It’s so cool that volumes one and two of the Best Songs of 2011 mixtape series have been such a huge hit – literally tens of thousands of page views in just a few weeks. Today’s mixtape marks the third volume of the top 2011 songs series. If you didn’t have a chance yet, it’s definitely worth checking out Volume One (for songs released in January) and Volume Two (February).
There have already been about 70 of the best MP3 songs of 2011 posted in the first two volumes, but we think this one, Vol. III, is particularly fantastic. We urge you to listen to it all the way through, from the first song to the last. By the time you’re finished, you may agree with us that IRC regular listeners and visitors from around the world – literally millions of people – have stellar taste in music. It’s so much more special because the songs are Listener Choice; we’ve already played this entire mixtape, focusing on the top songs on IRC for the month of March 2011, three or four times in just the past week. (Read more about the process for this series at the end of this post)
So, here it is, volume three of the Best Songs of 2011, highlighting the month of March.
Beady Eye Premieres; Takes No. 1 Spot
In March, the much anticipated debut album from Beady Eye was released. In case you don’t know, Beady Eye is the new band featuring former members of one of the most popular bands of the 1990′s – the Brit pop sensation Oasis. Beady Eye is comprised of former Oasis band members, Liam Gallahger, guitarist Gem Archer, and drummer, Chris Sharrock, plus Ride frontman Andy Bell. The band released their debut, Different Gear, Still Speeding on March 3rd to fairly good reviews. It’s definitely in our Top 50 albums of 2011. And, for the first week of March, the band’s lead single, “The Roller,” easily made the No. 1 spot on IRC’s weekly Top Ten Songs mixtape. The second single, “Four Letter Word,” took the No. 3 spot on the Top Ten, only outdone by the fantastic single from Papercuts, “.
“The Roller” – Beady Eye from Different Gear, Still Speeding
“Four Letter Word” – Beady Eye from Different Gear, Still Speeding
We’re just getting warmed up. March 2011 was a particularly good month for new music. We love the echoy vocals and pop perfection of the Papercuts‘ “Do What You Will.” We also included song No. 4 (DeVotchKa), 5 (Raised By Tigers), and 6 (Easter Island) because this set of songs flow so well together as a sah-weet mini-mix.
“Do What You Will” – Papercuts from Fading Parade
“100 Other Lovers” – DeVotchKa from 100 Other Lovers
“Song for Bob” – Raised By Tigers from Reunion Parts
“Proud” – Easter Island from Better Things
After we were the first music site to debut the music of Los Angeles songwriter and producer Paul Bessenbacher, aka, Opus Orange, IRC readers ate up his songs, and his success started to creep its way into other crannies of the vast independent music world.
Since his fantastic response from listeners on IRC in 2010, Bessenbacher continued to send us new tracks in 2011, and the listeners continued to give his songs big thumbs up.
“Crystal Clear” – Opus Orange, single 2011
The next trio of tracks were the top three songs for the second week of March, according to the number of plays and downloads. Not a bad line-up of songs from Beach Fossils, Starfu*ker and Jamaica.
Do you agree the order of the songs, with the Beach Fossils‘ “Calyer” coming out on top?
“Calyer” – Beach Fossils from What A Pleasure
“Death As A Fetish” – Starfu*ker from Reptilians
“Jericho” – Jamaica from No Problem
The Dodos and The Strokes Battle For Top of Top Ten Lists
For the third week of March, it was a virtual toe-to-toe battle for the top four spots on that week’s Top Ten Songs mixtape playlist between alternative rock heavy-hitters The Strokes, and the indie rock sensation, The Dodos. And, The Dodos just eeked past the world-famous The Strokes to take the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, pushing the latter back to the No. 3 and No. 4 positions. It was our own little mini epic for the weekly Top Ten Songs list, but clearly, in the end, there were just a few more listeners who played and downloaded the new Dodos’ singles than there were for The Strokes. We only wish The Dodos’ terrific album, No Color, had a more attractive cover.
