The Year In Music

Recently, Yglesias asked if he should feel guilty for preferring Let’s Go to any 2006 album. I completely reject the premise of the question–would anybody feel guilty for thinking that The Goodfather Part II was better than any movie released in a given year?–but what’s interesting is that I can’t remember a year with more new music that I liked or loved more, although I guess a lot of them were very good but not career-topping albums by veteran bands you can sort of take for granted (YLT, Roots, Belle & Sebastian, Built To Spill, Sonic Youth, etc.). He also links to Pitchfork’s Top 50, and while I’m also disdainful of their solipsistic hipsterisms there’s more commensurability than I would expect; what will almost certainly be my favorite album of the year is their #3, another clear top 5 album their #4, and while I don’t yet hear the masterpiece that many do I at least like the #2 enough to keep playing it, and I like several others on their list too. He also lists his own Top #10, and while tastes do very much differ etc. I will say that I also find The Hold Steady just-OK and where New York guitar bands are concerned much prefer the much less hip Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Rainer Maria. Anyway, I’ll have to compile a list when I’ve sorted things out more.