Compiling a list of Best Albums is actually a lot easier that deciding on the Best Songs. So much comes in to play with individually released tracks because they are essentially short-form advertisements for artists. A single has to create a lot of buzz before it has any serious impact. There’s also the One Hit Wonder effect. A song may perfectly represent a given year even when it comes from an artist or band with no real staying power (remember Soul Asylum? Yeah, neither does anybody else).

Full albums, on the other hand, are a much better representation of an artist’s actual talent. Critics can conveniently ignore the One Hit Wonders and concentrate on the albums that actually made you stop and listen. More importantly, those of us who are hopelessly addicted to music actually prefer listening to full albums. Rather than playlists with a lot of great singles, we throw whole albums onto our iPods.

By the end of the year, you generate a pretty clear idea of which albums made the biggest impact. Typically, it’s the albums that you could listen to without skipping a single track. In Must Own Monday tradition, the ten albums below the fold provide the best and most complete albums of 2006.

#10 Yo La Tengo

I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass

Hands down, the best album title of the year.

Yo La Tengo doesn’t get nearly enough credit for making music this good. …Beat Your Ass is easily their best release (which is saying a lot) and is easily one of the most listenable albums released in 2006. I’ve described Yo La Tengo as “easy listening for punk rockers” and I think that’s a mostly accurate description of this album, though I’m not sure how many punk rockers actually pick up this record or ever listen to anything “easy.”

More than anything, this album is sweet. Not “sweet” like that car your uncle just bought, “sweet” like that picture of your grandpa laughing at something your grandma said. It makes the perfect soundtrack to a great day.

(This video isn’t actually from their new album. They haven’t made one yet. When they do, I’ll replace it.)

#9 Ghostface Killah

Fishscale

Fishscale is the most completely uncompromising and deliberately, ruthlessly ghetto hip hop release in years. Maybe ever. Killah has permanently established himself as rap’s best story teller.

It’s notable that the album is a reference to Ghost’s most profitable (and purest) form of cocaine. More than not holding a thing back, Killah accomplishes something that most of gansta rap’s greatest artists never could: his stories are actually true. It’s what makes Fishscale so aggressively… um… charming. No, “charming” isn’t quite right… I need a thesaurus… … Ahhh… “Appealing.” Not quite, but that’s closer. The problem is that this is probably the most offensive album released by a major label this year. But unlike the “offensive” we’ve all grown so accustomed to from artists like Eminem, Marilyn Manson, or GG Allin, Ghost isn’t really trying to be offensive. He just happens to live a lifestyle that the rest of us find offensive and writes about it.

#8 Mastodon

Blood Mountain

It would be a crime to leave this album out of the Top Ten of 2006. Blood Mountain is the best metal album released in years. In fact, this album is easily in the top ten best metal albums of all time. Personally, I’d place it at number #3 on metal’s all-time list (I’ll give you a dollar if you can guess #1 & #2). To describe this album as “hard” is a disappointing understatement. It’s not hard, it’s brutal.

Like some of the greatest metal acts in history, Mastodon manages to avoid almost all of the pretentiousness so prevalent in the heavy metal scene. There’s no make-up, no $550 skin-tight leather pants, no mention of the devil, and absolutely nothing sparkles. Yes, there’s a healthy dose of references to elemental gods, but at least they don’t have invented names like Gorormg, Mrathogg, or Vijüthsonfaexitouvoth. No, it’s just Brann, Brent, Bill, and Troy. And they will kick your ass.

Blood Mountainis best-of-genre and near-perfect. Every single track delivers.

#7 Junior Boys

So This Is Goodbye

There’s not much more to say after my previous post. This album is delicately brilliant.

Junior Boys exists in a newly popularized electronic genre inhabited by the likes of The Postal Service and The Knife. I’m not sure the genre has a name yet, so I’m going to coin it right now: Indie-lectric. Wait, that’s stupid. How about… ‘Puter Rock. Yeah, that’s awesome. ‘Puter Rock is probably the safest new genre that scenesters have approved for mass release, and that’s just fine. Bring more, I say. I can’t get enough.

