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But The Rip Tide showed how effective a few small choices can be at recasting a band's sound. Gone are the oom pa pa rhythms and waltzy song structure. I'd still have to call it Balkan-influenced (what else are you going to call a band that prominently features an accordion), but The Rip Tide is Beirut identifying their own sound, and it's like nothing anyone else is doing. It's a great record that stands above the rest for me. I also highly recommend our readers consider seeing Beirut live if they come to your town.

Noah: I thought it was really good and would cop to not having spent enough time with it. My #2 album of the year is one we covered extensively here - Wilco's The Whole Love. Not much has changed for me other than that I like it more after seeing them live and listening to The Whole Love a few dozen times.

So my album of the year is another album that has been with me most of the year and an album that I heaped expectations on that were probably unfair. For me, the self-titled debut full length from Fleet Foxes back in 2008 was an absolute lightening bolt. Like Midlake's 2006 The Trials of Van Occupanther, it was an album from a band I'd never heard of that immediately worked for me and has stayed in my rotation since the day I first heard it. The bands are linked for me as a result.

Last year, Midlake released a follow up to Van Occupanther that I was disappointed in. Not only did The Courage of Others not evolve in any meaningful way, it almost felt like a regression, which isn't fair considering I haven't really listened to anything they put out before Van Occupanther. So I had high expectations for the second Fleet Foxes album and was more than a little nervous about it. Helplessness Blues is not a disappointment. It's a far more challenging album than Fleet Foxes was, but also more varied, versatile and deep. We discussed it in depth on release, but there is a ton going on in this album.

When we did a chat review of Helplessness Blues when it was released, you were a little less excited by it than I was and I ended our review by saying "...I bet you'll come around in the end." Did you?

Steve: At the time I gave it a Really Good under the rationale that their folkier sound was less my cup of tea than stuff that is more rock. To go back to something I said at the outset of this review, 2011 more than anything proves that there is room at the top for records of all variety of genre as long as they are excellent. Helplessness Blues is indeed excellent, and I would upgrade it to Great as I have it ranked #9 on my list.

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