into the mud or sand or dust of the very land they seek to protect or claim.

Be it the shock of the lyric “arms and legs were in the trees” on the whites-of-the-eyes reportage of ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ or the heart-wrenching description of the battle shores of Gallipoli as “a bank of red earth, dripping down death” on the peerless ‘All And Everyone’, Harvey’s poems were violent, unflinching and deeply humane. For all the weight of subject matter, Let England Shake was, perhaps incredibly, not a difficult listen. The music was pure and exuded light and air, aided beautifully by Harvey’s long-time collaborators John Parrish and Mick Harvey. Twenty years into a magnificent career, PJ Harvey delivered her masterpiece – Let England Shake was an immense achievement. John Freeman

AU’s Albums of the Year 2011: the full top 50

50. YACHT – Shangri-La
49. Peaking Lights – 936
48. Cults – Cults
47. Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica
46. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
45. The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts
44. Russian Circles – Empros
43. Friendly Fires – Pala
42. Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
41. Destroyer – Kaputt
40. Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi
39. Beirut – The Rip Tide
38. Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones
37. Cashier No.9 – To The Death Of Fun
36. Gillian Welch – The Harrow & The Harvest
35. Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts
34. Josh T. Pearson – The Last Of The Country Gentlemen
33. Earth – Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light Pt.1
32. Danny Brown – XXX
31. Tyler, The Creator – Goblin
30. Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972
29. Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx – We’re New Here
28. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
27. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
26. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch The Throne
25. John Maus – We Must Become The Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
24. Rival Schools – Pedals
23. LaFaro – Easy Meat
22. TV On The Radio – Nine Types Of Light
21. The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient
20. Big Deal – Lights Out
19. Toro Y Moi – Underneath The Pine
18. Battles – Gloss Drop
17. Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See
16. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Belong
15. Holy Ghost! – Holy Ghost!
14. Girls – Father Son Holy Ghost
13. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
12. Radiohead – The King Of Limbs
11. The Weeknd – House of Balloons
10. Wild Beasts – Smother
9. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l
8. SBTRKT – SBTRKT
7. The Horrors – Skying
6. Yuck – Yuck
5. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
4. Metronomy – English Riviera
3. And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs
2. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
1. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake