the best songs of 2006

{all artwork by a}

There seems to have been a lot of talk this year about 2006 not measuring up to its immediate predecessors, and in one sense, I agree. There was no clear great album for me this year, unlike Funeral and Illinois from years before - none that took a hold of me to the extent that I forgot all others. But in terms of individual songs, it was a fine year - contrary to expectations, this year's best-of lists were a dependable source of music I had yet to hear.
So that's why this is a list of songs instead of albums - as someone probably once put it: nobody walks around humming albums.
The rules are as follows:

1. There are no rules!
2. All songs were all (re-)released in some form in 2006.
3. Only one song per artist.
4. I took my cue from that character in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest who makes no sense but makes lots of sense at the same time.
5. No Neon Bible songs - they'll get their attention next year.

So, in reverse order, here they are - the songs I loved the most in the past year. Enjoy!

58. The White Birch - Your Spain
The definition of slow-burning, like a cigarette abandoned in an ashtray by a svelte french actress.

57. The Butterfly Explosion - Sophia
It's like waiting at the bus-stop, and for no reason, no earthly reason at all, everything takes on some deep meaning and it seems your heart just woke up. It takes its time getting there, but it really gets there.

56. The Grates - Sukkafish
This on the other hand, could conceivably wake up your heart if you let it go to sleep again.
Don't, though.

55. Neosupervital - Rachel
Upon listening, I forgot why I picked it. Until I got to the chorus, and remembered; "Oh yeah, that's what it sounded like in my head for most of September."

54. Rademacher - It Really Shouldn't Matter
A special song, and dangerous too, because it gives me the feeling I have nothing to lose.

53. Asobi Seksu - Thursday
Like getting drunk with two skyscrapers.

52. Adem - Launch Yourself
Hear that? That solemn choir juxtaposed against hand-clapping? That's the sound of life not going to plan.

51. El Perro del Mar - God Knows (You've Got To Give To Get)
It felt like flo-o-o-o-o-o-oa-ting, it felt like floating.

50. Thao Nguyen - Feet Asleep {Daytrotter session}
I don't care what year it came out, it's going on the list. This song makes me want to buy a hammock and start drawling.

49. Juana Molina - Micael
I would have liked The Eraser a lot more if it had sounded like this. Moods deeper and darker than night painted black, but still visibly beautiful. I don't know how she does it.

48. The Pipettes - Judy
Undeniable. It reminds me of what it must have sounded like when school was still fun.

47. TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
Today I realised that this song appears in my head when the Berlin night sets in, and I am still far from home. It's something like... why not make your home in the night?

46. Psapp - Tricycle
Psapp's album seemed to be the most original collection of noises I heard all year. This is the highlight, something like Nouvelle Vague with little demons in the production. Beautiful.

45. Danielson - Did I Step On Your Trumpet?
Struttable stuff from a fine album. This is probably the only 'indie pop' song I can think of that you could conceivably do the funky chicken to.

44. Lucky Soul - Ain't Never Been Cool
Then take it from someone who knows, baby, this is cool.

43. Teitur - Louis Louis
This song mosies along until it gets to the chorus, and then it's not a song anymore but someone who has been slowly walking to the edge of a rooftop, murmuring to himself all the way to keep calm, and now that he's gotten to the edge, he's opened to the fullness of what lies in front of him. The melody flies and rises chaotically like a kite that's gotten away from you, and for no reason, the man steps back and finishes the song without asking you.

42. Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks
I know some people find it easy to write amazing pop songs, but I didn't know anyone could make it look this easy.

41. Cold War Kids - We Used To Vacation {Daytrotter session}
I didn't like this song that much until a few weeks ago, when I saw Cold War Kids beat the shit out of it onstage, and then make it sing. After that I liked it a whole lot more, and now I beat it up myself on occasion.