#6 Band of Horses

Everything All The Time

As debut albums go, you can’t do much better than Everything All The Time. Band of Horses play like they know what they’re doing.

“Alt-country” (which is a silly and dumb name for the genre) has quietly become the favorite for the aging indie-rocker crowd. There’s something simultaneously rebellious and friendly about bands like Wilco and My Morning Jacket. Listening to it makes a statement like, “I used to be kinda punk and I still identify with a generally disobedient crowd, but I’m getting older and I just can’t handle screaming and feedback anymore.”

Band of Horses to the rescue. Almost everyone who hears this album describes it as “My Morning Jacket meets the Shins.” I did. It’s an easy cop-out and not entirely accurate, but does the job well enough. I knew this album would be on my top ten list the first time I heard it and for most of the year I was sure it would be number one. Obviously it fell slightly, but not because the album got old. There was just that much great music this year.

#5 The Decemberists

The Crane Wife

You will never get enough of this album. It is a classic.

There’s not much else to say after my previous post. Every time I listen to this album, I’m re-convinced of its greatness. Songs like The Island:, The Perfect Crime #2, and Sons and Daughters are the kind of classic songs that will be making appearances on mix tapes for years. The kind of songs that are inevitably introduced with the preface, “You gotta hear this song…”

What’s more fascinating, only a few years ago, the Decemberists’ brand of theatrical rock would have been largely ignored by mainstream media and doomed to be loved only by the kids behind the counter at your local independent record store. That they manage to sound not only accessible, but brilliant is evidence of their talent.

#4 Guillemots

Through The Windowpane

This album just didn’t get the respect it deserved here in the States. When it was released across the pond in July, it caused a fairly substantial firestrom. The critics got a copy and reviewed it, generating an extremely respectable score over at Metacritic. Through The Windowpane jumped to #17 on the UK charts and Guillemots were nominated for the Mercury Prize.

But it has yet to be released stateside, which is frustrating. I’m convinced that it is the only reason this album didn’t end up on more top ten lists. Which of course creates another problem: Once the album is released, will critics simply neglect to add it to their 2007 lists because the album is too old? Well, that sucks for an album this good.

I’m not going to make that mistake. Through The Windowpane is easily one of the best albums released this year. Above and beyond being a must own album, it’s worth the import price.

#3 Arctic Monkeys

Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

Straight-forward rock and roll. No gimmicks, no tricks. This is what you expect from a great rock and roll album and probably what every garage band thinks they sound like. Every single track could be released as a single and that’s saying something. It only takes a single rotation to realize why this album was ranked #1 by more critics than any other album in 2006.

Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not is actually more punk than anything, but don’t look for anybody calling for yet another punk revival (What are we on… the 4th one?). No, this is just what “rock and roll” sounds like now. Punk rockers are older now and have desk jobs these days, having given in to the establishment years ago. It’s kinda sad really (maybe not as sad as the 15 year old kids wearing Black Flag, Misfits, and Dead Kennedys shirts, but still sad). In the end, (and perhaps ironically) it’s what makes this album such a critical darling.

That, and it’s great.

#2 The Hold Steady

Boys And Girls In America

This album is just so, so, so, so good. I’ll be honest, I really, really, really wanted to place this album at #1. This may have been my personal favorite album of the year. Every time I hit play, I’m in a better mood. Even when I’m in a great mood.

I’ve said several times that this is the album the Killers were trying to make. Boys and Girls in America is huge. It’s hard to believe that this sound is created by your standard five-man band. It’s harder to believe that these guys play bars, not stadiums. It takes exactly 28 seconds to love this album. By the time you actually finish the first track, Stuck Between Stations, you’ll need to finish the album. As last track ends with the beautifully honest line, “Southtown girls won’t blow you away, but you know that they’ll stay,” you’ll decide you are a Hold Steady fan.

