The tracklist to a cd of the music that I listened to most in 2006 and/or most strongly associate with the year. Very, very approximately, the first five are from the first half of the year and the last five are from the second half, with "The King Of Carrot Flowers Pt. One" in the middle as a kind of hinge track. For me, it was very much a year for songs rather than for albums, and I've written about many of these before - text where I haven't, or have something to add (in those cases, it was newly written on Christmas Day for the cd of these songs which is being distributed to musically-minded friends and acquaintances).
1. There Is An End - The Greenhornes (featuring Holly Golightly)
If there's one song which has soundtracked my year, this is it. ... it's just stayed with me all through the year as I've listened to it over and over, and it continues to make more and more sense. [*]
2. Hold On, Hold On - Neko Case [*]
3. Handshake Drugs (live) - Wilco
It feels as if Wilco were everywhere for me in 2006 (the same was true of '05, and probably '04 as well), and somewhere along the line they became one of my favourite bands; their live (double) album, Kicking Television, not to put too fine a point on it, kicks ass, and this version of "Handshake Drugs" is one of its many highlights.
4. Sylvie - Saint Etienne
Like all the best Saint Etienne songs, "Sylvie" sounds like ice cream and raindrops and dainty nostalgia, all at once.
5. Cupcake - Nellie McKay
Smart, sassy and, on "Cupcake", positively delirious - it's no wonder that I'm basically in love with Nellie McKay, and I find this song a particular delight. Also, if you're paying attention to the lyrics (always worth doing with this precocious songwriter), it waves the flag for gay marriage into the bargain, too! [*]
6. The King Of Carrot Flowers Pt. One - Neutral Milk Hotel
This album, when I finally listened to it earlier this year, basically blew my mind for a period of several weeks. I've deliberately avoided thinking too much about how/why it had and has such an effect on me - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea just feels like one of those records that should be left to stand, astonishing, on its own terms. [*] [**]
7. Elevator Love Letter - Stars
I was at a house party a while back, and I couldn't really hear the music from where I was standing - but for a while, the beginning of every song which played on the stereo sounded as if it was this one.
8. Black Cab - Jens Lekman
Oh Jens, so morose. Don't you just want to hug him? And anyone who quotes both the Smiths and Belle and Sebastian in the one song is alright in my books.
9. Talulah Gosh - Talulah Gosh
The whole thing is a gem, but the moment that best encapsulates Talulah Gosh's theme song is the unobtrusive emphasis with which frontwoman Amelia Fletcher enunciates the key word in the line 'now she is a pop star'. The song just makes me think 'yay!', and so does the band.
10. Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me - The Pipettes
The Pipettes are fabulous, and "Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me" is their most skyscrapingly glorious Pop! moment to date. Swoonfully great.
11. Thursday - Asobi Seksu
Widescreen fm radio glory, shimmering and throwing out light in all directions the whole time and then catching fire outright as it hits its climax. ... post-millennial starstruck shoegazer sparkle ...
(2005)
