Acclaimed Music Top 30 Albums from 2006 poll

and we are back!

messed up the image again.

this one is real easy for me.

easily Ys with Silent Shout in 2nd

Modern Times over Neko Case but where is Jenny Lewis Rabbit Fur Coat?

SO THIS IS GOODBYE

jk I actually would vote for fox confessor, an album that gets more powerful every time I listen to it

poor margaret

everything's so easy for pauline

i mean, ys

with the knife and junior boys trailing behind

neko case and grizzly bear also great records

i used to love futuresex/lovesounds and the greatest a ton but not as much anymore i guess

my write-in would be for beach house's self-titled

My write in vote would be for White Bread Black Beer by Scritti Politti. My favourite 2006 release and my favourite Scritti album.

So This Is Goodbye will probably get my vote but The Warning, Silent Shout, Donuts, Trials of Van Occupanther and Back to Black are all great too.

Surprised not to see:

Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubbies
LCD Soundsystem - 45:33

Cripes, what a year. Silent Shout is perfect a record that decade gave us. Same goes for Ys. Fox Confessor is almost there. My song of 2006 remains Benton Harbor Blues (again) by the underrated Bitter Tea.

I suspect time won't be kind on the Artic Monkeys.

i really liked the Arctic Monkeys debut, it's a fun album. AM is their only classic though.

I need to give that Tom Waits album a real listen. I got it for Christmas that year and hardly touched it.

Ys is my vote.

Ghostface, probably my favorite of his albums. He was on one, unparalleled punchlines and storytelling.

Neko, Dilla, B&S, Hold Steady and Beirut albums were also very good

Here's my thoughts on the stuff that I was aware of. . .

1 130 Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Overrated as hell. Never got the appeal whatsoever. Hate her voice. Songs were repetitive to the point of being annoying, as well.

2 156 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Tuneless and boring. The title made perfect sense after reading all the ridiculous hype about them in the British press.

3 251 The Knife - Silent Shout
I really gave this album more attention than it deserved. In an attempt to try and understand why it was so popular, I spent way more time listening to it and trying to force myself to like it than is really rational. In the end, that probably just made me hate it a lot more vehemently. Really, my main problem with it was how unoriginal it was.

4 269 Joanna Newsom - Ys
Like with Milk-Eyed Mender, I never bought it, but I did rather enjoy it whenever I heard it. Again, most of its strengths, to me, resided in the fact that it was so out-of-step with other contemporary music.

5 308 TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Good god, this band is tedious. When people talk derisively about hipsters and their tepid, pretentious musical choices, this is the type of shit they're referring to.

6 539 J Dilla [Jay Dee] - Donuts
Absolutely confusing on first listens. I was initially caught up in —and, honestly, put off by— the chaotic, disorienting pace of it. A decade later, the dust has settled and, because of the surrounding circumstances, this has become one of the most heavily resonant and emotionally hefty albums of recent times. It has aged wonderfully and sounds even more immediate and poignant now than ever before. A perfect case for an album that contains literally nothing new, but is nevertheless groundbreaking because its creator was such a virtuoso. Wonderful.

7 543 Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Another solid one in Bob's later day run of good-not-great albums. I don't go back to it at all these days and can't really remember any of the tunes, but it's good while it's playing.

8 596 Cat Power - The Greatest
More boring, MOR blandness.

9 621 Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
Self-obsessed pop garbage.

10 690 Hot Chip - The Warning
Self-obsessed pop garbage, British variation.

11 706 Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
Idiotic.

12 713 Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Unconditionally, I have hated this group from the very beginning. There's this unearned sense of smug artsiness to this album that just grates on my fucking nerves. Just glaringly unoriginal, as well: from the band name, to the album title to the insulting Violent Femmes cover. The absolute worst of what happens when you just keep telling someone they're "genius man" and it goes straight to their head.

14 832 Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Self-obsessed pop garbage, hip hop variation.

