Ok ericg75, I'll talk about the list!

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I was a little surprised to see Peter Bjorn & John place so high. "Young Folks" wasn't even initally a contender, but came on like gangbusters at the end.

I do NOT understand the buzz behind this song. It's all been done before -- and a whole lot better than this, I might add.

Now, for the venting:
I also don't like seeing "Crazy" at number 1 (what's the appeal here?! - honestly) or "The Funeral" on the list (aaaaaarrrrrgh); I wish there was more hip-hop on the list (Clipse, Subtle, Roots, etc.) and a little less Decemberists; and, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I wish that "Let's Make Love..." by CSS was up there SOMEWHERE!! That song is fantastic!!

I'm also sad that I didn't listen to Susanna and the Magical Orchestra's take on "Love Will Tear Us Apart" before I posted my list. What a beautiful, haunting rendition of the classic Joy Division song... Usually I don't care for melancholic, minimalist remakes of pop songs (e.g. José Gonzalez's take on "Heartbeats" = NO NO NO!!!), but this one gets everything right. It would have been in my top ten fo sho.

That is all........ for now.

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(what's the appeal here?! - honestly)

Like I posted just above you, it's a terrific vocal performance and the film-style backing vocals and violins are appealing.

Oh, and the lyrics are funny.

I think that the beats are remarkably exceptional on "Crazy" and "Mr. Me Too." Danger Mouse is getting better as a producer and he truly created the best music to be paired with Cee-lo's infectious, spot-on voice—too bad it wasn't done on the entire album.

Like I had said before in other threads, I felt that any song from the Clipse album could have been randomly picked and it would have been a top radio hit. The Neptunes shaped some sound, skeletal beats that corresponded with Clipse's rapping rewardingly. It is an album that is head and shoulders above a lot of other hip-hop because of its impeccable style, feel and form and I think that "Mr. Me Too" exemplifies that well.

As for the rest of the list, I thought that there would be enough votes for at least one song from The Crane Wife to appear. Songs one and two are correctly ranked, they are simply the top two songs of the year and I was happy to see tracks from The Strokes, Joanna Newsom, Neko Case and others on here. Pretty good list, maybe next year a lot more people can vote so that we can have more of a consensus.

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Originally posted by FragileKidA:
Pretty good list, maybe next year a lot more people can vote so that we can have more of a consensus.

A lot of people participated - over 60 lists - but the main problem was that the lists were so diverse. There were like 900 different songs named. As a result, it didn't take much for a song to land in the top 25.

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Like I posted just above you, it's a terrific vocal performance and the film-style backing vocals and violins are appealing.

Oh, and the lyrics are funny.

I suppose it's tolerable until the chorus... then the song goes way, way over the top, and in the worst possible way. I find the vocal performance, the sonic theatrics, and those violins to all be extremely irritating. I'd take The Grey Album or "Gettin Grown" or pretty much just about anything these two have done before over any Gnarls Barkley track. They are undoubtedly talented artists in their own right, but together, it just DOES NOT WORK.

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Originally posted by Dork:

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Originally posted by ericg75:

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Originally posted by Yay!:
And "Starlight" is a truly amazing song. I don't even like Muse that much and I can acknowledge that "Starlight" is... the shit.

Meh. I can't get into Muse. "Starlight" is alright I guess, but "Knights of Cydonia" is awful. It sounds like Queen circa the Flash Gordon Soundtrack. I keep waiting for someone to break into, "Flash! Aaaah - Ahhhhhh. Savior of the Universe!"

Heh, I don't think sounding like Queen or the Flash Gordon soundtrack is necessarily a bad thing, but I can really see where you're coming from. And you haven't even heard "Take A Bow", which (while fantastic) is probably the "cheesiest" thing on the album.

I do think you should give Muse a chance though. Black Holes and Revelations is definitely their "space" album, while Absolution is more apocalyptic.

More love for Muse!? They are usually such a critical punching bag but since Black Holes was last years most enjoyable album for me (not the most moving, thoughtful etc) - I say woohoo!

Suprised no danielson to be seen, Step on your trumpet is gold I tells ya.