Sidebar – Album Cover Art in the Digital Age: Why artists, bands, and even labels, don’t put a little more imagination and consideration into so many album covers is puzzling, and even annoying, especially if you’re throwing down the $16 for the CD. Afterall, the album cover art is still an important factor, even in a time when millions of music listeners may never even see the album cover art. Still, it’s part of the gig, and why we make sure to always include album cover art in our posts, with a preference for album covers that have had some real thought put into them.
“Black Night” – The Dodos from No Color (Bonus Version)
“Don’t Stop” (with Neko Case) – The Dodos from No Color
“Taken For A Fool” – The Strokes from Angles
“Machu Picchu” – The Strokes from Angles
Noah and the Whale rounded out the top 5 songs of the third week of March’s Top Ten Songs playlist with the semi-annoyingly titled “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.” Thankfully, the song is killer enough to forgive the band for making us type that out twice. (CAPS remain annoying.) “Life Goes On” is definitely deserving of the No. 5 spot, especially since it held its own in the mix with The Strokes and The Dodos, and other outstanding tracks from Idle Hands (“Socialite Death Square”), Generationals (“Greenleaf”), and Yuck (“Get Away”), among others.
“L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.” – Noah and the Whale from The Last Night on Earth
With the amount of terrific albums, and singles, that were advanced or released during the month of March, looking back, it’s clear that March was one of the best months for music in 2011. There were The Strokes, Beady Eye, The Dodos, Beach Fossils, and many others, and then along came new material from Thom Yorke. In fact, the second we posted Yorke’s 
single, “Ego,” in collaboration with Four Tet and Burial, it started getting a crazy number of plays. That made the song almost a shoe-in for the No.1 spot of the week, which is in fact what happened.
“Ego” – Thom Yorke + Burial + Four Tet
“Ego” beat out The Strokes for the No. 1 spot, even though it was the week of the official release of The Strokes’ much anticipated album, Angles. Yet, the most popular first advanced single from Angles, “Under Cover of Darkness,” outdid the newer, Strokes’ advanced singles (see them here) to take the No. 2 top song spot.
“Under Cover of Darkness” – The Strokes from Angles
An advanced single from the anticipated May release of Cults‘ debut album featured in the Fresh Tracks mix landed the No. 3 spot, followed at No. 4 with “Mirror,” from the two-song project by Yorke, Four Tet and Burial. The Swedish indie pop band, Acid House Kings, rounded out the Top 5 with “Are We Lovers Or Are We Friends?” – one of the poppiest tracks of 2011.
“You Know What I Mean” – Cults
“Mirror” – Thom Yorke + Burial + Four Tet
“Are We Lovers Or Are We Friends?” – Acid House Kings from Music Sounds Better with You
Since March and April share one of the release weeks right down the middle, we’re actually including the top tracks for what we refer to as Week 4.5 of March 2011. It’s also very convenient because it gives us another excuse to feature Broken Bells‘ single, “Windows,” from the band’s follow-up to the splendid 2010 self-titled debut. By a huge margin, the song captured the No. 1 spot, betting No. 2 clinchers Generationals‘ “Greenleaf.” Both Broken Bells and Generationals were up against some stiff competition coming from Foster The People, who managed to score the No. 3 and No. 5 positions of the week, with two advanced singles, and Peter Bjorn and John‘s “Second Chance,” which split the difference with FTP for the No. 4 spot of the week. See the section below for the No. 6 to No. 10 tracks.
“Windows” – Broken Bells from Meyrin Fields EP
“Pumped Up Kicks” – Foster The People from Foster The People EP
“Second Chance” – Peter Bjorn And John from Gimme Some
“Helena Beat” – Foster The People from Torches – out May 24th
The Lower Half of the Top Ten – March 2011
This next batch of songs is a faster way of presenting a bunch of other top tracks from last March, mainly consisting of tracks that ranked in the lower half of each of the weekly Top Ten Songs mixes for the month. But don’t let that throw you off – there are all kinds of spectacular songs below that are easily among the Best Songs of 2011. What will be interesting is to see which of all of the songs in this post IRC listeners and visitors play and download the most in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned; we will be posting all the results in follow-up posts around the holidays.
