The film one has already been started, so why not the music one.

What were the best & worst albums of 2006?

Doing a top 10 best I'm still trying to figure out. I know it will contain

HOWLING BELLS
THE PIPPETTES



Worst is easy though:

RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS - 2 discs of shit
THE STROKES - one of the most awful/boring albums ever
PANIC! AT THE DISCO - laughable shit
RAZORLIGHT - very, very shit.
TENACIOUS D - awful. Panic! At the Disco was funnier

THe "not that special" category
ARCTIC MONKEYS

The "not heard it but what I have heard I'm surethe CD is shit" category
THE KOOKS

That's in the wrong category, surely? It's an awful album - twee, shouty, earnest, badly produced and stupid - made worse by the fact that it should have been so good.

The many factors that made me love Shampoo so much. It is a badly produced album, and could have been a lot better, but as it is I still enjoy it. Maybe it's because I fancy them all, and when I end up up going out with one/all of them I don't want any negative posts I have made about them thrown in my face during a domestic.

For Down Under; bests will be:

Bob Evans - Suburban Songbook
Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails, Red Wine
Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road

The only album I've bought this year (that was new)



Awesome. I listened to it everyday on holiday without fail.

There's been quite a few good albums this year:

Tool - 10,000 Days
Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death
Novembre - Materia
My Dying Bride - A Line of Deathless Kings
Ihsahn - The Adversary
Sepultura - Dante XXI
Satyricon - Now, Diabolical
Cradle of Filth - Thornography

My favourites:

Augie March- Moo, You Bloody Choir
OK Go- Oh No
Arctic Monkeys- Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
The Flaming Lips- At War With The Mystics
Guillemots- Through The Windowpane
John Frusciante- Curtains

What albums did I buy this year that were new...

Wolfmother is an awesome album

Ummm

Massive Attack - Collected, but that doesnt really count as its just a best of.

I havnet bought many albums that have come out this year actually.

Thom Yorkes album is definately my favourite for this year. I cant stop listneing to it.

I bought more albums this year than previous years, about 100, but most of them are 90's or early 00's, rather than ones out this year.

I forgot Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome : The Seeger Sessions

Lovely album

Heh. Can't fault that as a reason to like it. But seeing as I don't fancy any of them, to me it sounds like Hi-5 doing Kenickie songs badly.

A contender for my 10 too.

I let it slip at the time when you first said it was shit, but could you justify that please?

I've not really bought anything this year apart from that and I thought it was great so an inflamatory jab at it like that needs some kind of explaination.

The Good:

Tool - 10,000 days
Tunng - Comments of the Inner Chorus
Mogwai - Mr Beast
PJ Harvey - Peel Sessions
Thom Yorke - The Eraser

Happily. Musically dull, - take away the comedy element and it is just very lame 3rd division rock. But then is a Tenacious D album sold on the music? Is it a parody of rock or an out-and-out comedy album? If it's a parody then it fails, and it fails mainly in the area of comparison - Spinal Tap's albums got it spot on...this doesn't. Bad News did it better. Even The Darkness made a better stab at parody with their first album. As a comedy album it's just not that funny. Made up words and the use of "fuck" can only carry material so far, and what remains just gets boring.

I've only listened to it 3 times since it came out Repeated listens may change my opinion - it may need more investment on my part - but then again I may hate it more. If Jack Black was not attached to the band I very much doubt this would get beyond an A&R man.

Please don't be offended because I think it's so bad, and you don't. It's a criticism of the CD and not of you and your tastes.

Best: Evanescence - The Open Door. Simply amazing.

Worst: Lily Allen - Alright, Still. My sister bought it and I was horrified beyond belief.

Guillemots - Through The Windowpane
Razorlight - Razorlight (I thought it was bloody wicked to be honest. 10 really good songs)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

I'm not offended, I could hardly expect everyone to agree with everything I think, I just had to ask for something more than "It's shit". Thank you kindly.

Shit, I forgot about that! Yep that's definitely on my list too. Along with Bob Dylan- Modern Times.

If you look back and see who the initial one word review of "shit" was posted in response to, you may realise that they are , and particularly at the time were, fond of posting short flammatory opinions in other threads. It was more a case of taking advantage of the situation and doing the same in return.

