2006 Albums of the Year

Usually these sorts of lists get put out in late December. I guess I'm a little behind.

With the growing presence of online music, the album may be fading. I still like albums and have special respect for those artists that can put together a cohesive, quality, collection of music. I expand the definition of album just a little. I include DJ mixes as albums.

I started putting this list together with no set number of how many I wanted to list. As I began to whittle it down, I found these six to be the best of the best for 2006. So, in no particular order (err, alphabetical)...

• BT - This Binary Universe
  I think BT is a tremendous artist. It's nice that he took a little break from movie scoring to make this. I guess you could say this is still a movie score, except the movie is his life. This one will stand the test of time.


• DJ Shadow - The Outsider
  As usual, the albums that bug me at first become beloved over time. I guess I can't immediately appreciate the new directions. I'd still prefer to hear more stuff like Endtroducing, but I liked this enough to make my best of 2006.


• Evil Nine - Fabriclive.28
  Bumpin' mix. I wouldn't expect any less. Fabriclive is putting out great stuff.


• Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
  Easily my most played album of the year. This disc has yet to leave the 6 disc changer in my truck. I show no signs of tiring of it. This is how albums should be done. Each track is unique, but yet it feels whole.


• The Remote - Hard to Miss
  Global Underground has done a great job with their artist albums. The Remote is at the top of the stack.


• Stanton Warriors - The Stanton Sessions, Vol. 2
  Like Gnarls Barkley, this has seen heavy play on the roads. The artist tracks are my favorite, but the included DJ mix is a burner too.