40. Half Handed Cloud - A Suit of Clouds to Ride the Skies
One minute with handclaps, angels, God, beeps, silence, and a melody beautifully paired with a chord change you've heard a million times, but never as cutely as this. If you asked Santa for a song this Christmas, you might have gotten this, but only if you'd been very good.

39. Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You
A slow burning jazz medley gone wrong and right again, this song pulls you like a tune through the fields and backroads of some great little southern state town. It's a dream girl, you know she doesn't really exist, but you've fallen in love with her anyway.

38. Bishop Allen - Flight 180
God knows it tries your patience. Feedback, slightly out-of-tune vocals, and repetition. But then, hints of beauty, like the glimpses you see out of the windows of a plane in flight. So you sit back and pay attention, and you anticipate. And it comes, laden with strings, a validation, dealing with death on trembling knees, and acceptance that maybe you've only been pretending you're unhappy.

37. Sufjan Stevens - The Mistress Witch of McClure (or, The Mind That Knows Itself)
A diamond in an album of unwanted songs, this, for me, is tied to the image of being a child and seeing your father come home. Maybe you've forgotten now how good that used to feel, but back then you didn't need anything more.

36. Cat Power - The Greatest
You know how at school nativity plays when they've taken a dark blue cloth and pasted little golden stars to it to make the night sky, and how good it looks even though it's so simply done? Yeah, me too.

35. (((GRRRLS))) - Love Connection
I don't always find this song easy to listen to, and I don't always want to listen to it, but I always feel like I've made myself a better person after I do. Those uneasy lyrics, awkwardly sung over a delicate melody, it gives the impression of someone smiling on the verge of crying, I don't know why.

34. The Lovely Feathers - Photo Corners
This is just a few young men, singing, playing and summing up something I haven't felt yet, but am certainly looking forward to.

33. The Subjects - Hounds of War
You don't expect this song to be so good. You don't expect that slightly whiny kid to sing so strongly. But it is, and he does, and I did too.

32. Oh No! Oh My! - Walk In The Park
I could try and sum up the mood of this song with some apt imagery, but that's what they did with the lyrics: "Nice day for a talk with a girl/ Nice day for your shop to get busy". It's like a little holiday.

31. Beach House - Master of None
Christmas lights all year round. Having fun in the dark. Your first drink since you stopped counting. I don't know what the song is really about, but any of the above will do for me.

30. Cortney Tidwell - Hard 2 Tell
I just realised that there are 37 seconds of solo vocals at the start of this song. You'd think if she was planning on being difficult, she wouldn't have put in such a damn catchy chorus. But it's both! How utterly perfect.

29. Swan Lake - The Freedom
I swear, the first time I heard this song, and its opening line, I realised I had been wanting someone to sing that line for ages. This is before I heard the amazing chorus, the noise of the "three most annoying voices in Canada, together at last" and all those tamed lyrics. I think this may be the highlight of Beast Moans.

28. My Latest Novel - The Reputation of Ross Francis
If anyone could give me directions to a place where they sing more songs like these, I'll be off.

27. The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
How can a song that starts so easily, and with such a normal and familiar set of sounds, get so intensely sad? I feel bereaved just listening to it.

26. Arms - Tiger Tamers



"The tigers have been tamed." Crash! Boom! You bet your ass they have.

25. Snowden - Anti-Anti
This song brings something else to the party. Fuzzy feelings, and a strong desire to shake it, but not quite... That riff!

24. The Rakes - The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect
It may have started as nothing more than music to watch girls go by, but this song deserves its place here. Such a stupidly catchy guitar line, and those lyrics. Wry observation is an old trick, but it's rarely worked as well as this.

23. Sibylle Baier - Tonight
It's like turning on every light in your bedroom, but still not being able to get rid of all the shadows.

22. The Carrots - Secret Since '99
There's no point writing anything fancy about this song. Just listen to the fucking thing. It's really really good.

