Top Ten Albums of 2006

List: Published on Litmusphere.com, 18/12/06.

Yes, that time of year, etc.; These are the albums that I’ve liked the most in 2006. Reasons, varied; because music isn’t, entirely objective (of course). Neither, though, is it entirely subjective. These are my favourites, I’m not sure if they will be next year, but, for this one, I’ve held them close.

10. Evangelicals – So Gone

Crafting open spaces is nothing new in indie rock, but Evangelicals spaces are at once vast and claustrophobic. Oddball, schizophrenic pop; all over the show, but with real direction and vision. Moments of brilliance and great beauty littered through a sonic pastiche of, well, everything. Freakazoids! It’s pop and it’ amazing; their’s is a unique voice.

9. Nathan Fake - Drowning in the Sea of Love

I love shoegaze and I love electronic music. Like another favourite of mine, M83, who perhaps pioneered this style of sound, Nathan Fake combines swelling keyboards, walls of electronic-shoegaze, evocative soundscapes, all with such meticulous production. It’s a young album on a young label, filled with ideas, to the brim, in fact. It’s probably not as fully realized as one might hope, but what the most of this record hints (and mostly achieves) at is brilliant.

8. The Changes - Today is Tonight

A perhaps straightforward sound (and album), but executed just so well. This is tried and true indie-pop, but I do feel that The Changes’ version is boasting something else. When I first got the album, I thought how catchy, sprightly and straightforward it is. Because I do love straightforward pop, especially of the twee variety. Since then, I’ve listened to it so much. Uncomplicated pleasure like this is important, I think. I don’t feel guilty about it; after all, what’s the sense in that?

7. Dosh - The Lost Take

Dosh can play quite a few instruments. He plays them all at once on this, his best album to date. His friend’s help, too. I’m not sure how he (or how they) achieve such sonic Density is The Lost Take’s best trait; its layers open in different ways on each listen. Instrumental music of the best and most affective sort. Plenty of great beats, amazing melodies, perfectly measured build-ups. It evokes passion; conjures settings, furthers all the best parts of dance music and headphone electronica with a whole bunch of wonderful textures and organics.

6. The Radio Dept. - Pet Grief

Earlier this year I used to listen to catch trains a lot. Never without my headphones, mind you. That is maybe why I’ve listened to this album so much this year. It’s the perfect traveling record, ideally, on trains, through any landscape, really. Even though its cold electronics might seem most suited to the metropolis, its undulating strings and ethereal vocals are just as suited to the countryside. It’s not only for traveling, though this is a concept that clearly plays a big part in the album. The aesthetic these Swedes have achieved is something I continually marvel at; so polished! But so warm, like electronic music can often be. Adding other pop elements, they’ve shined a real gem.

5. Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block

This has its share of hits and growers. Sometimes the most immediately uncatchy songs are catchier than the more obvious ones. The more obvious, of course, being possible song of the year ‘Young Folks’. A magnificently solid album with enough variance across tracks to deserve (and require) repeat listens all through this year. Each track is singular and great in its own way, and somehow it all meshes for one terrific pop album with a voice of its own, able to look back at the same time. Oh, and they’re Swedish, so, bonus points.

4. Beach House - Beach House

If there is too singular an aesthetic on this album then this duo has chosen the right one. Mysterious and enchanting, it’s all ancient drum machines and wonderfully dense, layered organs and keyboards. Heard best on nighttime walks in autumn or on warm summer evenings. It’s foggy and warm, filled with human touches; there are plenty of mistakes throughout, and you can tell that people have, in fact, made this, even if there are lots of programmed drum beats throughout. Blissfully narcotic with unaffected vocals, and really, a terrifically sincere record.

3. Benoit Pioulard – Precis

Someone once wrote that this is a lazy, late afternoon album. Actually, that was Pitchfork, and I’ve probably misquoted, but the point is, I listen to this album all the time. Maybe sometimes in the afternoon, but mostly just always. It’s incredible. Ambient, textural ideas combined with those of a singer/songwriter. Hints of classical music shine through, too. Foggy, electronic-drenched folky stuff isn’t hugely new, I know, but no one has done it this well until now. Like Boards of Canada (Music Has the Right…and Campfire Headphase), Precis’ album art perfectly exemplfiers how it sounds. It’s a drenched sound; a vast blur of emotion and style.

2. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies

Such a sound! Idiosyncratic throughout, but constantly proving itself in new ways. Other Destroyer records sound the best at night time, with the lighting preferably at it’s dimmest. This one is undeniably great at night, but now, more than ever, boasts a sound that transcends all of that. Lyrics at their most abstruse, I don’t know what Dan Bejar is talking about but for some reason it says so much. This might be because Destroyer is ultimately really fun. I love his leer. It’s a positively sprawling affair; all encapsulating, all over the place. The structures are loose and rambling but expansive and amazingly considered. It’s measured in perfect amounts, but ultimately free.

1. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar

My favourite, because every time I return, it reminds me why I loved it so much in the first place, and why I’ll continue to love it in new ways all the time. With the edition of the Lon Gisland EP with the re-release of the album, Beirut proved that its vision extends further than what I first thought. Zack Condon crafts a sound that has, yes, had its fair share of publicity and hype (of the internet variety; Pitchforked, blogged), but ultimately, it transcends this. What much of this attention was directed to was the juxtaposition of Balkan brass, gypsy folk and other eastern European musical ideas along with pop of the indier, bedroom-enclosed variety. This, I think, is inventive; very much so, but at the same time, not entirely new (Hawk and a Hacksaw, Neutral Milk Hotel). It’s globalisation in music at its peak, but this brand of pop shines through, achingly, and wonderfully. It’s a triumphant sound.