When I had to back out of my plans to attend South By Southwest earlier this year, one of the bands I most regretted missing was the mighty British trio The Joy Formidable. Reports of the band’s energetic performances in Austin only poured salt in the wound, though the buzz around The Big Roar has appreciably quieted since then. Which is a shame, because The Joy Formidable’s stadium-sized update of early-’90s shoegaze has resulted in one of the most invigorating rock records of 2011. Highlighted by Ritzy Bryan’s powerhouse vocals, which range from breathy coos to hellacious wailing, The Joy Formidable lives up to the boast of the album title, creating mile-high walls of sound that tower over the year’s relatively mild-mannered crop of high-profile indie-rock releases. (Only Fucked Up’s David Comes To Life dares to sound so huge.) The Big Roar gets a little wearying by the final third, but songs like “Whirring,” “A Heavy Abacus,” and “The Everchanging Spectrum Of A Lie” demand high volume and wide-open spaces—as well as an appropriately large, adoring audience.