Best "album" of 2006


I know we are only 6 weeks into 2006, but what are your best albums of 2006. I remember in the past, certain print magazines claiming Wilco YFH and Bright Eyes I'm wide awake ... were the best albums of those years as early as January. So, for fun ... what 2006 CD or LP is constantly rotating in your system.

For me, NME has finally got it right... the Arctic Monkeys are living up to their hype ... great CD ... between the 17 feet of new snow in Whistler during January and the Arctic Monkeys playing inside my Giro Fuse helmet, I couldn't erase the smile off my face.

Other good early albums:
Cat Power ... the greatest
Belle & Sebastian The Life Pursuit
Beth Orton Comfort of Strangers
Jenny Lewis with the Watson twins Rabbit Fur Coat

I need to slow down on my CD purchases ... THere is not enough time to listen to my older CD's from 2005.
thom_y
TONY MONACO-EAST TO WEST
PAUL MOTIAN-GARDEN OF EDEN
JOE LOCKE REV-ELATION
JOEL HARRISON-HARRISON ON HARRISON
CHICK COREA-THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE
CHRIS POTTER-UNDERGROUND
another one I forgot to mention, a Swedish group not unlike the UK's Go Team!

Love Is All -- Nine Times That Same Song
Definitely, Calixeco's newest Garden Ruin will make it to the end of 2006 as one of the year's best, as will Neko Case. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood.

For a sonic workout of your speakers and amps, I am impressed with the Fiery Furnaces last CD: Bitter Tea. (they are back on track after their last slip up) THe only problem is that it probably is too long and could have been edited a bit.
Neco Cases' record with honorable mentions to albums by Derek Trucks & Howe Gelb
more mainstream
Donald Fagen's Morph the Cat is a classic

David Gilmour - On an Island is nice also

T
Jackie Greene "American Mythic". Lots of catchy hooks. Just got it so I'll have to see how it holds up to repeated listening.
Kate Bush's Aerial is a wonderful, broad-ranging effort by this consumate artist. The LP has a very nice full color multi-page booklet too- nice production all around.
Kate Bush was 2005.

Fav releases this year.
The Arctic Monkeys
Donald Fagen

And the new Springsteen is a lot of fun, I can see his new album surprising a lot of people
So far..
The Gossip. Standing in the way of control (great vocals)
Cat Power. The greatest(a little boring though)
Rob.
Ck out Blessed Yes' song called Trace on their web site or their myspace site. They are a local band here in Baton Rouge. They ROCK!
Going #1 next yr, you watch.
My choice of best "Indie" music.
Takes you back to late 60's/early 70's. Yet has a timeless quality. May be light fare for some of you guys. But surely better than alot of junk we have nowadays.
I love em.
I think this is 2005, but has anybody heard Sufjan Stevens's "Come On Feel the Illinois"? Great title, and it's one of the most interesting and experimental pop/??? cds I've heard in decades.
Another vote for Beth Orton "The COMFORT of Strangers" and also for Bruce's "We Shall Overcome"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs. "Show Your Bones" is IMHO the best album I've heard so far in 2006. Their sound is much like the Strokes but with a female singer. Karen O sounds much like Gwen Stephani but with much more energy and a sweeter voice. Any rock fan should listen to this album!
Tough call, but I think it's the equal of Central Reservation (I really love that album too.) Comfort of Strangers took several listenings to get into, but then I was hooked. The production and arrangements are terrific, the lyrics are mostly very strong.
My favorites so far are Centro-matic's "Fort Recovery," an amazing record by a band I'd never heard of until recently--it is sort of reminiscent of Sparklehorse or Varnaline, but better--and the Drive-By Trucker's "A Blessing and a Curse," the tightest collection of songs they've yet produced.

also like the Arctic Monkeys new one, and the Neko Case, but the Centro-matic album surpasses them all...

Comfort of Strangers is less electronic and a little more laid back than CR; I love them both. CofS is a b it of a departure. I heard her interviewed on some NPR station, and she played a lot of it on just an acoustic guitar.
Neko Case -- Fox Confessor. Great voice, original songs, great arrangements and musicianships. Very refreshing.

Neal
You guys who like the Neko Case album, should definitely check out the latest Calexico (Garden Ruin). Incidently, Calexico supports Neko on Fox Confessor.
Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat

Lead singer of Rilo Kiley, on her first solo album. If you like Alison Krauss, Lyle Lovett's "gospelly" songs, and alternative singer-songwriter type stuff, this will be right up your alley. Great catchy tunes, nice harmonies. The kind of tunes that stick in your head all day. Cheers,
Spencer
Ladies and Gentlemen, my sincere Vote for Jenny Lewis & watson twins. Also, Neko case, beth orton and definitely Yeah yeah yeahs but the winner is so far is The Raconteurs, the Jack Whites not-so-white-stripes supergroup. The music, the riffs, the singing, the pace, makes absolutely moden classic rock.!!. Yeah yeah yeah is not far behind though. Love Karen O's sexy and energizing vocals. Way overblown Arctic Monkey don't get a chance in this company.
kate bush aerial was the best 2005 lp by a long shot. arctic monkeys best pure pop for now people.
so far for 2006? cat power, beth orton, fagens' morph the cat, the new paul simon...all strong contenders. morph might take it for me because the sound quality is so damn good. and i love the fact that despite that it's digitally recorded, they managed to master and press the vinyl so well that it is even better than the cd. GREAT sonics!!!

gotta say Ray Davies solo is a major bon bon, and live in NYC about 6 weeks ago his was the best live show I've seen in years, one of the best I've ever seen.
>>kate bush aerial was the best 2005 lp<<

I purchased the vinyl a few weeks ago; the material, performance, and sonics are wonderful. Highly recommended.
Stretching a few mos. back '06 into '05, best 10 pop are:

Rosanne Cash- Black Cadillac
David Gilmour- On An Island
Tom Verlaine- Songs & Other Things
John Prine- Fair & Square
Pearl Jam
Isobell Campbell & Mark Lanegan- Ballad of the Broken Seas
Ray Davies- Other People's Lives
T-Bone Burnett- The True False Identity
Calexico- Garden Ruin

The most beautiful female voice and masterful understated guitar work in '05 is "Petra Hayden & Bill Frisell". You've just got to hear Frisell work over Coldplay's Yellow.

