Music of 2006 et all

(Edit 03/05/07 - Added Day Action Band) So here is my list of music that I enjoyed that came out in the year of 2006! It is all good music and you should like it, too.

• Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
  I like Dear Catastrophe Waitress better but this album is also definitely good.
• The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
  The Decemberists are just good in general and their latest is no exception. It's a lot more cohesive in mood, which is nice. Plus it has the distinction of having the most depressing lyrics of any album I can think of that still has ridiculously catchy songs and mostly upbeat instrumentals.
• The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics
  The Flaming Lips are great, their new album is great. It's more like The Soft Bulletin than Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots which is nice if you got tired of beeps and boops looped a little bit past tolerable. I love Yoshimi, don't get me wrong. But the return is appreciated.
• The Long Winters - Putting the Days to Bed
  I first heard of the Long Winters when I saw their frontman do a solo acoustic set of a couple of their songs. Unfortunately I think I liked that better than his band as a whole. There are some good songs that will get stuck in your head.
• Neko Case - The Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
  Old-style kind of songs that soothe me. It goes to show that you don't have to have clean recordings to be good.
• Pigeon John - And the Summertime Pool Party
  I'm not a huge fan of hip-hop or rap, but I make exceptions. This is one of them. I got ridiculously obsessed with this album and I still fight the urge to play it incessantly. I just like rhymes involving self-loathing, I guess. Good rhymes, too!
• Sufjan Stevens - Songs for Christmas
  It's kind of phony putting that on here because it's a box set of mostly older stuff, but it is damned good. It makes me wish that I hated Christmas so that I could listen to Sufjan and then he would show me the light and make me love it.
• Tartan Terrors - Who's Your Paddy!
  First I heard them talked about from some of my friends (I have awesome friends). Then I stumbled upon them playing live when I went to the PA Renaissance Faire. It was there I bought the CD, and then I brought it home and enjoyed. Traditional Scottish music fused with jazz? It sounds like a terrible idea, but they make it sound good.
• The Who - Endless Wire
  Call me crazy, but I love the new Who album. Listening to it, it sounds like a mix between Warren Zevon and the Who, which sounds weird, but listen to it and you'll hear what I mean. I didn't find out about the whole Pete Townshend getting prosecuted thing until after I listened to the album a few times, and now my opinion of it has been tainted a little bit. Some of the songs get seen in a new light and it's creepy. Still, I like the album a lot.

I guess my favorite album of 2006 is probably At War with the Mystics. Now, here's a list of albums that came out that made me sad and disappointed.

• Paul Simon - Surprise
  Goddamn you Brian Eno. Stay away from Paul Simon. Ech. I was tolerating it until a couple of songs in and then it just became too much. Depressing.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
  There's one song out of 28 that I kind of like and it's only because it sounds like a bad rip-off of their earlier stuff.
• The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
  If you listen to this album and you haven't listened to the Strokes in a couple of months, you'll think, hey, this is not so bad. But then if you listen to their album before that, you think, hey, this new one actually kind of sucks. Then if you listen to their first album, you think, hey, that new album really sucks and I wish I hadn't spent money on it. There is one good song on it, and it's because they rehashed the melody from an earlier album.
• Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
  It's okay, but not what I have come to expect from the man. I really don't care too much for the album, but what can you expect from something that's composed of songs that weren't good enough for a real album?

Now a list of music that didn't actually come out in 2006 but I listened to it a lot this year anyway because it's awesome.

• Andrew Bird - & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
  Ridiculously good. After hearing the album, Andrew Bird is in my top three favorite musical artists that are still doing things. So good.
• Day Action Band - Right on Dairyland
  All three of their albums are just great. You used to be able to get the first two for free off of their website if you joined their mailing list, I don't know if that's still true. Great songs produced by two dudes in a shack somewhere.
• Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane over the Sea
  I'm pretty late on picking up on NMH, but I love the album. The album is a pretty much perfect composition in terms of how the songs fit together and since all the songs have a baseline of "good" the results are nice.
• Jonathan Richman - I, Jonathan
  Good old fashioned kind of rock and roll. Simple but very pleasurable guitar riffs. Song subjects include: Dancing in lesbian bars, how you can't talk to the dude (no no), and the Velvet Underground.

That's a lot of bullet points.