The Best Of 2006 - #15-11

NOTES: (1) Yes, I know. Not all of these albums were released in 2006. These are the best albums I bought this year, not the best that were released. I'm not hip enough to catch all the best stuff the year it's released. (2) I didn't obsess over these rankings enough that any meaningful distinction can be made between, say, number 22 and number 21. Any given album is likely to be no better or worse than the two or three albums in either direction. As the rankings get higher, relative positioning means more.

15. Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Love Bad News
The magic of Modest Mouse is in the vocal delivery. One of the lines of the year is from Bury Me With It: "Life handed us a paycheck/We said, 'We worked harder than this!'" That line just sits there like a dead thing until you hear it. One of the funniest, most honest and accurate lyrics I've ever heard. But it's all about the delivery.
Standout Tracks: Float On, Bukowski.

14. Fine China – Jaws Of Life
One might be tempted to be turned of by the voice. This album sometimes sounds dangerously close to a teenager whining about his curfew. But then, upon hearing Palace Brothers for the first time, you might have thought you were listening to a dim goat hearder with a head cold entertaining himself on the toilet. And you'd be wrong, wouldn't you? This is a fantastic collection of songs. Too bad they broke up.
Standout Tracks: Rated-R Movie, Skull And Crossbones, Bivouac, Person Of The Month.

13. Chad VanGaalen – Infiniheart
I can't listen to this without hearing echos of a dozen other artists/albums/songs I love. But if this guy is derivative, at least he's ripping of the likes of Tortoise. Being very mellow and electronic, this is great to listen to late at night. After The Afterlife and 1000 Pound Eyelids are both song of the year material. 1000 Pound Eyelids boasts the most mournful horn you will ever hear. I can't hear that song enough.
Standout Tracks: Clinically Dead, After The Afterlife, 1000 Pound Eyelids.

12. Mobius Band – The Loving Sounds Of Silence
This one kind of snuck up on me in the same way Rogue Wave did. Now it's one of my favorite listens. There's not a bad song on the album.
Standout Tracks: They're all great. Taxicab is my favorite.

11. Arcade Fire – Funeral
Released to great acclaim in 2004, this one is clear testimate to the distance by which I lag the cutting edge. Wow, what a powerful album. The furious nervous energy that defines the album is undeniable, but even the less intense stuff is deeply satisfying. The Pixies influence is hard to miss. A couple of misses (notably, the weak and out-of-place Une Annee Sans Lumiere) keep this out of the top 10, but it's a great, great album nonetheless.
Standout Tracks: Tunnels, Laika, Power Out, Wake Up, Haiti, Rebellion (Lies). Just skip over track 3, basically.

The Best Of 2006 - #20-16

NOTES: (1) Yes, I know. Not all of these albums were released in 2006. These are the best albums I bought this year, not the best that were released. I'm not hip enough to catch all the best stuff the year it's released. (2) I didn't obsess over these rankings enough that any meaningful distinction can be made between, say, number 22 and number 21. Any given album is likely to be no better or worse than the two or three albums in either direction. As the rankings get higher, relative positioning means more.

20. Husky Rescue – Country Falls
My kids gave me this for my birthday, so it has sentimental value. Objectively speaking, its inconsistency reminds me of Telepopmusik's. There's certainly nothing embarrassingly bad on Country Falls, but they seem to indulge the weaker of their musical instincts more often than they ought. New Light of Tomorrow is song of the year material.
Standout Tracks: Sweet Little Kitten, New Light of Tomorrow, Sunset Drive, Sleep Tight Tiger.

19. Imogen Heap – Speak For Yourself
While sometimes embarrassingly cloy and girlish, lyrically-speaking ("Why'd you have to be so cute/It's impossible to ignore you"), the melodies and arrangements are damn-near irresistible.
Standout Tracks: Headlock, Loose Ends, Clear The Area.

