Picks Of 2006

An album for every month… my picks for 2006. Mind you, notice I didn't say "best albums"… that would be too much pressure.

1. Cold War Kids – Robbers & Cowards. What can I say? Top of the list, my favourite album of the year, I don't need to make any equivocation about that. Not a duff track here… well, maybe one duff track.

Cold War Kids - Passing The Hat

2. Beirut – Gulag Orkestar. It’s not so much that it’s kooky, or ethnic, or unusual… it’s that he’s managed to take something which could sound like wedding music, and make it into a sublime, melodic thing.

Beirut - Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)

3. Tilly & the Wall – Wild Like Children. Like Go! Team colliding with Arcade Fire. I’m a sucker for the Spanish rhythms and horns, so it makes the list.

Tilly & The Wall - Bad Education

4. The Rapture – Pieces Of The People We Love. Glamorous, shouty, sexy, sweaty disco, some decent tunes too. The only drawback is that it’s on a major label.

The Rapture - Don Gon Do It

5. Blood Arm – Lie Lover Lie. Everyone says "The Cure" so I'll try not too. Rolling Stones tarted up with touches of Fun Boy Three and The Fall. I think there's definitely a band to watch here. "Stay Put" is a rocking track.

The Blood Arm - Album Sampler (stream entire album)

6. Cat Power – The Greatest. The first big hype of the year. Worth buying for the title track alone, one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.

Cat Power - The Greatest

7. Psapp – The Only Thing I Ever Wanted. Verges on the edge of “constructively kooky” but it’s still extremely listenable, and most certainly unique.


Psapp - Tricycle

8. Bats For Lashes – Fur And Gold. Again, there’s something shamelessly retro about this, very gothic and dark.

Bats For Lashes - Trophy

9. Cansei De Ser Sexy – CSS. So much has been written about this band, it’s almost ruined them. Try to ignore the hype, it really is a good record, in the vein of Ladytron.

Cansei De Ser Sexy - Alala

10. Jenny Wilson – Love & Youth. It’s actually a 2005 release in Sweden, but let’s say 2006 for the UK (July on V2). Naiveté at its best, and another notch for the Swedes. Manages to be completely poppy while being very strange, too. “Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward” is the standout track.

Jenny Wilson - Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward

11. Zero 7 – The Garden. Sufferers of “middle class music syndrome” they finally came good with this album. Jose Gonzalez surely helped, but the songwriting is all due to Zero 7. They forgot to leave in the oddness with their last release, which was fixed with this album.

Zero 7 Feat. Jose Gonzalez - Today

12. Midlake – They raced neck and neck with The Feeling to release the easy listening album of the year. The Feeling won the commercial stakes. But Midlake come in first with credibility!

Midlake - Young Bride (Video)

Finally, some worthy mentions. These albums have some standout tracks, but failed in some way to make the grade:

Charlotte Gainsbourg – 5:55. There were things I didn’t like about this album. It was too brittle and cold. Awkward and overwrought. Those were also, contrarily, the things I liked about this album. “Tel Que Tu Es” is an amazing track.

Semifinalists – Semifinalists. Memorable, for being one of the first good albums to come out of the midwinter doldrums. A straight-ahead, old-fashioned indie release, sparkly and melodic in all the right places.

Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere. It’s a re-hash of this and that from the hip hop, rock and soul cannons but it’s so joyous, and so shamelessly commercial. It’s hard to believe it’s Dangermouse.

Grandadbob – Garden Of Happiness. For doing something completely different. Loses points for trying too hard, but they manage to squeeze out a “should have been pop hit” with “Hide Me”.