Prattle

Albums of 2006
m posted in General moans, Music on January 7th, 2007

It’s a bit late for this, but I might as well share my list of the best albums of 2006. There’ll be a related Podcast to follow, and you’ll need to bear in mind the usual disclaimers regarding the arbitrary nature of chart placings. Go to Pitchfork or Amazon for further information about the various albums.

Looking at the list, it reminds me that 2006 was a year where I rather liked a large number of albums, but loved very few. So, without much trouble, I could produce a list of 50 albums I liked, but the last 30 would probably all be ranked the same. This makes further mockery of the below listing, of course.

31 - The Knife - Silent Shout
(impossible to rank, I find, hence its position outside the 30)

30 - Milburn - Well well well
29 - Primal Scream - Riot City blues
28 - Secret Machines - Ten silver drops
27 - Morning Runner - Wilderness is paradise now
26 - The Sounds - Dying to say this to you
25 - Mando Diao - Ode to ochrasy
24 - Semifinalists - Semifinalists
23 - Akira the Don - When we were young
22 - Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent things
21 - Belle & Sebastian - The life pursuit

20 - Hope of the states - Left	19 - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show your bones
18 - Albert Hammond Jr - Yours to keep	17 - The Pipettes - We are the Pipettes
16 - TV Eyes - TV Eyes	15 - The Killers - Sam’s town
14 - The Young Knives - Voices of animals and men	13 - Mates of state - Bring it back
12 - Ben Kweller - Ben Kweller	11 - Joanna Newsom - Ys
10 - The Fratellis - Costello Music	09 - …And you will know us by the trail of dead - So divided
08 - Simple Kid - 2	07 - The Dears - Gang of losers
06 - The Concretes - In Colour	05 - My Chemical Romance - The black parade
04 - Boy kill boy - Civilian	03 - Sugarplum Fairy - First round, first minute
01 - I’m from Barcelona - Let me introduce my friends	01 - Muse - Black holes and revelations

A number of albums narrowly missed the list (Midlake, Brakes, Grandaddy, Cord) and one missed it by a country mile. I hope 2007 is the year the Arctic Monkeys bugger off. It’s unlikely, but it should be the nation’s main goal. Doherty will disappear in a puff of cheap cocaine and rubbish songs, so it’s just the parochial prats that need erasing in the next few months.

2007’s album of the year is pretty much decided, by the way. New Magnetic Wonder by the Apples in Stereo is absolutely brilliant. It’s a joy to hear a band that’s been around for years finally putting all of their previously (largely) unrealised promise into one expertly crafted album. It’s nearly perfect. It’s officially released in the US in February, and the UK in March. Seek it out and learn to love it. It’ll hug you back.