21. Munck//Johnson - Last Wish



This song is all about the time I saw Munck//Johnson live a few months ago - a night so good I bought their album Count Your Blessings on vinyl instead of cd, and so had to wait till now to give this to you.

20. Islands - Swans (Life After Death) (live)
This song wakes up on a beach! But where it goes after that, I only discovered the first time I heard it, and since then it's been hidden from me.

19. Annuals - Brother
No, not your brother, but walking out in the open, and walking with the sunrise against your backs, one dawn not like others, as witnessed up close. In German, they call the east 'Morgenland' and I like to think it would sound a little like this if I went there.

18. The Innocence Mission - Lakes of Canada
When human beings get lost at sea, or mountaineering, or exploring, we act illogically. Other species would ignore the lost and forget, but we engage in the organised equivalent of panicking. We assemble search parties, we summon trained men and dogs. We go deep into the danger as a group.
This song is a bit like that notion, the pure goodness of the intention. Many times they must have found someone they couldn't help anymore, someone who had died without knowing they were almost loved. This song is, almost accidentally, a reminder of this: if you got lost, if you disappeared, people would search for you.

17. Regina Spektor - Samson (get a live version here)
This song makes me feel like getting up, taking hold of it, and going back to bed.

16. Tapes 'n Tapes - Insistor
'Insistor' reminds me always of the capacity I have to make people terribly angry. And that I enjoy it too.

15. The Spinto Band - Oh Mandy
Well, no, I actually don't have any poetic reason for loving this song, but there's only so many times you can write about perfect pop, so instead I will direct you to 2.20 and let you describe it to yourself.

14. Page France - Say Wolf in the Summertime
Happy but not naive. Poppy but not cliched. Bouncy but not silly. Brilliant!

13. Fionn Regan - Hunters Map (EP version)
This song sounds like Ireland to me, but I don't know what it sounds like to the rest of you. It's pretty spot on, except there are no cities.

12. My Brightest Diamond - If I Could Say One Thing
Do I really mean that this session song is better than anything on the album? Yup. It's not so much wearing your heart on your sleeve as it is wiping your tears away on your sleeve.

11. The Immediate - Stop and Remember
I was gonna type something for this song, but as soon as it came on, my fingers started drumming all by themselves, so I'll just leave it at that.

10. Hot Chip - Boy from School (acoustic)
It sounds a bit like a computer with a broken heart. If for no other reason, listen to it just to learn more about how amazing music can be these days.

9. Belle & Sebastian - White Collar Boy
My favourite song of the summer from my favourite album of the summer. Just so singable, and though it is clearly simple, it is built of the kind of advanced stuff I can't yet sum up in a few sentences.

8. Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds
Yes, deeply complicated music sounds good too. Punk without stupid hairstyles, with way more than three chords and as many emotions.

7. Joanna Newsom - Only Skin



First things first, at this point, after many listens, I still prefer Joanna Newsom's first album. That said, this song just amazes me. Every time I listen to it, I have the impression of time taking on a new rhythm, matching the tamed insanity that finds its home here. The day winds away, and takes its time at it, before quite suddenly the minor chords turn up, and the segment formerly known as 'Be a Woman' appears. This is the onset of night, the danger inherent, because in whatever world this song lives, there are no cities, no real society, no institutions of safety. It's so deep, as deep as the endless light of the night sky, and suddenly it's over, as though sleep has been fought off. Horns signify the coming of the dawn, and the song moves on and lets you out of its grasp to address a huge crowd and bring them its worrying news.
For me, the highlight of 'Only Skin' remains this manufactured night-time, when it holds you close out of fear like an old movie damsel tied to the train tracks. I think the rest of the album will grab me equally with time, but for now, this will do.
Joanna Newsom - Be a Woman (live)

6. Sunset Rubdown - We Got Broken Eyes
Again, this song isn't on the album. I had difficulty deciding between this and 'Stadiums and Shrines II', but this just took it in the end, by virtue of the tremendous push forward evident when those drums crash in, and the slight, and patient dismantling of the song at the end, while he's still singing it. It's worth hearing over and over and over.

