well it's now 2007 and it's time to post my top ten list. 2006 was the most fantasic year for music that i can remember in ages....maybe the best ever(? i don't know though i have to think about that one) as far as i'm concerned so here we go:

1) Endless Wire - the Who

ok, now there were better records than this one but it gets my top spot for several reasons the least of which is that it's been 13years since Pete put out a full length and thats cause for celebration enough....but to put the Who brand on it made me not so interested in this one thinking he and Roger were going to embarass themselves.....i couldn'tve been more wrong.....starting right off with the song "Fragments" and coming to grips with the inescapability of that Baba O'Reilly keyboard riff and the theme that we are all connected(a theme Pete has been working nearly his whole career) to the starkness of the retort on "a man in a purple dress" to those who pass judgement, to the recognition of our lives as TV in  "Mike Post Theme"  and dealing with the emotional responses of love, loyalty, death and fan expectation as he does while closing out the albums first half) Pete has crafted a strong artistic statement that can only be a Who album with Daltry sounding sharper than he has any right to.  the second half  "rock opera" "Wire and Glass" for me personally doesn't hold up as well as the first half but has many high points in telling the semi-autobiographical story of three friends forming a band and making it big.

perhaps the biggest factor in putting this record at number one really is that after 24years i thought it would be inconceivable for there to be a new Who record that i would like at all let alone fall in love with the way i fell in love with the rest of their music....a truly remarkable feat in my book and most deserving of the top spot.....will there be another? i can only hope so and that it doesn't take 24years.......

2) Dog Problems(2006) Interventions and Lullibies(2004) - the Format

the only thing keeping the Format from the top spot is that i was just too fucking blown away by the 24year gap phenomenon of the Who.  musically for me no other band encompassed what 2006 was for me than these two Arizona kids that make up the Format.  My buddy Greg passed along a copy of Dog Problems saying he listened but didn't care for it....god bless him and his immovable set of standards that dictate what he likes because i haven't stopped listening since.....never before  have i heard(and doubt i will hear again) such happy sing-along pop songs with intensely maudlin subjects. Dog Problems verges on the surreal with its carnival atmosphere and Fleetwood Mac type melodies the album creates an atmosphere of joy built on a foundation of heartbreak unmatched in all my years of listening. Nowhere in my past can i recall singing and dancing to a record the way i do with this one.....every song is great and makes me move in ways that i didn't know i could move. that's not even bringing "Interventions"(their first) into the picture. after having my mind and body scrambled by "Dog Problems" i had to get their first....and at the beginning i thought it was like "DP"-lite but it wasn't long before it it revealed itself as the monster it is...rocking a little harder and with even darker subject matter(listen to Tie the Rope kids) "Interventions and Lullibies" is a masterpiece. everyone should listen to the Format as far as i'm concerned and should go out and get these records immediately....that's an order.......the best band of 2006 bar none...............

3)....is a real boy (2004 with a 2006 re-issue)- Say Anything

this is the album i most related to in 2006 as an emotionally detached thirty something teenage wanna-be....the themes of isolation while chasing the rock star dream, fending off emotional attacks from lovers, friends and your own damaged psyche resonate with me. it's as if i had any real talent and was a much younger man, this is an album i like to imagine i would have made.....loaded with guitar anthems and as the album goes on increasingly insightful, sarcasticly pointed lyrics directed at everything you encounter in everyday life........this is undeniably the best hard rock record i heard this year.....i can hear people whining about the emo-ness of it all but i would tell those people to do unspeakable things to themselves....."Alive with the glory of love" may be the best song i've heard all year and "i want to know your plans" the best power ballad(if it even is that) ever. there is not a weak song on this album. the closer "Admit it" is such a strong indicment of fashion as society you'd think this kid actually believed in the punk rock aesthetic.....amazing....i can't recommend this one enough

4) hellogoodbye(2004)   ZOMBIES! ALIENS! VAMPIRES! DINOSAURS! (2006)

one of the rare cases where i was intrigued by the album art on ZAVD, went home and checked them out on Rhapsody and almost immediately became a hardcore geek for this band. these kids cater to the closet dance fiend i am. driving guitars? check. swirling dance beats and keyboards? check. sugary sweet melodies with sacharine lyrics that lack irony and don't seem nearly as naive as they should? check. infectious energy that makes and old man like me shake his ass? check and mate. it makes me shake my head in wonder that there is someone out there that can write cornball love songs that rock(most of the e.p) and when they don't they're liltingly beautiful("oh, is it love" and "baby, it's fact" on ZAVD) i practically weep with joy when these songs play. ZAVD doesn't fully live up to the promises made by the ep by going a bit more dance than may be needed but these kids are just beginning and if Forrest ever gets his heart broken watch out!!......that albums gonna be a monster....so kids if you like a little dance in your pop-rock you can't do any better than by starting with these guys....would i steer you wrong?

to be continued