:|Best of 2006
By Sherri Prunier

BEST 50 ALBUM RELEASES OF 2006

1. Destroyer "Rubies"
2. Sparklehorse "Dreamt for light years in the belly of a mountain"
3. Midlake "The Trials of Van Occupanther"
4. Junior Boys "So this is Goodbye""
5. Beirut "Gulag Orkestra"
6. M Ward "Post War"
7. Hot Chip "The Warning"
8. Walter Meego "Brilliante
9. Fiery Furnaces "Bitter Tea"
10. The Hold Steady "Boys and Girls in America"
11. Muse "Black Holes and Revelations"
12. Band of Horses "Everything all the Time"
13. Tapes N Tapes "The Loon"
14. TV on the Radio 'Return to Cookie Mountain"
15. Regina Spektor "Begin to Hope"
16. Grandaddy "Just like the Fambly Cat"
17. Neko Case "Fox Confessor brings the Flood"
18. Alexi Murdoch "Time without Consequence"
19. Mew "A Glass Handed Kite"
20. Ghostland Observatory "Paparazzi Lightning"
21. Cold War Kids "Robbers and Cowards"
22. Clap your hands say yeah "The Skin of my yellow country teeth"
23. The Thermals "The Body, The Blood, The Machine"
24. The Flaming Lips "At War with the Mystics"
25. CSS "Cansei Der Ser Sexy"
26. Guillemots "Through the Windowpane"
27. Scott Walker "The Drift"
28. The Blood Brothers "Young Machettes"
29. Mission of Burma "The Obliterati"
30. Tacks, the Boy Disaster "Oh, Beatrice"
31. Grizzly Bear "Yellow House"
32. The Receiver "Stunning Models"
33. Sound Team "Movie Monster"
35. Mark Wilson "Endless Elevator EP"
36. Califone "Roots and Crowns"
37. Lily Allen "Alright, Still"
38. The knife "silent shout"
39. Man Man "Six Demon Bag"
40. Paul Brill "Harpoonsher"
41. Film School 'Film School"
42. The Album Leaf "Into the Blue Again"
43. The Boy Least Likely To "Be Gentle with Me"
44. Eagle Seagull "Eagle Seagull"
45. Black Rebel Motorcyle Club "Howl"
46. Soft "Soft"
47. 00100 "00100"
48. Isles "Perfumed Lands"
49. Oceansize "Everyone into Position"
50. The Lovely Feathers "Hind Hind Legs"

Local releases (from bands I first heard of this year):
1. Fleet Foxes "Fleet Foxes"
2. Patient Patient "Professionals and Convicts"
3. Echo Helstrom "The Veil"
4. Boy Eats Drum Machine "Pleasure"
5. Skullbot "Skullbot"


Most radio abused:
1. Gnarls Barkley
2. Arctic Monkeys
3. She Wants Revenge
4. Snow Patrol "Chasing Cars"
5. The Racontours

If I listened to more Hip/Hop Rap:
1. Clipse "Hell Hath No Fury"
2. Ghostface Killah "Fischscale"
3. The Roots "Game Theory"
4. Kanye West "Late Registration"
5. Ugly Duckling "Bang for the Buck"
6. Optimus Rhyme "School the Indie Rockers"

A surprising let down:
1.Outkast "Idlewild"
2. Secret Machines "Ten Silver Drops"
3. Pretty Girls Make Graves "Elan Vital"
4. Phoenix "Its never been like that"
5. Thom Yorke "The Eraser"

Way overrated:
1. Comets on Fire "Avatar"
2. Joanna Newsom "Ys"
3. Scritti Politti "White Bread Black Bear"
4. Sunset Rubdown "Shut Up I am Dreaming"
6. Scissor Sisters "Ta da"
7. Lady Sovereign "Public Warning"
8. Beck "Information"
9. The Kooks "Inside In / Inside Out"

And the close calls: +- "Lets Build a Fire" /Islands "Return to the Sea" /Joseph Arthur "Nuclear Daydream"/ Espers II "Drag City" / Be your own Pet "Be Your Own Pet" / Goldfrapp "Supernature" / Slow Lands "Never was There a Town" / Mylo "Destroy Rock and Roll" / Herbert "Scale" / Ali Fakra Tourne "Savane" / Built to Spill "You in Reverse" / The M's "Future Women" / " / Liars "Drums not Dead" / Camera Obscura / Voxtrot / Jeremy Enigk / Explosions in the Sky / Damien Rice '9" / Belle and Sebastion /Yeah Yeah Yeahs / Mastadon / Lucero / Alejandro Escovedo / the Dears / Calexico / Citizen Cope 'Every Waking Moment" / Lambchop / Elefant "Black Magic Show" / Cassettes Won't Listen / Candy Bars "On Cutting Tigers in Half / The Evening Episode / Loscil "Plume" / Subtle "For Hero: For Fool / Beth Orton / Brazilian Girls / Pernice Brothers / Portastic / My Morning Jacket / Love is All / Mystery Jets / Cold Cut / Wolfmother / Calexico/ Ratatat "Classics" / Decemberists "Crane Wife"