10* Favorite Albums of 2006

* I actually list 11 albums. Excuse my hooliganism.

While I was wading through the music that I eventually reduced down to make this list, I realized how much folksy music I've listened to this year. I guess I'm a whole lotta country and not so much rock and roll. This wasn't the strongest music year in recent memory, but some good albums came out of it, nonetheless. Without further ado, the list:

10) The Trials of Van Occupanther - Midlake: I imagine that, if I lived in the Ozarks 150 years ago with my pretty little wife, I would spend snowy days inside whittling by the light of my oil lamp and singing songs just like Midlake's. Charming, with a touch of 70's folksy flair.

9) Return to Cookie Mountain - TV On the Radio: This album took the unique style of TV on the Radio's first album and expanded on it a thousandfold. Mad skills. Just great layers of sound and interesting rhythms. For some reason listening to this makes me kind of angry, though.

8) It's Never Been Like That - Phoenix: I could dance to this album. And I have. At their show up at Slim's, in my home, in my car--whenever it comes on. Insanely catchy, with each short track doing it's job to keep the feel-good level high.

7) Robbers and Cowards - Cold War Kids: I know. The Cold War Kids don't have a fresh sound by any means. They've got a first Strokes album, White Stripesy sound, only with more soul. It's more blues-ey. And it's fucking catchy, raw, fun and audacious. Awesome.

6) Boys and Girls in America - The Hold Steady: This is big, brash, genuine indie rock that tells stories that we all have in our past. And not just the funny, tongue in cheek stories, but the ones that make us stronger too. I love how the track "Citrus" illuminates the songs all around it. My only complaint about ithis album? I wish I was 18 years old listening to it for the first time. 

5) Everything All the Time - Band of Horses: This album has that beautiful, echoing sound that I usually turn to My Morning Jacket for and they carry it throughout this album of ten spare and moving songs. There's just something so special here, though I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is. Each song makes me feel entirely full and empty at the same time.

4) Till the Sun Turns Black - Ray La Montagne: This album would've made it on this list even if the only track on it was "Empty". Lamontagne is all soul. He's got roomfuls of it. What can I say expect that he's made another timeless album, full of emotions, that perfectly showcases his faultless singing style. It's like finding someone's journal in a backwoods bar, and somehow running into them years later.

3) We Were Here - Joshua Radin: What a soft, sweet, pleasant album, I thought, when I first got this back in June. I figured I'd give it a few spins before I got tired of it. Only, I never tired of it. Nothing else brought me as much peace this year as Joshua Radin's heartfelt songs. I always felt like I had at least a little bit of a safe place to go to. And sometimes that's the only thing I had.

2) Post-War - M. Ward: This entire album is great, but the first half is absolutely amazing. You feel like he's seen it all and he's here to tell you about it. This is music that sounds like a dream that feels so real. Great and simple lyrics, too: She said "If love is a posion cup, then drink it up. Cause a sip or a spoonful won't do nothing for you, except mess you up. And I hope you know what this means. I'm gonna give you everything." Do not miss this album.

1) Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - Neko Case: Oh my god, oh my god, that voice. Strong as steel and fragile as a candle flame. There are moments, many of them, where she completely takes my breath away. The end of "That Teenage Feeling", the haunting refrain in "Dirty Knife", the entirety of the title track come to mind. And I think "Hold On, Hold On" was my theme song this year. She's like her own church or something. Every note of this album rings compeltely and entirely true, and it's just heart-shredding.

*1) 29 - Ryan Adams: This is my cheater number one album of the year. Technically it came out at the end of December 2005, but I didn't start listening to it til January of this year. And it has come to mean so much to me. This album deserves it's own post, which will come later this week.

Comments

[lilly mae]

I'll have to check some of these out! What should I start with becks? Do you feel like you should've like the tvotr album more than you do?

[starz]

I'm surprised not to see the Winters on here!

[bt]

The Winters album just didn't blow me away like I'd hoped. Too little, too late?

Lilly, start with Band of Horses, then move out from there.

[slo]

are you going to be in LA on the 12th of january? cold war kids are playing a show. if you're going to be home, we should go. if not i'll try to find someone to go to an nyc show.

[bt]

Waaa! You're still gonna be around on the 12th? I'm going back up north for New Year's, but I would definitely consider a foray back to L.A. to see the show with you, since it is on a Friday. I've never been to the silver lake lounge.

[slo]

yeah, whatever's convenient. i've never been to the lounge either but i'm guessing it's really small because they're playing the mercury lounge out here, and i hear that's tiny. if we end up going i bet 3 years from now when they're playing the greek we'll be like "hey, remember that time we saw them at the silver lake lounge? yeah."

take cizzur homie