Welcome to another installment of Up on the Sun's 2011 Review. Over the next week, we'll be counting down our favorite songs, shows, national and local releases of 2011. This installment comes from Mike Escoto, who contributes to Up on the Sun and is one of the main perpetrators over at Electric Mustache, one of our favorite blogs. Enjoy!

If there are two things that I love it's music and lists, which is why I love this time of year. Sure, it's the holidays and that's great, but checking out all of the best of lists from other publications and music journalists is way more fun. It's a lot like fantasy football in a way, but for music nerds. (We should get our own The League-style show. Your move, FX.) You have your draft picks with your favorite albums and you check to see how many other best of lists they show up on. It's sort of a validation of your musical tastes.

This year it was a bit of a challenge coming up with my top ten favorite albums. While there was some really great music that was released this year it was tough to narrow it down to just ten albums. But, I made some tough decisions, and here we are. Game on.