20 RECORDS YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW

It seems that every other music site in the blogopshere has been rolling out their mid-year Best of 2011 over the past couple of weeks. I understand the urge to engage in some pre-playoffs speculation, at the same time I feel like it is just a little too early in the year to start declaring "Best Ofs" (even if I am guilty of the same sin in individual reviews). Instead I'd like to take this opportunity to shine a spotlight on some albums that deserve more attention than I have been able to give them this year. Not that you likely care, but I have a full-time professional job, I have a family that more than deserves my attention, and unfortunately this year I have suffered two serious debilitating illnesses, so I haven't been able to give nearly as much attention to this blog or my reviews as I have wished. Call this a cop out, but I'm going to take this mid-year opportunity to showcase 20 albums that deserve glowing full-length reviews that I haven't been able to give them, and that you should totally be listening to right now, rather than ranking my best-ofs so far. I am listing these in no particular order, so please don't ascribe meaning to the numbers that appear next to them. #1 is no better than #20. They are all awesome and should be burning up your turntable stat.