AND NOW, FOR THE REST… 100 RUNNERS-UP IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
Even this long list is hardly exhaustive and, yes, I know I’ve left off many worthy records. Is your favorite record missing? Well, maybe I just didn’t like it as much, or maybe I didn’t get a chance to hear it, or hear it enough. But before I truly drive myself insane, here is a list of another hundred albums from 2006 that I enjoyed. Some of them just barely missed making my top 10 (Cat Power, Oneida, the Raconteurs, TV on the Radio, to name a few). Please note that the links I’ve included to mp3 files, videos and audio-streaming sites may not work forever. Most of these are on the Web sites of the musical artists or their record labels.
Acid Mothers Temple & the Cosmic Inferno: Starless and Bible Black Sabbath / stream album
Tony Allen: Lagos No Shaking / www.astralwerks.com
Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not / www.arcticmonkeys.com / watch “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”
Joseph Arthur: Nuclear Daydream / www.josepharthur.com / stream album
Badly Drawn Boy: Born in the UK / www.badlydrawnboy.co.uk / watch “Nothing’s Gonna Change Your Mind” and “Born in the UK”
Beck: The Information / www.beck.com
Belle & Sebastian: The Life Pursuit / www.belleandsebastian.co.uk / download “Another Sunny Day”
The Black Angels: Passover / www.theblackangels.com / download “The First Vietnamese War”
The Black Keys: Magic Potion / www.theblackkeys.com / stream album
The Broken Family Band: Balls / www.thebrokenfamilyband.com / download “I’m Thirsty”
Bound Stems: Appreciation Night / www.boundstems.com / stream album / download “Andover” / download “Western Biographic”
Brazilian Girls: Talk to La Bomb / www.braziliangirls.info / stream album
Richard Buckner: Meadow / www.richardbuckner.com
Built to Spill: You In Reverse / www.builttospill.com / stream album
Calexico: Garden Ruin / www.casadecalexico.com
stream album
Camera Obscura: Let’s Get Out Of This Country / www.camera-obscura.net / stream “Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken” / watch “Let’s Get Out of This Country”
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: Ballad Of The Broken Seas / www.isobelcampbell.com
Johnny Cash: American V: A Hundred Highways / www.johnnycash.com / stream album
Cat Power: The Greatest / www.catpowerthegreatest.com / download “The Greatest” / watch “Where Is My Love,” “Lived in Bars” and “Living Proof” / stream album
Centro-Matic: Fort Recovery / www.centromatic.com / download “Calling Thermatico” / download “Triggers and Trash Heaps”
Clearlake: Amber / www.clearlake.uk.com / stream songs at myspace
Jason Collett: Idols of Exile / www.arts-crafts.ca/jasoncollett/index2.html / stream album
Comets on Fire: Avatar / www.cometsonfire.com / download “Dogwood Rust”
Graham Coxon: Love Travels at Illegal Speeds / www.grahamcoxon.co.uk / watch videos
The Concretes: In Colour / www.theconcretes.com / stream album
Crooked Still: Shaken by a Low Sound / www.crookedstill.com /
sample “Little Sadie” / SAMPLE “Ain’t No Grave” / SAMPLE “Wind and Rain”
The Dagons: Reverse / www.dagons.net / stream album
Deadstring Brothers: Starving Winter Report / www.deadstringbrothers.com / download “Sacred Heart” / download “Get Up Jake”
The Decemberists: The Crane Wife / www.decemberists.com / stream “Summersong” and “O Valencia!”
Miguel “Anga” Diaz: Echu Mingua / samples
Drive-By Truckers: A Blessing And A Curse / www.drivebytruckers.com /watch “Aftermath USA” / And even though it’s not on the album, make sure to check out this video of the DBTs’ Jason Isbell singing a song about a friend who died in Iraq, “Dress Blues.”