Dave
Forgot to add Foo Fighters "In Your Honor".

Most hilarious sonic miscarriage: Paul Simon with Brian Eno.

Dave
Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You (great voice-should be also on the "Best Female vocals on CD" list)
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
The two I like the most at the moment are the Neko Case (wish it was longer than 35 mins though) and Paul Simon's "Surprise". The latter was hard to get into, but totally rewarding once assimilated.

Regards,
To update my 5-27 entry...

Johnny Cash-- American V.

Jewel-- Goodbye Alice in Wonderland

Neko Case--everything she does. Fox Confessor drove me to buy everything else and see the live concert. She's awesome, and I can't get enough.

I look forward to Bob Dylan's upcoming Modern Times, and surprisingly, Christina Aguilera's new jazzed up project.
This is a pretty easy decision for me. With out a doubt my favorite album of 2006 is
Danielson - Ships.

Perhaps it is the way that you can delve into this album and find an abundance of new sounds and instruments through out the 12 stunning tracks. Or it could be the whimsical word play, and at times down right gorgeous lyrics. I think it is a combination of these things, which stem from the fact that Daniel Smith (lead singer) so effortlessly ties all of this together with out coming off as gimmicky or contrived.

I have this album in my top 10 of this decade already among classics like Radiohead 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac', Modest Mouse 'Moon and Antarctica', Arcadefire 'Funeral'.

I know I can not do this album justice trying to explain it, so if you are at all interested check out this link and down load the song "Did I Step On Your Trumpet?"

http://www.secretlycanadian.com/onesheet.php?cat=SC103

Happy listening!
KATE BUSH ALWAYS AND FOREVER.
Aerial, and this is very high praise, is th best album in her remarkable career. it's as if the rest of the stunning oeuvre was just leading up to this.
Still playing this every day since november 2005, and always picking up something new.
Kate is God.
the new Guster album "Ganging up on the Sun" is stellar

has an early 70's analog vibe, nice harmonies
A Valid Path--Alan parsons. It's a dual disc. If you can play in dts format--incredible!!
I love the Duhks' new cd- Migrations.
They are playing in Charlotte Oct 14, I wont miss them!
"Ollabelle" - BATTLES - is one of the best albums I've heard, not just this year, but for quite some time. Americana folk/rock basically. Great singing/harmonizing by man/woman, excellent musicanship, songwritng, etc. You need to buy this album - period!

"James Hunter" - great soul music, excellent recording

"The Mammals" - Departures. alternative bluegrss, with Pete Seeger's nephew on board.

"Grace Potter and the Nocturnals" - Live, indie folk/rock

"Jim Lauderdale" - Bluegrass

"Graham Parker" - songs of no consequence. Another gem by the Godfather of punk rock. tap your feet, boogaloo.

"Randall Bramblett" - (Copper penney) it's late and I can't remember, but Lincoln is on the cover. Good roots rock.

Ollebelle - yes, again. You need this album.
Wildoats- if you like the Mammals you will like the Duhks. They are pals from Canada. When I saw the Mammals back up Arlo Guthrie on his 40th anniversary tour last year the Duhks were there in the audience.
The Duhks are great, lots of different influences from song to song. I could go on and on, I love these guys. If you havent heard them, you just gotta.
Well I started this thread in Feb and now that the end of 2006 is 24 hours away I will share my fav albums of 2006. Of note, I found that I bought way too many CD's largely on hype or based on internet. IN fact, I bought so many that I'm sure there a few CDs I never even really listened to. This list represents the few CDs that I found repeatedly listening to on my emmlabs or iPod 1G or 2G nano:

Fox Confessor Brings The Flood; Neko Case
Garden Ruin; Calexico
Destroyer's Rubies; Destroyer
the life pursuit; belle and Sebastian
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not; Arctic Monkeys
The Warning; Hot Chip
Yellow House Grizzly Bear
Roots & Crowns Califone
Nine times that same song; Love is all
Ys; Joanna Newsom
The Greatest; Cat Power
Return To Cookie Mountain; TV On The Radio
Post-War; M. Ward
Silent Shout; The Knife
Rabbit Fur Coat; Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins
Rather Ripped; Sonic Youth
The Crane Wife; Decemberists
The Loon; Tapes n Tapes
So this is goodbye; Junior Boys
Ships; Danielson
Eraser; Thom Yorke
Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain; Sparklehorse
NOTHING THIS YEAR by RYAN ADAMS

These are not necessarily in order, as other than Neko and Calexico, none of the others really stood out enough to order them.
Thom y, it's a decent list. I would add:

Ray LaMontagne: Till the Sun Turns Black
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3: Ole Tarantula
Ray Davies: Other Peoples Lives
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: Ballad of the Broken Seas
Willie Nelson: Songbird
Pearl Jam
The Who: Endless Wire
Phil Manzanera: 50 Minutes Later
David Gilmour: On an Island
Foo Fighters: Skin & Bones