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Originally posted by ericg75:
A lot of people participated - over 60 lists - but the main problem was that the lists were so diverse. There were like 900 different songs named. As a result, it didn't take much for a song to land in the top 25.

I dont think I has said this yet, but thanks to eric for compiling this list. That is a ton of songs to sift through and you did a great job. Thanks again!

A pretty good list. Thanks for compiling it, ericg75. That's a lot of work! If the J Newsom (aka Joni Mitchell snorting helium) songs were replaced by any 2 Regina Spektor songs (esp. "Hotel Song" or "Fidelity"), it would be better. But I've run out of ways to express my disdain for "Ys" and wonder how so many people like it so much... It was a pretty good year for hip-hop, too, methinks. Good to see "Shakey Dog" got some props, but The Roots (especially "Don't Feel Right) and the killer reggae-hop "Notorious" by Turbulence would've been nice to see. Also, CSS's "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" (love that song) and Tilly & the Wall's "Rainbows in the Dark" is one the most joyous pop songs I heard all year. But tha's just me. Picking only 20 or so fave songs is tough. I can't do it: http://www.last.fm/user/imoutis/journal/2006/12/31/302846/
Good forum...

I don't know what's good. I just know what I like.

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Suprised no danielson to be seen, Step on your trumpet is gold I tells ya.

i second that.

I was trying to find a best song list for 2005. I know this doesn't "honor" the album concept, but I find myself downloading more individual songs these days.

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Originally posted by Platypus Quest:
I'm also sad that I didn't listen to Susanna and the Magical Orchestra's take on "Love Will Tear Us Apart" before I posted my list. What a beautiful, haunting rendition of the classic Joy Division song...

I heard that version of the song for the first time last night during an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Nice version.

Too late, but here is my track list of songs from my favorite albums of 2006 (on two discs):

1) Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing, The Beatles
2) 100,000 Thoughts, Tap Tap
3) Think Long, Mates of State
4) Your Eyes, Aloha
5) Bleary Eyed, Annuals
6) Adapt!, The Antennas
7) If Only Your Heart was a Major Sixth, The Hylozoists
8) The Curious Organ, Young and Sexy
9) The Wonder, Figurines
10) this lamb sells condos, Final Fantasy
11) Funny Little Frog, Belle & Sebastian
12) Knife, Grizzly Bear
13) Pate Filo, Malajube
14) We're From Barcelona, I'm From Barcelona
15) A Chinese Actor, Califone
16) My Best Friend, Hello Saferide
17) O Valencia, The Decemberists

18) Violets, Candy Bars
19) Copper for Sand, American Princes
20) Rough Gem, Islands
21) Trophy, Bat for Lashes
22) Beanbag Chair, Yo La Tengo
23) Thursday, Asobi Seksu
24) There Goes My Outfit, The Dears
25) I'll Walk You Out, Corrina Repp
26) Don't Know Why (You Stay), The Essex Green
27) Parentheses, The Blow
28) Summer...It's Gone, Grandaddy
29) Andover, Bound Stems
30) Sister in Love, Envelopes
31) They Took a Vote and Said No, Sunset Rubdown
32) Get Your Curse, His Name Is Alive
33) The Funeral, Band of Horses
34) While My Guitar Gently Weeps, The Beatles

I like how people say "Crazy" is just an unequivocally bad song, then praise to high heaven "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above", which may be one of the most boring songs I've ever heard.

To each their own, of course.

Yes. "Let's Make Love" has a clever title, and...that's about all I see in it.

It isn't catchy, has no interesting production, and the chorus bugs me: the singer just says "Let's Make Love, and 'Lis' to Death From Above" and the lack of annunciation just irks me.

I only heard this song for the first time a few weeks ago..

Regina Spektor's "Fidelity" is a superb record in all ways.

Her scansion is excellent, unlike so many of the acts adored these days, the arrangement of the song is constantly foreshadowing and supporting the inherent emotions, and the chorus is a s hooky as hell.

Finally, a song with muscular, sinewy melody, showing the impoverishment of so many acts working in the pop world today....and by pop I mean everything not Jazz or Blues.

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Originally posted by BContrat:
Yes. "Let's Make Love" has a clever title, and...that's about all I see in it.

