I love music. In fact, music might just be my second-greatest passion, right after design. This comes as a surprise to some people, and I can see why… you don’t usually have anything tangible to show from listening to a lot of music, unless it’s a huge record collection (increasingly rare), or always having headphones jammed in your ears (increasingly common). As a listener, you’re not really creating anything (unless you’re a critic—and even then, not really). You’re just consuming.

So I consume music. And I’ve always wanted to write one of these year-end roundups of favorite music, partly as a way to say “hey, I listen to enough music that I can do this,” but mostly just as a record for myself. It’s the same reason I like iTunes play counts and last.fm; I enjoy keeping track of my own listening habits. Don’t ask me why.

Anyway, I’ve never had a weblog at the right time to do a year-end list. I guess this is my chance. A word of warning: Expect gratuitous adjectives. Expect overwrought, often nonsensical, metaphors. In short, expect music criticism. As someone famous once said:

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

With that in mind, here are my five favorite albums released in 2006. (I had originally planned on doing ten, but then I realized that I really haven’t listened to as much music this year as I did the last, for whatever reason. Oh, well.)

5

Ellen Allien & Apparat
Orchestra of Bubbles
techno

Having no prior experience with either Ellen Allien or Apparat (other than the knowledge that they’re both German electronic musicians), I came into this album without an idea of what to really expect. Turns out these guys (well, a guy and a gal, actually) are pretty damn good. It’s not often that I pick something up I’ve never heard of before and immediately take a liking to it, so when it happens, it’s something special.

I’m inclined to say that Orchestra of Bubbles only made the list because of “Do Not Break,” which I had on infinite repeat for a good couple of days, but that really doesn’t do the album justice. It’s just track after track of blissfully pulsating electronic goodness.

Note to self: investigate other releases by Ellen Allien and/or Apparat.

Recommended: “Do Not Break,” “Leave Me Alone,” “Turbo Dreams”

4

Islands
Return to the Sea
indie pop

Islands emerged from the ashes of a group formerly known as The Unicorns, an idiosyncratic indie pop outfit that was a little too idiosyncratic for its own good. Case in point: Their album titled Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, which is actually very good. They also had a penchant for odd stage antics, such as hiring a hobo to impersonate them at one of their concerts.

Return to the Sea manages to retain a lot of the quirkiness that made The Unicorns such a fun group, while at the same time being more polished, mature, and just, well… less outright weird.

Anyone with an aversion towards cuteness, however, would do well to avoid this group. If the bouncy melody of “Rough Gem” doesn’t make you feel like you’re in kindergarten again, nothing will. Oh, and I have no idea what’s up with the pseudo-rapping on “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Whalebone,” but I like it.

Recommended: “Rough Gem,” “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Whalebone,” “Joggin Gorgeous Summer”

3

TV on the Radio
Return to Cookie Mountain
experimental rock

I guarantee you this one will hover near the top of many year-end lists, and for good reason. TV on the Radio deserve all the recognition they’re getting and more for being one of the most innovative semi-mainstream rock bands today. (I say “semi-mainstream” to exclude all those bands you’ve really never heard of.)

I’ve rarely seen TV on the Radio labeled with anything other than the generic umbrella term “indie rock” or “experimental.” That’s because it’s damn hard to get much more specific than that. Take bits of noise rock, electronic, jazz, and R&B, throw them in a blender, and you might get something that sounds vaguely like these guys. But not quite. Their distinctive sound undoubtedly owes a great deal to lead singer Tunde Adebimpe, one of the few black vocalists in rock (and the only one I think can think of off the top of my head, actually).

That said, I think I still enjoy their debut EP, Young Liars, more, and it’s probably what I would recommend as a starting point for someone unfamiliar with the band.

Recommended: “Wolf Like Me,” “Blues from Down Here,” “A Method”

2

Beirut
Gulag Orkestar
Balkan folk

I have no idea what the hell “Gulag Orkestar” means. All I know is that when I listen to this album, I’m somewhere in Eastern Europe, and I’m thinking gypsies.

The thing is, I know next to nothing about real gypsies, let alone the kind of music they actually make or listen to. In fact, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Beirut is to authentic gyspy music what Taco Bell is to authentic Mexican food. But that doesn’t stop me from enjoying them. Beirut, that is. Not Taco Bell.

Gulag Orkestar is one of those albums I play all the way through, over and over, and never get sick of. It’s just that cohesive and consistently good, and it’ll probably have the most staying power with me out of all the albums released this year.

Recommended: “Mount Wroclai (Idle Days),” “The Gulag Orkestar,” “After the Curtain”

1

Ratatat
Classics
electronic

Ratatat’s self-titled debut still stands as one of my favorite albums of all time. The opening track of that album, “Seventeen Years,” stands as one of my favorite songs of all time, if not my absolute favorite. No vocals (unless you count the opening soundbite of some rapper no one’s ever heard of). Just raw, chunky electric guitar and thumping bass. It’s like a soundtrack to humanity’s obliteration by robots. NES theme music–loving robots. It’s an apocalypse of sorts… an awesome apocalypse.

Needless to say, I had high expectations of their sophomore release. Classics does not disappoint. Look no further than the first single, “Wildcat,” which features actual panther roars. Seriously, any song that can sample animal noises without sounding completely cheesy wins. If “Seventeen Years” is like a robotic apocalypse, then “Wildcat” is like a robotic stealth assassin; elegant and refined, and but no less deadly.

Then there’s “Lex,” the track that receives my stamp of approval for reasons not the least of which is that it was named after me. And don’t forget “Nostrand,” which starts out innocuously enough and meanders along for almost a full two minutes before exploding off into a solid gold sunset. Ah, it gets me every time.

If I’m coming off as hyperbolic, it’s only to counter the less-than-stellar reviews this album has been receiving from numerous respected online indie music publications. Pffft, music critics. Who needs them. To summarize my thoughts on Classics in the immortal words of Steve Wozniak: It. Is. Awesome.

Recommended: “Wildcat,” “Lex,” “Nostrand”

Honorable Mentions

• Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere
• The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
• Mogwai – Mr. Beast

And there you have it: my favorite albums of 2006. I have a few more music-related tidbits that I’ll probably dump into a follow-up post, but in the meantime… have a happy new year!