It's That Time Of Year!
I've been looking forward to this year's Best Albums List, mainly because I've been itching to buy new music and always like to know what other people are listening to. That doesn't mean I'll like it, of course, but a lot of times there are just tons of artists that I completely miss. I'm a collector of information, I guess, and this is just one manifestation of that.
So without further ado, I introduce to you my Best Albums of 2006 list. Here's how it works. I surf the web for other people's Best Of lists and consolidate it all into one big huge list, sorta Metacritic style. I didn't include Metacritic as a source this year because I noticed about half my sources were about half of theirs so I figured why bother. For those of you who don't know, basically what I do is assign point values to each album as it appears in other people's lists. I only take the top 20, and I assign 1 point to 20th place, 2 points to 19th place, et cetera, all the way to 19 points for 2nd place, 20 points for the top slot. If the reviewer decided not to rank, then I gave all the albums a flat 20 points. Then I put it all into a lovely Excel spreadsheet, add up all the points, and sort them out. Here are your top 20 along with their cumulative points:
1) TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain (250)
2) The Hold Steady - Boys & Girls In America (187)
3) Joanna Newsom - Ys (184)
4) The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (175)
5) Band of Horses - Everything All the Time (153)
6) Ghostface Killah - Fishscale (147)
7) Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (139)
8) Neko Case - The Fox Confessor Brings the Flood(136)
9) Cat Power - The Greatest (122)
10) Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics (121)
11) The Knife - Silent Shout (105)
12) P.O.S. - Audition (96)
13) Bob Dylan - Modern Times (95)
14) Beck - The Information (94)
14) Goldfrapp - Supernature (94)
16) Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (92)
17) Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury (91)
18) The Black Angels - Passover (80)
19) Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere (79)
20) Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat (73)
There are definitely some artists on here I know--kudos to The Hold Steady for putting out two albums in two years that made this list both times, for example--but as I said, the most fun about this is that I don't think I would ever have been aware of some of these bands if I didn't do this little dorky thing I do every year. Man, I wish I had gotten iTunes cash for Christmas :-). Also, for those of you living in the TC Metro, TV on the Radio is coming to First Ave in March, FYI.
What about you guys? Any albums on this list you feel strongly about--either should or should not be on this list? What's missing? What have you heard that has been great? There were over 200 different albums on the list this year, so chances are it's been noted by someone, but I just like hearing what other people are into these days. As for me, I strongly recommend Dirty On Purpose's Hallelujah Sirens. That is a great disc.
Leave comments and enjoy!
Sources: The Music Box, Canada's Popjournalism, Rolling Stone, The Onion's A.V. Club, Spin MagazineStylus, Pitchfork MediaPopMatters, NPR Listeners, KEXP, via NPR, Various NPR Staff Members, Prefix Magazine, Obscure Sound, Bradical Mindspew, The BBC, Mesh Magazine, Bows + Arrows, and, of course, The Current's Staff Members, which might shed some light on why P.O.S. made the top 20 ;-).
So without further ado, I introduce to you my Best Albums of 2006 list. Here's how it works. I surf the web for other people's Best Of lists and consolidate it all into one big huge list, sorta Metacritic style. I didn't include Metacritic as a source this year because I noticed about half my sources were about half of theirs so I figured why bother. For those of you who don't know, basically what I do is assign point values to each album as it appears in other people's lists. I only take the top 20, and I assign 1 point to 20th place, 2 points to 19th place, et cetera, all the way to 19 points for 2nd place, 20 points for the top slot. If the reviewer decided not to rank, then I gave all the albums a flat 20 points. Then I put it all into a lovely Excel spreadsheet, add up all the points, and sort them out. Here are your top 20 along with their cumulative points:
1) TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain (250)
2) The Hold Steady - Boys & Girls In America (187)
3) Joanna Newsom - Ys (184)
4) The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (175)
5) Band of Horses - Everything All the Time (153)
6) Ghostface Killah - Fishscale (147)
7) Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (139)
8) Neko Case - The Fox Confessor Brings the Flood(136)
9) Cat Power - The Greatest (122)
10) Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics (121)
11) The Knife - Silent Shout (105)
12) P.O.S. - Audition (96)
13) Bob Dylan - Modern Times (95)
14) Beck - The Information (94)
14) Goldfrapp - Supernature (94)
16) Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (92)
17) Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury (91)
18) The Black Angels - Passover (80)
19) Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere (79)
20) Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat (73)
There are definitely some artists on here I know--kudos to The Hold Steady for putting out two albums in two years that made this list both times, for example--but as I said, the most fun about this is that I don't think I would ever have been aware of some of these bands if I didn't do this little dorky thing I do every year. Man, I wish I had gotten iTunes cash for Christmas :-). Also, for those of you living in the TC Metro, TV on the Radio is coming to First Ave in March, FYI.
What about you guys? Any albums on this list you feel strongly about--either should or should not be on this list? What's missing? What have you heard that has been great? There were over 200 different albums on the list this year, so chances are it's been noted by someone, but I just like hearing what other people are into these days. As for me, I strongly recommend Dirty On Purpose's Hallelujah Sirens. That is a great disc.
Leave comments and enjoy!
Sources: The Music Box, Canada's Popjournalism, Rolling Stone, The Onion's A.V. Club, Spin MagazineStylus, Pitchfork MediaPopMatters, NPR Listeners, KEXP, via NPR, Various NPR Staff Members, Prefix Magazine, Obscure Sound, Bradical Mindspew, The BBC, Mesh Magazine, Bows + Arrows, and, of course, The Current's Staff Members, which might shed some light on why P.O.S. made the top 20 ;-).