I've bought quite a few albums this year,... but very few actually from this year. Of those, the worst might be Love travels at illegal speed- Graham Coxon... although maybe I've not listened to it enough. The best that I bought is The Life Aquatic studio sessions - Seu Jorge.

TV On The Radio-Return To Cookie Mountain
Avant-garde genius, now with added Bowie.

Howling Bells-Howling Bells
Amazing live and just as wonderful on record.

Monkey Swallows The Universe-The Bright Carvings
An astonishing folk band with beautiful melodies and Sheffield-centric lyrics.

Guillemots-Through The Windowpane
As good as they always promised it would be.

The Decemberists-The Crane Wife
Better than Picaresque.

Primal Scream-Riot City Blues
One of the best rock and roll records of recent years.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
A great album. The NME stopped championing them when they ignored them and wouldn't do interviews, making me love them all the more.

Shack-The Corner of Miles and Gil
Psychedelic songs about bondage and LCD in cups of tea from the band that backed Arthur Lee in his later years.

Sufjan Stevens-The Avalanche
Worth it for the three versions of Chicago, but the rest of the album is also as wonderful. Not as good as Illinois, but his even his offcuts piss on everyone else.

Gnarls Barkley-St. Elsewhere
Sublime.

That too for the Down Under listing and...

The Sleepy Jackson - Personality (One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird)
Little Birdy - Hollywood
Lior - Autumn Flow

The 10 best albums of 2006

Liars - Drums Not Dead
The Twilight Singers - Powder Burns
Tool - 10,000 Days
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Isis - In The Absence Of Truth
God Is An Astronaut - All Is Violent, All Is Bright
Mastodon - Blood Mountain
Boris - Pink
Tom Waits - Orphans
Drive By Truckers - A Blessing And A Curse

The most disappointing albums of 2006

Helmet - Monochrome
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - So Divided
Love Travels At Illegal Speeds - Graham Coxon
Peaches - Impeach My Bush

The most irredeemable pieces of shite album of 2006

The Panic Channel - ONe
Lily Allen - All Right, Still
Razorlight - Razorlight
Captain - Frontline

Best compilation of 2006

Mclusky - Mcluskyism

Best Live Acts of 2006

Gogol Bordello
Tool
TV On The Radio
Muse
Slayer

Kill Them, Kill Them Now 2006

The Vichy Government

I also bought and enjoyed:

Aim - Flight 602

although the worst album I heard this year was most certainly:

DJ Shadow - The Outsider

On the first listen, maybe. But it's a real grower, and one of those albums where you forget just how good it is until you listen to it again.

I'm finding it difficult to list any albums in either category. This year I've bought considerably fewer albums than since I started buying them - saving money and all - and of the CDs I did buy, none stand out in the way the best of 2005 did.

However, 2007 should bring a glut of my favourite artists' work including Echaskech, Underworld, Ulrich Schnauss and Jon Hopkins. Woot.

Here's the best list i could come up with at the moment:

1
Thom Yorke
The Eraser (2006)
2
Secret Machines
Ten Silver Drops (2006)
3
TV on the Radio
Return to Cookie Mountain (2006)
4
Morrissey
Ringleader of the Tormentors (2006)
5
Editors
The Back Room (2006)
6
Joanna Newsom
Ys (2006)
7
Howling Bells
Howling Bells (2006)
8
Serena Maneesh
Serena-Maneesh (2006)
9
Arctic Monkeys
10
Beck
The Information (2006)
11
The Early Years
The Early Years (2006)
12
The Raconteurs
Broken Boy Soldiers (2006)
13
King Creosote
KC Rules OK (2006 Edition) (2006)
14
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Show Your Bones (2006)
15
The Longcut
A Call And Response (2006)


others: Brakes, Jarvis, CSS, Kasabian, Two Gallants, Bert Jansch...

I think it was a really dissapointing year though, last year was sooo much better: Bloc Party, and the album of the millenium (apart from kid a and amnesiac) Funeral by The Arcade Fire...

a great album, but surely not 2006... that ones been out for a while.

Possibly, I read somewhere that their next album is due in January, which they quoted as being released ''Only 10 months after their debut'' and since I couldn't remember exactly when I bought it I used that as a guide.

It's still a great album though and my mistake is not quite as great as Rolling Stone calling London Calling the greatest album of the 80s.

Damn!

I forgot about the Secret Machines and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's, even though I have thier album (the latter)

When I first got The Raconteurs, I thought it was excellent, but after a few listens, it kind of feels a little flat, if not a little short.

