Have to say that 2006 was another interesting year in music, discovering interesting new bands (The Drift, Nomo, Islands) and welcoming back some old faves like the always underrated Lloyd Cole. Couldn't really say there was a specific direction in music this year and for me that's always a good thing and it's probably reflected in the albums that make my best of list which is as follows:

Neko Case - Fox Confessor (I still think Neko has a wall-to-wall brilliant record in her and I look forward to it but this came the closest so far)

Calexico - Garden Ruin (after seeing them at the Docks I wasn't sure these guys had much left in the tank but this was a brilliant return to form, sadly overlooked)

Nils Peter Molvaer - An American Compilation (hardly the greatest title for an album but it does tell you exactly what you're getting. Norwegian trumpeter who works with the likes of Eivind Aarset and Rune Arnesen and yes it's electronic jazz and very fine)

TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain (their 2003 EP and 2004 LP had moments of brilliance but who knew they had this in them. My fave of 2006 and a record that like Cormac McCarthy's latest dark book stays with you for days and days)

Junior Boys - So This is Goodbye (never understood the hubub over their 2004 release but this one I got in a big way. "In the Morning" is the "Destroy Everything You Touch" for 2006. Assuming the kids still dance? this should keep them on the floor)

Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (It's been 8 years since I liked a B&S album this much but it was worth the wait. There are a few missteps "The Blues are Still Blue" and "Sukie in the Graveyard" but the remainder more than makes up for it.

Manu Katche - Neighbourhood / Martin Speake - Change of Heart - I'm cheating here by putting 2 picks as 1 but they're both on ECM and in a similar languid but challenging jazz style. Katche is a French drummer and Speake a British saxophonist and both their combos make beautiful 21st century jazz with players like Tomasz Stanko, Bobo Stenson and Paul Motian in the mix.

Gabriela Montero - Piano Recital (a young Venezuelan pianist plays beautiful music by Rachmaninov, scriabin, liszt and others in a disc that came out in 2005. The real bonus is the 2nd CD of jazz style improvisations on classical pieces. Brilliant stuff and it sells for the price of a single CD.)

Field Music - self-titled - another disc from 2005 that I came late to. Really the only true indie pop record that appears on my list. Fans of the Shins, High Llamas, Apples in Stero should give them a spin.

Easy All Stars - Radiodread - yes Radiohead's music done in reggae fashion. Sounds like a terrible concept but it really works. Listen to "Airbag", the Specials like sound of the horns in "Paranoid Android" and "Let Down" sung with upbeat, infectious reggae stylin.

Albums that didn't quite make the cut - Beck, The Mountain Goats, Asobi Seksu, Califone and The Knife.

Terribly Overrated - Ghostface Killah, K-Os, Herbert and most definitely Danielson, the most annoying record of 2006.

Disappointments - Destroyer, Cat Power