16 1006 Scott Walker - The Drift
I heard this a total of one time in full. I remember thinking the title was exceedingly appropriate.

18 1095 Burial - Burial
Really disorienting and challenging music for me, initially. I can honestly say I didn't like it at first. But, I think that had a lot to do with my ignorance of the scene from which it was coming. The more research I did, the more this album's brilliance became apparent. Retroactively assigned "milestone" status, and rightfully so. Really fantastic night driving album, as well.

19 1126 Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Enh, it was okay. Very neu-soft rock for the NPR crowd, but there was an attention here to vocal melodies and harmonies that was actually pretty unique. Just a shame that it was dressed up in that self-consciously "retro man" production.

21 1179 The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
More tuneless caterwauling from Colin Meloy. His lack of sense for melody is fucking reprehensible. Any apologists for this band can fuck off.

22 1210 Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
It was alright, and definitely reassuring coming after the uneven, heavy-handed mess that was Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Some really good tunes here, but a bit too much of a too comfortable, autopilot mood.

27 1570 Thom Yorke - The Eraser
A really unexpected album and a bit of an admittedly underwhelming listen at first. But it's just aged magnificently, I'd reckon. I still go back to it, and the equally as great remix album, fairly regularly. It has now achieved a sense of warmth and comfortable familiarity for me and I'd venture to include in my shortlist of favorite albums of the 2000's.

Tough choice here between Donuts, the Eraser and Burial.

Some albums from 2006 that I loved, but which are not listed here:
The Appleseed Cast — Peregrine
Beck — The Information
Boards of Canada — Trans Canada Highway
The Durutti Column — Keep Breathing
The Durutti Column — Sporadic Three
The Evens — Get Evens
Roddy Frame — Western Skies
David Gilmour — On An Island
Andrew Hill — Time Lines
Sonic Youth — Rather Ripped
Stereolab — Fab Four Suture

i think given time it's really really apparent now that dear catastrophe waitress >>> the life pursuit

^^ Disagreed. I think The Life Pursuit is their most underrated album. It's a great pop record, maybe it doesn't do what Fold Your Hands did but, wisely, it doesn't try.

Also I find Meloy's melodies to be quite interesting and fun, so fuck off Austin :)

The Life Pursuit is their most underrated album. It's a great pop record

first side and song one from side two is pure pop greatness.

still can't vote for it here...

Just glaringly unoriginal, as well: from the band name, to the album title to the insulting Violent Femmes cover.

surely their point was to be layered references

i mean beyond the relative quality of what they put out

Jesus...Ys is the only one I still listen to. I played Drum's Not Dead, Yellow House, and Return to Cookie Mountain a lot that year, but was mostly listening to music that came out a year or two before. The Eraser is good, pulled that out recently. But it doesn't take much for me to cry during "Sawdust and Diamonds."

oh shit, I missed Donuts. would've been between Donuts and Ys

austin what pop music do you like

from the past 15 years or so

Burial for me by a mile

Quite a few of these albums (Burial, The Knife, J Dilla, Clipse, Ghostface, Junior Boys) are better than anything on the 05 list

i can't find anything to vote for. might have to be 'the drift' purely coz of 'clara'

Drum's Not Dead. And I've been looking forward to vote for that one. Love it still.

Silent Shout, easily.

...and no Animal Collective, thank fuck!

Between Silent Shout and Burial.

Silent Shout, The Drift, So This Is Goodbye, Burial, Ghostface. Way tougher than 2005.

fwiw my favourite album of the entire decade came this year - North Sea Radio Orchestra's self-titled debut. anyone who likes chamber-pop, wistful british music, romantic poetry or hymns is invited

Kayo Dot - Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue also amazing

Donuts just over The Drift. At the time I would've voted for Ys but I went cool on that after a while (although I listened to some of it recently and did enjoy it). I think this is a much more interesting list than 2005's.

Modern Times at #7 seems silly though. It's not a terrible record but it's total Dylan-by-numbers, I wouldn't even put it in the top 50 for '06.