It isn't catchy, has no interesting production, and the chorus bugs me: the singer just says "Let's Make Love, and 'Lis' to Death From Above" and the lack of annunciation just irks me.

Whoever says crazy is a bad song is ridiculous, it's a really fun, catchy song.

But I'll take CSS over Gnarls any day.

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Originally posted by Ishmaels coffin:
I only heard this song for the first time a few weeks ago..

Regina Spektor's "Fidelity" is a superb record in all ways.

Her scansion is excellent, unlike so many of the acts adored these days, the arrangement of the song is constantly foreshadowing and supporting the inherent emotions, and the chorus is a s hooky as hell.

Finally, a song with muscular, sinewy melody, showing the impoverishment of so many acts working in the pop world today....and by pop I mean everything not Jazz or Blues.

Yeah, that song is really charming. I enjoy it a lot... her other stuff I'm not completely sold on, but Fidelity is one hell of a fine song.

I wasn't around Metarcitic when I wrote this out for some of my friends, but I thought I'd share it now. I'll be honest, I didn't listen to albums quite as much as in years past. The iPod revolution coupled with a move away from music retail has really stymied my listening to whole albums. Instead, I now cherry pick the best songs and download them. So, that said, here are 36 songs I really enjoyed in 2006. I wouldn't swear by the albums in their entirety, but I have listed them anyway:

(alphabetical, by Artist)

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Our Dead, "Stand in Silence," So Divided
(There is a great cover of GbV's "Gold Heart Mountaintop Queen Directory" on this album)

Ambulance Ltd, "New English," New English EP

American Princes, "Open Letter," Less and Less

The Avett Brothers, "Matrimony," Four Thieves Gone

Bachmann, Eric, "Lonsome Warrior," To the Races

Belle & Sebastian, "Another Sunny Day," The Life Pursuit

Buckner, Richard w/ Jon Langford, "Sweet Anybody," Sir Dark Invader vs. The Fanglord

Camera Obscura, "Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken," Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken

Campbell, Isobel & Mark Lanegan, "Ramblin' Man," Ballad of the Broken Seas

Case, Neko, "Hold On, Hold On," Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Centro-Matic, "The Fugitives Have Won the War," Fort Recovery

Clearlake, "No Kind of Life," Amber

The Czars, "Paint the Moon," Goodbye (re-issue)

Drive-by Truckers, "Easy on Yourself," A Blessing and a Curse
("Feb 14" is also great)

Elf Power, "Come Lie Down With Me," Back to the Web

The Essex Greeen, "Don't Know Why (You Stay)" Cannibal Sea

Film School, "Like You Know," Film School
(This is probably my favorite song of the year)

Gonzalez, Jose, "All You Deliver," Veneer
(Or I could go with "Heartbeats." Have you all seen this Sony Bravia Commercial? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qimmNzH3fE )

Lewis, Jenny & the Watson Twins, "The Big Guns," Rabbit Fur Coat
(Much better, I think, than her band Rilo Kiley)

The Long Winters, "Pushover," Putting the Days to Bed

Magnolia Electric Co. "Montgomery," Fading Trails

Midlake, "Roscoe," The Trials of Van Occupanther

Oneida, "The Misfit," Happy New Year

Orton, Beth, "Worms," Comfort of Strangers

The Pernice Brothers, "Somerville," Live a Little

Pollard, Robert, "Dancing Girls and Dancing Men," From a Compound Eye

Portastatic, "Sour Shores," Be Still Please

Raconteurs, "Steady, As She Goes," Broken Boy Soldiers

Rouse, Josh, "Quiet Town," Subtitulo

Spoon, "The Book I Write," Stranger Than Fiction Soundtrack

Stoltz, Kelley, "Ever Thought of Coming Back," The Branches

The Strokes, "You Only Live Once," First Impressions of Earth

Tapes 'n Tapes, "The Illiad," The Loon

Votolato, Rocky, "White Daisy Passing," Makers

Yo La Tengo, "Mr. Tough," I'm Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass

Yorke, Thom, "Black Swan," The Eraser

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Midlake, "Roscoe," The Trials of Van Occupanther

Great song. My favorite from last year.