Bob Dylan: Modern Times / www.bobdylan.com / watch “Thunder on the Mountain” and “When the Deal Goes Down”
The Elected: Sun, Sun, Sun / www.theelected.com / download “Not Going Home” / watch “Not Going Home”
Eleventh Dream Day: Zeroes And Ones / stream album
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint: The River in Reverse / www.elviscostello.com / stream album
Espers: II / www.espers.org / stream an appearance by Espers on WNYC
The Essex Green: Cannibal Sea / www.essexgreen.com / stream “Rue De Lis” / download “You Don’t Know Why (You Stay)”
Evangelicals: So Gone / myspace.com/evangelicals
Benjy Ferree: Leaving the Nest / www.benjyferree.com / stream album
Field Music: Write Your Own History / www.field-music.co.uk / download “I’m Tired” / watch “You’re Not Supposed to”
Howe Gelb: ‘Sno Angel Like You / www.howegelb.com / stream album
Glossary: For What I Don’t Become / www.glossary.us / download “Headstones and Dead Leaves”
Grizzly Bear: Yellow House / www.grizzly-bear.net / stream album / download “On a Neck, On a Spit”
Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebro: Ethiopiques, Vol. 21: Ethiopia Song / www.budamusique.com
The Handsome Family: Last Days Of Wonder / www.handsomefamily.com / stream songs at myspace
Ed Harcourt: The Beautiful Lie / www.edharcourt.com / watch videos
Heartless Bastards: All This Time / www.theheartlessbastards.com / stream album / stream songs at myspace
High Hawk: Amor Fati (unreleased) / www.highhawkmusic.com
Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3: Ole! Tarantula / www.robynhitchcock / watch “Adventure Rocket Ship”
The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America / www.theholdsteady.com / download “Stuck Between Stations” live on the Current / download “Killer Parties” remix
Frida Hyvonen: Until Death Comes / www.fridahyvonen.com / sample “I Drive My Friend” / watch “I Drive My Friend” / watch “The Modern”
Richard James: The Seven Sleepers Den / www.richardjames.uk.net / stream songs at myspace
Bert Jansch: The Black Swan / www.bertjansch.com / stream samples
Ladyhawk: Ladyhawk / www.ladyhawkladyhawk.com /
download “The Dugout”
Las Rubias Del Norte: Panamericana / http://lasrubiasdelnorte.com / stream album
Magnolia Electric Co.: Fading Trails / www.magnoliaelectricco.com / download “Lonesome Valley”
Malajube: Trompe-L’oeil / www.malajube.com / download “Montreal 40c”
The Memory Band: Apron Strings / www.thememoryband.com
The Minders: It’s A Bright Guilty World / www.theminders.com / download “Don’t Stop”
The Minus 5: The Minus 5 (The Gun Album) / www.minus5.com / stream “Twilight Distillery”
Mission of Burma: The Obliterati / www.missionofburma.com/home.html / download “Donna Sumeria” / download “2wice”
The M’s: Future Women / www.the-ms.com / download “Plan of the Man”
Mojave 3: Puzzles Like You / www.mojave3online.com / stream songs
Juana Molina: Son / www.juanamolina.com / stream songs
My Morning Jacket: Okonokos / www.mymorningjacket.com / stream songs & videos
Joanna Newsom: Ys / www.dragcity.com
The Nice Boys: The Nice Boys / stream songs at myspace / download “Johnny Guitar”
The 1900s: Plume Delivery / the-1900s.com / \samples
Norfolk & Western: The Unsung Colony / www.norfolkandwestern.org / stream songs
Oakley Hall: Gypsum Strings / www.oakleyhall.net / download “Lazy Susan” / download “Living in Sin in the U.S.A.”
Oneida: Happy New Year / www.enemyhogs.com / download “Up With People”
Palliard: Won’t Heal Alone / www.palliardmusic.com / download “Mockingbird” / download “Won’t Heal Alone”
Patty Hurst Shifter: Too Crowded on the Losing End / www.pattyhurstshifter.com / stream songs
Pernice Brothers: Live a Little / www.pernicebrothers.com / stream album
Pink Mountaintops: Axis Of Evol / www.jagjaguwar.com/pinkmountaintops / download “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy” / download “Can You Do That Dance?”
Robert Pollard: From A Compound Eye / www.robertpollard.net / stream “Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft” / stream “Dancing Girls and Dancing Men”
Portastatic: Be Still Please / www.portastatic.com / watch “Song for a Clock”
The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers / www.theraconteurs.com / stream songs
Josh Ritter: The Animal Years / www.joshritter.com / download “Girl in the War” / download “Thin Blue Flame”
The Rogers Sisters: Never Learn To Cry / www.therogerssisters.com / download “Never Learn to Cry” / watch “Why Won’t You”
The Sadies: In Concert Volume One / www.thesadies.net / download “Tailspin” / download “American Pageant”
Serena-Maneesh: Serena-Maneesh / www.serena-maneesh.com / watch “Drain Cosmetics”
Shearwater: Palo Santo / www.shearwatermusic.com / download “Red Sea, Black Sea” (demo version) / download “White Waves” / download “Seventy-four, Seventy-five”
The Singleman Affair: Let’s Kill the Summer / www.cardboardsangria.com/singleman.html / download “is Madras Morning is” / download “Dragonflies to Find” / download “Eyelids in Light” / stream songs on myspace
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin: Broom / www.morawk.com/boris / samples
Sparklehorse: Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain / www.sparklehorse.com / stream songs
Kelley Stoltz: Below The Branches / www.electriccity.org / download “Memory Collector” / download “The Sun Comes Through”
The Streets: The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living / www.the-streets.co.uk / stream songs at myspace
Teddy Thompson: Separate Ways / www.teddythompson.com / stream songs
Ali Farka Toure: Savane / stream songs
TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain / www.tvontheradio.com
Two Gallants: What the Bell Tolls / www.twogallants.com / stream “La Cruces Jail” / stream “Waves of Grain”
Various Artists: Classic Railroad Songs / samples
Various Artists: Rogue’s Gallery / download a medley / download “Mingulay Boat Song” by Richard Thompson
Viva Voce: Get Yr Blood Sucked / www.vivavoce.com / download “When Planets Collide” / download “We Do Not Fuck Around”
The Walkmen: A Hundred Miles Off / www.marcata.net/walkmen / stream songs at myspace
Steve Wynn: tick … tick … tick / www.stevewynn.net / download songs
Yo La Tengo: I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass / www.yolatengo.com / download “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind” / download “Beanbag Chair”
Neil Young: Living With War / www.neilyoung.com /stream songs & videos
Thom Yorke: The Eraser / www.theeraser.net
To see my top 10, click here.