I'm in two minds about Amy Winehouse - she was obviously hugely talented but the Mark Ronson retro-soul thing never really worked for me. Definitely an important album though and I can't begrudge it being #1 here.

voting for Savane because it's a fucking great album and I'm sure no one is voting for it

Still feels fairly recent to me, this year. Nearly went for Silent Shout, but I'd be kidding myself if it wasn't The Drift that has fast become a favourite.

Dear Catastrophe Waitress is probably my favourite BS album.

Life Pursuit is great but you could tell the game was up by that point.

Silent Shout or Cookie Mountain. I like Ys but not as much as its bookend albums.

Realizing that '06 is the year where my obsessive interest in contemporary music began its quick fade.

man, the Sparks album from 2006 wipes the floor with pretty much any of these

11 706 Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
Idiotic.

?!?!?!??!

was 2006 one of my least vivid years b/c of the lackluster music that came out that year, or did i just fail to connect with that music b/c i wasn't feeling vivid?

(deep thoughts)

"Life Pursuit is great but you could tell the game was up by that point."

Sad but true...

life pursuit -> write about love was really dispiriting yeah but i grew to loooove girls in peacetime

These mid-2000s lists are so bad.

I really can't believe I've been listening to fox confessor and so this is goodbye for ten years

conversely I completely believe futuresex is ten years old

Timberlake album is solid

Burial album is too long but it's a cool sound for sure.

Donuts is cool.. kind of like slicing up a bunch of old school block party mixes and playing the slices on shuffle.

write-in: Todd Edwards - Odyssey

xps yeah I deleted the Heart Street sketch from my iTunes, but the rest of the album is pretty great

silent shout for sure

ys

without question

stopped liking newsom after that but there are some really beautiful moments on it

i havent listened to it in a while but im sure id still like it

This is Modern Times easily. The best Dylan album since World Gone Wrong at least, if not Saved. Runners up would be Lily Allen and then Neko Case. Notable albums not listed here: Espers, Celtic Frost, Destroyer.

Knife, JT, Newsom, Junior Boys. Dylan (great late career run; sometimes I think he made the so-so Together Through Life just to fuck with people next, and certainly the Christmas album after that to make the point even more clear). Fold Your Hands on, I can never tell which B&S is each by the song titles. Though I think I really liked most or much of this one, Life Pursuit.

The Tom Waits collection is great, but it's still just odds and sods.

It could stand to lose 2 or 3 of its more sluggish tracks, but I think The Life Pursuit is the best B&S album, mainly owing to the killer sequence of songs that runs from "Another Sunny Day" through "Sukie in the Graveyard."

I liked Fishscale at the time although it's definitely overlong and haven't listened to it in years. Never bothered with More Fish, am I missing out?

Hip-hop in general is definitely underrepresented here (again) - you would've thought they at least had room for Dedication 2 and King.

Also while I like FutureSex/LoveSounds, I think Nelly Furtado's Loose was the better Timbaland record of that year.

I feel like the next 20 is always a little more interesting than the top 30, but it seems to be even more the case this year

31 1693 Muse Black Holes & Revelations Alternative Rock
32 1840 M. Ward Post-War Folk Rock, Indie Folk, Singer/Songwriter
33 1883 Sonic Youth Rather Ripped
34 1907 Camera Obscura Let's Get Out Of This Country
35 1976 The Raconteurs Broken Boy Soldiers
36 2092 Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones
37 2107 Yo La Tengo I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
38 2246 Mastodon Blood Mountain
39 2265 Girl Talk Night Ripper
40 2292 Bruce Springsteen We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
41 2335 Destroyer Destroyer's Rubies
42 2381 The Roots Game Theory
43 2493 The Thermals The Body, The Blood, The Machine
44 2496 The Gossip Standing in the Way of Control
45 2639 Lupe Fiasco Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
46 2713 Phoenix It's Never Been Like That
47 2758 The Flaming Lips At War with the Mystics
48 2796 Johnny Cash American V: A Hundred Highways
49 2818 Guillemots Through the Windowpane
50 2849 Studio West Coast/Yearbook 1
51 2869 Regina Spektor Begin to Hope
52 2906 Peter Bjorn and John Writer's Block
53 2931 Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins Rabbit Fur Coat

This year is a pretty extreme example where I feel like there are five or six albums on the list I just posted that are better than 90% of the Top 30.

studiooooo <3

Yeah, I'd vote for Studio, Phoenix, Girl Talk, Sonic Youth and Camera Obscura over any of the top 30...

