Best Of 2006 - 10 On The Bubble

Writing last week's piece on Charlotte Gainsbourg I made a comment about not doing best of the year lists. I had done them a for a couple of years at the old blog, but it got to be too much work. Well. I had some time this weekend, and was able to go list crazy. This week will be all about the lists, leading up to my top 20 albums of the year. To kick it off I give you my "10 On The Bubble" - the 10 albums that fell just outside the top 20. During 2006 I posted tunes by and wrote about all of these records except two. Those two are the ones represented today. Oh yeah, these are in no particular order...

Islands - Return To The Sea - The Unicorns die and are reborn as the more focused yet equally weird Islands. A lot of fun with hooks.

Matmos - The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast - Inventive and often humorous electronica made from found sound. These guys are a hoot.

Rekid - Made In Menorca - Dubbed out electronics - a fresh take on the pretty much played out genre of downtempo.

The M's - Future Women - Truckers Speed

Cut Chemist - The Audience's Listening - Ace DJ creates remarkably diverse and warm album.

Outkast - Idlewild - People were hating on this but I like it.

The Roots - Game Theory - Tight tunes and great flows.

Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye - indie electronic duo with a boatload of catchy, danceable and sensitive tunes.

Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon - The Iliad

Grandaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat - The final LP from the Cali combo was classic Grandaddy.