Welcome to another installment of Up on the Sun's 2011 Review. Over the next week, editor Jason P. Woodbury and the staff will countdown their favorite songs, shows, national and local releases of 2011.

Earlier this year, someone called me "an old soul." A little earlier, someone joked that my tastes were that of a That '70s Show reject. I make no apologies. The history of pop music is littered with also-rans, sideshows, and shoulda-been-huge acts.

Of course. the reissue and compilation industry is loaded with plenty of sub-par releases, the kind of things that were undiscovered for a reason. Not the case with these 10 releases, each containing slabs of vital funk, rock, blues, gospel, pop, or soul, depending on the record.