Best Albums of 2006

2006 was a decent year for music, but it was a lot harder to rank the albums this year than last year. No album blew me away like the tops of the lists have the past few years. Granted there were a good number of excellent albums, there were also a few huge disappointments (I'm looking at you, Outkast). The list this year began with 97 albums, and I've narrowed it down to these below.

I've put together a playlist on finetune that has some of the songs featured in this list - give it a listen while you read through and let me know what you think!




On to the list...

28. Eyes to the Telescope - KT Tunstall
Reflections: This is a pretty decent pop album. Everybody's heard "Black Horse" on the radio, and like me, I'm sure that most of you were at least the slightest bit intrigued. There was something different, something interesting. I listened to this album on a whim and discovered that it indeed was pretty good. Nothing revolutionary, just decent music.
Best tracks: Suddenly I See, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, Other Side of the World

27. The Arockalypse - Lordi
Reflections: For those unfamiliar with Lordi, they're metal in the style of Gwar - borderline silly lyrics, loud-ass guitars and drums, and costumes! This album is great for what it tries to be - really, really over-the-top metal. It's hilarious, huge, and fun.
Best tracks: Bringing Back the Balls to Rock, The Kids Who Wanna Play with the Dead, Hard Rock Hallelujah

26. St. Elsewhere - Gnarls Barkley
Reflections: I have to admit, after the initial 1-2 punch of "Go-Go Gadget Gospel" and "Crazy" I had this album penned at #1 for the year, but the rest of the album just couldn't keep up the intensity. I love Cee-Lo Green (as noted in the past) so I was eager to hear how he and DangerMouse would work together, and the results are a mixed bag. The highs are incredible, the lows downright forgettable. There are some great singles on this album at least.
Best tracks: Crazy, Go-Go Gadget Gospel, Gone Daddy Gone

25. Garden Ruin - Calexico
Reflections: I really got into Calexico after hearing their split with Iron and Wine last year and have fallen in love with the band. This album is in a style a lot more subdued than their past efforts which bordered on modern indie-mariachi. This album still feels like a product of the Southwest and is a refreshing change of pace from most of the music I hear. "Roka" is a song that everybody should hear - it's incredibly sweet and seductive.
Best tracks: Roka, Panic Open String

24. Let's Get Out of this Country - Camera Obscura
Reflections: This is great poppy music. The lyrics are good, the melodies are light - this is a perfect album to have on in the background to brighten your day. If you like feel-good happy-go-lucky music, this is an album for you.
Best tracks: Lloyd I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken, Dory Previn, If Looks Could Kill

23. A City by the Light Divided - Thursday
Reflections: I was never a huge fan of Thursday, but the more I listen to them, the more I understand. This album is my favorite Thursday disc to date - the energy is great to start, but sadly falls off. I guess it might be my love of punk, but I like the harder, rougher Thursday a lot more than the softer stuff.
Best tracks: The Other Side of the Crash / Over and Out (of Control), Counting 5-4-3-2-1, Sugar in the Sacrament, At This Velocity

22. Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Reflections: First off, I can't stand that this is a double album. Second, the track order is atrocious - it's like they put in a disc with all the tracks, hit 'shuffle' and let that stand as the final track list. This album has no continuity, no flow, and trying to stomach 28 tracks of RHCP is a bit too much for one sitting for me. That said, this album easily has some of the best singles of the year. I find myself liking the softer, more melodic Chili Pepper (like those from Californication and By the Way) songs now, and just can't stand the pseudo-rap songs that they feel a need to put on every disc. The other filler tracks water this release down - if it was only one disc of the best 13 or so songs this could be in the top 5.
Best tracks: Snow (Hey Oh), Slow Cheetah, Wet Sand, Strip My Mind

21. King - T.I.
Reflections: This is grungy southern rap at its finest. The King of the South puts up yet another quality album full of great beats, good rhymes, and I just love how T.I.'s attitude is so unapologetic about how incredible he is. His ego is incredible.
Best tracks: What You Know, Why You Wanna, Get It

20. Never Trust a Hippy - NOFX
Reflections: When I heard this EP I was really, really excited for the next NOFX album (2006's "Wolf in Wolves Clothing) but unfortunately the album couldn't match the intensity of this EP. This is 13 minutes of blast-you-in-the-face punk rock at its best. The cover of the Pat Smear track "Golden Boys" is great. Of course this EP keeps up the typical NOFX humor, including saying that "Jesus Christ is coming back/He wants to kick Mel Gibson's ass". Great stuff.
Best tracks: Seeing Double at the Triple Rock, Golden Boys, I'm Going to Hell for This One

19. At War with the Mystics - The Flaming Lips
Reflections: I loved the last Flaming Lips album, and am just as pleased with this one. I love how guitars play a bigger part on this album. The disc opens with a bang ("Yeah Yeah Yeah") and is just a fun ride from start to finish. In the vein of the Dark Side of the Moon/Wizard of Oz mashup, some enterprising stoners have figured out that "At War with the Mystics" syncs up with the 1982 Ron Fricke film "Baraka" and have posted a movie file of the two combined. Go to At War with Baraka and download it. You'll love it. If not, I'll refund your $0 purchase.
Best tracks: The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power), The Sound of Failure /It's Dark...Is It Always This Dark??, It Overtakes Me/The Stars are So Big...I am So Small...Do I Stand a Change?

