Mitchell hearkens to many themes, and herself called it more of a collection of short stories than a concept album, and we couldn’t agree more.

These aren’t my top songs of all time or the best songs from these artists, but perhaps you’ll find something here as I list the tracks I listen to the most from said artists. More than anything, I wanted an excuse to get a post done while I’m so busy, and wanted to listen to these tracks. Deal with it!

Nothing here was pursued on my own, it was recommended by random users on a video game message board. I’m actually surprised that there were so many things I found enjoyable and so few things that I want to murder.

2011 was an incredible year for music, and even though it’s now February, it’s never too late to take a look back at the best songs of the year. This is especially true because one of the songs in my top five wasn’t introduced to me until sometime last month, a good couple weeks after the year had ended. Still counts though, right? Of course it does, ya big jerk. Don’t you try and suppress my creativity!

Sure, it’s February, and perhaps we’ve missed the “Best Of” rush for 2011, but the site launched in full on Feb. 1, and it’s impossible to be late on a retrospective of sorts. I’m going to go ahead and get this out there: I really like making lists. I don’t know if it’s the uniformity of it all, but lists just feel right. The new year gives me an opportunity to reflect on 2011, which I feel was a monster year in regards to music – one of the best in a long time. Maybe it just feels that way because 2010 was so disappointing, but 2011 did have some truly amazing albums.