It is important to keep in mind that this is a list of the albums that I listened to. That is just one proof of its subjectivity. Another proof is that your list is different, thank God. Another proof is that Dylan got beat out by a debut album and a sophomore album, and with an objective scale, Dylan is second only to Christ, who I hear is also coming out with a release in '07, along with everyone else. The only exception may be when you have a debut like Gulag Orkestar and a somehow five-song full-length from Mrs. Joanna. I felt like it was a good year, as Dylan got fourth, Sufjan's highest was fourteenth, and Grandaddy is viewed as the worst album of the year.
Along with the rankings (first to last, 01-100), there are the additional "awards," such as "Best Album Art of the Year" (Floating World). Two of the many quirks on the list are the Flaming Lips' being listed next to Danielson (they toured together near the end of the year) and Dangerdoom's rare EP being partnered next to Gnarls Barkley's full-length ( highest common denominator: Danger Mouse). There are certainly more. At the end of this post, you should find the scoring system explained. It is real. It is real. Despite its lack of objectivity, this list is real, too.
01. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
02. Joanna Newsom - Ys (also: best lyrics)
03. Bonnie "Prince Billy - The Letting Go
04. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
05. Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds
06. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (also: best vocals)
07. Jenny Lewis with The Watson - Rabbit Fur Coat
08. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
09. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Etiquette
10. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country (also: best album title)
11. Damien Rice - 9
12. My Brightest Diamond - Bring Me The Workhorse
13. Anathallo - Floating World (also: best album art overall)
14. Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
15. Neil Young - Living With War (also: best album title)
16. Tilly and the Wall - Bottoms Of Barrels
17. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
18. Kimya Dawson - Remember That I Love You
19. Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You
20. TV On The Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
21. M. Ward - Post-War
22. The Sleepy Jackson - Personality: One Was A Spider One Was A Bird (also: best album title)
23. Xiu Xiu - The Air Force
24. Tom Waits - Orphans
25. Islands - Return to the Sea
26. Sean Lennon - Friendly Fire
27. Cursive - Happy Hollow
28. Pharrell - In My Mind
29. David Bazan - Fewer Moving Parts
30. Peaches - Impeach My Bush (also: best album title)
31. Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - All the Roadrunning
32. Cat Power – The Greatest
33. Mates of State - Bring It Back
34. Morrissey - Ringleader Of The Tormentors
35. The Dresden Dolls - Yes, Virginia
36. My Morning Jacket - Okonokos
37. Margot and the Nuclear So and So's - The Dust Of Retreat (also: best new band name)
38. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
39. Daniel Johnston - Welcome To My World
40. Two Gallants - What The Toll Tells
41. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - House Arrest
42. Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
43. Bright Eyes - Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998-2005)
44. Sufjan Stevens - Songs for Christmas
45. The Starlight Mints - Drowaton
46. Sarah Harmer - I'm A Mountain
47. The Ditty Bops - Moon Over the Freeway
48. Calexico - Garden Ruin
49. Eric Bachmann - To The Races
50. The Elected - Sun, Sun, Sun
51. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
52. Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
53. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
54. Danielson - Ships
55. Beck - The Information
56. Anti-Flag - For Blood And Empire
57. Emily Haines - Knives Don't Have Your Back
58. Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) - Another Cup
59. Sound Of Animals Fighting - Lover, The Lord Has Left Us (also: best album title)
60. Sondre Lerche and the Faces Down Orchestra - Duper Sessions
61. Zero 7- The Garden
62. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
63. Half-Handed Cloud - Halos + Lassos
64. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
65. Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways
66. Charles Manson - Sings
67. Yo La Tengo - I'm Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (also: best album title)
68. Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
69. Josh Rouse - Subtitulo
70. Pretty Girls Make Graves - Elan Vital
71. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers (also: best new band name)
72. The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
73. Brand New - The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me (also: best album title)
74. Devotchka - Curse Your Little Heart [EP]
75. Love Is All - 9 Times That Same Song
76. Nouvelle Vague - Bande A Part
77. Feist - Open Season
78. Adam Green - Jacket Full Of Danger
79. Mogwai - Mr. Beast
80. Paul Simon - Surprise
81. Hot Chip - The Warning
82. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
83. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
84. Cut Chemist - The Audience's Listening
85. Tortoise & Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Brave and the Bold (also: best cover album)
86. Dangerdoom - Occult Hymn [EP]
87. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere (also: best new artist name)
88. The Blood Brothers - Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck [EP]
89. The Grates - Gravity Won't Get You High
90. Cansei De Ser Sexy - Cansei De Ser Sexy
91. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
92. Asobi Seksu - Citrus
93. Colin Meloy - Sings Shirley Collins [EP]
94. Alexi Murdoch - Time Without Consequence
95. Be Your Own Pet - Be Your Own Pet
96. The Seconds - Kratitude
97. Ratatat - Classics
98. The Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea
99. The Dagons - Reverse
100. Grandaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat
This scoring system is difficult to explain. Here it is:
I ranked each album's lyrics, vocals, instrumental ingenuity, instrumentation, and overall appeal on a scale of 0 to 5. I then multiplied the lyric's score by 16.666667%. I then multiplied the album's vocals score by 16.666667%. I then multiplied the instrumental ingenuity by 8.333334%. I then multiply the instrumentation by 8.333334%. I then multiplied the album's overall appeal by 50%. When all of these totals are added, it equals
100.000002%, which equals a 5 on the TOTAL 0 to 5 scale.
FYI: Reissues (e.g. Bright Eyes' Noise Floor album was basically an album reissuing older material) were subtracted 10 points out of 100, or .5 out of 5. Classic artists (e.g. Dylan, Simon, Islam, Young) were added .1 out of 5 or 1 out of 100 for longevity. Lastly, EP's meant a substraction of 5 from 100 or .25 from 5.
For further information: the highest score was achieved by Beirut, which was a 4.129166751 out of 5 (or a 82.583335 out of 100). The lowest, Grandaddy's, was 1.54750004 out of 5 (or 30.9500008 out of 100).
Thank God for '06 and God Bless '07.
