2006Music: Other people's choices

A collection of the best best-of lists and reviews. Yes, they've started posting them already.

Special mentions and thanks to Largehearted Boy and DJ Martian and their respective collections of links to more of this sort of thing.

Altrok radio's most-played artists of 2006:
Graham Coxon
The Futureheads
The Long Blondes
The Pigeon Detectives

Amazon.com editors' picks of the best albums:
1. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
2. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
3. The Crane Wife - The Decemberists
4. Eye To The Telescope - KT Tunstall
5. Saint Elsewhere - Gnarls Barkley

Architecture in Helsinki's album of the year, according to Filter:
Arthur Russell - First Thought Best Thought

Arctic Monkey's single of the year, according to 6Music:
Fedde Le Grand – Put Your Hands Up For Detroit

Ricardo Baca, Denver Post pop critic's CDs that "defined" 2006:
1. Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
2. The Grates - Gravity Won't Get You High
3. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
4. Van Morrison - Pay The Devil
5. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped

ContactMusic reviews the year with, erm, Castaldo-like insight: It's been another busy year in the music world. Songs have topped charts, albums have flown off shelves and musicians have kept up the grand old tradition of rock and roll by marrying, divorcing and getting arrested.

Corinne Bailey Rae's album of the year, according to Filter:
Editors - The Back Room
(We know, Summer 2005...)

Douglas Baptie reviews the year for CD Times: Ironically, it was also the year Sleater-Kinney decided to go on "hiatus" (read: split up) but 2006 was arguably the year that women finally broke through and were simply allowed to be, whether they were established acts like The Gossip or Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or newer faces like CSS, The Long Blondes, Be Your Own Pet, Blood Red Shoes, Tilly & The Wall, Lilly Allen, The Pipettes, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Metric - all just doing their own thing, but not being heckled or groped or having their attractiveness discussed in the music press.

Basement Galaxy is performing a slow reveal, but has already listed a top 10 ineligible albums list:
1. Pavement - Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition
2. Iron Maiden - Death on the Road DVD
3. Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend (Legacy Edition)
4. The Casettes - Neath The Pale Moon
5. Shooting At Unarmed Men - Yes, Tinnitus

Battle's single of the year, according to 6Music:
Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks

BBC Collective albums of the year, in no particular order:
The Young Knives - Voices of Animals And Men
Joan As Policewoman - Real Life
Joanna Newsom - Ys
The Knife - Silent Shout
Hot Chip - The Warning
Burial - Burial
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am...
Cat Power - The Greatest
The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
Ghostface Killah - Fishscale

Ben from Girlpants albums of the year:
1. Helios - Eingya
2. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
3. Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
4. Burial - Burial
5. Tunng - Comments of the Inner Chorus

Best selling UK albums of 2006:
1. Eyes Open - Snow Patrol
2. Beautiful World - Take That
3. Ta-Dah - Scissor Sisters
4. Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys
5. Inside In / Inside Out - Kooks

... and the best selling singles:
1. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
2. A Moment Like This - Leona Lewis
3. Hips Don't Lie - Shakira Ft Wyclef Jean
4. I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters
5. I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker - Sandi Thom

Best selling albums, worldwide, with sales figures according to Mediatraffic (and an estimate at the total including markets not measured by Mediatraffic):
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium 5.693.000 (6.119.975)
2. High School Musical - High School Musical Soundtrack 5.397.000 (5.801.775)
3. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / LoveSounds 4.348.000 (4.674.100)
4. Rascal Flatts - Me And My Gang 3.623.000 (3.894.725)
5. Pink - I'm Not Dead 3.419.000 (3.675.425)
6. Nelly Furtado - Loose 3.371.000 (3.623.825)
7. Beyonce - B'Day 3.238.000 (3.480.850)
8. The Beatles - Love 3.152.000 (3.388.400)
9. Evanescence - The Open Door 3.112.000 (3.345.400)
10. Andrea Bocelli - Amore 3.052.000 (3.280.900)

