Top 10 Best New Albums of 2011 in Pop / Rock

Every year there are hundreds of new album releases giving us so many to choose from that it's difficult to choose the best of the best, but these new albums of 2011 gave us lots to cheer about, and an earful of smiles to go with it.
It also looks like many of the ladies took the top spots this year with Adele, Lady Gaga, Tori Amos, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, and Colbie Caillat who gave soaring additions to the year's selections.

Here are the top ten best new releases of 2011 in the pop and rock genres: (Information and snippets from Amazon.com. To listen to any of these artists, click the artist and album name).

10. Christina Perri; lovestrong Ms. Perri spent over a month locked away at the famous Sunset Sounds studio with producer Joe Chiccarelli (White Stripes, Tori Amos, The Shins) working on the eleven songs featured on Lovestrong including her already platinum-selling single "Jar Of Hearts."

9. Colbie Caillat; All of You Armed simply with her dusky vocals and acoustic guitar, Colbie Caillat and her homespun music continue to resonate with listeners and win new fans. Little more than a year after the release of her nearly double platinum debut album "CoCo," Caillat has so quickly made such an enduring impact that USA Today declared the California girl a vital part of "a new wave of troubadours luring fans of all ages.

8.Tori Amos; Night of Hunters Tori Amos marks her debut album for Deutsche Grammophon, the world's most celebrated classical music record label with Night of Hunters, released September 20. The iconic, platinum-selling singer-songwriter continues her legacy of ground-breaking recordings with this 21st century song cycle inspired by select classical pieces spanning the last 400 years.

7. Jennifer Lopez; Love? Lopez has sold over 55 million records worldwide, "On the Floor" marks JLO's first new studio release on the Island Def Jam Music Group, and is the first single from her forthcoming album LOVE? Have a listen to this fun and very danceable new album.

6. Britney Spears; Femme Fetale Femme Fatale is the seventh studio album from one of the most celebrated artists in pop history. In a little more than a decade, Britney Spears has sold close to 70 million records worldwide, making her the fourth best-selling female artist ever in America according to industry sales tracking system, SoundScan. But nothing the Grammy winner has done before will prepare fans for the versatility, innovation and sexiness Britney displays on Femme Fatale, her first studio album since her platinum 2008 set, Circus. In talking about the album, Britney frequently uses the word "different," and for good reason: With Femme Fatale, she's created a stunning collection that is unique among her body of work as well as compared with everything else out there today.

5. (Four way tie) Theory of a Deadman; The Truth Is... With Theory of a Deadman, honesty is always the best policy. Theory of a Deadman adheres to that age old adage on their fourth album for Roadrunner/604 Records, The Truth Is...The platinum-selling Vancouver quartet builds arena-ready hooks around hard rocking stories of good times, bad times and everything in between. A rockin' good time as well as a thoughtful album. 3 Doors Down;Time of My Life Don't tell rock band 3 Doors Down you can't go home again. Formed in Escatawpa, Mississippi, the resilient fivesome has blazed a trail as the quintessential rock band, attaining massive mainstream success but somehow never losing that small town identity that has branded them rock's truest underdogs.Have a listen to this well-thought-out rock album and see for yourself. Seether; Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray Shaun Morgan is a changed man. For the front man/guitarist and principal songwriter in hard rock frontrunners Seether, a new outlook on life and music has resulted in Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces (Wind-up). Easily the South Africa-bred, L.A.-based hard rock band's strongest and most innovative studio offering yet. Melodic, thoughtful, and filled with both the hard and soft parts of life. Augustana; Augustana Over the course of their eight years as a band, Augustana have become known as quality purveyors of well-crafted, melodic piano-driven rock.Take one listen to Augustana's self-titled third album and it's clear that this band has thrown off the shackles of playing it safe.

4. Gavin DeGraw; Sweeter Beloved by fans for his blue-eyed soul vocals, freewheeling melodies, and earthy charm, singer, songwriter, and musician Gavin DeGraw has enjoyed success since breaking through in 2003 with his debut album, Chariot, which sold over a million copies, earned platinum certification, and yielded three hit singles. On Gavin's new album SWEETER, the New York native experimented with new sounds, thanks, in part, to collaborating with a host of top-notch producers he'd wanted to work with for a while, including fellow groove-minded piano player OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder (Beyoncé, Adele), Butch Walker (Weezer, Avril Lavigne), Eric Rosse (Sara Bareilles, Tori Amos), and Ron Aniello (Barenaked Ladies, Matt Nathanson). The single "Not Over You" is still climbing the charts.

