Best Rock Album in 2011

Saw the Colbert appearance and can't agree. Bon Iver is a slightly more elegant avant garde variation of Coldplay sentimentality.

Ditto Wilco's The Whole Love, excellent on LP and CD. It's probably their best album, and certainly surpasses the last one.

Also enjoying vinyl of Ry Cooder's Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down-- anti-banker depression ballads for the 2010s.

This has been a great week for eccentrics, all on vinyl:

Tom Waits- Bad as Me
Magnetic Fields- Holiday
Ted Leo- Live in Nashville

Agree that it takes a few spins for The Whole Love to take hold, but well worth it. Wilco is rolling in clover and not as far from Uncle Tupelo roots as on prior efforts.

Though not rock, Bonnie Prince Billy's "wolfroy goes to town" is a stand-out, and what a lyricist: "I'm no match for those who love god, and they're no match for me."