Albums by The Research, The Organ, The Long Blondes, Morrissey, Forward Russia, The Futureheads, The Sunshine Underground and The Spinto Band have all warmed my cockles very muchly.

I do really like Show Your Bones by Yeah Yeah Yeahs as well, but I've not listened to it enough just yet.

The Panic! At the Disco album was so disliked by me that I sent it to someone who did like it. Not what I thought AT all.

Shame - not many people did seem to like it. I personally thought it was pretty cool, though I absolutely hate Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off - it's truly irritating. The rest of the album is really good though in my opinion.

My favourite 10 Albums of the year....

1. Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat.

2. Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormenters.

3. Isobel Cambell and Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas

4. Ojos De Brujo - Techari

5. The Streets - Hardest Way to Make An Easy Living.

6. Cat Power - The Greatest.

7. Lily Allen - Alright, Still.

8. Belle and Sebastian - the Life Pursuit.

9. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am.....

10. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers




My Top three singles....

Lily Allen - Smile

The Streets - Prangin' Out

Shakira - Hips Don't Lie

really dont get Lily Allen.. just sounds like vapid crap to me...

Might as well post my top singles of the year:

1. Hot Chip-Over and Over
2. Justice Vs. Simian-We Are Your Friends
3. The Hours-Ali In The Jungle

2006 has been one of the best years for a while for me. Most especially 10,000 Days by Tool, which I would have to say that in addition to being the best album this year, is in fact, from my point of view, possibly the best album ever made.

My own include:

Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better...
Evermore - Real Life
Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails, Red Wine
Belle And Sebastian - The Life Pursuit

Shit, forgot The Raconteurs as well! My memory is awful.

It's been a bad year musically for me, or maybe I just haven't been looking hard enough for stuff that I like.
The two albums I bought this year that I do really love are Nine Black Alps Everything Is and Angels and Airwaves We Don't Need to Whisper. Angels and Airwaves are quite self indulgent and do go over the top with that Edge guitar effect but some of the melodies are just outstanding.

Nine Black Alps just plain and simply rock. Just what I want!

God Ive been forced to listen to that Belle and Sebastian album far too much.

Its good, but thats as far as it goes for me.

You got that wrong, it's the Raconteurs that are awful

They're not really, couldn't resist the joke. Laff it up kids!

Best album of the year would be those Flaming Lips fellas.

Best thing released this year that I've heard was Built To Spill - You In Reverse.

Most disappointing was The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics

In no discernible final order, my bestest stand-out albums would have to be:

Muse - 'Black Holes & Revelations'
Amy Winehouse - 'Back To Black'
The Feeling - 'Twelve Stops And Home'
Arctic Monkeys - 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'
The Knife - 'Silent Shout'
Richard Hawley - 'Coles Corner'
(not a strictly valid entry, since it was released in 2005, but I only discovered it this year, so there)


I can't really think of much else that really stands out to be honest. Not that I've bought a great deal this year.

My favourite albums released this year, in no particular order:

Pay The Devil - Van Morrison
American V: A Hundred Highways - Johnny Cash
Half The Perfect World - Madeleine Peyroux
Superbi - The Beautiful South
Love Stories and Lies - My Spoon

Best Music Website Ever™ Pitchfork Media have posted their list of the best albums of the year here.

Some interesting choices.

Yeah, I've seen that. Not sure I agree with all of it, but it was nice to see Scott Walker, Boris, Joanna Newsom and Liars make the top 10. Oh, and TV On The Radio, but they were always gonna be there.

I've only just bought Someone to Drive You Home but it's definitely in my top three. I love that it sounds like 1997 all over again; Giddy Stratospheres makes me want to dig out my glitter eyeshadow, line my eyes with black and shimmy round a cider-soaked carpet in the local indie dive.

''Giddy Statospheres'' is a great tune to dance to in clubs, especially since it always gets played twice as fast and sounds quite mental.

I'd like to add Damaged by Lambchop to my list in place of Sufjan Stevens. A wonderful record full of beautiful songs, much like the rest of their albums.

Having read Pitchfork's reviews of some of my favourite records I'm not very trusting of their opinions, but at least that least has let me know that Mission Of Burma are back together and recording again. Unfortunately The Obliterati probably won't arrive until next year.