Between Thought And Expression provides an MP3 and videoed guide to the 69 favourite songs of the year:
1. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Rise Up With Fists
2. Devics - Distant Radio
3. Grizzly Bear - Knife
4. Lily Allen - LDN
5. Basement Jaxx - Take Me Back To Your House

Blender's top albums:
1. My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade
2. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
3. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
4. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / LoveSounds
5. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale

Bob Butler, who manages the warehouse for Southern Distribution chose, amongst his favourite things to listen to, The Mike Sammes Singer's Music For Biscuits and Danny Baker's Radio London programme. We suspect these two might be related.

Isobel Campbell's album of the year, according to Filter:
Bob Dylan - Modern Times

Chatanooga Pulse chooses the best local albums:
1. The Unsatisfied - The Way to the Crumbs
2. Infradig - Clinical Indifference / The Psychology of Breathing double ep package
3. Some Have Guns - Something Happened
4. Lou Wamp and Swing Shift - Wizards of Swing
5. Jennifer Daniels - A Thrill of Hope

Chromewaves: Rankings like that are inherently meaningless (as the uproar whenever someone publishes any sort of list that makes claims of definitiveness will attest) so instead, I've chosen to list off the ten records that meant the most to me in 2006 - the ones that soundtracked my life, so to speak. The post is a thing of beauty, lavishly illustrated with pics and links and mp3s, and highly recommended.
Eric Bachmann - To The Races
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Cat Power - The Greatest
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Early Day Miners - Offshore
The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
Land Of Talk - Applause Cheer Boo Hiss
The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
Shearwater - Palo Santo
Margot & The Nuclear So And So's - The Dust Of Retreat

Billboard's Classical best US sellers year-end charts:
Classic album: Sting - Songs From The Labyrinth
Classic artist: Sting
Classic crossover album: Andrea Bocelli - Amore
Classic crossover artist: Andrea Bocelli

Bloggedy Blog picks albums of the year:
1. Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
2. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
3. Cat Power - The Greatest
4. Asobi Seksu - Citrus
5. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America

Bootie USA has pulled together a CD of their favourite mash-ups of the year, including Party Ben's Hung Up On Soul (Death Cab For Cutie vs. Madonna) and Go Home Productions' Don't Hold Back, Sweet Jane (Chemical Brothers vs. Velvet Underground vs. U2 vs. Sugababes vs. MARRS)

CBC Radio 3 select 94 best tracks of 2006:
1. Joel Plaskett Emergency - Nowhere with you
2. Malajube - Montreal -40c
3. Islands - Rough Gem
4. Cadence Weapon - Oliver Square
5. The Hidden Cameras - Awoo

Gideon Coe's single of the year:
Joan as Policewoman - The Ride

Andrew Collins, 6Music presenter and 'Not Going Out' scriptwriter track of the year:
Jamie T - Sheila

Daily Mirror's remaining 3AM Girls award their "3a Emmies":
Pop group: Sugababes
Legend: Elton John
Album: Christina Aguilera - Back To Basics
Tour: Take That
Businesswoman: Victoria Beckham
Band: The Kooks
Single: Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous Girl

The Daily Record's Razz column's albums of the year:
1. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am...
2. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
3. The Feeling - Twelve Stops And Home
4. The Fratellis - Costello Music
5. Morrissey - Ringleader Of The Tormentors

Users at eMusic choose their albums of the year:
1. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
2. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
3. Belle And Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
4. Cat Power - The Greatest
5. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass

Glide Magazine has 20 from 2006, in no especial order:
Built to Spill - You In Reverse
JJ Cale & Eric Clapton - The Road To Escondido
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Cat Power - The Greatest
Elvis Costello & Allan Toussaint - The River in Reverse
Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
Earl Greyhound - Soft Targets
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
Joanna Newsom – Ys
The Roots - Game Theory
Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
The Slip - Eisenhower
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Viva Voce - Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
Wolfmother - Wolfmother
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass

Andrew Parker at The Gong Show took 180 of these sorts of lists, and compiled a best of the best albums:
1. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain (Number one on 14 lists)
2. The Knife - Silent Shout (8)
3. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America (7)
4. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury (6)
5. Bob Dylan - Modern Times (5)

Guardian Music Blog top albums, as voted by music writers on The Guardian and The Observer:
1. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am...
2. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
3. Hot Chip - The Warning
4. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
5. Ghostface Killah - Fishface

Blogcritic's assistant music editor A L Harper submitted her own list of best albums:
1. Snow Patrol - Eyes Open
2. The Working Title - About Face
3. Pink - I'm Not Dead
4. Green River Ordinance - The Beauty Of Letting Go
5. Placebo - Meds

Kenny Herzog, editor of CMJ's albums of the year:
1. The Goodnight Loving - Cemetery Trails
2. Various Artists - Confuzed Disco
3. Ghostface - Fishscale
4. Mew - And The Glass Handed Kites
5. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury

... and his favourite singles
1. Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
2. Rick Ross - Hustlin’
3. E-40 - Tell Me When To Go
4. Girl Talk - Smash Your Head
5. In Flames - Take This Life

Idolator munches through pages and pages of HTML to sum up the year:
Best artist: Gnarls Barkley
Album of the year: TV on the Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Top track: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Top reissue: Pavement - Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition
Enthusiasm (Total votes/voters selecting album) ratio: Burial - Burial
Under 30's album: Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Bloggers' album: Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Newspaper writers' album: Bob Dylan - Modern Times
African/Caribbean voters' album: Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
Caucasian voters' album: TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Other race voters' album: Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Midwest album: The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
New York album: Ghostface Killah - Fishscale

I Love Everything users gather to suggest albums overlooked by other lists: The new Bleach album. Title is long and the English translation doesn't make a whole lot of sense...something to do with the head nodding from side to side and chewing the meat

Indielaundry mp3-powers their albums of the year:
1. The Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams
2. Hot Chip - The Warning
3. Midlake - The trials of Van Occupanther
4. Tom Waits - Orphans
5. Bob Dylan - Modern Times

Jeroen of MusicMania picked a favourite album:
Sylvester Anfang - Satanische Vrede

Keisha Jenkins of Donewaiting.com's favourite album:
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

The Jpopmusic forum discuss best singles: I vote "Nanairo no Ashita~brand new beat~/Your Color". I think its one of her best singles since "Double" and "Be The One".

Kerrang's albums of the year:
1. Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now
2. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
3. The Bronx - The Bronx
4. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
5. Mastodon - Blood Mountain

Largehearted Boy selects the albums of the year in some form of alphabetical ordering:
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

Last FM has a "best album 2006" tag, although it's not been assigned to anything since October at time of writing.

Lee, co-owner of Netherlands store Patta, according to Slam X Hype:
Band/music of the year: Peter Bjorn and John
The Long Blondes
Clipse
Nas
Concert: Be Your Own Pet (Lowlands)
EPMD Amsterdam

Douglas Lyttle at Bloomberg reviews the year: Most Unwelcome Trend: Singers cranking out "tribute" records to long-dead artists, or worse, going whole hog and covering batches of songs from entire eras. Notable offenders this year include Michael Bolton ("Bolton Swings Sinatra'') and Rod Stewart ("Still the Same ... Great Rock Classics of Our Time.") Ol' Rooster Head has now hit a second wind by working his way through most of the eras, starting somewhere around Pearl Harbor and ending in Woodstock. What's next? "Stewart Sings Streisand"?

