Best of 2006 Redux

Some last thoughts and list of 2006. First looking back at this blog, here are the top five post of the past year by page views (a big thanks to MTV for rerunning the first two seasons of Beauty and the Geek that brought in about 100 searchers for each marathon it ran) :

1. First Impressions - Beauty and the Geek 2
2. Worst Albums of 2006
3. Her Face Is the Map of the World (KT Tunstall album review)
4. Oddsmakers: The Hearst Rapist
5. Worst Songs of 2006


One cool addition to iTunes this year was the ability to add your reviews to each album. Unfortunately there isn’t a minimum amount of word you must write as many reviews on the site are less than a sentence. But then there are people like me who write lengthy reviews for others to read and I copied the ones I do for this site can add them on iTunes. Here are the top five most helpful reviews I put there (click the review title to read it on my site or click the album title to go to its iTunes page where you can buy it or just give me another helpful vote if you like):

1. The Final Word in the Final Sentence (Eyes Open - Snow Patrol)
2. Girl Go Ahead Let Your Hair Down (Corrine Bailey Rae - Corrine Bailey Ray)
3. It’s Not a Silly Little Moment, it’s Not the Calm Before the Storm (Continuum - John Mayer)
4. This Sounds Like Disco Tetris (The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani)
5. There’s No Stopping Curiosity (Sing-a-Longs and Lullabies from the Film Curious George - Jack Johnson and Friends)


As for the artist that made the most impact in the last year here are the ones that showed up most on my Best of lists (for those lists, click on the Best of 2006 label at the bottom of this post):

1. KT Tunstall (Best Songs - 11, 31, 97; Best Albums - 2, 28; Readers Poll - 11) - Tunstall started the year garnishing a rare [Extreme] rating on my Terror Alert Scale and even through in an acoustic album late in the year to boot. Yeah her music has been co-opted by some crappy television shows but that in no way takes away the fact that she produced one of the best pop albums in years.

2. Johnny Cash (Best Songs - 2, 52; Best Albums - 7; Best Videos - 1; Best Mash Ups - 1, 8; Reader’s Poll - 15) - As a long time fan, A Hundred Highways was a great swan song (although Rick Rubin says there may be one more after it) giving a song that not only stands up with any song from the American Recording era, but with anything his back catalog with God’s Gonna Cut You Done.

3. The Killers (Best Songs - 10, 94; Best Albums - 48; Best Videos - 6, 12; Reader’s Poll - 4) - I gave the guys a lot of crap this year on not living up to their own hype, but they did give us the best rock song of the year and two iconic videos.

4. Rhymefest (Best Songs - 25, 68; Best Albums - 10) In a year that wasn’t kind to hip hop (maybe Nas is right) with the failed comeback of Jay-Z and Lupe Fiasco not living up to the hype, this MC, who helped Kanye West write Jesus Walk, just may be the one to resurrect hip hop, well that’s if people start listening to him.

5. Gnarls Barkley (Best Songs - 1; Best Videos - 3, 19; Best Mash Ups - 4, 14, 23; Reader’s Poll - 1) No one has done so much with just one song, a song that is inching closer and closer to the top of the One Hit Wonder pantheon.


Since 1996 I have made a CD of my favorite music from the past year and here is the CD I have made from this past year but I like to put songs in reverse order as so they are counting down to the best song. This CD clocks in at 78:07 (for links to the songs and the full top 100 check out: The 100 Best Songs of 2006).

1. Over My Head (Cable Car) - The Fray
2. Save Room - John Legend
3. The Saints Are Coming - U2 & Green Day
4. Nothing Left to Lose - Mat Kearney
5. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
6. Smile - Lily Allen
7. Not Ready to Make Nice - Dixie Chicks
8. Hips Don’t Lie - Shakira & Wyclef Jean
9. Fidelity - Regina Spektor
10. Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield
11. Black Horse and the Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall
12. When You Were Young - The Killers
13. I Will Follow You into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
14. Hurt - Christina Aguilera
15. Leave the Pieces - The Wreckers
16. One - Mary J. Blige & U2
17. How to Save a Life - The Fray
18. Boston - Augustana
19. Waiting on the World to Change - John Mayer
20. God’s Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash
21. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley


Looking ahead 2007, I'm predicting Lily Allen to be the break out star of next year. Her first single Smile has gotten some buzz behind it so look out for the release of her album stateside later this month. Just remember when she is huge, you heard it her first. Although keep in mind I haven't correctly predicted the next big thing since Hootie and the Blowfish.

My other prediction is the demise of American Karaoke as it will get thrashed in the ratings by Let's Rob Mick Jagger (be sure to check out my contest and watch the show tonight at 9:00 on ABC). Okay maybe wishful thinking but before the latest crop of karaokers hit the stage I had a chance to her a couple of Katharine McPhee's new songs and, well, I'm less than impressed. She's trying to be Mariah Carey but the only problem is that Mariah Carey is still around and does a much better job at being Mariah Carey. There was one decent song out of the bunch, Love Story and you can take a listen for it yourself below.