For the most part, rock music got the shaft this year as it has been for the better part of the past decade, but we here at Dawn.com know our roots. From the analog grit of the Foo Fighters and the always contrarian and frenetic Radiohead to the idiosyncratic sway of PJ Harvey, guitars may have gone underground, but there are those who are keeping the torch lit.

7. Adele 21

Among the many astonishing things about Adele is her age, and the title of her game-changing second album. To think that someone so young can put to words emotions so complex, that a singer could, in a single breath, convey the frustration of a woman scorned beyond repair, and that an album could defy every convention of what’s popular today to become the year’s best-seller.

Adele broke all these rules and more. Look no further than the stark production of “Rolling in the Deep,” the ’60s girl group resonance of “Rumour Has It” and the take-it-to-church urgency of “One and Only.”

 

6. Ryan Adams Ashes & Fire

Consider it lucky No. 13.  The prolific singer and songwriter has had as many albums during his 20-year career and the music just keeps getting better. Case in point: Ashes & Fire, another slice of Americana meets downtown sophistication that’s retrospective and surprisingly optimistic. Where seven years ago he released Love is Hell, now happily married (to Mandy Moore) and sober, Adams offers “Chains of Love.” Gone for the most part is the gloom of the Gold era, which was released two weeks after 9/11, along with the glitter of its pristine production. Instead, Adam graduates from Ethan to Glyn Johns, the latter offering a more homespun sound to sparse acoustic numbers like “Come Home,” “Do I Wait” and the incredibly intimate “I Love You But I Don't Know What To Say.” Less is more for Adams these days but where his fans are concerned, overshares like Ashes are much welcome.

5. Noel Gallagher High Flying Birds

The first solo album by one-half of Oasis seems to prove that Liam’s older brother was the true melodic brain behind the shoegazing outfit. Suitably retro-sounding in all the right places, High Flying Birds has all the crescendos (“Everybody’s On the Run”), sweet chord structures (“AKA… Broken Arrow”) and gentle psychedelia (“(I Wanna Live In A Dream In My) Record Machine) we’ve come to expect from the British brothers but minus the baggage. That means no song goes longer than 4:50 and nearly half the album’s tracks clock in at the two- to three-minute range, as if to say, pop all the way.

 

4. Wilco The Whole Love

Wilco fans can be fickle about their favorite albums — one man’s A.M. is another man’s Summerteeth is another's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Some favor the more troubled ruminations of singer Jeff Tweedy’s early years, others prefer the reflective lyrics of the husband and father he’s grown into. No matter which Wilco era floats your boat, The Whole Love, the band’s eighth effort, does not disappoint. That’s because Wilco has practically trademarked its own formula — the quick hit of “I Might,” the delightful puppy love of “Dawned on Me,” the uppers, the downers, you get them all in a pill that goes down oh-so-easily but is still experimental enough to appease the academics among us.

 

3. Radiohead King of Limbs.

Radiohead are easily the contrarian kings of rock. Departing from the sonic scape that was In Rainbows, King of Limbs was sudden jolt of musical schizophrenia. A controversial choice, perhaps, in the face of much shrugging and ‘mehs’ from critics and fans, but for me, the album was a gentle, nature-centric, eight-track chrysalis that blossomed through repeated listening.

The section in "Separator" from 2.31 minutes in to 3.58  is the most beautiful bit of new music I’ve heard this year.

 

2. PJ Harvey Let England Shake

Harvey's 10th studio album has been called a masterpiece by pretty much every publication this year — and for good reason. The British queen of songwriting produced a piece of work so rich and thoughtful it was no surprise she won the Mercury Prize for the second time. LES lays out a map of England's history seen through a martial prism with songs such as "The Last Living Rose." It's a suite of songs dark in content but often bouncy and light musically. PJ sounds girlish and birdlike as she sings of soil the colour of blood and "the gray, damp filthiness of ages and battered books". A classic.

 

 

1. Foo Fighters Wasting Light

Rock music was persona non grata in 2011, a year lorded over by Euro-electro synths, dance-ready beats and hip hop grunts. That was, until the Foo Fighters came along as a reminder. What did we forget? Songs that have melodies and hooks, rhythm guitars that can make your heart skip a beat and lyrics that delve a little deeper than, “check out how much cash I’ve got in my pocket.”

The Foos took it back all right, recording an all-analog, ProTools-free full-length that’s now up for six Grammy awards including the coveted Album of the Year. And deservedly so: Wasting Light is the album format perfected — a journey beginning with “Bridge Burning,” featuring the classic Foos guitar crunch to the anthemic end with “Walk,” one of their strongest singles ever and sure to be a fist pumping exercise for decades to come. In between, Dave Grohl and gang deliver the undeniable “These Days,” four minutes and 58 seconds of inspiration on par with the similarly named “Times Like These,” the endearingly ’90s-flavored “Back & Forth” and screamers “White Limo” and “Arlandria.” It’s the band at its finest, 17 years in. Hallelujah!

The writer is a reporter at Dawn.com