OK, Fine: Top 10 Albums of 2006 Thus Far

We're a happy blogosphere.

I wasn't going to do this. In this blog, I try not to measure music - You'll notice I never include numerical ratings with the reviews, and for the most part I just post things I'm really excited about regardless of if it shakes out to be a 79% or an 84%.

Then the blogosphere failed me. Failed me utterly. Ryan at Good Hodgkins has been industrious and curious enough to compile a mid-year top 10 based on several different blogs' lists, and quite frankly, it is wrong. The calculations are all intact, of course - it's the choices themselves that worry me. The blogosphere would have you believe that Belle & Sebastian have released the best album of the year, that Band of Horses don't have a bunch of awful songs in between the great ones, that Mates of State are better than Camera Obscura...and Ghostface. I hope we're all in agreeance that this is a problem.

1. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
2. The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
3. The Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea
4. Maritime - We, The Vehicles
5. Rose Melberg - Cast Away The Clouds
6. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
7. Centro-matic - Fort Recovery
8. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
9. Sondre Lerche - Duper Sessions
10. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country

Honorable Mentions:
11. Lily Allen - Alright Still
12. Mountains - Sewn
13. Aloha - Some Echoes
14. Division Day - Beartrap Island

(Ineligible because they're not out yet and I haven't listened to them enough: Chad VanGaalen, Lambchop and Grizzly Bear, all of which are magnificent. Albums in need of more consideration before proper ranking: Danielson, Sunset Rubdown, Oneida, and Grandaddy --- for whom we still have a contest going.)

Here are MP3s so you know you can trust somebody's judgement. Sheesh.

Destroyer - "Painter In Your Pocket": mp3
Fiery Furnaces - "Benton Harbor Blues": mp3
Maritime - "Tearing Up The Oxygen": mp3
Centro-matic - "Triggers and Trash Heaps": mp3
Camera Obscura - "Let's Get Out Of This Country": mp3 (link removed)
Mountains - "Sewn Two": mp3 (link removed)
Aloha - "Your Eyes": mp3
Division Day - "Colorguard": mp3

It's all in good fun, gang. I'm willing to give the blogosphere the benefit of the doubt - they probably just haven't had time for the Maritime record yet. Totally understandable, of course. Just wrong.