Matador Records are celebrating their year with the Matador Player, featuring a couple of tracks from their big-hitters of the year, including Pretty Girls Make Graves, Matmos, Brightblack Morning Light and Yo La Tengo. [Link probably going to decay at some point]

Mediatraffic's best-selling in week of release worldwide albums
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium 1,108,000
2. Kumi Koda - BEST (second session) 983,000
3. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / LoveSounds 932,000
4. Evanescence - The Open Door 775,000
5. Tool - 10,000 Days 756,000
6. Beyonce - B'Day 736,000
7. Rascal Flatts - Me And My Gang 733,000
8. The Beatles - Love 721,000
9. The Killers - Sam's Town 706,000
10. Ayumi Hamasaki - Secret 696,280

Metacritic scientifically feedback the best-reviewed albums of the year:
1. Ali Farka Toure - Savane 94 points out of a possible 100
2. Tom Waits - Orphans Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards 91
3. Clipse -Hell Hath No Fury 90
4. Bob Dylan - Modern Times 89
5. Joanna Newsom - Ys 89
6. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain 89
7. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale 88
8. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies 87
9. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America 87
10. Los Lobos - The Town And The City 87

Amongst Metric's favourite albums of the year, according to Filter are:
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped

Mixtape Monday from MTV.com picks its six artists "that had it poppin' so hard that the streets and the mainstream had to pay attention":
Lil Wayne
The Game
TI
DJ Drama
Mick Boogie
DJ Green Lantern

Mojo magazine's year-end selection of albums:
1. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
2. Bob Dylan - Modern Times by
3. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
4. Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
5. Archie Bronson Outfit - Derdang Derdang

More Cowbell's top albums:
1. M. Ward - Post-War
2. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
3. The Brother Kite - Waiting For The Time To Be Right
4. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
5. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls In America

Mr Red Penguin's Top 100 singles of 2006:
1. Art Brut - Nag Nag Nag Nag
2. Metric - Poster Of A Girl
3. Young Knives - Weekends and Bleak Days (Hot Summer)
4. New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream
5. Long Blondes - Weekend Without Makeup

MTV UK collects some of the notable popstar quotes of the year:
“Don’t hate me cos I’m a superstar and I’m married to a superstar” - Er, okay, Kevin Federline.

Music For Kids Who Can't Read Good offer best albums:
1. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
2. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
3. Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
4. Mates of State - Bring It Back
5. Beirut - Gulag Orkestrar

Craig Ness of Donewaiting.com's track of the year:
Beirut - Postcards From Italy

NME's albums of the year:
1. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
3. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
4. Hot Chip - The Warning
5. CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexi

NME's tracks of the year:
1. Hot Chip - Over And Over
2. Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks
3. The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
4. Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
5. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy

Chicago's North West Herald singles of the year, in no particular order:
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Lupe Fiasco - Kick, Push
Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous
Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
Dixie Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice
Belle and Sebastian - The Blues are Still Blue
Beyoncé - Irreplaceable
Prince - Black Sweat
AFI - Miss Murder

Listeners to NPR voted for their CDs of 2006:
1. The Decemberists: The Crane Wife
2. Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
3. Bob Dylan: Modern Times
4. M. Ward: Post War
5. TV On the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain

Obscure Sound mp3-enabled albums of the year:
1. Xiu Xiu - The Air Force
2. The Divine Comedy - Victory For The Comic Muse
3. The Veils - Nux Vomica
4. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up, I Am Dreaming
5. Scott Walker - The Drift

Off The Record contributors choose their favourite albums:
Grace: M Ward - Post-War
James: Sarah Blasko - What The Sea Wants The Sea Will Have
Sandra: Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country

The Onion AV Club writers struggle to produce a best music of 2006 listing: We used a weighted voting system—meaning passion proved nearly as important as widespread popularity—and tallied the votes using a highly scientific combination of computer spreadsheets, solar calculators, and an abacus, in a scientific formulation designed to ensure that only the finest albums would make the list.
1. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
2. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
3. Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther
4. Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
5. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit

