2006 Album of the Year - Discussion

Rant away!

Here is the list of this year's albums according to WFUV
/wfuv.org/wfuv/bestof06_staff.html target ="new">Staff Picks.

I don't know what I'm going to do this year. I haven't listened to many new CDs. I'll probably end up voting for new albums by Crooked Still and Madeleine Peyroux. Not sure who will get my third vote.

Fuller Still - "Color and Feeling."

That's right, I voted for myself. And as soon as I get my EP done, I'll vote for myself NEXT year as well!

> And as soon as I get my EP done, I'll vote for myself NEXT year as well!
>

Yes, but we vote for albums, and not EP's, and especially not surgically enhanced ones.

Dang.  I guess I'll have to stretch it into a full album . . .

In all seriousness, some of the albums I've enjoyed the most this year are:

The Hold Steady -- Boys and Girls in America
Gnarls Barkley -- St. Elsewhere
Tom Waits -- Orphans:  Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards
The Avett Brothers -- Four Thieves Gone
BNL -- Barenaked Ladies Are Me
Chris Thile -- How To Grow A Woman From The Ground
Derek Webb -- Mockingbird
MuteMath - S/T
Mindy Smith -- Long Island Shores
Sufjan Stevens -- Songs for Christmas
Thom Yorke -- The Eraser

The Album Writer's Block by Peter Bjorn and John is brilliant.

Particularly the song my friend Paul insists on calling 'the whistling song'

I also loved the Be Your Own Pet album.

Both good in very different ways.

The Beatles 'Love' album.  The first few times I listened to this album, I teared up.

Really?  I thought it was awful.  Everytime I wanted to hear a song one way (and not necessarily the original way), they did it exactly the opposite way.

Hey! Not the Beatles!

Joanna Newsom is an evil genius. "Ys" is a masterpiece, probably the best of the year.

*bear hugs the Decemberists* They can do no wrong.

Page France has been a recent obsession. It makes me feel all happy and fuzzy.

And then Margot and the Nuclear So-and-Sos knock me back down with a heaping dose of mope. So shiny.

And Guster rocks out.

And Justin Timberlake brought sexy back. Funny, I hadn't noticed it was gone...

KT Tunstall's "Eye to the Telescope" is a brilliant album. It's just jam packed with a good combination of mellow and rock, and is a good listen to anywhere. Workout, trying to chill, etc.

And BNL's "Barenaked Ladies Are Me" is a sigh of relief compared to their last album "Everything to Everyone" which I think was a joke. It's very well produced and it's good to hear Jim Creegan on lead vocals, which doesn't happen often.

...That's all I can think of right now. :o)

>.  .  .And BNL's "Barenaked LadiesAre Me" is a sigh of relief compared to their last album
> "Everything to Everyone" which I think was a joke. It's very well produced and it's good
> to hear Jim Creegan on lead vocals, which doesn't happen often.


I hear that.  The new album is way better than I've heard them in a long time.  I think it's my favorite since . . . jeez, is it MYSD?  I think so.  I'm still deciding.

I can't really remember being all that excited about any new album this year....The new Muse album is good...but it took me a while to get into, and I still don't think it's as good as their last one (sorry i can't think of titles right now...brain a bit fuzzeled). Shonen Knife "Genkogen Shock" was another great one...I think those were the only two new releases I bought this year.

agrees on the muse album. Absolution was way better, and Black Holes and Revelations was much harder to get into. It's probably the best album i bought this year, but i dont buy a lot of albums.

Absolution was just more..congruent. it had a flow. BH&R seems disjointed.

Here are the results of the WFUV listener poll.

WFUV Best of 2006 Listeners Poll

The top ten albums were:

1. Bob Dylan, Modern Times
2. Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
3. Gomez, How We Operate
4. Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, All The Road Running
5. James Hunter, People Gonna Talk
6. Rosanne Cash, Black Cadillac
7. Josh Ritter, The Animal Years
8. Ray LaMontagne, Till The Sun Turns Black
9. The Decemberists, The Crane Wife
10. Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, The River in Reverse

The top ten songs were:

1. Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy"
2. Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, "This Is Us"
3. Gomez, "See The World"
4. James Hunter, "People Gonna Talk"
5. Bob Dylan, "Thunder on the Mountain"
6. KT Tunstall, "Black Horse and The Cherry Tree"
7. Rosanne Cash, "Black Cadillac"
8. Corrine Bailey Rae, "Put Your Records On"
9. Ray LaMontagne, "Empty "
10. The Raconteurs, "Steady As She Goes"

Link to the results of other polls.

WXPN does its top ten on NYD, so I'll post it when it is finished. They are playing all ten albums today.