Good day to you, dearest of dear readers, and welcome to what we’re calling an ‘interactive activity’. Because we’re busy – bloody busy – at the DiSopolis, we’re asking you to decide our album/s of the year.
Perhaps you’ve noticed the rash of end-of-year lists spreading throughout the music press right now – it’s that time of year, after all – and the expected names are making their presence felt. Arctic Monkeys’ excellent debut album is attracting much of the year’s-end hyperbole, with the likes of Muse, Joanna Newsom and the mighty Mastodon also rightly recognized for their amazing albums of 2006.
But DiS is doing things a little differently this year: below, you’ll find a list of 25 albums, each of which a) came out during the last twelve months and b) is fuggin’ brilliant. From these 25, we want you to pick JUST ONE, and e-mail it to us. Next week, we’ll run the top ten albums of 2006, as voted for by you, our readers.
Here’s what you’ve got to choose a favourite from; remember, you can only pick one!
Arctic Monkeys
Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
(review, Domino)
Bat For Lashes
Fur & Gold
(review, Chrysalis)
Beirut
Gulag Orkestar
(review, Ba Da Bing/4AD)
Belle & Sebastian
The Life Pursuit
(review, Rough Trade)
Blood Brothers
Young Machetes
(review, Wichita)
Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene
(review, City Slang/Arts & Crafts)
Cat Power
The Greatest
(review, Matador)
Deftones
Saturday Night Wrist
(review, Maverick)
Final Fantasy
He Poos Clouds
(review, Tomlab)
Gallows
Orchestra Of Wolves
(review, In At The Deep End)
Guillemots
Through the Windowpane
(review, Polydor)
Howling Bells
Howling Bells
(review, Bella Union)
Islands
Return To The Sea
(user review, Rough Trade)
James Holden
The Idiots Are Winning
(review, Border Community)
Joanna Newsom
Ys
(review, Drag City)
The Knife
Silent Shout
(review, Brille)
Liars
Drum's Not Dead
(review, Mute)
The Long Blondes
Someone To Drive You Home
(review, Rough Trade)
Mastodon
Blood Mountain
(review, Reprise)
Muse
Black Holes And Revelations
(review, Atlantic)
Panic! At The Disco
A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out
(review, Fueled By Ramen)
Subtle
For Hero: For Fool
(review, Lex)
TV On The Radio
Return To Cookie Mountain
(review, 4AD)
volcano!
Beautiful Seizure
(review, Leaf)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Show Your Bones
(user review, Polydor)
Wanna vote, then? Of course you do! Simply e-mail the ARTIST NAME, in the subject line, to 2006@drownedinsound.com right now (click on address). Just the ARTIST NAME in the subject line, as it appears in the above list. Include your address in the e-mail body text, as we’ve a PRIZE to send to one lucky voter.
A prize you say? Hell yes! We’ve collected a massive stack of CDs, all of which are taken from Our 66 which ran earlier this year – click here to read it! The prize pile includes albums by The Murder Of Rosa Luxemburg, M Ward, Saul Williams, Bloc Party, Our 66 ‘winner’ Björk, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Cat Power, The Cribs, Mastodon, Four Tet, volcano!, Muse, Lightning Bolt, This Aint Vegas AND MORE. What a freebie! And it could be yours, just by voting. Some of the best albums of the last six years, for nowt! Hooray!
SO GET VOTING! BUT ONLY ONCE PER PERSON, PLEASE!
No Isis?!?!
MY WORD.
I'm thinking it'll be between
TVOTR and The Knife...
What a crap list. Try this:
Top Albums of 2006
M Ward - Post-War
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Eric Bachmann - To The Races
Fear Before The March Of Flames - The Always Open Mouth
The Twilight Singers - Powder Burns
Built To Spill - You In Reverse
Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldier
Gomez - How We Operate
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
Originally posted here
http://www.musicemissions.com
I voted for Islands
although actually, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly is my album of the year, Islands is second.