And, from the Onion AV Club's essential guide to the Least Essential Albums of the 2006, including:
LEAST ESSENTIAL "REUNION" The New Cars, It's Alive
LEAST ESSENTIAL MUSIC TIE-IN TO AN INESSENTIAL TV SHOW Various artists, The Biggest Loser: Music Featured In And Inspired By The NBC Series
LEAST ESSENTIAL RACHAEL RAY BRANDING VENTURE (MUSIC DIVISION) Various artists, Rachael Ray: Too Cool For School Mixtape For Kids
LEAST ESSENTIAL GHOULISH LIVE ALBUM: Blind Melon, Live At The Palace
LEAST ESSENTIAL SEQUEL TO A TOTALLY FORGOTTEN RINGTONE-BASED AMPHIBIOUS ARTIST: Crazy Frog Presents More Crazy Hits
LEAST ESSENTIAL ALBUM OF 2006 (THE YEAR OF THE FISH IN THE BARREL): Kevin Federline, Playing With Fire

Picadilly Records of Manchester staff albums of the year:
1. Vetiver - To Find Me Gone
2. Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther
3. Cat Power - The Greatest
4. Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up
5. CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy

Picadilly Compilations of the year: "The "Rip It Up & Start Again", "North By Northwest", CD86, John Peel and Hacienda compilations had us older Piccadilly people happily tripping down memory lane regaling 80s obsessive Brad with tales of post-punk life. All in all it was another great year for compilations."

Picadilly reissues of the year: After an inclusion of one track on Gilles Peterson's "Digs America" compilation had tipped us off to his greatness, Darondo's "Let My People Go" became a firm favourite on the shop stereo at the beginning of the year. Also totally new to us was the Fern Jones "Glory Road" collection which put a smile on our faces and spring in our step on those busy Saturday afternoons, and Las Malas Amistades early work release which filled our heads with weirdness.

Pitchfork files its top videos of the year, including the sub When The Whistle Blows that was Keith Allen's daughter's Smile and, inevitably, the OK Go one with them on the treadmills. Admittedly, that was more inspired than anything they've done musically.

Pollstar track the largest US tours of the year:
Rolling Stones lead in sales value at $138.5 million
Kenny Chesney sold the most tickets, 1.13 million

PopMatters best 'world' music:
1. Ali Farka Touré - Savane
2. Lee 'Scratch' Perry - Panic in Babylon
3. Anouar Brahem - Le Voyage de Sahar
4. Värttinä - Miero
5. Kékélé - Kinavana

Q Magazine file the sort of best albums list that you'd expect from Q:
1. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am...
2. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
3. Razorlight - Razorlight
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
5. The Killers - Sam's Town

Q's best reissue is The Clash - The Singles

Rebecca Raber, associate editor at CMJ, with a list of her favourite albums:
1. Girl Talk - Night Ripper
2. The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine
3. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
4. Islands- Return To The Sea
5. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming

Raven Sings The Blues offers an MP3ed best-of, in no particular order:
Vetiver - To Find Me Gone
Beach House - Beach House
Shearwater - Palo Santo
Wooden Wand & The Skyhigh Band - Second Attention
The Skygreen Leopards - Disciples Of California
Woods - How to Survive in/ In The Woods
Flying Canyon - Flying Canyon
Horse Feathers - Words Are Dead
Kahoots - Fourteen Ghost
Benoit Pioulard - Precis
Nina Nastasia - On Leaving
Howlin' Rain - Howlin' Rain
King Tuff - Mindblow
The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultra Violet
Sinoia Caves - The Enchanter Persuaded
The Black Angels - Passover
Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
Indian Jewelry - Invasive Exotics
M. Ward - Post War

Reverend Moose, content editor at CMJ, picks albums of the year:
1. The Knife - Silent Shout
2. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
3. VAUX - Beyond Virtue, Beyond Vice
4. Dead Heart Bloom - Dead Heart Bloom
5. Against Me! - Americans Abroad!!! Against Me!!! Live In London!!!

