Best of the Year 2006 III The Ladies, The Ladies

here are my top 10 albums of the year in no particular order...a list dominated by women or bands with women in them, or at least the word "girl" in the name of the artist, plus Hot Chip. what a great year for indie rock (as i think of it). and a year where some of the most hyped and acclaimed i found to be truly warranting...once again, Merge releases excluded, here you go:

Yo La Tengo "I am not afraid..."
Joanna Newsom "YS"
Neko Case "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood"
Boris "Pink"
Oakley Hall "Second Guessing" / "Gypsum Strings" tied
Girl Talk "Night Ripper"
Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins "Rabbit Fur Coat"
Sonic Youth "Rather Ripped"
Hot Chip "The Warning"
Barbara Morgenstern "Grass is always Greener"

and because i was playing-by-the-rules enough to limit myself to Ten of those i'll also throw these out there as being pretty great and spending a good amount of time in the player this year too: Bob Dylan "Modern Times" Bonnie Prince Billy "The Letting Go" Ellen Alien/Apparat "Orchestra of Bubbles" Ornette Coleman "Sound Grammar" Built to Spill "You In Reverse" Grizzly Bear "Yellow House" Cat Power "the greatest" Mtn Goats "Get Lonely" Califone "Roots and Crowns" Concretes "In Colour"

and because i just can't leave well enough alone here are some specific songs of 2006 i found myself coming back to:

Lavender Diamond - "You Broke My Heart"
Bob Dylan - "Workingman's Blues #2"
The Concretes- "Song for the Songs"
Mountain Goats - "Woke Up New"
Pipettes - "Pull Shapes"
Hot Chip - "Boy From School"
Yo La Tengo - "Black Flowers"
Basement Jaxx - "Everybody"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Cheated Hearts"
Bruce Springsteen - "My Oklahoma Home"
Cat Power - "Lived in Bars"

{joanna newsom photo by lisa predko}