Here are my 2006 “best of’s” for music, books, television and film, roughly rank-ordered.
Music: Sometimes I get down on music, but looking back it was a really great year. There are still many ‘06 releases, like Bob Dylan’s Modern Times and Joanna Newsom’s Y that I’ve yet to listen to.
- TV on the Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain. The most original and exciting new(ish) band in years.
- Gomez, How We Operate
- Corine Bailey Ray, Corine Bailey Ray
- Cat Power, The Greatest
- Belle and Sebastian, The Life Pursuit
- Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
- Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar
- Sondre Lerche, The Duper Sessions
- The Ranconteurs, Broken Boy Soldier. Proof that one really good song can carry an album.
- The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America
- The Decemberists, The Crane Wife
- Beck, The Information
- Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium. Frusciante’s brilliant guitar work makes this record.
- The Who, Endless Wire
- Cassandra Wilson, Thunderbird
- Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Books (non-fiction): A lean year for books, but some solid ones out there.
- Bill Buford, Heat. The year’s best by a wide margin. One of the best I’ve read in years.
- Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness. Proof that academics can communicate to a broad audience without dumbing things down.
- Chris Anderson, The Long Tail
- Alain De Botton, The Architecture of Happiness
- William Taylor, Mavericks at Work
Television and Film: Ever since The Sopranos, television has shown it can compete with motion pictures. This year it did much more than that.
- The Wire. Television and film at its very best.
- The Office
- 24
- 30 Rock. The most hilarious thing I’ve seen in a long time.
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- Little Miss Sunshine
- A Prairie Home Companion
- Weeds
- Big Love
- Arrested Development
- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
- The Daily Show/ Colbert Report
- An Inconvenient Truth
- Borat
