This year marks the second annual Smoky Mountain News’ 10 Top 10s List and once again our community panel has brought forth a slew of albums ranging from best sellers to cultural oddities, self-produced first efforts to greatest hits collections.

The lists — submitted by an industry producer, a Grammy winning banjo player, the founder and president of the WNC Jazz Society, a local studio owner, a record store owner, a singer/songwriter, an independent radio station DJ, a self-proclaimed music buff, the SMN A&E Editor and the paper’s seminal columnist and Over Yonder Jamboree writer — are intensely personal, a summary of what you’d find in our panel’s own record collection. Consequently, the rules got changed somewhere along the way. When musician Malcolm Holcombe said he couldn’t come up with 10 albums released in 2004 that he’d recommend, we let him get away with five. In his own words: “Only five... only five because I lived in Nashville for about 10 years and it makes me sick at my stomach while my heart sinks into the hollows of apathy, wasting my hard earned sanity on creepy, thoughtless tripe.”

Grammy Award-winning banjo player Marc Pruett shared Holcombe’s philosophy and submitted a list of seven.

“Once, I listed to a Junior Brown cut... the first cut of My Wife Thinks You’re Dead... from Asheville to Louisville, Ky. I figure maybe five hours of it. It’s not often I hear one close to perfect,” Pruett said. “I can’t stand to hear most stuff.”

The shortage speaks volumes about the state of music today. About how new releases are becoming more about cross merchandising, Top 40 play and good looks than about quality. Which isn’t to promote music snobbery. It’s just to say that maybe, just maybe, if the Indiana Pacers’ Ron Artest been more interested in playing basketball than promoting his new rap album, November’s Pistons-Pacers game wouldn’t have been called on account of asinine behavior. Perhaps that indefinite suspension will boost record sales.

But that’s an debate for another time.

What we’ve got here is some good solid listening — Sonic Youth, Alison Krauss, Brian Wilson, Ray Charles, U2, Drive-By Truckers, Tom Waits, Ricky Skaggs, Roy Haynes, Ben Harper & The Blind Boys of Alabama, just to name a few.

There were a few albums that kept coming up: Wilson’s Smile, Charles’ Genius Loves Company, Keb Mo’s Keep It Simple, Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born, Eminem’s Encore, the Truckers’ Dirty South. There were a few albums released in previous years that were so good they were still stuck in listeners’ memories including Krauss’ 2002 Live, John Mayer’s Heavier Things, the Allman Brothers’ Hittin’ The Note, Enrico Pieranunzi’s Fellini Jazz, Jerry Douglas’ Lookout For Hope, and Marty Stuart’s Country Music, all from 2003. We took those out, but now you know.

So get out your pens, read on, and make note of the albums you’ve already got... and the albums you’ve got to go out and get.