Here at Download.com Music we're impressed. Bowled over, in fact. The site hasn't even been up for a year, yet we've attracted vast numbers of seriously impressive songs--quality material that's opened our ears, made us smile, given us chills, and caused us to hit the repeat button again and again. Even on our own time.

Since we're terrible at keeping things to ourselves, we figured it was time to share our personal picks of the past year. So here you have it: the 2004 Download.com Music staff favorites.

Some names you'll recognize, others likely not, but in either case this is music that has rocked our world. We hope it does the same for you.

Oh, and in addition to the site's best songs, we each included lists of our favorite 2004 albums. Just for kicks.

We're publishing two lists per day, so keep coming back over the next week to catch the newest batch of staff picks.

Happy New Year,
Download.com Music Staff