I went to a total of 59 gigs in 2006 and three festivals (if you count the three hours I spent at D:percussion). Of those 59 gigs, here’s my top ten:

1. Broken Social Scene – Manchester Academy 2, 14th February
2. Nick Cave – Bridgewater Hall, 6th February
3. Calexico/Iron And Wine – Manchester Academy, 21st April
4. My Morning Jacket – Manchester Academy 2, 23rd August
5. Lambchop – Liverpool Royal Philharmonic, 24th October
6. Calexico – Liverpool Academy, 3rd November
7. Mogwai – Manchester Academy, 24th September
8. Morrissey – G-Mex, 22nd December / The Lowry Centre, 18th April
9. Final Fantasy – The Circle Club, 13th May
10. Tapes ‘n Tapes – Liverpool Korova, 31st August

And my top five festival sets were:

1. The New Pornographers at ATP
2. Belle & Sebastian at Summer Sundae
3. The Decemberists at ATP
4. Dinosaur Jr at ATP
5. ¡Forward Russia! at Summer Sundae

Indie For Dummies has posted the results of a fairly impressive survey of music blog top albums of 2005. A huge number of blogs, including The Indie Credential, were surveyed to yield the top 100 albums and the list is quite agreeable, to us at least.

1. Arcade Fire, Manchester Academy, May 4th/Leeds Festival, August 28th
2. The Tears – Manchester Academy 2, February 13th/Liverpool Academy, April 23rd
3. Antony & the Johnsons – Manchester Hop & Grape, June 28th
4. The Decemberists – Toronto Phoenix, May 21st
5. Editors – Manchester Night & Day, January (15th?)
6. Eels – Manchester Apollo, October 13th
7. The Pixies – Manchester Apollo, August 30th
8. Richard Hawley – Manchester Hop & Grape, November 14th
9. Interpol – Manchester Apollo, July 8th
10. Echo & the Bunnymen – Leeds Festival, August 26th
11. Joanna Newsom – Manchester Academy 2, April 14th
12. The Dears – Manchester Academy 2, February 4th
13. The Wedding Present – Leeds Poly, March 6th
14. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Liverpool Academy, November 21st
15. The Go-Betweens – Liverpool Academy, May 10th

2005 is the year in which I got to grips with all the CDs we bought in 2004, which made this list really difficult. Ledge has spent the year acquiring the critics choices for the year, yet I feel I really got to know very few of them well. The list below represents the ones that stuck in my memory most, and the list of CDs for which I’m going to spend the most time getting to know every blip and squawk in 2006. There’s so many more sitting near the CD player waiting for a first play, including Elbow, Teenage Fanclub, Wolf Parade, Animal Collective, Okkervil River and Calexico & Iron & Wine. But here’s the list, as unrepresentative as it may be.

1. Arcade Fire – Funeral –

Realising that this came out in 2004 in North America, we didn’t hear it until December 2004, and didn’t own the album until it came out in the UK properly in February 2005. It was probably the most startling and striking thing I heard in 2005 (short of Antony Hegarty’s voice) and was at once the most celebratory and vibrant album I’ve heard in years.

2. The Tears – Here Come the Tears –

I have always been a massive Suede fan but was not expecting much from this reunion of Brett Anderson & Bernard Butler because these things are never as good as you want them to be. Not so The Tears. While the album itself is far from perfect, it does reflect a new direction for their songwriting and a brilliant jumping off point for their new project. It showcases some of the strongest aspects of their musical talents including the beauty of Brett’s descriptive storytelling, Bernard’s meandering guitar melodies and a flair for both lavish overproduction that complements the more ridiculous lyrical excesses and pop moments as well as a real understanding that sometimes the silences and the gaps make the songs.

3. The Decemberists – Picaresque –

This is simply one of the most unusual and charming records to grace anyone’s record collection in years. How can you possibly find fault, or, in fact, not grow to love an album about double suicides, revenge, giant whales, spies, sporting failures and war?