Craig Finn’s vocals are initially hard to take, reminiscent of Elvis Costello or maybe Randy Newman, but it’s a small speed bump. Music this good just can’t be ignored.

#1 TV On The Radio

Return to Cookie Mountain

Turns out I was right when I said this album “will appear in almost every Top Ten list as the year comes to a close.” In fact, it appeared on more Top Ten lists than any other album in 2006. Well, that wasn’t such a miraculous feat of prognostication. More than being so, so good, Return to Cookie Mountain is totally unique. TV On The Radio manages to appeal to everyone from the indie rocker crowd to critics from major publications.

TV On The Radio sets the bar very high. As great albums go, this one is almost impossible to beat. It has something going for it that most artists work a lifetime to accomplish: this album doesn’t get old. It sounds just as a fresh today as it did the first time I heard it. In fact, it gets more interesting with every listen. In a year that saw in inexplicable number of great releases, Return to Cookie Mountain glows like VV Cephei.

Top Ten Albums of 2006

#10 Yo La Tengo I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
#9 Ghostface Killah Fishscale
#8 Mastodon Blood Mountain
#7 Junior Boys So This Is Goodbye
#6 Band of Horses Everything All the Time
#5 The Decemberists The Crane Wife
#4 Guillemots Through the Windowpane
#3 Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
#2 The Hold Steady Boys and Girls in America
#1 TV On The Radio Return to Cookie Montain

Top Ten Albums of 2005

#10 Isolée Wearemonster
#9 M.I.A. Arular
#8 José González Veneer
#7 13&God 13&God
#6 My Morning Jacket Z
#5 Bright Eyes I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning
#4 Sigur Rós Takk…
#3 The Decemberists Picaresque
#2 Sufjan Stevens Illinoise
#1 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

It’s not about being the best played, most accurately sung, or having the tightest production. Truly great songs do two very important things: They create an emotional reaction in a broad range of listeners and they have a tendency to change the landscape of the music industry. That’s a tall order and not easy to pull off.

Picking a song of the year is very tricky business. Some songs like the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1963) and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991) are the kind of rarities that had an immediate and sustained impact. But those are the exception rather than the rule. Other songs like Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” (1983) and the Romones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” (1975) were essentially cult hits in their time, but have come to be regarded as truly great and industry-changing songs. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess (for example, none of these songs won a Grammy, but then again, when have the Grammys ever been an accurate reflection of great music? I digress…), so picking a “song of the year” in the same year the songs are released is a little silly. Can we really predict the impact a song will have before that song has a chance to make an impact? I wonder.

This year we’re lucky (or unlucky depending on your taste and temperament). You may not realize it, but we were all party to one of those rare few that actually changed everything. It hit like train, spread like wildfire, and will have a permanent effect on the music industry. The trouble this year is organizing #2 through #10.

#10 Miss Murder

by AFI

AFI isn’t the first goth-punk band, they’re just the first goth-punk band to get it right. I’m not sure which part of that statement hardcore kids will disagree with more: the fact that I just called AFI a “goth-punk band” or my claim that they are the first ones to get it right.

Miss Murder might be a small step for AFI, but it was a huge leap for the music industry (how’s that for a cliché?). Other, similar outfits (like My Chemical Romance) look like a joke by comparison. Without holding back a thing and while living up to their hardcore roots, AFI somehow manages to appeal to a huge audience. This song will generate enthusiastic sing-alongs from 14 year-old kids in the front row at a show and 30 year-olds stuck in traffic on the 405. It takes a special kind of rock and roll to manage that.

#9 Love Me or Hate Me

by Lady Sovereign

Lady Sovereign managed two firsts that nobody could have thought possible 5 years ago. Primarily, she is the first non-American female to appear on Def Jam records (not to mention she’s white). More amazingly, she is the first internationally famous grime artist. She represents a sub-sub-genre in England that was both ridiculed and ignored by major media outlets. Well hold on, because that’s about to change.

