The Ledge’s Top 20 Albums of 2006
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20. Oh You’re So Silent Jens – Jens Lekman
A compilation of singles and odds and sods it may be but there’s barely a bad song on this. “Maple Leaves” is so good it’s on there twice.
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19. Let’s Get Out Of This Country – Camera Obscura
While Belle & Sebastian failed to impress me enough with the summery pop of The Life Pursuit, Camera Obscura were going from strength to strength, mixing up their twee pop with a devilish country twang and a hearty slice of Spectorish Wall Of Sound.
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18. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood – Neko Case
This is Neko back on seriously good form, lending her powerful lungs to her best set of songs since Furnace Room Lullaby.
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17. The Loon – Tapes ‘n Tapes
Arriving on a wave of hype from the US bloggerati, the Tapes almost lived up to it with their debut which mixed the quiet/loud dynamism of the Pixies with the lo fi melodicism of early Pavement but managed to sound nothing like either of those bands.
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16. Mr Beast – Mogwai
Mogwai expanded their palette with strident piano riffs joining ear-melting guitar noise to produce their most varied and possibly their best effort to date.
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15. Everything All The Time – Band Of Horses
Any band likened to The Shins and My Morning Jacket is going to get my attention and Band Of Horses more than lived up to expectations with an assured, expansive debut that occasionally promised to fill the void left by Arcade Fire’s Funeral.
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14. Bitter Tea – The Fiery Furnaces
Recorded at the same time as the much maligned Rehearsing My Choir, the weird and wonderful Bitter Tea was the fullest realisation to date of Matt Friedberger’s kaleidoscopic pop vision.
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13. I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass – Yo La Tengo
Bookended by a couple of classic tracks that easily stretched past the 10 minute mark, this album took us on a journey that touched on all points of the Yo La Tengo story so far and as such may well be their definitive album.
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12. The Trials Of Van Occupanther – Midlake
As someone who was brought up listening to the likes of The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young, thanks to my parents’ love of seventies soft rock, this album was a nostalgic pleasure, and not even a guilty one.
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11. Cansei De Ser Sexy – CSS
I’m not a great fan of dance music but CSS’s sleazy marriage of seventies disco with bubblegum pop won me over almost immediately with its nagging hooks and downright filthy lyrics.
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10. Voices Of Animals And Men – The Young Knives
This album really surprised me with its razor sharp wit and even sharper melodies. From the brilliant opener “Part Timer” on it rarely lets up and by the time “She’s Attracted To” kicks in you know you’re listening to a true British indie classic.
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9. Give Me A Wall – ¡Forward, Russia!
The best British album of the year was a dense, sweaty and complex beast that almost captured the power of ¡Forward, Russia!’s live show and showed great promise for the future.
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8. Return To Cookie Mountain – TV On The Radio
This album is a welter of contradictions: sparse yet cluttered, soulful yet vitriolic, warm yet isolating. It’s difficult to pin down but it works on so many levels and its mix of shoegazey guitars, experimental loops and beats and the multi-layered vocals of Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone made for a compelling listen.
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7. Damaged – Lambchop
No great change of direction for Lambchop on this one but Kurt Wagner was on top form as he vented his spleen after a tough year for his health and relationships. Their best since the great Nixon.
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6. He Poos Clouds – Final Fantasy
Owen Pallet’s mix of twee indie pop with ornate mini-symphonies was an odd sounding concoction on first listen but soon revealed itself to be a baroque masterpiece that improves on every listen.
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5. Rather Ripped – Sonic Youth
A couple of years ago Sonic Nurse was an unexpected major return to form for Sonic Youth. Rather Ripped is even better; chock full of great pop tunes and brilliant guitars. Gets minus points for the inclusion of two vastly inferior “bonus tracks” inexplicably tacked onto the end of the CD version.
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4. Boys & Girls In America – The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady’s breakthrough album possessed more melodies than their previous efforts at the expense, perhaps, of a little integrity and some killer guitar riffs. But was still a rollicking success, a blue collar rock record dealing with drugs, parties, religion and doomed relationships; the usual Hold Steady fare but with a more user friendly sheen.
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3. The Crane Wife – The Decemberists
The Decemberists’ major label debut surprised with the inclusion of a couple of three part concept songs and some worrying proggy leanings but was still stuffed full of delicious melody and more potential singles than you can shake a stick at.
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2. Ys – Joanna Newsom
After seeing Newsom play these songs at ATP back in May it was obvious that this was going to be a special album. While the involvement of Van Dyke Parks, Steve Albini and Jim O’Rourke certainly enhanced the album’s potential, it was Newsom’s beautifully poetic lyrics, dramatic storytelling and winding melodies that stole the show.
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1. Destroyer’s Rubies – Destroyer
I admit that I was barely aware of Destroyer at this time last year but after picking up Rubies for free on eMusic I immediately became a worshipper at the church of Bejar. From the warm, fuzzy guitars of the constantly shifting nine minute eponymous opener to the closing “Sick Priest Learns To Last Forever”, which recalls Neil Young in his pomp, this was an album of melodic wonder, suffused with Dan Bejar’s impenetrable yet brilliant lyrical bent.