Sign In:
Login with Facebook

VOTE! For DiS's album of the year! WIN! A massive pile of CDs from Our 66!

Voting closes: Tuesday December 19

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...

I voted for Islands

although actually, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly is my album of the year, Islands is second.

i'm at work

so i'll wait to vote from home.

proibably arctic monkeys for me though. or guillemots. argh.

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

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?

Howling Bells for me

Was a tough call between that, Cat Power and Muse

there is no rhyme

nor reason
nor lamb of god

What ABout

Mogwai?

No Waits?

BOO

We don't have the Tom Waits record

at all!
BOO!

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!

FYI

Gallows shits on everything in this list.

Where is Midlake?!?!

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.

where is anything?

I wish we had a free vote again :(

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

This is the first year...

...the DiS albums of the year has been user-voted.

Well, user-ranked.

oh lord

man like that needs to learn to hide his shame.

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.

Matmos!

Bah! Why only one?

I want to vote for Muse and Guillemots :(

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.

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.

ashes was better

IMHO

:(

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

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.

No Metallic Falcons?

One of the albums of the year. That's a great list though.

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 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.

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...

Agreed

Making Dens gets my vote too. Followed by TV on the Radio and Guillemots.

Decemberists yes

But luckily the Final Fantasy album is even better. God, it's AMAZING.

It's mostly a piss poor selection

Of that lot, I'll say 'Belle and Sebastian".

where the hell are

forward russia

what...

...white boy rapping? Busdriver and Subtitle are black.

russia?

maybe...

x

Electric Eel Shock wish you all happy Christmas...

EES in Lapland
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzODsjfnRgQ&eurl=

Subtle

Tough choice between Subtle and Mastodon. But Subtle album just edged it out for me for being jaw droppingly original/mind blowing

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

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!??

Add your comment

Reply


 or Abandon