We are half way through 2011, and it has been an epic year for music already. Some truly astounding works of art have already been released, and the next 6 months don’t look like they are going to disappoint (check out our New Releases page to see what is on the horizon). To celebrate music as we always like to do, here is our list of 40 albums you should have by now in 2011. We hope that your new favorite album, artist, or song is somewhere in here. If it isn’t, let us know, comment and tell us whats good!

The Wealthy West-The Wealthy West Vol. 1
The Violet Burning-The Story of Our Lives
Surrogate-Diamonds & Pearls EP
Son Lux-We Are Rising
Solomon Burke-Hold On Tight
Ralph Stanley-A Mother’s Prayer
Propaganda & Odd Thomas-Art Ambidextrous
Playdough-Hotdoggin
Over The Rhine-The Long Surrender
Not One Is Upright-God Is Not A Watchmaker And The World Is Not Ticking
muzeONE-coldWAR
Mosquito Fleet-Swings & Cloves EP
Moby-destroyed
Marksman-Sister of Mine
Manchester Orchestra-Simple Math
Love Begotten-Ugly, Dirty, Poor
Little Hurricane-Homewrecker
Jennifer Hudson-I Remember Me
Jeff Jacquay- La Cambria
Jawbone-Loss Of Innocence EP
Ivan & Alyosha-Fathers Be Kind EP
Inevitable End-The Oculus
The Gun Show-Discontentment
Great Awakening-Songs In Secret
Gideon-Costs
Francesca Battistelli-Hundred More Years
eleventyseven-Quota EP
Eisley-The Valley
Derek Webb-Feedback
Danielson-The Best Of Gloucester County
Cool Hand Luke-Of Man
The Civil Wars-Barton Hollow
Brett Dennen-Loverboy
Brandon Bee-Inside These Walls
Becoming The Archetype-Celestial Completion
The Appleseed Cast-Middle States EP
Alert-Red Opus .45
Ace Augustine-The Absolute
Abandon Kansas-Ad Astra Per Aspera
Aaron Gillespie-Anthem Song

Lakes- “Sweet Dream”

KJ-52 (feat. Braille and Theory Hazit)- “Headlines”

Clandestine- “Disappear in You”

Hawk Nelson-”Crazy Love”

Thank you all for sticking with us this long as we unveiled our end of the year lists to you. We had a really good time putting them together, but sadly all good things must come to an end. However, we saved the best for last. Below is our top 25 for the year (in no particular order).

Album of the year: Doug Burr-O Ye Devastator

Ascend The Hill-Hymns: Take The World, But Give Me Jesus
Belle & Sebastian-Write About Love
Bradley Hathaway-A Thousand Angry Panthers
Brooke Fraser-Flags
The Chariot-Long Live
Close Your Eyes-We Will Overcome
Deepspace5- The Future Aint What It Used Be
For Today-Breaker
Gileah Taylor-What Kind of Fool/A Crooked Line EP
Heath McNease- The Gun Show
The Innocence Mission-My Room In The Trees
Johnny Cash-American VI: Ain’t No Grave
John Mark McMillian-The Medicine
Josh White-Achor
Listener-Wooden Heart
Mavis Staples-You Are Not Alone
My Epic- YET
Preson Phillips-Weep… He Loves the Mourners Tears
The Reign Of Kindo-This Is What Happens
Sandra McCracken-In Feast Or Fallow
Shad- TSOL
Sufjan Stevens-All Delighted People EP
Underoath-Ø (Disambiguation)
Wovenhand-The Threshingfloor

But wait! This isnt over, for you see we have also put together a little compilation of of some the songs from the list above. We know that you have been missing our weekly free downloads, so we decided to put one together on our own. Enjoy!