Revolver Magazine chooses best albums:
1. Lamb of God - Sacrament
2. Mastodon - Blood Mountain
3. Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
4. GOJIRA - From Mars To Sirius
5. Converge - No Heroes

Marc Riley's single of the year:
Das Wanderlust - Orange Shop

Tom Robinson's single of the year:
Camille - Ta douleur

Rocksound magazine delivers a top 75 via its MySpace blog:
1. The Bronx - The Bronx
2. Converge - No Heroes
3. Isis - In The Absence Of Truth
4. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
5. Kylesa - Time Will Fuse Its Worth

Rolling Stone's Top 50 albums of the year:
1. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
2. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
3. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
4. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
5. Ghostface Killah - Fishcake

... and Rolling Stone's 100 tracks of the year:
1. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
2. The Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes
3. Chamillionaire - Ridin'
4. TI - What You Know
5. The Pack - Vans

Ron of MusicMania picked a favourite album:
TV On The Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain

Rough Trade Shop top 100 albums:
1. Beirut - Gulang Orkestar
2. The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
3. CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy
4. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
5. Brakes - The Beatific Visions

Rough Trade Shop best reissue:
The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional

Rough Trade Shop's favourite compilation:
Jarvis Cocker & Steve Mackey/Various - The Trip

Seattle Gay Blog gathers top albums...
1 Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - Neko Case
2 With Love and Squalor - We Are Scientists
3 Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys
4 Carnavas - Silversun Pickups
5 Wolfmother - Wolfmother

... and the Seattle Gay Blog's best singles:
1 Well Thought Out Twinkles - Silversun Pickups
2 Hold On, Hold On - Neko Case
3 Analyse - Thom Yorke
4 My Love - Justin Timberlake featuring T.I.
5 Woman - Wolfmother

Skatterbrain tracks of the year:
1. Pants Yell - Our Turf
2. The Most Serene Republic - You're Not An Astronaut
3. The Pipettes - Pull Shapes
4. Belle and Sebastian - Sukie In The Graveyard
5. The Knife - We Share Our Mother's Health

Status No Object from the Village Voice picks the New York gigs of the year:
1. Jay-Z at Radio City Music Hall, 26/6/06
2. Sleater-Kinney at Webster Hall, 2/8/06
3. TI at the Apollo Theatre, 1/6/06
4. Cat Power at Town Hall, 10/6/06
5. Boredoms at Webster Hall, 2/7/06

Stylus Magazine's best singles collated by JBones, based on the rating given by the magazine averaged from a number of reviews. Maximum possible score is ten:
1. Nelly Furtado - Maneater (9.0)
= Marit Larsen - Don’t Save Me (9.0)
3. The Pipettes - Pull Shapes (8.7)
4. Justin Timberlake - My Love (8.6)
= Bertine Zetlitz - Midnight (8.6)

Slim Devices have started to debate albums of the year on their talkboards. Bosonova808 takes advantage of the time difference: dEUS - Pocket Revolution (will be a 2006 album in the States but has been out for a few months in Europe) - good. Not quite as amazing as The Ideal Crash which still totally floats my boat, but Tom Barman remains seriously cool.

Suite 101 have picked the best Christian rock albums of the year:
1. Derek Webb - Mockingbird
2. Johnny Lang - Turn Around
3. Delirious? - Mission Bell
4. Leeland - Sound of Melodies
5. Phil Joel - The deliberatePeople album

The Sun's Bizarre column invited its readers to vote for their favourites. Madonna is so desperate for decentpress she even turned up to be presented with her prizes:
BEST MALE: Justin Timberlake
BEST FEMALE: Madonna
BEST NEWCOMER: Lily Allen
BEST BAND: Oasis
SINGLE OF THE YEAR: Take That - Patience
BEST LIVE ACT: Madonna
BEST COMEBACK: Take That
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not
CANER OF THE YEAR: Noel Gallagher
SHAGGER OF THE YEAR: Russell Brand
SACK THE STYLIST: Britney Spears
BEST FILM: Borat
BEST COMEDY: Little Britain
BEST ACTOR: Daniel Craig
BEST ACTRESS: Keira Knightley
BEST DJ: Chris Moyles

