totally.

where were you guys when I made that anti-Destroyer thread.

Turns out City of Daughters is good though.

Rubies was kickass, you twats.

Agreed. However, I posit that the only reason they're popular at all is because of their physical attributes.

this is sort of my point.

Crazy in Love is a great song.

Cheers, Andrew.




This about sums up the somb in 2006.



Didn't see it. Send an invitation next time.

What's so special about that M. Ward album? It's pretty boring. Kinda balances it out to see such an excellent album as The Life Pursuit top 3 though...

Have you people lost all hold on sanity?

you need to ask?

I mean ... fuck ... that fucking top ten, hell, top 20! Girl Talk? The Hold Steady? I guess I shouldn't be surprised by them, because unless you like being left out in the cold you have to like TVoTR and The Hold Steady these days.

Fun Fact: I've heard exactly one M. Ward song from that album. I'm fine with keeping it at that, too.

Pretty solid 100-15 though. And 3.

Thanx to GDB for compiling this list....look at this way, I think the list on here is way better than Pitchfork's.

2006 has been quite an interesting year for music in that there has been no release with that bit of a special kick of sustained hype to bring it over the edge on the year-end lists as with Radiohead, The Arcade Fire and to a lesser extent Sufjan Stevens. On rateyourmusic.com, every single album (bar the archival releases from Waits, Young and Springsteen) that gets any significant amount of positive attention has been knocked down severely in response almost as if it is part of a mission to keep it from having "recommended" status. Now that the year's over and hence the backlash can be diverted to the 2007 releases, it'll be interesting to see which 2006 albums gather more attention with more time and distance

in the new issue of Magnet (with the Cat Power cover story --- I'm not sure it helps explain Chan anymore than any other article ever written on her does, but okay), Andrew Earles' "Where's the Street Team" is an absolute scream (to me at least) for nailing Sufjan, Soctt Walker, Sirius' Left of Center and especially for lambasting The Hold Steady.

Here's what Earles says about The Hold Steady:
"I'm in a nearly invisible minority when it comes to dismissing this band. Disliking the Hold Steady is almost a new form of racism or something. Talk about blank stares! Apparently, the world can't get enough "clever" pop-culture references. Last time around, the Hold Steady was all Midwester chunky rock set to Family Guy plots ("amusing" references with nothing behind them); 2006's Boys and Girls In America is boring MCSweeney's writing set to the J. Geils Band."

clap ... clap ... clap ... clap ... clap

eh, it's easy to dislike The Hold Steady. i dislike them and i don't feel the need to blow my own horn about it.

that's because i rule.




and i played Sufjan's Illinois today: fucking genius. blows all these albums away.

This is a serious question, did anyone vote for the Andy Cirzan Christmas Album?

The Hold Steady is an awesome band but all the hype that's being given to Boys and Girls in America should have gone to the far superior Separation Sunday.

i think the Beck album will benefit, it's better than most of the other albums on the list, but he is Beck, so he automatically gets a backlash.

Magnet? Didn't I see the Shins or some crap on the cover of that magazine in October or some month?

The new Scott Walker is fantastic. That made our list didn't it? I didn't see it, but it must have, though. It had a good number of high votes.

That's exactly how I feel. If Separation Sunday was a 2006 album it'd be my #1, the new one probably has a wider appeal but doesn't match up for me

unfortunately, without demos and things that may be impossible. Especially if you were trying remove just a vocal track. Chances are even with the best kind of sound editing pieces of software, by removing the vocal track's FREQUENCY, you'd also be removing anything else that exists in that FREQUENCY'S range. In other words, by taking out or even using an EQ to fade-down the vocals, you'd also be taking out or fading down guitar or keyboard parts.

The problem is you can add TRACKS together, but remove tracks?..the only way to do that would be to literally have each individual track serparated and then remove it.

You're not alone in hating Dream Theater's vocals. I personally love a lot of them, but there are many people who would be big fans if not for the vocals. There is of course all there instrumentals and LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT.

Afa this list:

Wolfmother, TVOTR, and The Decemberists were the only records that I had. It is pretty sad to see Muse, the live dredg, and my #1, Pure Reason Revolution, go basically invisible. But then again, this is a list of just 170 voters...and at that, this forum seems a bit impressionable to many's listening habits. However, a guy I know who listens to probably as much if not a fair amount more Indie Rock and Metal among other genres, placed Pure Reason Revolution #1 among 70 or so releases. So even among non-Prog communities, I don't feel completely alone in my feeling about that record.