18. Pretty Little Head - Nellie McKay
Reflections: I have to admit, I love the stuff Nellie McKay is doing. I don't know what it is about her music, I just enjoy listening. Not too many people can put out such a nutty album. The first track is a pep-rally-in-disguise for gay marriage and there are plenty of other hard-hitting social topics, but all are wrapped in a sweet, innocent girlish tone.
Best tracks: Cupcake, I Am Nothing, Swept Away

17. Whiskey on a Sunday - Flogging Molly
Reflections: This is primarily a live FM album, which came bundled with a DVD containing a documentary on the band and its travels. Why put a live disc in the list? First off, the intensity and raw energy of Flogging Molly live is absolutely incredible on this disc. I can't compare it to the real thing as I sadly haven't gotten to see them live as of yet. There's also one in-studio track, which had only been released as a live track B-side. I have a sentimental attachment to that song, as it reminds me of somebody near and dear to my heart. The rendition of "Black Friday Rule" is mind blowing, as are the acoustic versions of some FM classics.
Best tracks: Black Friday Rule (Live), Drunken Lullabies (Acoustic), Laura, What's Left of the Flag (Live)

16. Gulag Orkestar - Beirut
Reflections: Wow, this album came out of nowhere. I love Slavic sounding music, and this album delivers in a big way. It's grandiose, dreary, and absolutely stunning. Reminds me of my time walking around Prague.
Best tracks: Postcards From Italy, Prenzlauerberg, Rhineland (Heartland), The Gulag Orkestar

15. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - Neko Case
Reflections: I'm no lover of country music, but Neko Case (whom I loved with The New Pornographers) does it right. This is a great sounding album, but as beautiful as it is I find myself losing focus about halfway through. Too much of the same stuff, I guess. The stuff that's there is great though!
Best tracks: Hold On, Hold On, Maybe Sparrow

14. Hip Hop is Dead - Nas
Reflections: Nas comes out of nowhere to drop the best of his career. He's raw and unrefined, but his rhymes have never been better. This album is hard hitting and put together so well that I couldn't help but love it. Oh, and the collaboration with Jay-Z, "Black Republican" is the best song I've heard all year. The use of "Marcia Religiosa" from Godfather 2 as the hook is sheer genius - the track feels symphonic and expansive. Great track.
Best tracks: Hip Hop is Dead, Black Republican (with Jay-Z), You Can't Kill Me

13. Inhuman Rampage - DragonForce
Reflections: While this on first listen sounded like trashy metal, the retardedly fast guitar playing met with the really out-there fantasy lyrics (most of the songs are about dragons, princesses, other mythical creatures) and something just struck a chord with me. Watch the videos on YouTube to see some awesome guitar playing.
Best tracks: Through the Fire and the Flames, Operation Ground and Pound, Body Breakdown

12. Black Holes & Revelations - Muse
Reflections: I came across this album late in the year but it has really grown on me. It's space pop meets Ziggy Stardust meets Radiohead. I don't really know another way to describe other than to say that it's really damned good. Everybody should at least listen to "Knights of Cydonia."
Best tracks: Knights of Cydonia, Supermassive Black Hole, Map of the Problematique

11. Phobia - Breaking Benjamin
Reflections: I didn't really get into this album until late 2007, when I got tickets to go see them live and decided to check out their old stuff before the concert. I ended up really liking this album - it's a good catchy rock album. Sure, the album does get a bit repetitive, but it's still good.
Best tracks: The Diary of Jane, Breath, Evil Angel, Dance With The Devil

10. FutureSex/LoveSounds - Justin Timberlake
Reflections: I make no apologies for the fact that I have a man-crush on JT. I loved "Justified" and this album did not disappoint. From the mind-blowingly good "My Love" with T.I. to Three-6 Mafia's appearance on "Chop Me Up", JT gets the best out of his contributors. One of my favorite tracks on the disc, "Losing My Way", is a sad tale of a man who loses everything due to a drug addiction - it's just done so incredibly well. This album is not your typical top-40 garbage. It's a gem.
Best tracks: My Love, Sexyback, Losing My Way, Summer Love, Chop Me Up

