OK, Fine: Top 10 Albums of 2006 Thus Far


We’re a happy blogosphere.

I wasn’t going to do this. In this blog, I try not to measure music – You’ll notice I never include numerical ratings with the reviews, and for the most part I just post things I’m really excited about regardless of if it shakes out to be a 79% or an 84%.

Then the blogosphere failed me. Failed me utterly. Ryan at Good Hodgkins has been industrious and curious enough to compile a mid-year top 10 based on several different blogs’ lists, and quite frankly, it is wrong. The calculations are all intact, of course – it’s the choices themselves that worry me. The blogosphere would have you believe that Belle & Sebastian have released the best album of the year, that Band of Horses don’t have a bunch of awful songs in between the great ones, that Mates of State are better than Camera Obscura…and Ghostface. I hope we’re all in agreeance that this is a problem.

1. Destroyer – Destroyer’s Rubies
2. The Pipettes – We Are The Pipettes
3. The Fiery Furnaces – Bitter Tea
4. Maritime – We, The Vehicles
5. Rose Melberg – Cast Away The Clouds
6. Ghostface Killah – Fishscale
7. Centro-matic – Fort Recovery
8. Thom Yorke – The Eraser
9. Sondre Lerche – Duper Sessions
10. Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out Of This Country

Honorable Mentions:
11. Lily Allen – Alright Still
12. Mountains – Sewn
13. Aloha – Some Echoes
14. Division Day – Beartrap Island

(Ineligible because they’re not out yet and I haven’t listened to them enough: Chad VanGaalen, Lambchop and Grizzly Bear, all of which are magnificent. Albums in need of more consideration before proper ranking: Danielson, Sunset Rubdown, Oneida, and Grandaddy — for whom we still have a contest going.)

Here are MP3s so you know you can trust somebody’s judgement. Sheesh.

Destroyer – “Painter In Your Pocket”: mp3
Fiery Furnaces – “Benton Harbor Blues”: mp3
Maritime – “Tearing Up The Oxygen”: mp3
Centro-matic – “Triggers and Trash Heaps”: mp3
Camera Obscura – “Let’s Get Out Of This Country”: mp3
Mountains – “Sewn Two”: mp3
Aloha – “Your Eyes”: mp3
Division Day – “Colorguard”: mp3

It’s all in good fun, gang. I’m willing to give the blogosphere the benefit of the doubt – they probably just haven’t had time for the Maritime record yet. Totally understandable, of course. Just wrong.