Broken Social Scene is my favourite there
but it feels like last year's album to me, so i think ill go with TVOTR
list really misses Yo La Tengo, Mono and Midlake for me
i'm at work
so i'll wait to vote from home.
proibably arctic monkeys for me though. or guillemots. argh.
so Panic! Disco get 6 in a review
and cursive get 9 and it gets called possibly the best album of the year, how does that work?
there is no rhyme
nor reason
nor lamb of god
ashes was better
IMHO
didn't come out this year though
...
yeah
but personal opinions (which is what often a lot of our reviews are) get lost, somewhat, in a mass.
plus when putting this list together cursive didn't come up in our conversations, nor in the messageboard threads about records of the year - fact!
reviews can only ever be personal opinion, surely?
:(
urm
not enough people have Happy Hollow in their lists, that is very sad
pieces_of_reece | 07 Dec '06, 09:18 | Send note | Reply
^ from sean's thread
i'm sure i mentioned it elsewhere, but i guess i can't argue with what that
Howling Bells for me
Was a tough call between that, Cat Power and Muse
What ABout
Mogwai?
No Waits?
BOO
We don't have the Tom Waits record
at all!
BOO!
Went for Islands
The white boy rapping swayed me.
what...
...white boy rapping? Busdriver and Subtitle are black.
Fair enough.
Liars it is!
Or Mastodon????
Hmmmm.
eh?
Can't you pop down the shops and get a copy. It's very very good indeed. I am choosing to assume that you've left it off the list because;
A - it's a boring poll if it has an automatic winner
and
B - if it somehow failed to win the DiS readership would look like complete muppets.
from that list i'll be voting for Subtle.
doesn't it cost A LOT
I think I'll put it on the Christmas list!
no
its cos crablin hates tom waits and said he didnt like that record LIVE ON BBC RADIO
oh lord
man like that needs to learn to hide his shame.
mogwai
mogwai-zidane was definately my personal favourite album of the year
with css in a close second
FYI
Gallows shits on everything in this list.
Where is Midlake?!?!
where is anything?
I wish we had a free vote again :(
This is the first year...
...the DiS albums of the year has been user-voted.
Well, user-ranked.
it's just the beginning !
blood brothers
Haven't given me enough time
but liars is what I have listened to most consistently throughout the year. And the DVD's awesome.
liars is a good one for sure
Matmos!
Bah! Why only one?
I want to vote for Muse and Guillemots :(
how in fucky shitty shit
is broken social scene's record from 2006?
volcano's album...
...came out in 2005, no?
BSS came out in late Jan/February.
they're all based on UK release dates
and all came out, in the UK, in 2006.
Oh really?
In this case volcano! tops all for me. Then it's a brawl between TVOTR, Blood Brothers and Gallows for second place.
hmm
i see. fucky shitty shit retracted.
still... bit of a technicality, diver.
my album of the year is probably....
mouth of the architect - the ties that bind. i had a sneaky feeling that it wasnt going to be in here. same goes for the other two; boris - pink, boris & sunn o))) - Altar.
oh well, Mastodon it is.
my album of the year
is jeremy warmsley's 'the art of fiction' - so i'm plumping for broken social scene, it is in fact one of the finest everrrrrr.
looking at this list
reminds me of how underwhelmed i have been by this year's releases..
it's all about
belong - october language.
absofuckinglutely beautiful.
As fine as some of the other albums are
I've decided to go for the one which I've listened to most, which is The Long Blondes. I only just got Bat For Lashes, though, so maybe my answer will be different by new year. I also agree that GCWCF should have been nominated.
Decemberists
It's kind of come out in the UK, its available non-import on amazon.co.uk, so im plumbing for the Crane Wife u big poos DiS.
Decemberists yes
But luckily the Final Fantasy album is even better. God, it's AMAZING.
No Metallic Falcons?
One of the albums of the year. That's a great list though.
Akira the don gets honorary mention
...from me.
didn't really expect it to feature in this list anyhow
where the fuck is...
the eraser
yellow house
you are there
to name but three?
and muse, black holes and revelations? don't make me fucking laugh.
If you can't find a great album, a worthy album of the year
in those shortlisted 25, then there's something very wrong with you.
Like The Eraser? Vote for James Holden.
Like Yellow House? Vote Beirut.
etc.
sorry but
none of this albums is worthy of my TOP25.
Some good albums, but certainly not album of the year material for me.
So I won't vote !
Erm...
"Like The Eraser? Vote for James Holden."
The Eraser is a really solid record. James Holden's however is an overhyped piece of 'techno' nonsense.
Does not compute!
IMHO Yellow House is by far the best album this year. And you didnt even mention Fionn Regan who pisses over most else on that list.