By this time next year, every major label will have their token grime artist. Grime teenagers will pop up in Seattle and Savanna and grime hip hop will be on every iPod in every fitness center in Orange County.

#8 When You Were Young

by The Killers

Early in the year, I read an interview with Brandon Flowers in which he said that the Killers were going for a huge, Springsteen-esqe sound for their album Sam’s Town. To be honest, I thought he was full of crap. When this song started getting airplay, I thought, “Oh, okay. So they might have managed it.”

It was a bold move to give up the synth rock that made them famous. Their previous hit Somebody Told Me is already destined for “Hits of the 00′s” albums, so a drastic change in style for their sophomore effort seemed like a sure-fire way to guarantee permanent one-hit-wonder status. Instead, they may have sealed another 15 years of albums and tours. The Killers are an A&R guy’s dream come true.

#7 Chasing Cars

by Snow Partol

This song essentially cheated its way into America’s hearts. While editing an early cut of the Grey’s Anatomy season finale, the show’s editor, Ed Ornelas, used Chasing Cars for the final climactic scene. Whether it was an off-hand choice or a specific decision doesn’t matter, the show’s producers loved it. On 15 May 2006, Snow Patrol was beamed into 22.5 million homes, adding a final push to an already tear-inducing sequence. In that moment, Chasing Cars was burned on to our collective conscienceless.

I wonder what would have become of this song without such a grand introduction. It’s a great song with tight production. It has a mature quality that means it can be played on both indie radio stations and VH1. True, the album cover sucks, but Snow Patrol has been destined for greatness for a while. I think, even without that fateful decision by Ed Ornelas, it may have still become a wildly popular song.

#6 Black Horse and the Chery Tree

by KT Tunstall

Forgive me for using a U.S. release date for this one.

On 20 January, NBC’s The Today Show invited a young Scottish singer to play as part of their “Rising Stars” series. She was already a hit in the U.K. and was in the States promoting the 7 February release of her debut album. Her performance was passionate, talented, and above all, impressive. I will let her perfomance (the video below) speak for itself, but it is clear how and why this 30 year-old singer became one of the biggest names in music this year.

#5 Kick, Push

by Lupe Fiasco

I stand by my previous post, Lupe Fiasco may be the only important rapper on the scene today. The genius of this song might be its deliberate market appeal. I have a sneaking suspicion that Lupe chose this as his first single so more people would listen to the more personal lyrics on the rest of the album. It came as absolutely no surprise when he was nominated for three Grammys including both “Best Rap Solo Performance” and “Best Rap Song” for Kick, Push. The surprise will be if he doesn’t win.

This song has the ability to make everyone feel cool just by listening to it.

#4 My Love

by Justin Timberlake (ft. T.I.)

Justin Timberlake is the new King of Pop. There is no simpler way to put it. While SexyBack spent more time in the #1 spot, My Love proved that Timberlake’s sophomore effort was a bona fide classic. If you’re the betting type, this song is the easy favorite for the “Best Rap/Sung Collaboration” Grammy. What’s far more impressive, this song popped up on the “Best of the Year” lists in the most unlikely places, not the least of which was the indie powerhouse Pitchfork where it took the #1 spot. Justin has managed to break free of every stereotype that has doomed his boy band/child performer peers. It is impossible to overstate how good this song is. Justin Timberlake may be the most talented performer in the world.

And for the record, the album’s (and this song’s) producer, Timbaland shares the credit for creating one of the best songs of the decade.

#3 White and Nerdy

by “Weird Al” Yankovic

Every time Weird Al releases an album, the media reports it as a “comeback” for the king of musical parodies. 12 albums, 11 comebacks. Not bad. Despite having become a permanent fixture in American culture, Al seems to be quickly forgotten once his songs aren’t getting regular airplay. A year later, almost nobody will actually admit to liking his music at all. A year after that, he releases another album and the process starts all over again. It’s a weird phenomenon (pun intended). Well, there’s a reason this guy has 6 Platinum albums, 3 Gold, 3 Grammies (9 nominations), and regularly charts in the top 20 on the Billboard 200. He knows how to make dang funny music.

