And Pluck Your Strings

I’ve never been a big fan of these halfway-through-the-year lists, but it’s been such a diverse and fast-moving few months for music that I felt it might be a good idea to just sit back for a while and decide on the songs from the first half of 2011 that I would classify as truly essential listening. Some of these are just great individual tracks, while others are indicative of a fantastic overall album. Either way though, I believe these are just some of the artists that have done exciting things so far this year and that everyone should be listening to.