The Eraser ...
... is very dull.
Very dull indeed.
The Subtle record, by contrast, is one of the finest slices of pure genius ever to come down from that big patisserie in the sky. So I have voted for it.
Also good this year: BSS, Beirut, volcano!
Shit this year: Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Cat Power!
says I.
no cursive?
insanity!
BSS
Not exactly a stellar year in music. There're probably two dozen albums from last year that top this bunch, eh? The YYY's Show Your Bones on the short list here is proof of that. I'll admit I haven't heard all these albums and I especially want to hear the Islands album, as I've heard good (but not "great!") things about it.
When I reviewed the BSS album it was early in the year (or was it late last year? hmm...) I suspected it'd be a contender for this sort of honor but was also sure several albums would be a little bit better. And in 2005 there were. In 2006 there are not (though, as I said, I haven't heard several albums being considered.)
no Kooks? no Union of Knives?
i was just starting to think that i liked you, DiS. then you left out my 2 choices for album of the year. time for me to find some new friends....
but...but....but.....
My 3 favourite LPs are My Latest Novel, The Low Lows, and Camera Obscura, but they're not shortlisted..!
WHERE'S THE TOM WAITS ALBUM ?!?
25
Morrissey - Ringleader Of The Tormentors
The Black Heart Procession - The Spell
Luke Haines - Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go
Jarvis - Jarvis
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Scott Walker - The Drift
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
Cat Power - The Greatest
The Long Blondes - Someone to Drive You Home
Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold
Pet Shop Boys - Fundamental
The Dears - Gang Of Losers
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
The Knife - Silent Shout
Yo La Tengo - I Am Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
Mew - And the Glass-Handed Kites
Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Flaming Lips - At War With The Mysctics
Gnarls Barley - St. Elsewhere
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Where in God's name
is 'Making Dens' by The Mystery Jets? Did I miss something? That was out this year, and made the "Top 66" of the last 6 years, so what gives?
Incidentally, of the above it's clearly Beirut.
Agreed
Making Dens gets my vote too. Followed by TV on the Radio and Guillemots.
either
mastodon, or the knife, or cat power, or yeah yeah yeahs, or joanna newsom for me.
although, i am being swayed by final fantasy, despite not hearing a crotchet of his music, merely for the album title "he poos clouds". speaks to me.
As a year for albums
It's no way near a patch on 2005 for me.
Liars, The Knife, a few comps and some great pop records have saved it, but it all went a bit quiet, folky and downright wussy for my liking.
Compared to the riches of sleater kinney, the national, lcd soundsystem, dfa1979 etc etc, this year gave me precious little
but singles on the other hand...
It's mostly a piss poor selection
Of that lot, I'll say 'Belle and Sebastian".
2006
wasn't necesarily a bad year for music. I like how there's been no clear victor as far as album of the year is concerned. The only consistent list topper I've seen so far has been the new Bob Dylan (yawn).
My vote goes to Subtle. I think For Hero: For Fool is by far the most tragically overlooked album of the year. Hardly anyone reviewed it and the ones who did thought it was stellar.
where the hell are
forward russia
russia?
maybe...
Oh and...
how come I've never heard of volcano!? Sounds exciting.
x
Electric Eel Shock wish you all happy Christmas...
EES in Lapland
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzODsjfnRgQ&eurl=
Where is
Elan Vital by Pretty Girls Make Graves???
Subtle
Tough choice between Subtle and Mastodon. But Subtle album just edged it out for me for being jaw droppingly original/mind blowing
i would vote...
Cursive or Decemberists and neither are there so i won't vote.
FOR FUCK'S SAKE
Decemberists isn't out in this country until next year.
Why do people keep complaining about it!??
then how come
i bought a copy of it from HMV which clearly had Rough Trade Records on it, not their US label?
Kill Your Own
I only bought 5 albums actually made in 2006 this year and I haven't bought any since August... None of them were on the list (Dresden Dolls, Hundred Reasons, Rodrigo y Gabriella, Pure Reason Revolution and Sikth) All were at least good but I'm gonna have to say the Hundred Reasons album was probably the best album of the year for me.
Out of the ones on the list that I've heard all the way through, Panic! at the Disco get my vote although I prefer volcano! and Mastadon's songs but I haven't heard the whole albums.