Top 5 Albums of 2006

[Sprry75]

There have only been two times in my life when I've bought an album because of it's cover; that Brand New CD and Elliott Smith's "either/or," and I ended up loving both of them.

Of all the Elliot Smith CDs, you sure picked a good one to pick up because of its cover. That's probably his best work...or maybe just behind his self-titled CD of the year before. Hell, they're all good.

Agreed.  That purchase really got me into him; I picked up both Roman Candle and the self-titled shortly thereafter (this was before X/O came out).  He was one of my favorite artists, and I got to see him live a few times (including his very last live performance--a free show at the University of Utah).

[Matt]

I'm about a year late to the party for this album (and half a year late to this thread), but I thought I'd mention this, because it's nearly all I've been listening to of late:



Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

I heard about how good this album was all last year but didn't get around to "acquiring" it until this spring.  I was a little lukewarm on it at first, as I was totally unfamiliar with Neko Case's voice and style, but the more I listened, the more I liked it.  Now it's easily my favorite 2006 album and it's steadily becoming one of my favorite albums of all time.

So, check it out if you like good music.  If you don't like good music, go listen to Pearl Jam or something, I guess.

[ruiner]

Where do you find this stuff?  I'm always looking for something different but don't always know where to start.

[Matt]

Where do you find this stuff?  I'm always looking for something different but don't always know where to start.

In Neko's Case ( ) think I had mostly heard about her from browsing the Wilco fan message boards, and saw a lot of people talking about her and/or her album.  I figured that, if everybody there liked Wilco, and if a lot of those people also liked Neko Case, then there was a pretty good chance that I might like her, too.  And, sure enough, I do.

A lot of the stuff I get interested in via similar methods.

Allmusic is an invaluable tool when it comes to researching bands and albums and such.  They've also got a pretty cool database for linking similar artists and bands together and stuff.  Say you're--I don't know--a Nine Inch Nails fan, and want to find some other bands to listen to in the same style.  You could go to the NIN page, and they've got lists of not only similar artists, but lists of bands that influenced NIN, bands that have been influenced by NIN, as well as lists of styles and moods.  Definitely worth checking out.

And I don't really use this as a resource to discover new stuff, but a friend of mine does (and maybe I should):

Metacritic: Music

[iFett]

Where do you find this stuff?  I'm always looking for something different but don't always know where to start.

Pandora radio is also pretty cool.  If you actually like listening to music while looking for new music.  You just type in some band names you like and it will search out and pull (full versions) of songs from other groups that are of similar sound.  You can then click on the band info while the song is playing to view the group bio/albums and what not all free of charge.

Pretty cool site to use while browsing the web     They even have get togethers so you can meet up with other music lovers.  Though I personally wouldn't want to meet strangers that enjoy country music or gansta rap.  They just had one here in Minneapolis a week or so ago.