Best Records 2006
Left Hip writers (and my friend Jenn Wong in China) choose what they remember as the best records of 2006.
Jenn Wong - Beijing, China
- Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
- Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
- Ladyhawk - Ladyhawk
- Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
- Xiu Xiu - The Air Force
- I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce You To My Friends
- Eagles of Death Metal - Death By Sexy
- Juana Molina - Son
- J Dee Donuts
- Sunn O))) & Boris - Altar
- Danielson - Ships
- Joanna Newsom - Ys
Erik Virtanen - Montreal, Quebec
- 5. Beatles - Love *wasn't sure if this is fair, but i can't deny the production brilliance.
- 4. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
- 3. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
- 2. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
- 1. Joanna Newsom - 'Ys'
Graham Lanktree - Montreal, Quebec
- Robert Henke - Layering Buddha
- Team Doyobi - Kphanapic Fragments
- Xela - The Dead Sea
- Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra Of Bubbles
- MF DOOM - Special Herbs, The Box Set
- Thom York - The Eraser
- Jamie Lidell - Multiply Additions
- Chris Clark - Body Riddle
- Max Richter - Songs From Before
- Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet
Gordon B. Isnor - Montreal, Quebec
- Charlambides - A Vintage Burden - To call this merely a guitar record would be to do a disservice to the extraordinary and beautiful vocals of Christina Carter, which really make this album the masterpiece that it is. But in addition there's the mind-blowing guitar work of Tom Carter who really gives the instrument extended workouts here.
- Asobi Seksu – Citrus – Bringing the shoegazing sound back in a big way while updating it in their own inimitable way, Asobi Seksu play a killer live show and put out quite possibly the best pop record of the year.
- Ohsees - The Cool Death Of Island Raiders - An exquisite, bizarre surprisingly gentle album from ex-Coachwhip John Dwyer.
- Swan Lake - Beast Moans – What do three of Canada’s finest – and weirdest - songwriters do in their off time? They get together and produce an album that will please old fans and win new ones. Featuring stunning artwork by the brilliant Toronto artist Shary Boyle.
- Figurines – Skeleton – Fans of classic indie rock found a new band to rally behind this year in the form of Denmark’s Figurines, a group that combines the best of Modest Mouse and Built To Spill with incredible drive, bounce and a sound that, despite its very visible lineage, still manages to be uniquely its own.
- Miss Violetta Beauregarde - Odi Profanum Vulgus Et Arceo – Unhingeed amalgam of punk energy, electronic insanity and the brash, bratty raw sex appeal of a Suicide Girl, Miss Violetta Beauregarde takes no prisoners with her hyper-intense brutal sound and yet still manages to craft catchy songs that stick in your lead long after the record is done.
- Rae Spoon & Rodney DeCroo - Trucker's Memorial – What an incredible duo: combining the perfect clarity of Spoon’s higher-register with DeCroo’s gruff whiskey-tinged bass, Trucker’s Memorial also benefits from a set of songs by both artists that are alive with personality, raw emotion and fun. One of the best records I heard all year I any genre, and easily ahead of the pack in both folk and country.
- Ellen Cherry – Years – I had a hard time taking this out of my CD player. A seamless combination of history, feminism and well-crafted folk songs make this an engaging and enjoyable listen.
- Modeselektor - Hello Mom! – Modeselektor proved that electronic music is not dead with a brilliant and stylish album that can be listened to and danced to.
- Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles – This duo played a Montreal after-pary this summer that was nothing short of incredible – ecstatic, sexy, brilliant, stylish and energized. Probably the finest show I saw all year, along with labelmates Modeselektor, Ellen Allien & Apparat will make you fall in love with electronic music all over again.
- Ghislain Poirier – Rebondir – Ghislain made huge noise this year with a series of releases that just kept pushing the envelope of the Bounce Le Gros sound that combines stripped down beats, bass and the distilled essence of Montreal into a perfect recipe for booty-shaking hip-hop and electronic.
- Kath Bloom – Finally – Many may have noted the name Kath Bloom in the credits of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset, but been hard-pressed to find any recordings by the enigmatic singer. Chapter did music fans a great favor by releasing this compilation of a songwriter who has been criminally overlooked. Hopefully this CD will help change that, because Bloom’s music posses a haunting beauty that is a truly rare and wondrous thing.
- Merrell Fankhauser – Maui – Fankhasuer’s career has spanned multiple decades and genres. Starting out in surf-rock – he penned the guitar classic Wipeout, he moved on to psyche and then the laid-back Hawaiian commune sound of Mu and Maui. This record, along with the double-CD set of Mu is essential Fankhauser and will make listeners yearn for their own Maui forest treehouse, surrounded by volcanic pyramids, bubbling brooks and the verdant magic of Hawaii.
- Mikes Sammes & The Mike Sammes Singers - Music For Biscuits – Who would have thought that music for commercials could be as wonderful as this? Rescued from the remains of Sammes’ demolished home after his death, this collection of kitschy sixties and seventies sounds is of equal interest as anthropolology and pure listening pleasure.
- Destroyer's Rubies - Of course.
