Belatedly, I offer the FlynnFiles top five albums of 2006:

5. Nightcrawler, Pete Yorn
4. Endless Wire, The Who
3. Sing-Alongs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George, Jack Johnson & Friends
2. Show Your Bones, The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs,
1. Sam's Town, The Killers

Any recommendations from 2006? Share them, if they're good, in the comments section.

I think I bought a dozen or so cds this year but it seems only a third were actually released in 2006. I mentioned them on your earlier post but they deserve the added praise imo.

Mission of Burma, "The Obliterati"

The Draft, "In a Million Pieces"

Rainer Maria, "Catastrophe Keeps Us Together"

Mission of Burma released their best album since 1982 w/ "The Obliterati." Their best known song from back in the day is "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" which got some major airplay some years back when Moby did a miserable cover of it. (Miserable b/c he changed the lyrics since he doesn't like guns). MoB is one of the best and most innovative bands to ever come out of Beantown and they are now playing a few select shows again so catch them if you can.

The Draft is the reincarnated form of one of the strongest post-punk 90's bands, Hot Water Music from Gainesville Florida. The Draft include 3/4 of HWM and pretty much pick up where How Water left off. This first album is a stronger effort than the last couple of HWM albums which is why it is one of my favorites of the year.

Finally, Rainer Maria released their final album "Catastrophe Keeps Us Together" to much acclaim, including an oddly gushing review by the NYT. Many reviewers were saying that RM "broke new ground" w/ this album which is strange b/c it struck me even upon first listen as a "break-up" album given that it had basically 6 real songs and then 3 or 4 total filler pieces of noise. It actually does have 2 or 3 of the best songs they ever wrote, but as a full length album I would say it was their 3rd strongest effort (or 4th) out of 5 LPs released.

Bob Dylan's Modern Times is my best album of the year. Sam's Town was a big let down. Too slick and over produced. Their attempt to bring back the mustache cost them points with me too.I also like Springsteens Seager Sessions and Bob Seager's album as well. All in all it was a good year for Seager albums.K Fed and Fergie round out the bottom.

Wayne: Maybe I am reading too much into the album, and Brandon Flowers' mustache, but I think that they have a sense of humor and were trying to tie in the cheesiness of his mustache, and the cheesiness of some of the chorus vocals on the album, with the Vegas, Sam's Town theme. For instance, when they sing, "Tell us what's going on/Feel's like everything's wrong...If the future is real/Johnny, you've got to heal," my sense is that it's a big joke paying homage to cliche-ridden rock lyrics. The way it's sung suggests that. Even reading the words, "Johnny, you've got to heal," says joke to me. I think Flowers' mustache suggests he was reinforcing the Vegas theme of the album. Think Wayne Newton with the mustache.

I think the album is brilliant, even better than the first one. Many critics, I understand, do not agree.

Album of the year, easy:

The Coup - Pick A Bigger Weapon

contains refrains like "I'm here to laugh love f--k, and drink liquor, and help the damn revolution come quicker."

and "Bush and Hussein together in bed giving h-e-a-d- head y'all motherf--kers heard what we said billions made and millions dead."

r.c.

Yeah r.c., with lyrics like that, I'm sure this is cutting edge stuff. Something you could probably come up while sitting on the $hitter the morning after with a hangover. What passes these days, eh?! Weak.

RC: Do you have musical tastes, or only political tastes? The Coup, for the uninitiated, is the Marxist rap group that released an album that featured themselves blowing up the World Trade Center.

Dan: I'll grant you that perhaps the political is polluting every aspect of my tastes. The album, if you like hip-hop is actually very well done, pam the funkstress can lay down a mean beat, but yeah, The Coup seemed an appropriately inappropriate post...and the album is in the top 10 on a lot of album of the year lists....

Jay Dilla's album Donuts is amazing, and fairly apolitical

Rap is Crap.