5. Peter and the Wolf - Safe Travels



There is a certain sense of safety to this song, not just in the title, but embedded in it the whole way through, like the rings of a tree trunk. This song may be the only thing you need to take with you as you travel, something you would keep in your hands carefully. When Red Hunter sings "Know how to climb a tree? I assume you do," he's welcoming you into some club, where you know nobody, but you don't care.
Maybe it's because I've uprooted myself recently, but it feels like this song knows where I want to go. It's not perfect, yet it gives me an idea of what that perfection might be like, something like looking at sunny palm-tree adverts in the window of a travel agent. Even if you don't get there it's okay, because it's not going away. This song is the one your friends would sing, unexpectedly earnestly, at you're going-away party. You'll never see them again, but there it is, with its sad raindrop guitar-plucked notes, its steady pace (like a bus!) and mournfully happy group calls. Safe Travels accomplishes all it should. It feels like goodbye.

4. Beirut - Postcards from Italy
It sometimes sounds like the pages of the old history book I'm reading, a song trapped in 20th century paper, and circling the same brass notes over and over, but how it feels is mournful and happy, like a wedding. The 'Balkan sound' is only a minor detail, it's the truth engrained between every note of this song that makes it ring out so fine.

3. Grizzly Bear - Lullabye



I don't know if I am living in this song's head, or if it is living in mine. I just can't seem to imagine where something like this could come from. It completely overshadows everything else on this fine album, that much I know. But it is some puzzle to me, like some visually amazing film in a foreign language that I cannot place. It pulls itself from tired singing and guitar picking to awesome heights, with singing in chorus, and pacy drums, and electric guitar that slings itself around the room.
It was once said to me that little children, when they begin to sing random invented melodies out of pure happiness, write music that the best musician could never write, music closer to humanity than anything ever composed. I think this song is reason enough to rethink that statement.

2. Cathy Davey - Sing for your Supper



This is all you can do, you can't do anymore. It's not your fault if at this stage you can only rest your head on your arms on your desk, and offer yourself to sleep. Oh, but love, and girls and these swinging chords that give no peace, only exhortations not to give up! Finish that love letter, write that love song, you'll get it right soon, you're almost there. It could be around the corner from everyone of us. Some day you can say it and mean it and there it will be, life, wow, and you're amazed, and you look back, and all those hints, all those signs everywhere, like that song Cathy Davey recorded as a demo, and put up on her MySpace temporarily before taking it down later bashfully, but that song was a hint! That song was a sign, plucked from some random place in the air above a woman's head, not written but discovered, a brick in the yellow brick road. This is not an advert. This is real life, there are real people out there to break your heart, all you have to do is give it. It is a toy, not a collector's item.
Do it now, start looking now, before you find yourself in an empty room, unwrapping your heart in your pocket like a fragile old violin, too brittle to be played now, but at least in near-perfect condition. That old thing never moved nobody, you say, I'll get my money back. Don't let the cobwebs grow! Get moving and start looking for someone who's looking for someone like you.

1. Destroyer - Rubies



This is it. This is nine and a half minutes of insanity made sane. Imagery that doesn't bear thinking about (because you'd never stop) with music that it simply doesn't work to think about. This song holds itself on a different level. I mean, yes the chorus is great, and the way they cut it down to simply Dan Bejar and his guitar is wonderful, but I'm not sure that's it. I don't know how to get near what makes this song great. Some day I'll come back and type it in here, but for now I'd better leave it blank.

Destroyer - Rubies (CBC Session)


Well, I hope you enjoyed that. Deepest thanks to Anika for the artwork, for it would have been a boring post without it. Thanks too to everyone who read or did something for this blog in the last twelve months, and here's to 2007, which already looks like it'll be a fine year.