4. My Morning Jacket – Z –

The first play of this record resulted in shock and horror. Subsequent plays have implanted it in my consciousness. It’s such a strange mix of lush melodies, twangy guitars and reggae beats yet it works on a really basic level of making me want to dance around the kitchen everytime I hear any track from it.

5. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah –

Once I got used to the vocals sounding like a cross between Bob Dylan on a bad day and David Byrne (whose voice I loathe), I really really grew to love this record, mainly because of the lovely guitars and the perky melodies.

6. Editors – The Back Room –

As much as I loved the intensity of the early singles, I wasn’t expecting much from this record. It suprised me a lot with the depth of the subject matter and the strength of the songwriting. Few new bands these days can do loud and quiet on separate songs but Editors manage to capture both intense anger and vulnerable melancholy on a really really strong debut.

7. Eels – Blinking Lights & Other Revelations
8. Antony & The Johnsons – I am a Bird Now
9. Art Brut – Bang Bang Rock ‘n’ Roll
10. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
11. Clor – Clor
12. Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
13. Richard Hawley – Coles Corner
14. Rufus Wainwright – Want Two
15. Sons & Daughters – The Repulsion Box

1. Funeral – The Arcade Fire

Yes, I know it was released in 2004 but we didn’t get it over here ’til this year. And 2005 totally belonged to The Arcade Fire; this is the best album of the 21st century so far and they are possibly the best live band ever.

2. Illinois – Sufjan Stevens

This would probably have won in any other year. A widescreen spectacular in which intimate folk songs about serial killers and dying of cancer sit comfortably alongside epic showtunes about zombies. With cheerleading.

3. A River Ain’t Too Much To Love – Smog

A major return to form which saw Bill Callahan, in reflective mood, produce an album up there with his previous high water mark of Knock Knock

4. Z – My Morning Jacket

Hated this for a while, then went back to it and it suddenly clicked. Yes, it’s a new direction, but a good one, and maybe the right one. Every song is a winner, but “it Beats 4 U” is perhaps the most beautiful thing I heard all year.

5. The Great Destroyer – Low

Another band benefitting from a change of direction, though they’ve been threatening to turn their amps up to 11 for a few years now. And, hey, it worked.

6. Silent Alarm – Bloc Party

Best Brit album by a long way. Great guitars, great tunes and great integrity. Much needed antidote to the ills of The Kaiser Chiefs.

7. Picaresque – The Decemberists

An album chock full of epic tales of mariners, infantas, footy players, barrow boys, train drivers etc. The usual Decemberist’s fare, then, only more so.

8. Blinking Lights And Other Revelations – Eels

33 tracks over two discs. Some are brilliant, some are merely very good. This is easily E’s best work to date and I seriously doubt that he’ll ever top it.

9. Black Sheep Boy – Okkervil River
10. Leaders Of The Free World – Elbow
11. Superwolf – Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
12. I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning – Bright Eyes
13. Tanglewood Numbers – Silver Jews
14. Clor – Clor
15. Humming By The Flowered Vine – Laura Cantrell
16. Oceans Apart – The Go-Betweens
17. I Am A Bird Now – Antony & The Johnsons
18. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
19. Coles Corner – Richard Hawley
20. Takk – Sigur Rós

1. The Arcade Fire, Leeds Festival, 28th August/Manchester Academy, 4th May
2. Pixies, Manchester Apollo, 30th August
3. Joanna Newsom, Manchester Academy 2, 14th April
4. Smog, Manchester Roadhouse, 10th June
5. The Wedding Present, Manchester Academy, 12th November
6. The Decemberists, Toronto Phoenix, 21st May
7. Laura Cantrell, Manchester Hop & Grape, 14th September
8. Antony & The Johnsons, Manchester Hop & Grape, 28th June
9. Eels, Manchester Apollo, 13th October
10. Okkervil River, Manchester Night & Day, 26th September