HEY WE HAD SOME TROUBLES WITH THE DOWNLOADS FOR A MINUTE, BUT WE FIXED IT AND WERE EVEN ABLE TO ADD TWO NEW TRACKS. SORRY ABOUT THAT

Download The ONE21 Top Recordings Compilation

1. Red, Red by Doug Burr (from O Ye Devastator)
2. Lord Willing by Deepspace5 (from The Future Aint What It Used To Be)
3. The Audience by The Chariot (from Long Live)
4. How Great Thou Art by Ascend The Hill (from Hymns: Take The World But Give Me Jesus)
5. I Don’t Want To Live Forever (acoustic) by Listener (from Wooden Heart)
6. God Is Love by The Innocence Mission (from My Room In The Trees)
7. Carolina by Bradley Hathaway (from A Thousand Angry Panthers)
8. All Delighted People (original version) by Sufjan Stevens (from the All Delighted People EP)
9. Chalk Outline by Heath McNease (from The Gun Show)
10. You Amaze Me by Josh White (from Achor)
11. Song For The Broken by Close Your Eyes (from We Will Overcome)
12. If You Can’t Tell By Gileah Taylor (from the What Kind Of Fool EP)
13. All Of Us by Gileah Taylor (from A Crooked Line EP)
14. Pilgrim by Preson Phillips (from Weep…He Loves The Mourners Tears)
15. The Threshingfloor by Wovenhand (from The Threshingfloor)
16. Faith’s Review & Expectation by Sandra McCracken (from In Feast Or Fallow)
17. Seraphim by For Today (from Breaker)
18. Lower Still by My Epic (from YET)

Doug Burr appears courtesy of Spune Music
The Chariot appears courtesy of Good Fight Records
Preson Phillips and Ascend The Hill appear courtesy of Come&Live!
The Innocence Mission appears courtesy of Badman Records
Sufjan Stevens appears courtesy of Asthmatic Kitty
Josh White appears courtsey of BEC Recordings
Close Your Eyes appears courtesy of Victory Records
Gileah Taylor appears courtesy of Love Library
Wovenhand appears courtesy of Sounds Familyre
For Today and My Epic appear courtesy of Facedown Records

thank you to all the record label, artists, and PR people that made this download possible

Most music websites like ours publish end of the year lists (most times before the year is over), but we see this as a time to truly celebrate what God is doing through art and music. For the next few weeks we will be posting our lists of the best recordings in 2010, divided by genres and categories. This all leads up to our final presentation of our Essential 25 Recordings of 2010 post on the last week of January.  This is our joyous recounting of all that amazed us in 2010.

This week we take a look at our staff’s personal top 10 lists. This is the only time that we rank our albums, and believe me it was a hard task for all.
*click on the name of the artist to find out more about them, click on the album title to listen to samples and purchase*

Chuck’s Personal Top 10 of 2010

1.Doug Burr-O Ye Devastator
2.Sufjan Stevens-All Delighted People EP
3.Mavis Staples-You Are Not Alone
4.Preson Phillips-Weep… He Loves the Mourners Tears
5.Brooke Fraser-Flags
6.Belle & Sebastian-Write About Love
7.John Mark McMillian-The Medicine
8.Johnny Cash-American VI: Ain’t No Grave
9.Shad- TSOL
10.Bradley Hathaway-A Thousand Angry Panthers

Ian’s Personal Top 10 of 2010

1.Doug Burr-O Ye Devastator
2.The Chariot-Long Live
3.Deepspace5- The Future Aint What It Used Be
4.Listener-Wooden Heart
5.Sufjan Stevens-All Delighted People EP
6.Gileah Taylor-What Kind of Fool/A Crooked Line EP
7.My Epic- YET
8.Josh White-Achor
9.Close Your Eyes-We Will Overcome
10.Shad- TSOL

Rebecca’s Personal Top 10 of 2010

1.The Chariot-Long Live
2.Listener-Wooden Heart
3.Ascend The Hill-Hymns: Take The World, But Give Me Jesus
4.Josh White-Achor
5.Underoath-Ø (Disambiguation)
6.Heath McNease- The Gun Show
7.My Epic- YET
8.Doug Burr-O Ye Devastator
9.Preson Phillips-Weep… He Loves the Mourners Tears
10.Shad- TSOL

On Friday, we will publish our ONE21 Top 25 Recordings of 2010. We hope that you all have enjoyed the way we did the lists this year, because we all felt that this was the only way to truely celebrate this year in music.

As a thnk you to all of you, we have also put togeather a compilation (our first!) with tracks from some of our top albums of the year. Check back with us on Friday to not only see our final list of the year, but to also download some free music!

Our weekly posting of all the music videos happening in the scene. Enjoy all the video goodness. Comment and tell which one is video of the week.

Spoken Nerd- “Apocalypse Awareness Day”

Benjah & Dillavou- “Come Follow”

Andrew Ripp- “Peace Like A River”

As I Lay Dying- “Anodyne Sea”