What are your top 5 CDs/albums of 2006?
Submitted by eliz. s.

Barenaked Ladies Are Me

  1. Barenaked Ladies – Barenaked Ladies Are Me

    If we’re not counting live releases, the new Barenaked Ladies CD would have to top my charts for the best release of 2006. They went independent and it shows, when them taking the time they needed in the studio to perfect this group of songs. They take the band in some new directions and mash up a whole bunch of different musical styles into a cohesive package.

    My favorite tracks include the very funny “Bank Job”, “Everything Has Changed” and “Maybe You’re Right”.

    I was hoping to go see them in concert again this year, but unfortunately, things didn’t work out.

  2. OSI – Free

    Coming back from their debut album, this side project of Kevin Moore, Jim Matheos of Fates Warning and Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater deliver a slightly heavier album, mixing electroinca influences with heavy guitar riffage. I ended up liking this effort a lot more than their self titled debut album.

  3. Frost* - Milliontown

    This is my pick for the best new discovery of the year. I wrote a blog post about them earlier, so I’ll refer you to that for the full details, but just in short, this is Progressive Metal without a lot of the progressive metal cliches. It’s a really fresh sound, and really original. It’s really too bad they called it quits recently, as I was looking forward to the next album from these guys. Hopefully the breakup is temporary because it was time related.

  4. Spock’s Beard – Spock’s Beard

    Here’s one I didn’t think I was going to be listing so soon, but I really can’t stop listening to this album. It’s started to really grow on me. I still don’t enjoy the instrumental track on it, but I’m getting more and more into it.

  5. Muse – Black Holes and Revelations

    Muse can be a hard band to get into. Musically, this effort is probably the most interesting thing that I’ve heard from them since I got into them with Absolution. However, I’m getting a little bored with the vocal lines which don’t vary much from song to song. They become almost predictable at times. Still, a good album by a good band.

If we were to include Live albums, Dream Theater – Score would be my number one pick. Dream Theater + Orchestra = goodness.

Runners up also incuded Iron Maiden’s A Matter of Life and Death and The Flower King’s Paradox Hotel.

Related posts:

  1. QotD: This Week’s Top 25
  2. The Music Explosion Begins!
  3. [Plinky] Memories And Music
  4. Black Holes and Revelations
  5. QotD: My Musical Horoscope