If you guys are all feeling like me, you are somewhere in the midst of the 3-7 day recovery from the bender that was Christmas til’ yesterday. The feeling is unmistakable — a mixture of illness, hangover, and soft-spoken cries from the now devastated community of brain cells in your head. If you ask me there’s no better way to start a new year: hungover, sick and stupid because at least there’s an abundance of room for improvement from that state for the next year. I find the same to be true with music; by the end of the year, the music you had listened to is as chewed up and stale as any given bar floor at 6 a.m. on January 1st. The coming of the first of the year makes you look back at the endless amounts of records you listened to for those past three-hundred-some-odd days and try to tabulate your favorite albums of the year. This task is difficult for numerous reasons. First, on what basis do you value an album and further, what is the hierarchy (if there is one) of the contributing factors that lead to your overall feeling about a collection of songs? Everyone can remember the good/bad/fuckin’ awesome times they had while listening to an album, or during the time period in which you were listening to it. Do we let it factor in to our final decision? My answer to the above questions is a resounding yes. “Best Of” lists are personal and highly subjective to a multitude of things that cannot be extracted from individual opinion.

Disclaimer: My mother always said they broke the mold with me, and accordingly you will not find TV on the Radio anywhere in the following text.

#10 – Silversun Pickups – Carnavas
This album just simply rocks. The heavy coke-fuzz of the guitar and bass, deep drums and airy, cold vocals throws back to those days where albums like Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and STP’s Core blew your mind with heavy-hearted and pessimistic hopelessness. 2006 was the new 1996 for this Silver Lake band.

Songs of note include: “Little Lover’s So Polite” and “Three Seed”
And if you like this album get : Autolux – Future Perfect

#9 – Sunset Rubdown – Shut Up I Am Dreaming
Circuses are scary and I’m sure no one will disagree with that. I mean they are the grandfathers of freak-show oddity power-hour on daytime network television (Springer, Maury, etc.) I still can’t believe that Springer used to be the mayor of Cinci. In the carny-spirit, Sunset Rubdown (aka Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade and Swan Lake fame) takes what you loved about Wolf Parade’s Apologies to the Queen Mary, breaks it down to bare minimum, and makes it coldly personal. It sounds like the soundtrack to an after-hours circus of whores and vagabonds. Nowhere as aurally grandiose, Shut Up I Am Dreaming showcases Krug’s inner torments that are reminiscent of early Modest Mouse, asking complicated questions about humanity, life and death and comes up with far more complicated answers. Krug however posits these questions and answers them in a far more sophisticated and literally inventive way than Issac Brock’s blue-collar witty one-liners.

Songs of Note: “Stadiums and Shrines II” and “Us Ones In Between”
And if you like this album get: Sunset Rubdown – Sunset Rubdown EP

#8 — Emily Haines and Soft Skeleton – Knives Don’t Have Your Back
This album has a number of similarities with Sunset Rubdown. The second solo album from the lead singer of Toronto’s Metric, Emily Haines takes down the tempo and the immediacy of typical Metric fare and creates a chilling collection of piano ballads that tackles the problems of today’s modern life as well as makes sense of her personal problems that, due to her busy and draining life as a traveling musician, were forced into confinement. “_What I thought it was it isn’t now/ All this weight, is honest worse/ We’re moderate, we modernize / Till our hell is a good life/ All we know what to forget… how to do right/ Coloring in the black hole/ Can’t we stop?/When we stop_”. Knives Don’t Have Your Back is as much a social commentary as it is an emotional release from the singer of a rock band that seems to have had a bit too much on her plate. Personally, I think everyone can relate.

Songs of Note: “Our Hell” and “Winning”
And if you like this album get: Amy Milan – Honey From The Tombs

#7 – David Bazan – Fewer Moving Parts
Ok, now I am realizing while writing this that I might have had a thing for lead singer solo-albums this year. Former lead singer of Pedro The Lion, Bazan has always had a gift with crafting witty and socially conscious lyrics that paint a bleak portrait of where we are today and an even bleaker portrait of where it looks like we are going. While technically an EP, Bazan gives us five new songs with their acoustic renditions following. Those who loved Pedro’s Achilles’ Heel will love the heavy employment of synth of most of the songs (David Bazan also has an all synth band called The Headphones that I highly recommend).

