The Best Fit Fifty: Tracks of 2011

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45. Seams – Focus Energy

If you’ve read The Line Of Best Fit more than a couple of times this year you’ll have noticed that Seams is basically our house producer (badum-tish). ‘Focus Energy’ seemed to foreshadow his eventual move to Berlin, with the focus shifted firmly towards the dancefloor. Has been referred to as a ‘banger’ by some people with less self-awareness than is strictly healthy.
-Josh Hall

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44. AlunaGeorge – You Know You Like It

Great pure pop was a bit light on the ground in 2011. ‘You Know You Like It’ is, perhaps, rather too bass-inflected to be classed as truly ‘pure’, but it is a good indication of where we should be looking for the best pop music of 2012. Check out the predictably great Lapalux rework too.
-Josh Hall

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43. And So I Watch You From Afar – 7 Billion People All Alive At Once

There really are no two ways about it: post-rock isn’t cool. It’s pretty difficult to make beards and odd time signatures seem like a desirable lifestyle choice, but ASIWYFA have somehow managed it. ‘7 Billion…’ is the sound of a gang at the height of their powers; the music of bittersweet camaraderie. My most-played track of the year by orders of magnitude.
-Josh Hall

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42. Loney Dear – I Dreamed About You

The penultimate track on Loney Dear‘s sixth full length Hall Music, ‘I Dreamed About You’ sees Emil Svanängen in usual heartbreak mode. Whilst the song is best heard within the context of the full album to appreciate its majesty, for the casual listener this is the perfect introduction to the magical world that Svanängen inhabits. Charming, earnest and utterly delightful - by the end of its three and a half short minutes, there’s not a dry eye in the house.
-Richard Thane

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41. Dauwd – Shimmer

A favourite of the soon to be much-missed Gilles Peterson, ‘Shimmer’ is the best release to date from one of the most exciting producers in the country. Woozy, wide-eyed melancholia of the very highest order.
-Josh Hall