my top 50 of 2006

Here it is, the best of 2006 (according to my ears)! I'm no good at putting into words why I like the music I like, so I just put a few blurbs on my Top Ten:

50 Gomez - How We Operate
49 Ed Harcourt - The Beautiful Lie
48 Tilly And The Wall - Bottoms Of Barrels
47 What Made Milwaukee Famous - Trying To Never Catch Up
46 Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Under The Covers Vol. 1
45 KT Tunstall - Eye To The Telescope
44 The Rapture - Pieces Of The People We Love
43 Ben Kweller - Ben Kweller
42 Fionn Regan - End Of History
41 Subtle - For Hero: For Fool

40 Albert Hammond, Jr. - Yours To Keep
39 Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
38 The Elected - Sun, Sun, Sun
37 Eels - Live At Town Hall
36 Alan Singley And Pants Machine - Lovingkindness
35 Calexico - Garden Ruin
34 Sound Team - Movie Monster
33 Danielson - Ships
32 Portastatic - Be Still Please
31 My Brightest Diamond - Bring Me The Workhorse

30 Tapes n' Tapes - The Loon
29 Dirty On Purpose - Hallelujah Sirens
28 Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
27 Augie March - Moo, You Bloody Choir
26 Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
25 Oxford Collapse - Remember The Night Parties
24 Islands - Return To The Sea
23 Chin Up Chin Up - This Harness Can't Ride Anything
22 The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
21 Centro-Matic - Fort Recovery

20 Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
19 Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
18 I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
17 Okkervil River - Overboard And Down EP
16 Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther
15 The Brother Kite - Waiting For The Time To Be Right
14 Ox - American Lo-Fi (now, I know there's no US release date for this as of now, but I'm including it anyway. Thanks, T!)
13 Amy Millan - Honey From The Tombs
12 Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
11 Dirty Pretty Things - Waterloo To Anywhere



10 The Starlight Mints - Drowaton
Ah, the poor man's Flaming Lips (or so I've read)... I'd take this one over the new FL anyday. It's quirky, poppy, lyrically clever and instrumentally dense - without feeling cluttered.

09 Some By Sea - On Fire! Igloo
This one kind of came out of nowhere and completely blindsided me. Even though the album was released in March, I only discovered it a few weeks ago. There is just nothing that I don't love about this record. I love the instrumentation, I love Chris DuBray's voice, I love the songs. Unfortunately, Some By Sea broke up earlier this year, but Chris is back with another band called Ghosts & Liars.

08 Joanna Newsom - Ys
So, so pretty. I love listening to this album for all its complexities.



07 Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
Yes, I'm a fangirl. Jenny can do no wrong.



06 Brakes - The Beatific Visions
Brakes have such an original sound. Pair that sound with intelligent lyrics and you get a superb continuation of last year's Give Blood.



05 The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
I love everyting that The Hold Steady does. Everything.



04 The Thermals - The Body The Blood The Machine
Brilliant punk concept album.



03 M. Ward - Post-War
Since the first time I heard the first note of Poison Cup I have loved this album. Matt outdoes himself again.



02 The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Lovely. Epic. Totally Decemberists.



01 Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
This is such a beautiful fucking album, though I didn't fully appreciate it until I saw BOH in concert. They blew me away and I haven't been able to stop listening to the album since.


Here are 50 more albums that I really enjoy, but they just didn't make the cut:

+/- - Let's Build A Fire
Annuals - Be He Me
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Be Your Own PET - Be Your Own PET
Beck - The Information
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Built To Spill - You In Reverse
Califone - Roots & Crowns
Captain Black Heart - Captain Black Heart
Cat Power - The Greatest
Chris Thile - How To Grow A Woman From The Ground
The Curtains - Calamity
Damien Jurado - And Now That I'm In Your Shadow
Damien Rice - 9
Drag The River - It's Crazy.
Dresden Dolls - Yes, Virginia
Fields - 7 From The Village
Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Golden Smog - Another Fine Day
Grandaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Guster - Ganging Up On The Sun
Hot Chip - The Warning
Howling Bells - Howling Bells
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad Of The Broken Seas
Johnny Cash - American V
The Lemonheads - The Lemonheads
Lucero - Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers
Memphis - A Little Place In The Wilderness
The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
Peter Bjorn And John - Writer's Block
Peter Mulvey - The Knuckleball Suite
Pink Mountaintops - Axis Of Evol
Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
The Roots - Game Theory
The Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
Shawn Mullins - 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor
Smoking Popes - At Metro
Sparklehorse - Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
The Strokes - First Impressions Of Earth
Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
Swan Lake - Beast Moans
Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson In Crime EP
Venice Is Sinking - Sorry About The Flowers
Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP
Wolfmother - Wolfmother
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And Will Beat Your Ass


Here are some albums that received great reviews (or had great expectations from yours truly), but somehow I just couldn't get into:

Akron/Family - Meek Warrior
Beach House - Beach House
Blood Brothers - Young Machetes
The Magic Numbers - Those The Brokes
Magnolia Electric Co. - Fading Trails
My Morning Jacket - Okonokos
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Pretty Girls Make Graves - Elan Vital
Rhett Miller - The Believer
Squarepusher - Hello Everything
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Twilight Singers - Powder Burns


These were my favorites concerts of 2006:

Guster @ Ogden Theater (last minute addition...)
Jeff Tweedy @ Boulder Theatre
Smoking Popes @ The Bluebird
Eels @ The Fox
The Boy Least Likely To @ The Fox
Band Of Horses @ The Fox
Bob Schneider @ The Fox
Chris Thile @ The Fox
Ben Kweller @ The Fox

I *heart* The Fox... lol.


Here are some bands that I'm looking forward to new albums from in 2007:

The Shins (ok, so I've heard this one. It's fabulous)
Rilo Kiley
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Deerhoof
Andrew Bird
Decemberists (DVD)