And even at that PRR would not have stayed on top had Kaddisfly's record come out like it was supposed to. It just fuels the massive depth next year should have. Every album is going to try and knock it off the top spot..and 3 leaks in..it ain't happening.

Some folks were saying 2006 ProgRock was making a comeback. I can agree slightly with that, but 2007 is likely to be a HUGE year for Progressive Rock.

curious if anyone else besides me voted for James Hunter's record. not that i expected it to make the list really.

This thread is pretty much completely fucking insane. Wow. Surprising list too. Good job GDB as always, and God help whoever takes over next year.

I probably would have if I'd extended my list to 50. The problem I find with his album is it gets a little samey and too many of the tracks are bland. I really like the handful of tracks that are good though.

That it is. Someone should have forced me to listen to it six months ago. Shockingly good. I found it in a store a couple days ago, and giddily bought it.

I don't think it made the top 100, that was a very tough list to crack.

i love that anyone considers this poll to actually mean anything , other than that Paste/Starbucks/Neutral blandness people listen to bland/whatever music

#1 m. ward?
#5 Neko Case

woo hoo
alt country crap!!!

let's do it!

It's nice though to make the few that read this site, feel important in the respect that this list matters


well at least TVOTR made #2

otherwise, worst list of year

hands down

Except for a few, yeah, pretty much.

wow, if you are serious, you're seriously easy to please

People who don't like Deep Cuts should be punched directly in the cock. So should people who don't like the S/T come to think of it. I really need to get around to hearing that movie soundtrack they made at the same time they were making DC.

Apparently. Along with every other person on Earth last year.

oh yeah, i forgot the whole continent of africa and asia were jamming to suf last year....whoops


To think Sufjan "dominated earth" last year suggests a lot
as in "earth" you mean people that read pitchfork, right?
you're a teenager right?

Smiley Faces, Just a Thought, Storm Coming = all awesome.


Tell me about it. Most of this top 20 is alien to me.

Hot Chip as a 'fun band' is hilarious, though. It's like Mark from Peep Show formed a band.


'Rock and roll!'

You need to come along next time they play, they're hella fun.

Especially the Boris Becker looking one.

What, because he has songs that are about things, as opposed to nothing?

Ooh, good call.


I like you and all, but that's just completely deranged.

NMH: no fun at all? Do me a personal favour and listen to The King of Carrot Flowers parts 1-3, Holland, 1945, that one that sounds like a celidh has broken out etc...

Kid A's just fucking great.

The rest. Well, if most of those are considered 'masterpieces', then I'll have to invade America and instigate a regime change.

i don't like deep cuts. i think it's interesting. but only half of the album is good. the second part of the album bores me, but the first 4-5 songs in a row are very good.

Well I don't think you like Silent Shout either, so fair enough. Is it medicine? is the only song that drags that album down.

Same. A bit of a non-album for me.

i feel like the knife could be better at producing things for other musicians rather than putting out their own albums. did they only do 1 song on last robyn's album?

AFAIK they only did Be mine, yeah.

And I disagree, but I'd be fairly happy with them doing both.

Tell me about it.

Good job anyway.

Also, elastico obv likes boys.

Kid A is a masterpiece, but the Soft Bulletin, Funeral, Sea Change , YHF and Illinois are not?



Next thing I know, you'll be telling me that the Arctic Monkeys are an important band and that Oasis is better than the Beatles.

I'll see them.

Until then, Mark from Peep Show.


So that's why that song's so good!

lol on the shit talking. keep going, man.

and we have a winner for worst n00b of the year.

ericofillinois, take a bow.



okay, now bow down lower and hold that position.

Agreed. As an outsider who didn't vote, it was a fascinating read (so far, 69 pages in), and I think GDB should even think about making this thread into an indie book. The disagreements are necessary to make sense of where we are in pop music. I also totally agree with Undo's initial comments about the SOMB lists being board-defining, and of course people are going to disagree.

I disagree that it's only about entertainment, because music is an art form, and, as such, it's also about beauty (as already mentioned) and making a statement, serious, political, fun, or otherwise. To me, this thread is a microcosm of the SOMB.

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