sun, 31-dec-2006, 15:12

I'm not going to go into much detail here because I don't aspire to be a music writer. If you're interested in the records mentioned, check out the reviews at Pitchfork, Stylus Magazine, Cokemachineglow, and other music blog sites. With the exception of Grizzly Bear, available directly from Warp Records, and the RIAA artists, everything here is at eMusic. All the lists are in order from top to bottom even when I didn't use numbers.

sunset rubdown

shut up i am dreaming

Top 10
  1. Sunset Rubdown, Shut Up I Am Dreaming
  2. Califone, Roots & Crowns
  3. Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies
  4. Calexico, Garden Ruin
  5. The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America
  6. Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
  7. Tom Waits, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, & Bastards
  8. Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
  9. The Futureheads, News and Tributes
  10. Girl Talk, Night Ripper
Not for Everyone

These would be in my Top 10 list, but I'm making a special category for them because they're strange and unique enough to be held apart and above the rest of the Top 10. You might not like them, but they're all fantastic and quite different from anything else you're likely to hear.

  • Joanna Newsom, Ys
  • Scott Walker, The Drift
  • The Books, Lost And Safe
  • The Fiery Furnaces, Bitter Tea
RIAA Demerits

These two albums are pretty great too, and could have been in my Top 10, but they're distributed by record labels that belong to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Normally, I prefer to spend my money with companies who aren't forcing digital rights management down our throats, treating customers as criminals, and in the case of Sony, infecting our computers with spyware. But I made an exception for these records.

  • The Decemberists, The Crane Wife
  • TV On the Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain
EP's These are too short to really qualify in the Top 10 list, but they're really good.
  • Sunset Rubdown, Sunset Rubdown EP
  • Bishop Allen, 2006 monthly EP's
  • Professor Murder, Professor Murder Rides The Subway
  • Tokyo Police Club, A Lesson In Crime
Honorable Mentions

The rest of the list. All of which are very enjoyable, and might be on your Top 10 if you give them a listen.

  • Grizzly Bear, Yellow House
  • Swan Lake, Beast Moans
  • Belle and Sebastian, The Life Pursuit
  • Portastatic, Be Still Please
  • Aloha, Some Echoes
  • Beach House, Beach House
  • Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3, Ole! Tarantula
  • Plus Minus, Let's Build a Fire
  • The Evens, Get Evens
  • Beirut, Gulag Orkestar
  • Chin Up Chin Up, This Harness Can't Ride Anything
  • M. Ward, Post-War
  • Asobi Seksu, Citrus
tags: music 
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