Top Ten Albums of 2006
January 3rd, 2007
Shortly on soundsect.com you will see the site’s picks for Best Albums of 2006. I compiled my own list which I will show here.
Overall it was a pretty good year for music. There were some great new releases from up and coming bands, some stellar reissues, and some great releases from some well known musicians who have been giving us great music for several decades.
The Top Ten Albums of 2006
| 10. The Thermals - The Body, the Blood, the Machine This follow up to 2004’s absolutely amazing Fuckin’ A took a little while to grow on me, but it definitely took it’s hold after a few listens. I find myself listening to it more and more. |
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| 9. Tokyo Police Club - Lessons in Crime Their debut CD comes in at a whopping 16:19, the 7 tracks average about 2:20 in length. Goddamn what a good 16 minutes this is though. “Nature of the Experiment” is definitely one of the catchiest songs of the year. Can not wait to hear more from them. |
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| 8. Raison D’être - Metamorphyses Raison D’être returned in 2006 with a new album. Peter Andersson took a slightly different route with this album and to be honest I really like this new direction for Raison D’être. |
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| 7. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass IANAoYaIWBYA is a great album that is an amalgamation of all the styles they have touched upon throughout their career as well as something new thrown into the mix. A post of mine on the soundsect.com forums after my intial listen says it all: “‘The Story of Yo La Tango’ is one of the best songs ever written. “ |
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| 6. Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll In reality this album came out in 2005, but since I am basing this on US release dates Bang Bang Rock & Roll makes it onto the list. Can not wait to hear what they bring us next. Read my full review here. |
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| 5. Wilt - Dark Meadows This album caught me by surprise. A beautiful mix of field recordings, acoustic guitar and electronics. Wrylab turned me onto this one, and I am glad he did. |
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| 4. Matmos - The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast Matmos gave us another brilliant album this past year with some guest appearances from the likes of Bjork and Blevin Blectum. As always, Matmos introduce a new way of making music: A cow’s reproductive tract as a wind instrument. Enough said. |
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| 3. Xiu Xiu - The Air Force I will admit, the latest Xiu Xiu didn’t grab me at first. It took afew listens for me to really get into this album, but once I did it has quickly become one of my favorite Xiu Xiu albums. Read my full review here. |
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| 2. Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards Everything about this release is great. The packaging, the music, everything. There are a few “ok” tracks, but for the most part this is a damn brilliant set. |
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| 1. Scott Walker - The Drift Honestly this was my first real introduction to Scott Walker’s music and it blew me away. Grim, dark cabaret full of theatrics and dark lyrics. Hard to believe that he was once a 60’s pop icon. I can not recommend this CD enough. |
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Hopefully 2007 will be a good year for music as well.