A bird's eye view of 2006

As always, the dawn of a new year goes hand in hand with nostalgic reflections of the old. After a few days of head-scratching, checking with my old notes to see what I've enjoyed the most, I've compiled a list of my Top 20 favorite albums of 2006, rated in a 1-10 scoring system (with 10/10 being the top score). Only albums with a score of 8 or higher made it onto this list.


Albums with score 10/10

1. Tom Waits: Orphans
2. TV On The Radio: Return to cookie mountain
3. Beirut: Gulag orkestar
4. Thom Yorke: The eraser

Albums with score 9/10

6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Show your bones
7. The Low Frequency In Stereo: The last temptation of ...
8. Gotan Project: Lunatico
9. Rockettothesky: To sing you apple trees
10. Muse: Black holes and revelations
11. Quasi: When the going gets dark

Albums with score 8/10

12. 120 Days: 120 Days
13. The Raconteurs: Broken boy soldiers
14. Marit Larsen: Under the surface
15. Das Bierbeben: Alles fällt
16. Calexico: Garden ruin
17. The Knife: Silent shout
18. Liars: Drum's not dead
19. Grand Island: Say no to sin
20. Sonic Youth: Rather ripped

In addition to the Top 20 list a number of non-2006 releases, basically late discoveries, also appeared frequently on my CD-player. Here are the most popular non-2006:

• Art Brut: Bang bang rock & roll
• Singapore Sling: Life is killing my rock'n'roll
  
• Daniel Boyacioglu: Visa 2007 - show me the money
• Mew: Frengers
• Audrey Horne: No Hay Banda
  

Finally, here are the Top 20 songs that mostly infected my mind during 2006:

1. "Postcards from Italy" - Beirut
2. "Wolf like me" - TV on the Radio
3. "The last temptation of..." - The Low Frequency in Stereo
4. "Silent shout" - The Knife
5. "Come out, come down, fade out, be gone" - 120 Days
6. "Knights of Cydonia" - Muse
7. "Formed a band" - Art Brut
8. "Sea of love" - Tom Waits
   
9. "God's gonna cut you down" - Johnny Cash
   
10. "The clock" - Thom Yorke
11. "Barrie For Billy Mackenzie" - Rockettothesky
    
12. "Pass the hatchet, I think I'm Goodkind" - Yo La Tengo
13. "Golden Lion" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
14. "Rhineland (Heartland)" - Beirut
15. "Steady as she goes" - The Raconteurs
16. "LDN" - Lily Allen
17. "Hours" - TV on the Radio
18. "A cute lovesong, please" - Rockettothesky
19. "Us annexed" - Grand Island
20. "In cod we trust" - Ghostigital feat Mark E. Smith

And that's all I had to say about the music of 2006. Now I'm looking forward in great anticipation for what 2007 has in store for us. A number of interesting albums are supposed to come out the first few months, such as "Days of rage" by Salvatore (Jan 1), "Some loud thunder" by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Jan 27) and not to forget "Myth takes" by !!! (Mar 5). I can hardly wait ;-)

The shattered soul
following close but nearly twice as slow.
In my good times
there were always golden rocks to throw,
at those who admit defeat too late.
Those were our times, those were our times.
['Postcards from Italy' - Beirut]