Sweeping The Nation has embarked on a slow-reveal of its top 30 2006 albums. Overall winner:
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain

Tony Sylvester of Southern Distribution picked top albums:
1. Kaada - Music For Movie Bikers
2. Daniel Higgs - Ancestral Songs
3. Entrance - Prayer Of Death
4. Current 93 - Black Ships Ate The Sky
5. Burial - Self Titled

Tapes N Tapes favourite album of the year, according to Filter:
Liars - Drum's Not Dead

Time Out New York's top albums:
1. Joanna Newsom - Ys
2. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
3. Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
4. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
5. Mastodon - Blood Mountain

Tiny Mix Tapes suggests a tiny mix tape of the best tracks of 2006, including:
Ghostface Killah - The Champ
The Flaming Lips - The Sound of Failure
Boozoo Bajou featuring Oh No - Back Up
CSS - Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above

UK Music Bloggers poll organised by Sweeping The Nation:
1. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
2. The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
3. Camera Obscura - Lets Get Out Of This Country
4. Cat Power - The Greatest
5. Joanna Newsom - Ys

We Are Scientists favourite single, according to 6Music:
We Are Scientists - Inaction

Paul Weller's favourite singles, according to 6Music:
Midlake - Young Bride and
Amy Winehouse - Rehab

John Wenzel, Denver Post staff writer, picked his CDs of the year:
1. Snowden - Anti-Anti
2. Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
3. Built To Spill - You, In Reverse
4. Beck - The Information
5. The Black Angels - Passover

John Williamson reviews the year in the Glasgow Herald: The Young Knives' Voices of Animals and Men is at least [The Arctic Monkey's] equal, and the Long Blondes re-enforced Sheffield's claim to musical city of the year (Jarvis Cocker's solo album and Richard Hawley's belatedly acclaimed Cole's Corner also deserve mention) with their updated take on C86 pop. The rush to cash-in on the Arctic Monkeys (like Oasis and the Stone Roses before them) brought a number of atrocities in their wake, but at least the cause seemed modest in the receipt of their acclaim.

Chris Wilman of Entertainment Weekly's favourite albums of the year:
1. The Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way
2. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
3. The Beatles - Love
4. Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing And A Curse
5. Vince Gill - These Days

Wikipedia's (potentially) ever-changing attempt at a chronology of music in 2006: November 8 – Nelly Furtado makes a cameo in the Portuguese soap opera Floribella.

... and a Wikipedia chronology of UK music: Single sales bounced back in 2006 as legal downloads added nearly thirty million sales to the total for the year. Despite this, the 17,694 copies sold during it's week at number one gave Orson's "No Tomorrow" the distiction of being the lowest sales ever of a chart topper.

... and Wikipedia on Swiss music in 2006: Despite the consistency at the top of the chart thus far in 2006, the Swiss singles chart has seen a lot of popular acts pass through it. Normally in the first two months of the year the chart would be mostly quiet, but the top ten has been fairly active, with acts including US5, 50 Cent, Ch!pz and Mary J. Blige entering toward the higher end of the chart this year.

Amy Winehouse's favourite singles, according to 6Music:
The Zutons - Valerie

Yahoo Music reviews the year: Pete Doherty Kicks Reporter: Finally, this guy successfully kicked something

Yahoo Top Searches found Britney the overall most-searched for term on the web in 2006; Shakira's Hips Don't Lie was the most-searched for lyrics.

Yannorossi posted a top ten albums:
1. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
2. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
3. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
4. The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home
5. Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea

This post will be updated as more lists are published on and offline; last updated 08-01-07 at 2.00pm
The 2005 collection

music 2006