3. Foo Fighters; Wasting Light Produced by Butch Vig and mixed by Alan Moulder, Wasting Light was recorded entirely on analog tape in the garage of Grohl s home in California s San Fernando Valley. The no computers/no software back to basics approach has resulted in arguably the strongest and most cohesive effort of the band s 15-year-plus career: From first single Rope to the frenetic opener Bridge Burning to the beautifully bipolar These Days to stunning guest spots from Bob Mould ( Dear Rosemary") and Krist Novoselic ("I Should Have Known"), Wasting Light is a singular triumph: a band that s headlined arenas, stadiums and festivals the world over stripping itself down to the bare essentials and coming up with a world class band s finest hour.

2. Lady Gaga; Born This Way - Lady Gaga once again makes a grand album with Born This Way, and Lady Gaga is also the only artist in the digital era to top the 5 million sales mark with her first two hits. Gaga broke the record when her single "Poker Face" reached 5 million in sales after her debut single "Just Dance" accomplished the same feat the year before. She has over 1.3 billion combined views of all her videos online. She is also a staple in the social networking world. She's one of the biggest living people on Facebook with over 33 million 'likes' and is #1 on Twitter with over 9.5 million followers.Her third studio album set a music industry record by becoming the fastest single in history to reach sales of 1,000,000 copies (five days after its February 11th release). Only the 19th single to ever debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (issue date February 26,2011), the recording was Lady Gaga's third #1 on the chart. "Born This Way" was Gaga's 7th single to hit #1 at Top 40.

1 . Adele;21 - Adele's sophomore effort has taken the world by storm. She's broken more records this year than any other artist. Read more about her here, in "Adele 21; Best New Album of 2011".

So that's it for the best new album releases of 2011 in the pop and rock genres, but I couldn't leave out these honorable mentions : (in alphabetical order)

12 Stones; Only Human

Arctic Monkeys; Suck it and See

Avril Lavigne; Good Bye Lullaby

Bush; The Sea Memories

Cage the Elephant; Thank You Happy Birthday

Cake; Showroom of Compassion

Chickenfoot; Chickenfoot III (Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani)

Coldplay: Mylo Xyloto (Sept. 12,2011 release) Coldplay album Mylo Xyloto is the fifth studio album by the Brit band features 14 tracks on it, one of which features none other than Rihanna. The band took to twitter to reveal the tracklisting. The first track is Mylo Xyloto, followed back Hurts Like Heaven, Paradise, Charlie Brown, Us Against the World, M.M.I.X., Every Teardrop is a Waterfall, Major Minus, UFO, Princess of China featuring Rihanna, Up in Flames, A Hopeful Transmission Don't Let It Break Your Heart and Up With the Birds. click here to see. And click here to watch Coldplay Mylo Xyloto videos at youtube.

David Cook; This Loud Morning

Death Cab for Cutie; Codes and Keys

Decemberists; The King is Dead

Evanescence; TBAI

Incubus; If Not Now, When?

James Blunt; Some Kind of Trouble

Joss Stone; LP1

Lady Antebellum; Own the Night

Lykke Li; Wounded Rhymes

My Morning Jacket; Circuital

Nickelback; Here and Now (Nov. 21,2011 release- see youtube vid here of new single

O.A.R.: King

Owl City; All Things Bright & Beautiful

Panic! at the Disco; Vices and Virtues

R.E M.; Collapse Into Now (R.E.M. will be breaking up and I suspect this will be their last album)

Red Hot Chili Peppers; I'm With You

Saliva; Under Your Skin

Sixx:A.M.; This is Gonna Hurt

Soundgarden; Live on I-5

Stevie Nicks; In Your Dreams

Strokes; Angels

The Script; Science & Faith

Whitesnake; Forevermore

RESOURCES & More Reading:
Amazon.com
New Music Releases
"Adele 21; Best New Album of 2011" article