Al has an advantage for this year’s comeback album, “Straight Outta Lynwood”: Nerds are in style. The first single, “Don’t Download This Song” (which was free to download), was a hilariously nerdy tongue-in-cheek call-to-arms against the string of lawsuits by the RIAA. Of course, it became an instant internet sensation. When he released the single “White and Nerdy” (a parody of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’”) a couple weeks before the album’s release, Weird Al catapulted off his nerd-base and yet again proved that he’s the king of comedic music. It’s the kind of song that everyone hates to love. Most importantly (and ironically), he has given the normally nerdy pirate community a reason to actually buy an album rather than downloading it. That is a feat of marketing gymnastics unlike anything in recent memory. “White and Nerdy” broke the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and Straight Outta Lynwood actually debuted in the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 (both firsts for Al).

By this time next year (after chalking up another Platinum album and most likely another Grammy), he will be conveniently forgotten, touring relentlessly, and gearing up for yet another comeback.

#2 Crazy

by Gnarls Barkley

At any given time, there seems to be a song that is impossible to escape. It’s on the radio, on television, in soundtracks, during sports games, in commercials, and on every iPod between here and Siberia. Last year it was “Gold Digger” by Kanye West and “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani. Before that it was “Let’s Get It Started” by the Black Eyed Peas and “Feel Good, Inc” by the Gorillaz. And how many times have you heard “Hey Ya” by Outkast, “In da Club” by 50 Cent, or “Lose Yourself” by Eminem? More times than you can count, I’m sure.

Like these, “Crazy” is impossible to avoid. But unlike other ubiquitous songs this year (“Bad Day” by Daniel Powter or “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt for example), Crazy is actually great. Everyone seems to love this song. It’s extremely rare that a song can be heard on radio stations that range from hip hop to indie to adult contemporary to modern pop. This song is a perfect storm.

I would bet good money (if I were a betting man) that Gnarls Barkley will go down in music history as a “one hit wonder.” When two people as talented as Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo get together, make an album, and release a song like “Crazy” as their first single, they have set the bar impossibly high for themselves. Regardless, “Crazy” will also be remembered as one of the best songs released in 2006.

#1 Here it Goes Again

by OK Go

This isn’t just a song, it’s a phenomenon. Everyone has seen “the treadmill video.” You, your dad, your little sister and her friends, your cousin Josh, the crazy lady down the street, President Bush, Prince William, the troops in Iraq, your grandmother’s neighbor Betty, your math teacher’s girlfriend’s daughter’s boyfriend… everyone. Nothing in 2006 matched (or even came close to) the media firestorm created by these four badly dressed indie rockers.

In the three minutes it took to watch the video, every band on Earth started to plan their own low budget hit video. Every record company executive started to rethink their entire marketing strategy. Every teenager (after watching it three times in a row) IM’ed their friends and dreamed of their own 15 minutes of YouTube fame. People gathered around computer screens and shared the video with their co-workers on coffee breaks. Within a week, it hit the mainstream media and there was no turning back.

At the writing of this article, this YouTube video has been seen 9,135,180 times. That doesn’t count the number of views on Google, the number of views on duplicate and rip-off videos, the views of their live performance, the number of times the video aired on television, or the number of times it was viewed over the shoulder of a friend. The album, which had seen a modest release in 2005, was suddenly scratching Gold record status.

By the end of the year, YouTube had sold for $1.65 billion dollars. While it would be a stretch to claim that OK Go is solely responsible for the high price tag, you’d better believe this goofy video contributed directly to YouTube’s perceived value.

This is easily the most overplayed song of 2006, but it has also irrevocably altered music industry. There may have been better songs released this year, but no song was bigger. And no song came even close to reaching as many people. This video is to 2006 what the Thriller video was to 1983.

Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah, a great holiday, or a good nap. I’ll see you in the new year.