The Upstate Life

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

TUL Presents His Top 10 Albums of 2006, Because You Really Care!

10) The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine: This album is the epitome of that genre we almost forgot about, indie rock.

9) Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP: While we won't see an LP from this Austin quintet anytime soon, the five tracks on this release leaves us wanting more.

8) Band of Horses - Everything All the Time: Perhaps containing one of the top tracks of '06 ("The Funeral"), Band of Horses' debut album is downright solid and easily one of the best produced of the year.

7) The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers: Am I the only who feels this album was slightly overlooked/underrated? Brendan Benson's partnership with Jack White resulted in an album full of great, guitar-laden tracks but with much better songwriting. Thank the former for that.

6) Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit: Much tighter than their last album, Belle and Sebastian's latest is another progressive step from their twee days of yesteryear. The slick production, catchy melodies, and nods to Motown have made The Life Pursuit one of the group's finest releases.

5) Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon: Just the guitar riffs alone won us over.

4) The Rapture - Pieces of the People We Love: Personally, I enjoyed this album much more than Echoes. It doesn't sound as constrained and you could easily tell they had a little more fun this time around.

3) Islands - Return to the Sea: Hands down one of the most original albums released this year. The 66.7% remaining members of The Unicorns (which I guess is now down to 33.3%) were able to differentiate themselves from their former band and create a record encompassed with quirky songwriting, a unique selection of instruments, and J'aime Tambeur's distinctive drumming.

2) Girl Talk - Night Ripper: Best party/gym/car/work/bar/office mix, ever. I usually turn my speakers down a tad regarding the last locale.

1) The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America: C'mon, do I really have to explain? Fine, it's fucking awesome. There.

Posted by Brett at 11:21 AM |