Songs of Note: “Fewer Moving Parts” and “Backwoods Nation”
And I you like this album get: Pedro The Lion – Control

#6 Ellen Allien and Apparat – Orchestra of Bubbles
When I was in high school I listened to a ton of dub, drum and bass, and jungle. During college I listened to it less and less and for about two years, I didn’t listen to any at all. Last year Mylo, Vitalic and Jackson and His Computer Band revived my interest in electronica and its more pop-py relatives. So with watchful eyes and thanks to a recommendation from Vancouver’s own Big-Man (ok Tyler, there’s your shout out), I came across this gem. Dark, cold and yet inviting, this album is the IDM record to break all precedents on how IDM should sound like.

Songs Of Note: “Way Out” and “Jet”
And if you like this album get: Vitalic – OK Cowboy

#5 – Kunek – Flight of the Flynns
I don’t know how many of you drive long distances often or travel through desolate areas such as the Midwest or the Inland West, but this album characterizes the experience completely. Spacey, expansive and foreboding, Flight of the Flynns paints a picture of those places in America (or anywhere for that matter) that get lost in the fold and forgotten by time. The fact that they wear their influences on their sleeves is the only reason that this isn’t my album of the year. Radiohead, Coldplay and the Beatles all scream from between the measures of Flight of the Flynns, however it’s not such a bad thing. Whereas the lyrics drove my decisions on many of the previous albums, the music takes the cake on this one. Instead of conventional musical compositions that cater to a song’s given lyrical content, Kunek constructs vastly sweeping musical landscapes and then finds space in which to fit their lyrics.

Songs of Note: “The Swell” and “Section 2”
And if you like this album get: Calexico – Hot Rail

#4 – Fugiya & Miyagi – Transparent Things
Of all the albums that are bound to get remixed and re-released this upcoming year, this one has the best shot at being utterly mind-blowing. The kraut/CAN influence is unmistakable on this LP and brings the best of 70’s experimental electronica together with today’s modern production resources to form a decade-transcending masterpiece. Songs like “Collarbone” and “Photocopier” are propelled on to the dance floor by unassuming and ill-stressed percussion and bass while more experimental instrumentals like “Cassettesingle” and “Conductor 71” keep you from listening to anything else.

Songs of Note: “Cassettesingle” and “Collarbone”
And if you like this album get: CAN – Ege Bamyasi

#3 — The Thermals – The Blood, The Body, The Machine
I always thought that growing up Roman Catholic would fail to pay a single dividend when I grew older — this album proved me wrong. The Blood, The Body, The Machine makes ridiculous folly of the Conservative Christian culture in American society among other things. Anyone interested in religion in America should definitely pick this one up.

Songs of Note: “Pillar of Salt” and “I Might Need To Kill You”
And if you like this album get: Sebadoh – Harmacy

#2 – Islands – Return to the Sea
This album is a clusterfuck. Mixing lyrics of anorexia and mining blood diamonds with laid back easy-listening instrumentals, Return to the Sea is the equivalent of combining Spongebob Squarepants with Aqua Teen Hunger Force. This release from the former members of The Unicorns spans an array of genres and styles and yet feels oddly cohesive. Admittedly a little hard to get into, Return to the Sea is damn worth the investment.

Songs of Note: “Rough Gem” and “Volcanoes
And if you like this album get: The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We Die?

#1 — Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped
Yes, I know. Highly controversial but just hear me out. The span of the Sonic Youth catalog is downright impressive. Drenched in feedback and experimentation, Sonic Youth has contributed greatly to the history of music. HOWEVER, they spent a career’s-worth of time pushing the boundaries of music and failed to create a straightforward rock album injected with and developed internally by their trademark sound. Rather Ripped is this album. The most interesting thing about this album is the relationship and interaction of the various guitar tracks. With good production and smoothed out musical arrangement, you simultaneously have this guitar-driven internal brooding that seems like the chaos spawning the songs themselves.

Songs of Note: “Jams Run Free” and “Pink Steam”
And if you like this album get: Tapes ‘n Tapes – The Loon

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Beach House – Beach House
Tapes ‘n Tapes – The Loon
Tokyo Police Club – A Lesson in Crime EP
Blood Brothers – Young Machete
Califone – Roots & Crowns
Espers – Espers II
Sparklehorse – Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain

Adam Symington’s Playlist: Hear It Here
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