End of Year Lists - 2006

snipped from coolfer:


Apple Announces iTunes' Top Sellers Of 2006

For the first time, Apple announced its best-selling singles and albums for a year (read article at Billboard.biz). The trends are easy to see (they're evident in any given week). Singles are half middle-of-the-road pop rock and beat-driven R&B or hip hop. Albums are mostly rock and not at all urban.

The album list in particular shows American's digital music divide. Some of the top-selling albums of 2006 – Carrie Underwood's Some Hearts, Mary J Blige's Breakthrough, Rascal Flatt's Me & My Gang – did not make iTunes' Top 10.

Top Albums
1. The Fray: "How To Save A Life"
2. John Mayer: "Continuum"
3. Jack Johnson & Friends: "Curious George"
4. James Blunt: "Back To Bedlam"
5. Justin Timberlake: "Futuresex/LoveSounds"
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers: "Stadium Arcadium"
7. Dixie Chicks: "Taking The Long Way"
8. High School Musical: "Soundtrack"
9. Panic! At the Disco: "Fever You Can't Sweat Out"
10. Gnarls Barkley: "St. Elsewhere"

Top Tracks
1. Daniel Powter: "Bad Day"
2. Nelly Furtado: "Promiscuous"
3. James Blunt: "You're Beautiful"
4. Gnarls Barkley: "Crazy"
5. Sean Paul: "Temperature"
6. Justin Timberlake: "Sexyback"
7. The Fray: "Over My Head (Cable Car)"
8. Shakira: "Hips Don't Lie"
9. Natasha Bedingfield: "Unwritten"
10. Chamillionaire: "Ridin'"

Pitchfork's top 50

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/40007/Staff_List_Top_50_Albums_of_2006/page_1

Apparently, I'm no longer cool, as I only own 19 of the 50, and the list includes almost a dozen albums I've never even heard of.

Apparently, Pitchfork is still not cool, as they didn't include the Neko Case album. I'm proud to day I only own four of them, and one only because I got it for 25 cents at Tower.

It says a lot that it took until 4:05pm for someone to post Pitchfork's list on the Forum.

A few years ago it would have been posted within seconds.

Aren't we all more concerned with Beyonce's boob?

Originally posted by allmy$to930:
It says a lot that it took until 4:05pm for someone to post Pitchfork's list on the Forum.

A few years ago it would have been posted within seconds.

Originally posted by Steny Hoyer, Pubic Destroyer:
Aren't we all more concerned with Beyonce's boob?

If I was her, I'd wear more sweatshirts.

Tiny Mix Tapes

1. Joanna Newsom
2. Liars
3. TV on the Radio
4. Ghosface Killah
5. Juana Molina (need to check this out, good?)
6. Yo La Tengo
7. Grizzly Bear
8. Scott Walker
9. Califone
10. Josephine Foster
11. Magik Markers
12. Carla Bozulich
13. Keith Fullerton Whitman
14. Wolf Eyes
15. Herbert
16. Tim Hecker
17. J Dilla
18. Neko Case
19. OOIOO
20. Junior Boys
21. Cat Power
22. Boris
23. Comets on Fire
24. Spankrock
25. Beirut

If you get a 1 year subscription to Magnet, you can choose that album for free. Haven't received my copy yet.

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
Tiny Mix Tapes


5. Juana Molina (need to check this out, good?)

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
Tiny Mix Tapes

5. Juana Molina (need to check this out, good?)

Yes, very much so…. She is absolutely amazing.

I hadn't seen the tinymixtapes list. Wow. Not that there are a lot of surprises, and to a certain extent I respect what a lot of those bands/artists are doing, but there's maybe two or three albums on there I would enjoy listening to.

Joanna / Liars as the top two? That's a list only a critic could love.

the liars are awesome. they put up one of the best live shows ive ever seen. its just a solid wall of thunderous drums and guitar wailing.

joanna newsom…now thats a whole 'nother bag of worms. she just sounds so awful; i cant get past her voice.

These lists always entertain me. They always omit bands such as Tool but never fail to slob the knobs of RHCP, et al. I would love for one of the bands on any of these lists to attempt to replicate a set list from a Tool performance let alone an album. I do not get it and I suppose I never will.

