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Well what can I say. 2011 ended up being a good year in music. For the first time in a long time I has a hard time narrowing the list down to just 20 albums. Plus this year saw the release of same really awesome EP's so I had to put them on their own list. So lets get this started. This review will be in groups of ten but besides that no real order.

Josh Garrels - Love & War & The Sea In Between. There is not enough good I can say about this album. It will not show up on many best of charts this year as Josh is still indi but he gave this one away though you can leave a tip for him at noisetrade.com. Just an amazing album with great beats, smooth melodies and sweet hooks. Do yourself a favor and go download his album and you will not stop listening to it. It's acoustic rock with a beat but so much more.

The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow Probably the first really great album of 2011. The perfect blending of Joy and John Mark's voices is amazing as is the simplicity of their music. …

Saw Taylor Swift in concert for the 2011 Speak Now tour.

The show was absolutely incredible. Highlights:
Fearless (Acoustic). Superb rendition and done in a style I had never seen/heard before...blown away by her talent.
Haunted. By far the most visually impressive and a great performance. The song begins with three huge bells rising from below the stage, played to create an incredible build-up to the start of the song, and when the refrain hits, performers drop from inside the bells from elastic rope...could not believe how awesome this was.
Long Live: very well done, and the stage fireworks put a perfect touch to an already great song (which is even better live)
Our Song, Fifteen: these pair of songs impressed me just because they were performed so well. Amazing.

Overall, probably the best concert that I've ever been to thus far. Visually pleasing and she is such an amazing singer and performer. "The Agency" is at the same high caliber as she is, and I had an amazing time. …

Get yours here

Parklife : Blur (Score = 3)
Song 2 : Blur (Score = 3)
Common People : Pulp (Score = 3)
Waterfall : The Stone Roses (Score = 3)
Alright : Supergrass (Score = 3)
Disco 2000 : Pulp (Score = 3)
Beautiful Ones : Suede (Score = 3)
Closer : Travis (Score = 2)
Always Where I Need to Be : The Kooks (Score = 2)
Married With Children : Noel Gallagher (Score = 2)
Club Foot : Kasabian (Score = 2)
No You Girls : Franz Ferdinand (Score = 2)
I Wanna Be Adored : The Stone Roses (Score = 2)
Talk Tonight : Noel Gallagher (Score = 2)
Take Aim : Kasabian (Score = 2)
Motorcycle Emptiness : Manic Street Preachers (Score = 2)
Take Me Out : Franz Ferdinand (Score = 2)
Fake Plastic Trees : Radiohead (Score = 2)
Can't Stand Me Now : The Libertines (Score = 2)
So Long Forever : Vega 4 (Score = 2)
…

Andrew Belle
The Belle Brigade
The Black Keys
Brandon Flowers
Broken Bells
Charlene Kaye
Coldplay x 3
Cults
Death Cab for Cutie
Demi Lovato x 2
Dirty Projectors
Ed Sheeran
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros x 3
Electric Guest
Elliott Yamin
Family Of The Year x 2
Florence + the Machine
Foster the People x 7
Gardens & Villa
Good Old War
Grouplove
Heath McNease x 2
Holy Ghost!
Hot Chelle Rae (New Boyz cameo)
Jack Johnson
Jesse McCartney
Joe Brooks x 2
Jonas Brothers x 7
Justin Paul Lewis
Kanye West
Kimbra
Kris Allen
KT Tunstall
Lady Antebellum (Josh Groban cameo)
Mat Kearney
Mayer Hawthorne
Miley Cyrus (with Johnzo West)
Metronomy
Mumford & Sons (Dawes cameo)
NEEDTOBREATHE
Neon Indian
Neon Trees
Nicole Simone
One Direction
Passenger
Paul McCartney
Phoenix x 2
The Pierces
Reptar
Rooney
The Script
Selah Sue
Starkid
Sublime w/ Rome
Switchfoot x 2
Taylor Swift x 2
Teddy Geiger
The Temper Trap
Tyrone Wells
Vampire Weekend
…

Welcome!

This list is not all-inclusive, as I am mortal, and cannot know every band that exists, especially in the underground scene. Also, I am sure to have forgotten some. If you have a band(s) that you want me to add to the list, simply post it and I'll get around to adding it. The criteria is simply a metal or rock band that is Christian. I'm sure I'm not 100% accurate with the genres, they are a general guide to help people out. But feel free to argue with me if you think I'm crazy! The purpose of this is hopefully to provide those who like this type of music with a resource to find new bands.

Bands with an apostrophe in their name ( ' ) will not link with last.fm code. If anyone knows a solution to this issue, please leave a shout. Otherwise, last.fm links to the band's page has been provided for your convenience. Please report broken links in the shoutbox.

A special thank you to everyone who has suggested a band name to add to this list, which is growing all the time. Spread it around to your friends!
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Between my work schedule, and the fact that Southern Louisiana doesn't get as many concerts as other places I've lived, I did not get to see as many concerts as in previous years. However, the quality of concerts I was able to see more than made up for the lack of quantity. Here are the individual concert sets that stood out the most this past year:

HONORABLE MENTION

As usual, there were more quality concert sets than there were spots in my top 10. Here were some of the concerts that fell short of my top 10 for the year, but I felt were of sufficient quality to earn a mention:

Graham Colton
Varisty Theatre, Baton Rouge, LA – 3/3/2010
The first concert I saw this year turned out to be an entertaining one as Graham Colton opened the evening with an energetic acoustic set.

Ariel Abshire
House of Blues, Houston, TX – 11/26/2010
This acoustic set opening for The Rocket Summer served as my introduction to Ariel Abshire, during which her strong voice left an impression on me.
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