Midway Through the Year 2011 Music Awards: Pt. 3

That anyone could compile a list of 50 Favorite anything is a laughable concept, but I decided to give it my best shot and roll out my top 50 songs from the first half of 2011. If you're curious (and I know you aren't), my process was steadily whittling down my list of all songs from 2011 until I had 50. I then segmented them into 5 tiers based on how much I liked the songs. After a bit of tweaking I had them sectioned off in five ten-song clusters. From there, it was a matter of ordering by comparison. I'd steadily ask myself "Do I like this song more than that song?" until I deemed the order acceptable.

A few thankless hours later, and here's how the chips fell. 50 songs from 25 artists.

50. Drive-By Truckers - "Mercy Buckets"
49. James Pants - "Clouds Over the Pacific"
48. Black Lips - "Family Tree"

47. The Low Anthem - "Matter of Time"
46. Bright Eyes - "Beginner's Mind"
45. Death Cab For Cutie - "Doors Unlocked and Open"
44. My Morning Jacket - "First Light"

43. The Strokes - "Under Cover of Darkness"

42. Toro y Moi - "Good Hold"

41. Okkervil River - "Your Past Life As a Blast"

40. Middle Brother - "Wilderness"

39. TV On the Radio - "You"
38. Okkervil River - "White Shadow Waltz"

37. Emmylou Harris - "Goodnight Old World"

36. The Low Anthem - "Boeing 737"

35. Bright Eyes - "Halle Selassie"

34. Smith Westerns - "Fallen In Love"

33. Bon Iver - "Beth/Rest"

32. Cass McCombs - "County Line"

31. Fleet Foxes - "Blue Spotted Tail"

30. Black Lips - "You Keep On Running"

29. Iron and Wine - "Godless Brother In Love"
28. Middle Brother - "Portland"

27. Bon Iver - "Perth"

26. Gillian Welch - "Silver Dagger"
25. Felice Brothers - "Fire In the Pageant"
24. Man Man - "Life Fantastic"

23. Fleet Foxes - "Montezuma"

22. The Decemberists - "Calamity Song"
21. Kurt Vile - "Society Is My Friend"

20. Fleet Foxes - "Helplessness Blues"

19. Okkervil River - "Wake and Be Fine"
18. Gillian Welch - "Tennessee"
17. Man Man - "Steak Knives"

16. Toro y Moi - "How I Know"
15. The Decemberists - "Rise To Me"

14. Man Man - "Dark Arts"
13. My Morning Jacket - "Circuital"

12. Smith Westerns - "Still New"

11. Kurt Vile - "Baby's Arms"

10. Bon Iver - "Holocene"

9. Washed Out - "Eyes Be Closed"

8. Felice Brothers - "Ponzi"

7. Man Man - "Haute Tropic"
6. Tapes 'n Tapes - "Freak Out"

5. TV On the Radio - "Keep Your Heart"
4. Gillian Welch - "Hard Times"

3. Iron and Wine - "Glad Man Singing"

2. Kurt Vile - "Runner Ups"

1. Felice Brothers - "River Jordan"

Some stats:

• 50 songs from 25 different artists. I'm no math major, but I think that's about two a piece on average.
• With four songs on the list, Man Man appears more than any other artist.
• The highest spot for an artist with only one song on the list is "Freak Out" by Tapes 'n Tapes.
• Not far behind is "Eyes Be Closed" by Washed Out. I only just got my hands on his/their record a few days ago, so it wasn't in consideration for the album lists. But "Eyes Be Closed" is not only good enough to sneak into this list, but to leapfrog 41 others.
• The Felice Brothers and Kurt Vile both have 3 songs in the top 25. Curious as to which one could boast the higher average spot, I did the math and discovered that both come to an average of 11.33. Whoa!

So I urge you to hit Youtube or iTunes and check some of those songs out if you haven't heard them. To finish up the MTTY2011MAs, we'll look at what you said was tops. Just, uh, don't read that poll on the top right if you want to be surprised.