"Showbiz Tonight" Executive Producer Dave Levine picks Keane's "Under the Iron Sea" as one of the year's top albums, singling out the song "Hamburg" as particularly noteworthy. "If there is one cut on this CD that will give you goosebumps it is 'Hamburg,' with lyrics of longing of what could be, with the person you could give unrequited love to," he says.

Having not determined mine yet( must remember to do that), here's one of the better lists I've seen, compiled by the owner of rednailmusic :

1 natural snow buildings - the dance of the moon & the sun

two discs, each nearly 80 minutes, not a second of filler.
beautifully amazing drone folk from french/argentinian duo.
don't just take my word for it, go here:
http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/reviews.php?which=1738
or here:
http://www.animalpsi.com/index.php?entry=entry061111-150413


2 horse feathers - words are dead

best folk pop album since "pink moon", the violin and cello are
tasteful inclusions. great vocals, solid lyrics. a very close
second place.


3 phelan sheppard - harps old master

experimental ambient goodness from members of state river
widening. the last few minutes of "broken in the wrong places"
are of an untouchable quality.


4 titan - s/t

lysergic space rock of the highest order from brooklyn (yet with
german song titles, go figure!). 3 long songs that really should
never end.


5 valley of ashes - cavehill hunters attrition

fantastic 3 LP release of lo-fi acid freak folk from kentucky


6 wooden wand & the sky high band - second attention

another fine release from the wand. every song is a winner,
though the best wand track this year was "war star days" from
the "horus of the horizon" LP on three lobed.


7 various production - the world is gone

cream of the dubstep/grime/uk garage crop. confusing name, but
the music and vocals speak beautiful volumes


8 ashtray navigations - four more raga moods

best of all the 2006 ashtray releases (5 or 6 total, I think).
intense psychedelic drone and noise.


9 six organs of admittance - the sun awakens

not my favorite chasny release, but ben never disappoints. great
stuff from start to finish.


10 andrew douglas rothbard - abandon meander

fantastic california one-man psych folk. a late entry, but
well-deserved.


11 titan - pilzmarmelade

again, lysergic space rock of the highest order from brooklyn.
with 2 releases in my top 11, i'd have to call them my "band of
the year" though it's probably a tie between them and natural
snow buildings


12 cloudland canyon - requiems der natur

bizarre yet very cohesive experimental free-folk-psych.


13 entrance - prayer of death

high intensity acid rock with pop sensibilites. catchy, but
still mindfucking.


14 birchville cat motel - our love will destroy the world

campbell kneale does no wrong. ever. this one is a killer.
noisy, psychedelic drone rock.


15 the loosers - bumba meu boi

lo-fi free psych mayhem released on cassette only! awesome!


16 residual echoes - mfi-gbsp

more great spacy headfuck krautrock from california.


17 graumahd - cheru

beautiful german apocalyptic neo-folk


18 the king khan & bbq show - what's for dinner?

loud nasty garage soul punk… and a side of beans!


19 kode9 & the spaceape - memories of the future

another great electronic dubstep release with fantastic mr.
eko-like vocalisms from the spaceape.


20 daniel higgs - ancestral songs

frontman of lungfish does the folk drone thing very, very well


21 sala arhimo - pelko pois

twisted forest psychedelia from finland


22 gorch fock - thriller

take equal parts jesus lizard, cows & butthole surfers (pre-sell
out days). mix well. serve. repeat.


23 kill the vultures - the careless flame

lo-fi hip hop/rock. noisy samples, loud as fuck percussion and a
pissed off mc who reminds me of gil scott heron.


24 porlolo - storm & season

fantastic female folk pop from austin, tx.


25 nalle - by chance upon waking

more free-folk-type stuff. beautiful, charming and disturbing at
the same time.


26 scott h. biram - graveyard shift

another fantastic album from the "dirty old one man band". only
artist on bloodshot that truly interests me these days.


27 om - conference of the birds

two long songs from ex-Sleep in the "early pink floyd meets vol.
4-era black sabbath" realm


28 skygreen leopards - disciples of california

the re-birth of cosmic american music. best album yet from this
band.


29 mountains - sewn

cool acoustic ambience with some great field recordings
throughout


30 l.e.o. - alpacas orgling

a tribute to ELO without any ELO songs! some perfect 70's Top 40
orchestral psych-pop for the modern age

birchville cat motel fucking rocks! oh yeah baby!