Something about how the decade needs reassessing etc.

Looking through the next twenty and...yeah, I was almost completely out of the loop by that point.

Looking through 2006 on my iPod, I see '06 was a superb year for post-Shibuya-kei jpop (great albums by Capsule, Fantastic Plastic Machine, and Copter4016882). And my favorite Western album of the year by a country mile (the first Serena Maneesh LP) apparently isn't rated all that highly by others. Sadness.

And where the fuck is B'Day?!?

Agree with a lot of what has been said about this album and voting The Life Pursuit.

ughhh not having the option to vote for The Thermals

omg b'day

Am I the only St. Elsewhere stan? It's spotty for sure, even ten years ago when it was in my rotation there were plenty of skips (I probably hate that Femmes cover as much as Austin does) but there is a great, great ~35min record hiding in there

xpost It took me ten years to finally realize that that album was named after something you wash your ass with, but it was worth the journey.

I have been waiting for this poll solely so I could vote Silent Shout.

St. Elsewhere: the best OutKast album of 2006.

PARIS HILTON - PARIS

I didn't know about the Silversun Pickups album right when it was released but over the next 4-5 years it probably became the '06 release I listened to most frequently.

C.S.S. was my AOTY as of 12/31/06.

Has it already been ten years since you had so many fine choices? ...the last half-decade-or-so hasn't seemed to produce nearly as much leftfield greatness -- at least 1/3 of the list ties for first place!

albums just missing getting my vote are Boys and Girls in America, The Life Pursuit. The Life Pursuit and Drum's Not Deadg.

one of those Life should have been Yellow House.

and So This Is Goodbye.

yknow Lupe Fiasco may not have released the best album of 2006 but it probably was the best cover art

i'm looking at albums from 2006 and *barfs* i guess that's why i mostly just bought a bunch of tech house singles that year

the knife is the clear winner here you degenerates

the other clear winners are cat power and beirut

pat cower

i really really hated that beirut album, it probably led me to postpone quitting tobacco

St. Elsewhere: the best OutKast album of 2006.

well, cee-lo is dungeon family after all..

grab your ticket! (tickeeeeeet)

I quite like "Smiley Faces" myself. I tend to think 2006 stands up better as a 'singles' year, but I've never listened to Ys either

yup! "smiley faces" is great! dunno why "crazy" got all the attention, it's good and all, but "smiley faces" could have used at least half of that heat. feel like "crazy" reached near "all-star" level ubiquity, which kind of spoiled everything I guess, but there are at least four tracks on that record that are as good or better.

even today, I was living in a studio apartment in Portland months ago and the only noise I heard from the neighbor was either very loud sex or a lady running thru her cover of "crazy".

but what about "feng shui"?

this really doesn't feel like 10 years ago...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Burial, Ys and Van Occupanther. To be fair, and given what came after, even Midlake seem a little baffled by how transcendent Van Occupanther is.

The knife album might be my favorite from this last decade.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i think this is the first time ever that a number one on this Acclaimed list that got zero votes, could be wrong though.

i need to investigate this Scott Walker album.

i missed this, i would have gone for the eraser. that's the kind of electronic music that touches me.

Acclaimed Music Top 30 Albums from 2007 poll

Just remembered last night that Yo La Tengo's I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU AND I WILL BEAT YOUR ASS was not included, would've voted for that. Amazing record, by far their best.