25. Art Brut Bang Bang Rock & Roll
24. Erin McKeown We Will Become Like Birds
23. Atmosphere You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having
22. One Be Lo S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M
21. Of Montreal The Sunlandic Twins
20. Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
19. Nic Armstrong & The Thieves The Greatest White Liar
18. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Howl
17. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals Cold Roses
16. Sleater-Kinney The Woods
15. Beck Guero
14. Common Be
13. Wolf Parade Apologies to Queen Mary
12. Dangerdoom The Mouse and the Mask
11. Stars Set Yourself on Fire
10. Gorillaz Demon Days
9. Andrew Bird The Mysterious Production of Eggs
8. The Go! Team Thunder, Lightning, Strike
7. Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene
6. Bloc Party Silent Alarm
5. Kanye West Late Registration
4. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
3. Sufjan Stevens Illinois
2. Spoon Gimme Fiction
1. My Morning Jacket Z
After reviewing last year's list, it's pretty easy to see that 2005 can (and should be) remembered as being one of the better years music-wise in quite some time. The class of 2006 unfortunately isn't as strong as last year, although there are certainly a fair share of very noteworthy albums. That being said, here are my categorical winners and losers of the year 2006:
Best Rock Album
Honorable Mentions: The Flaming Lips At War With The Mystics, The Hold Steady Boys and Girls in America
Best Indie Album
Yo La Tengo I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your AssHonorable Mentions: TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain, The Rapture Pieces of the People We Love, Phoenix It's Never Been Like That
Best Mainstream Album
My Chemical Romance The Black ParadeHonorable Mentions: Gnarls Barkley St. Elsewhere, John Mayer Continuum
Best Hip-Hop Album
The Roots Game TheoryHonorable Mentions: Spank Rock YoYoYoYoYoYo, Lupe Fiasco Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor, Ghostface Killah Fishscale
Best Electronic Album
Mylo Destroy Rock & RollHonorable Mentions: Herbert Scale, Nightmares on Wax In a Space Outta Sound
Best Debut Album
Lupe Fiasco Lupe Fiasco's Food & LiquorHonorable Mentions: Corinne Bailey Rae Corinne Bailey Rae, Wolfmother Wolfmother, Kenn Starr Starr Status
Most Overrated Album
Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm NotHonorable Mention: The Raconteurs Broken Boy Soldiers
Biggest Surprise
My Chemical Romance The Black ParadeHonorable Mention: Bob Dylan Modern Times
Biggest Disappointment
The Strokes First Impressions of EarthHonorable Mention: The Streets The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
There are two burning questions that I've had for the majority of this year that have still not been answered: First, what the hell were The Strokes thinking when they released First Impressions of Earth? Two, who managed to convince millions of people that the Arctic Monekys are any good? I suppose I can understand The Strokes move, you can only remake Is This It? so many times and they pulled a Radiohead and came out with the album that made every rock mag claiming these guys to be the savior of good music cry. For the record, I'm not comparing these guys to Radiohead,. Rather, they did what Radiohead did when they released Kid A after OK Computer (a move which served as a mindfuck to just about everyone, even those previously unfamiliar with Radiohead). The problem is that since The Strokes have far lesser talent (which isn't a slight to The Strokes, you could really take most of the music today and still not add up talent-wise) they were only able to come up with First Impressions of Earth. Still with me? Good. The Arctic Monkeys on the other hand seemed to be a case of the world (and by world, I mean England, which in turn effects the music snobs in America, which in turn effects... you get the idea) searching for a sign of life after watching The Libertine's frontman Pete Doherty singlehandedly destroy his band. Presumably finding the first set of blokes walking down the street, we were greeted with the Arctic Monkeys and forced to like them, whether we liked it or not. That's not to say that all hope is lost, as I've actually enjoyed a couple of their b-sides (the couple being "Chun Li's Spinning Bird Kick" and "Settle For a Draw"). Really though, any band that generates this much hype should be something more than what the listener is left with when listening to the Arctic Monkeys. Maybe that's why they named the title of their debut Whatever Everyone Says I Am, That's What I'm Not-- despite what everyone else said, they already knew they sucked.
Continuing with lowlights before I get to the highlights, I would like to say that the other band (or I suppose pseudo-supergroup in this case) that people need to get over is The Raconteurs. Yes, I love Jack White and nothing makes me happier than hearing him shred a guitar until your ears aren't sure if they should bleed or orgasm. Yes, I've even heard of and love Brendan Benson, a man that not only has a knack for, but actually seems comfortable with the idea of, writing good pop songs. Somehow amongst all that talent, including a couple of members from the Greenhornes to boot, Broken Boy Soldiers felt like an awkward demo tape that perhaps would've been better left an EP. Speaking of supergroups, Gnarls Barkley was originally going to make it to my overrated list, and judging by how many times these guys have already appeared on top 10 of 2006 charts, I probably wouldn't be far off in that assessment. After all, having one hit song (one hit song I should note that was played so many times by so many different bands that if it weren't for the fact that it's actually good would be frowned upon in a few years the same way the "Macarena" and "Who Let The Dogs Out?" are today) doesn't mean squat for an album. However, I look at Gnarls Barkley as being the way in which both of these guys (that being Napoleon Dy-- I mean, Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo) finally get their due. Danger Mouse has easily been one of the hottest producers around, and Cee-Lo has finally broken into the spotlight after making two really solid solo albums and previously spending time with the Goodie Mob.
Speaking of guys getting their due, I'm not sure how much longer it's going to take before The Roots get theirs-- but I hope it's soon. Outkast finally broke through bigtime when they released Stankonia, and many others have followed suit, but the Roots are still stuck in the shadows. Game Theory is not only one of the best albums to come out of 2006, but also next to Things Fall Apart is the best album of their career. It's about time more people take notice because these guys are making some serious music. Other artists/bands that are surprisingly being looked over this year are Mylo, M. Ward and Wolfmother, all of whom churned out exceptional albums this year and were initially very well received.
Getting off of my high horse, I will say that this has been one of the more interesting years in recent memory of music. While the big stories last year involved a lot of DIY indie-rock fairy tales come true and hip-hop artists proving their worth, this year involves a lot of veterans kicking ass once again-- whether it be The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Roots, Bob Dylan or Yo La Tengo. Even more interesting however, is that this is probably the first year where there was really no definitive #1 album-- I've honestly reshuffled my top 5 about five or six times before coming to a decision, and that's something I've never had to do before. All in all though, this has been a very good year for music, and I can't wait to see what 2007 has to offer. Once again, be sure to check back tomorrow for the full list of my top 25 albums of 2006.
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