9. Game Theory - The Roots
Reflections: The first few tracks are chaos, and things are muddled - right into the third track, which a minute in explodes with Black Thought and Malik B's incredible raps. For anybody who's into The Roots (and really, everybody should be) this is an album you need. Without a doubt the best hip-hop album of the year. "Game Theory", the title track, is one hell of a ride.
Best tracks: Game Theory, Clock With No Hands, Baby, Don't Feel Right, Here I Come

8. The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Reflections: First off, this album isn't as good as "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge" for one reason - there's too many slower, boring tracks. MCR is best when they're trying to rock the doors off the building, not making sappy pseudo-goth ballads. The songs that rock on here do live up to their billing though. "The Sharpest Lives" and "This is How I Disappear" are great. I applaud the band's rather bold decision to make a theme-based album, and I think it worked out pretty well. I could just do without the tear-jerking goth crap.
Best tracks: This is How I Disappear, The Sharpest Lives, House of Wolves, Mama, The End, Dead!

7. II - Billy Talent
Reflections: This was easily the most anticipated album of the year for me, as after discovering the band's first album I fell in love. Billy Talent is the best that pop-punk has to offer (not that pop-punk really offers all that much). The album rocks from start to finish. There's not much else I could've asked for, to tell the truth. A solid sophomore effort.
Best tracks: Red Flag, Worker Bees, Pins and Needles, Surrender, Perfect World, Devil in a Midnight Mass

6. For Blood & Empire - Anti-Flag
Reflections: Yes, I know. Anti-Flag is best known as the far-Left leaning punk band, and this album is an obvious jab at the Bush administration and a proclamation of the band's anti-war, anti-corporate views. No, I might not fit into those categories, but this is punk music at its finest. Fast guitars, smart lyrics, and energy - energy that isn't matched on any other disc this year. These guys are passionate, and it shows in their music.
Best tracks: I'd Tell You But..., The Press Corpse, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, War Sucks Let's Party!, The W.T.O. Kills Farmers

5. Happy Hollow - Cursive
Reflections: After "The Ugly Organ" I was worried if Cursive could ever live up to their past glory, and "Happy Hollow" sure did deliver. What's interesting this time around is that the album takes a thematic approach, with each of the songs representing a "hymn" describing some sin or wayward act, and the album serving as the "hymnal". The songs run the range of taboo topics from homosexuality in the church, to mindless daydreaming, to questioning God, and the frustration of feeling you've been abandoned by God. The album does have a decidedly sarcastic and irreverant approach to religion, and it's interesting to hear.
Best tracks: Dorothy at Forty, Flag and Family, Dorothy Dreams of Tornadoes, Rise Up! Rise Up!

4. Decemberunderground - AFI
Reflections: The opening, "Prelude 12/21", is haunting and sets the mood for the album brilliantly. It took me a while to come around to this album but in due time it surpassed its predecessor in my mind. It's dark, moody, melodic, and at times, raw. When Davey Havok goes from singing sweetly to screaming his heart out, you can't help but feel it too. On "Endlessly, She Said" he describes the pain of heartbreak, and when he screams out in pain, it gets me.
Best tracks: Endlessly, She said, Love Like Winter, Summer Shudder, Kiss and Control

3. Dog Problems - The Format
Reflections: I want to stop right here and give credit on this one to Zack Brown. He pointed this album out to me and I absolutely fell in love with it. It's sweet, melodic pop that is just infectious. The ditties on this album have a knack for getting stuck in my head, but in this case, that's a good thing. The first four tracks knock the ball out of the park and the rest of the album keeps up the pace. So can we take the next hour and talk about me?
Best tracks: I'm Actual, The Compromise, Matches, Time Bomb, Snails, Dog Problems

2. The Crane Wife - The Decemberists
Reflections: In what should be a shock to absolutely nobody at this point, The Decemberists return and put up another stunning album. They tell incredible stories in beautiful ways. Each song is like a miniature play, acted out in song over the course of a few (or 12) minutes. I love this band. I love this album. This would've been my album for the year until #1 came into my life in 2007...
Best tracks: O Valencia!, Summersong, Shankill Butchers, The Island: Come and See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel the Drowning

1. The Sufferer & the Witness - Rise Against
Reflections: My friend Ashley got me turned onto her favorite band, Rise Against, and after a while I took her advice and gave this album a listen. What happened was that I found possibly the greatest punk album I've ever heard - I love every single song, the energy is crazy, and even after about 200+ listen-throughs in 2007 alone I'm still not even remotely tired of it. This is currently sitting at #1 in my all-time favorite album list. No song gets me pumped like 'Injection' does.
Best tracks: Injection, Prayer of the Refugee, Worth Dying For, The Good Left Undone


[EDIT: 2 more added 7/08, along with FineTunes Playlist]

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