“100 Other Lovers” – DeVotchKa from 100 Other Lovers
“Song for Bob” – Raised By Tigers from Reunion Parts
“Proud” – Easter Island from Better Things
“Look Back, Look Up” – Codes in the Clouds from As The Spirit Wanes
“Esa Nena Nunca Regreso” – Davila 666 from Tan Bajo
“Breadcrumb Trail” – Buried Beds from Tremble The Sails
“He Gets Me High” – Dum Dum Girls from He Gets Me High EP
“Rattle Your Bones” – Black Whales from Rattle Your Bones 7″
“Discoverer” – R.E.M. from Collapse Into Now
“The Kite” – The Sound Of Growing Up from Drifting EP
“Civilian” – Wye Oak from Civilian
“Silbury Sand” – Wolf People from Silbury Sand B/W Dry
“Lilly” – One In A Googolplex from Lilly/My Sister’s Poem
“Bells Ring” – Empress Hotel from Empress Hotel EP
“In My Time” – Kurt Vile from Smoke Ring for My Halo
Songs 6-10 for Week 3, March 2011
“Socialite Death Squad” – The Idle Hands from Life Is Beautiful
“Greenleaf” – Generationals from Actor-Caster
“Get Away” – Yuck from Yuck
“Stuck on Puzzle” – Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) from Submarine EP
“Bite of My Soul” – The Fleshtones from Brooklyn Sound Solution
Songs 6-10 for Week 4, March 2011
There are so many tracks that we love from the March Top 10 mixes, but this next little set is one of the best, with Fleet Foxes’ awesome change up on “Grown Ocean” and the can’t-get-it-out-of-your-head, incredibly catchy song, “Forever in Armitron” by Boat, followed by the melancholy, “Albatross” from the Wild Beasts and A Lull’s magnificent, semi-masterpiece, “Weapons of War,” plus, the closer from Surfer Blood, “I’m Not Ready.” This right here, again, is just an amazing mini-mix all by itself.
“Grown Ocean” – Fleet Foxes from Helplessness Blues – out May 3rd
“Forever in Armitron” – Boat from Dress Like Your Idols
“Albatross” – Wild Beasts from Smother – out May 10th
“Weapons of War” – A Lull from Weapons for War single (with remixes) – out April 19th
“I’m Not Ready” – Surfer Blood
Songs 6-10 for Week 4.5, March 2011
“Running With Insanity” – Alcoholic Faith Mission from And The Running With Insanity
“Belong” – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart from Belong
“Dancing Fools” – Alcoholic Faith Mission from And The Running With Insanity
“Surfer’s Hymn” – Panda Bear from Surfer’s Hymn single
“Birth of Serpents” – The Mountain Goats from All Eternals Deck
March Songs We Like That Didn’t Make Top Ten
The Process of Organizing the Best Songs of 2011 Mixtape Series (continued from introduction)
For all eventual 12 parts of this playlist series, there will be one huge mixtape featuring the top songs for that month. Please keep in mind that some songs included were advanced singles from albums that came out later, just in case you find yourself thinking, “wait a second, I’m sure the album that track is from didn’t come out in March.” All of the songs included are based on the month in which we first premiered them on the site. The rest was up to everyone else since each of the 12 volumes of the Best Songs of 2011 series are representative of the weekly Top Ten Songs playlists posted throughout the year. The songs that made the weekly Top 10 mixes were based on the number of times each one was played and downloaded during the week in question.
Whether you’re just hanging out at home, driving around, on a bike ride, or kicking it with friends, this mixtape, together with the other two volumes, will definitely be enough awesome tracks to keep you busy listening and downloading tracks to your iTunes or desktop.
Why is this mixtape series easily one of the finest of all the ‘best’ of 2011 mixtapes on the web? Well, besides the fact that the featured songs are all stellar, standout tracks of the year, it’s actually because you, and literally millions of other music lovers from across the country and around the world, picked the best songs over the past 10 months based on which tracks you listened to, and downloaded, the most. We don’t know of any other ‘indie’ and alternative rock blog or site online in which the listeners rank the top songs of the year – in addition to the weekly Top Ten Songs series. For us, it makes it that much more special.