MusicRex - Best Albums of 2006 Lists

Best Albums of 2006

by Mark Tatum

This is the best time of year to discover good music. What better way to find good CDs than browsing the avalanche of "best-of" lists released by hundreds of reviewers this time each year? Music reviewers listen to hundreds of albums each year, and their lists often contain great CDs you never would disover otherwise.

Below you will find lists of the best albums of 2006 as defined by some of the most prominent blogs and music web sites.

There are two ways to use these lists:

Browse them for albums you already are familiar with and like. Then check out other albums on that list for titles you are not familiar with.

Find music reviewers and sites that have similar tastes to yours. Bookmark their sites and follow them through the coming year to get an inside track on next years best albums as they are released.

Caution: music reviewers are jaded creatures. Because they listen to so many CDs each year their ears pay particular attention to music that is new and different. If the music isn't ground-breaking or unique, they are usually bored by it, even if a less-jaded person would like it. Many of these lists include some albums that only similarly jaded listeners would consider "good" music.

So once you find albums to consider, try these steps to listen to them before deciding to buy them:

Go to the artist's myspace site to listen to tracks there. (usually www.myspace.com/artistname)

Check out the artist web site (googling an artist name usually brings up their site) where often you can listen to a stream of an entire album.

Go to amazon.com to listen to song samples and read reviews by other fans.

When you are ready to buy, try to find used CDs to get the best deal. Used CDs are cheaper than downloads and last longer too. The best places to find used CDs are Amazon.com and eBay. You might be surprised by how many of these albums are available for only $5.00 used on Amazon.

CDs are nice to have, but I also have a subscription to eMusic that allows me to download lots of albums each month for significantly less than they would cost me in a store. On eMusic you will find many of the albums on these "best-of" lists as they have a great catalog of independent labels.

Here are the lists!

Large-Hearted Boy

Asobi Seksu - Citrus

Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of this Country

Casey Dienel - Wind-Up Canary

Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies

Grizzly Bear - Yellow House

Joanna Newsom - Ys

Josh Ritter - The Animal Years

The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely

Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope

Serena-Maneesh - Serena-Maneesh

Shearwater - Palo Santo

Pitchfork

The Knife - Silent Shout
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
Liars - Drum's Not Dead
Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Boris - Pink
Scott Walker - The Drift

Amazon Editors

Neko Case - Fox Confessior Brings the Flood
Bob Dylan - Modern Times
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope
Bnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
John Mayer - Continuum
Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
Los Amigos Invisibles - Superpop Venezuela
Sparklehorse - Dreamt for Light Years int he Belly of a Mountain
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit

NPR Listeners

The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Bob Dylan - Modern Times
M. Ward - Post War
TV On the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Cat Power - The Greatest
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
Tom Waits - Orphans
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope

NME

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

Muse - Black Holes & Revelations

Hot Chip - The Warning

CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home

The Strokes - First Impressions Of Earth

Kasabian - Empire

My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade

Billboard

Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
(tie) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
(tie) The Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way
(tie) Tool - 10,000 Days
(tie) The Beatles - Love
Corinne Bailey Rae - Corinne Bailey Rae

The Onion AV Club