18. Acid House Kings – Sing Along With Acid House Kings
For me, Acid House Kings are to the mid-2000s what the Sundays were to the mid-1990s: beautiful background music. I don't often engage directly with this album, but it makes the room so much more pleasant when I'm doing other things.
Standout Tracks: That's Because You Drive Me, This Heart Is A Stone, I Write Summer Songs For No Reason, Wipe Away Those Tears.

17. Mazarin – We're Already There
I'm not sure why I'm ranking this so highly. Maybe I should switch it with The Long Winters at 23. In any case, the first half of this album is filled with great songs. It begins to drag a bit in the second half, but by then it's been well worth it. XMU has been annoying me lately by constantly playing the Walkmen covering Another One Goes By. Why play the half-hearted cover that attempts nothing more than a straight retelling of the song when you have the original right there? My simple rule: if your cover of the song isn't significantly better, or at least significantly different, don't do it. Pointless covers bug me to no end.
Standout Tracks: The New American Apathy, For Energy Infinite, Another One Goes By.

16. Rogue Wave – Descended Like Vultures
I had heard at least a half dozen songs from this album before I realized I even liked this band. Then I got the album and was surprised to find how much I loved it. Great song after great song after great song. This is the first album in the list that doesn't have a single weak song.
Standout Tracks: All of them. Seriously. Medicine Ball is my favorite, though.

The Best Of 2006 - #26-21

NOTES: (1) Yes, I know. Not all of these albums were released in 2006. These are the best albums I bought this year, not the best that were released. I'm not hip enough to catch all the best stuff the year it's released. (2) I didn't obsess over these rankings enough that any meaningful distinction can be made between, say, number 22 and number 21. Any given album is likely to be no better or worse than the two or three albums in either direction. As the rankings get higher, relative positioning means more.

26. Shout Out Louds – Very Loud
Also very short, unfortunately. An interesting case of the b-sides from a CD single being much, much better than the single itself. Very Loud is a good song. But The Again No and Wish I Was Dead Pt. 2 are great songs. And I got it for $2 online. Power buy of the year.
Standout Tracks: But The Again No , Wish I Was Dead Pt. 2.

25. Iron & Wine – Woman King
The guitar line in Jezebel is too familiar to that in the Such Great Heights cover on the Garden State soundtrack, but not a note out of place otherwise. My Lady's House is on my shortlist for song of the year.
Standout Tracks: Jezebel, My Lady's House.

24. Doves – Some Cities
Inconsistency separates albums in the twenties from albums in the teens. This album has five exceptional songs; the rest are average. But those five are real doozies. Walk In Fire is probably my favorite driving-fast-and-singing-at-full-throat song of 2006.
Standout Tracks: Almost Forgot Myself, Walk In Fire, One Of These Days, Someday Soon, Ambition.

23. The Long Winters – When I Pretend To Fall
It may be that I'm punishing this one for not consistently living up to its own very high standards set with opening and closing tracks Blue Diamonds and Nora (both candidates for song of the year). It's tough for the rest of the album to live up to those standards. It's a great album in any case.
Standout Tracks: Blue Diamonds, Scared Straight, Cinnamon, Nora.

22. The Rosebuds – Birds Make Good Neighbors
The same consistency problems as the last two. There seem to be two distinct styles here; one fairly light and poppy, the other darker. I respond strongly to the darker style; less so to the lighter. Boxcar is a song of the year candidate.
Standout Tracks: Hold Hands and Fight, Boxcar, Blue Bird, Let Us Go, 4-Track Love Song.

21. Built To Spill – You In Reverse
This one has made many year-end best-of lists among hipster media types. It's a very good album with a very satisfying old-school guitar rock crunch to it, distinguishing it from that post-Nirvana thick tar guitar sludge that's infected mainstream rock for the past decade. The thing that bugs me when listening to this album is the difficulty they seem to have ending songs. They'll put together a great song, exhaust the theme, then continue on for several more minutes with a bunch of pointless, undistinguished instrumental noodling. Red House Painters had the same problem on occassion. Maybe one or two extended outbursts per album would be interesting, but c'mon. Every time? Just end the damn song, already!
Standout Tracks Goin' Against Your Mind, Liar.