Exit Music

It's that wonderful time of year when all radio stations, music blogs and online music stores are compiling their lists of the best albums and songs of the year. Since music is something I'm pretty interested in, I thought I'd create a few lists of my own. I'd love to hear your comments and recommendations. My only disclaimer is that some of my picks are based on things completely unrelated to musical merit. We all have those songs that just get to us and we're not sure why. I even let some Kelly Clarkson tracks live on my iPod for more than a few hours. Enough said. Drum roll please... Uptown Girl Presents:

The Best Songs of 2006 (in alphabetical order because I couldn't decide on rankings)
Adem - Something's Going To Come
Joseph Arthur - Too Much To Hide
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Bedroom Walls - In Anticipation of Your Suicide (mp3)
Beirut - Postcards From Italy (mp3)
Brandi Carlile - Late Morning Lullaby or Hiding My Heart (watch her KCRW show)
Cat Power - The Greatest (mp3)
Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On (acoustic version)
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 3 or O Valencia (stream entire album here)
The Elected - Beautiful Rainbow
The Format - Dog Problems (mp3)
Tobias Froberg - For Elisabeth Wherever You Are
Keane - Hamburg Song
Mat Kearney - Nothing Left To Lose
The Kooks - Seaside or She Moves In Her Own Way (mp3)
KT Tunstall - Other Side of the World
Ray LaMontagne - Be Here Now (real audio of 9:30 Club show)
Korby Lenker - Papercuts
Landon Pigg - Sailed On or Can't Let Go (quicktime)
The Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes (acoustic version)
Fionn Regan - Be Good or Be Gone
Josh Ritter - Girl In The War (mp3) or Thin Blue Flame (mp3)
Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
Snow Patrol - You Could Be Happy or Chasing Cars
Regina Spektor - Fidelity (best video of the year) or Samson
Thom Yorke - Atoms for Peace
The Weepies - Gotta Have You

The Songs/Albums/Artists of 2006 I Am Still Scratching My Head About
TV on The Radio - I know, I know... they are so "cutting edge" that everyone is still scratching their heads and in turn thinks that head-scratching is the new recipe for greatness. I saw them in Brooklyn and left early. But it was also raining and the sound wasn't great. Convince me that I should give them another chance and I'd be happy to.


Joanna Newsom: Y's - I haven't heard much, but uh... yeah.



The Knife - I'll admit I haven't really given them a chance. Since last year I've assumed that the Jose Gonzales cover of Heartbeats was the best thing that could have happened to The Knife. Let's just say I was surprised to see it at the top of so many lists.


Damien Rice: 9 - What happened? If he could have just kept his momentum from O, we'd have something beautiful. Oh well, he's still one of my favorites.



The Best Songs Released Prior to 2006 That I Didn't Discover or Fully Appreciate Until 2006 (in no particular order)
First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
Lack of Color - Death Cab for Cutie (and the entire Transatlanticism album)
Know By Heart - The American Analog Set
Let It Die - Feist (the entire album)
The Littlest Birds - The Be Good Tanyas
FM Radio - Joshua James
Oh, Lately It's So Quiet - ok go (and the entire oh no album)
Nothing Brings Me Down - Emiliana Torrini
Avalanche - Ryan Adams
Ten Days - Missy Higgins

Albums of 2006 That I'm Still Excited About Discovering
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Beck - The Information
The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
Richard Ashcroft - Keys To The World
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go
Josh Rouse - Subtitulo
Tom Waits - Orphans
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
M. Ward - Post War

Albums I'm Most Excited About for 2007 (so far)
Radiohead
Gabe Dixon Band
The Arcade Fire
Pink Martini
The Shins
any others I should know about?

-Radiohead-