Top 40 Albums of 2006

Well, we're nearly there. These are the albums you should certainly bend your ear to if you find it nestling in your friends collection. Off we go!

20. Calexico - Garden Ruin

Southwestern indie-rock. "Calexico economically blend jazz, country, American folk, and indie rock into concise, well-oiled pop songs, complete with gorgeous vocal layering."
[Pitchfork]

Official site







19. Sparklehorse - Dreamt For Light Years In the Belly of a Mountain

Gently skewed folk-rock. "A solid, absorbing album with a shifting musical landscape and as many contradictions as any 40-minute passage in anyone's life."
[Pitchfork]

Official site







18. Bat for Lashes - Fur And Gold

Hauntingly frosty music. "Quality is in abundance on this album, a distinctive creative and unique musical vision, Khan has produced an utterly enchanting debut."
[Sound Generator]

Official site






17. I'm Not a Gun - We Think As Intruments

Electronic postrock-instrumentals. "Music which finally arrives at itself, unfolds, blossoms and stretches out its feelers."
[Forced Exposure]

Official site - they're too cool for school. [School being self-promotion]







16. Tortoise and Bonnie Prince Bily - The Brave and the Bold

Math-rock stylings mixed with smooth pedal steel against scrappy acoustics. "Classic songs are rearranged and reconsidered, stripped down and rebuilt."
[Pitchfork]

Official site - Tortoise
Official site - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy






15. Cansei De Ser Sexy - Cansei De Ser Sexy

High-strung new wave electro squiggle. "The coolest sound in pop music on the planet right now. Almost maddeningly exuberant without a trace of naiveté, CSS sound like they have more fun using the bathroom than most people do having sex."
[Stylus magazine]

Official site






14. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

Hyperliterate folk-rock. "Employs an impressive variety of styles and sounds to tell Meloy's imaginative stories...[which] further magnifies and refines their strengths."
[Pitchfork]

Official site







13. Tv On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain

Sonic indie-rock. "Abstract and electronic textures roll over acoustic sources to reach a perfect consistency, all the way through to the closer."
[Pitchfork]

Official site








12. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country

Intimate chamber pop. "Fabulously schmaltzy...organs that flash all over the record like blindingly white grins...of fancifully brisk pop."
[Pitchfork]

Official site






11. Built To Spill - You In Reverse

Epic, melodic guitar-rock. "Plaintive and layered songwriting, brought to life by a band whose talent and proficiency at times seem boundless."
[Pitchfork]

Official site








Tomorrow we look at the Top 20 films of 2006. See you then!