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It's the time of the year when many organizations are coming out with their mid-year lists of the best music of 2011 (so far). We thought we would try something different for our mid-year review and conducted a fantasy draft of sorts with a few guests. Here's what transpired.

One small programming note: To give this post its full due at the top of the blog and to enjoy the long weekend, YCHIOTR will take a small break until July 5th. We've had daily content since the beginning of the year, and we're looking forward to continuing that in the 2nd half of the year.

Steve
Welcome to a grand experiment; well, an experiment. Thanks a lot for joining us to select the best music of the year so far. We decided to try this as a draft format so as not to spoil our year-end lists. So, it's a little bit fantasy football and a little bit desert island jukebox. As far as ground rules and frame of mind for this draft-style determination of the best music released so far this year, imagine if you will a pile of records on the ground, every LP released in 2011 (EPs excluded). On your turn you get to choose an album from the pile that you will be able to listen to for the rest of time, and no one else will. Conversely, any record that gets selected by someone else no longer exists for you.

So, which album can't you live without?

We'll do a typical snake format draft for those of you familiar with such things (1 to 5, 5 to 1, 1 to 5, etc).

A special welcome to our guests. Noah and I have joining us tonight our good friends Kim and Reagen from Box Office Prophets, one of the best entertainment sites on the web. Also joining us is Andrew, a music fan and journalist from Dekalb, Illinois. Welcome everyone.

The draft order will go:
1) Kim
2) Noah
3) Reagen
4) Andrew
5) Steve

So without further ado, the floor is Kim's.

Noah
Kim's checking to see if Albert Pujols released an album in 2011.

Kim
It's called The Miraculously Healed Broken Wrists.

Noah
It costs $250 million over 8 years.

Kim
With the first pick of the draft, I'm going to go with the album that's been infecting my summer - Cults, by Cults. I resisted loving this album. I really did. Initially, I felt like it embraced the '60s girl group sound a bit too easily, but Cults is really much deeper than that on repeated listens. Its upbeat sound camouflages the fact that the lyrics have some darker meaning. It's perfect summer music, but I'm pretty sure it's going to stick with me a lot longer than that.

Steve
I just got that but haven't listened to it yet. I should correct that.

Andrew
That was on my list too Kim. Nicely put. But darn you for picking before me. ...This is competitive right?

Steve
It is competitive, but we haven't figured out a scoring system yet.

Kim
I figure everyone is going to pick everything I want by the time it gets back to me, so yes.

Reagen
I'm just trying to figure out how to trade up for rights to a future U2 album or something.

Steve
I think you trade down for U2 these days.

Noah
Cults wasn't on my list, so I have to decide between my three favorite albums so far. For my first pick, I'm going to take Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes.

Not exactly a daring choice, but from my perspective there is no sophomore slump for Fleet Foxes. They've made an album that stays true to their sound while also exploring new ground and doing so incredibly effectively.

It's an album I have yet to tire of and has shown me something different nearly every time I listen to it. I find myself lost, daydreaming in the middle of a listen.

Steve
Yes, but is it an onion? Our readers want to know.

Noah
I'm still peeling.

Kim
I want to like Helplessness Blues more than I do. I think it has a couple of gems, but it also kind of wears me out.

Reagen
That's an album I wanted to like, after the brilliance of their first album, but aside from a couple of moments, I never felt it take off. It all kind of blends into one troubadourish mush to me.

Andrew
I'm waiting to see them live at Pitchfork fest. I didn't fall in love with the last album until I saw them live. I have faith they'll deliver though.

Noah
I hate you all.

Steve
I'm with you Noah.

Andrew
There's the competitive stuff right there!

Noah
*Except Steve.

Kim
I do think Grown Ocean is a brilliant song, though.

Steve
It's impressively good; I can see how the album would fall flat for some though. I'm on record as really liking it despite it being a little too folky for me.

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