As I do every year, I kept an active playlist on my iTunes with my favorite songs of 2006, and as the year wore on, I organized it into two shorter playlists, each about the length of a CD, and peppered with whimsical audio interludes. (This year it was superhero theme songs: Marvel heroes on the first disc, and D.C. heroes on the second, with a couple extra cartoon heroes tagged on to the end of the first disc.) As a lazy way out of fussing over the tracklist, I organized the songs chronologically, by U.S. release date.
As I did last year, I put up an iMix for both discs, minus the whimsical snippets (and minus the Loose Fur song on Disc One, which isn't available on iTunes). I don't expect anyone to buy these mixes, but at least you can go here and here and listen to short excerpts from the songs.
I've also linked to my reviews of the artists in question, if I wrote one. Click on the song name to get there. For those friends of mine who get copies of this year-end comp from me, consider this your virtual liner notes.
For everyone else, consider this a list of some of the songs that made 2006 such a pleasure for me, musically. Not all these songs came from great albums; but they're all great songs.
2006: January To June (Marvel, Etc.)
1. captain america
2. "The Big Guns," Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins
3. "I'm A Strong Lion," Robert Pollard
4. "From The Ritz To The Rubble," Arctic Monkeys
5. the hulk
6. "Priest's Knees," Destroyer
7. "With Candy," Lilys
8. sub-mariner
9. "Ballad Of Bitter Honey," Eef Barzelay
10. "Star Witness," Neko Case
11. "Silver Ponds," Figurines
12. thor
13. "Wanted," Loose Fur
14. "Black Biscuit," Seth Kaufman
15. "All Sparks," Editors
16. spider-man
17. "Stolen Blues," American Princes
18. "Conventional Wisdom," Built To Spill
19. spider-woman
20. "Wolves," Josh Ritter
21. "Pieces," Field Music
22. "Parade," Pretty Girls Make Graves
23. "Old Dan Tucker," Bruce Springsteen
24. "Lost & Found," Phoenix
25. x-men
26. "Brandy Alexander," The Walkmen
27. "Didn't You See Her," Nino Moschella
28. atom ant
29. "Adventure," Be Your Own Pet
30. "Futures," Zero 7 w/Jose Gonzalez
31. underdog
32. "Fallout," The Futureheads
2006: July To December (D.C.)
1. superman 1942
2. "Days Go By," Glossary
3. "Hindsight," The Long Winters
4. superman 1951
5. "Head Home," Midlake
6. superman 1968
7. "Hold On, Hold On," The Sadies w/Neko Case
8. "Jessica," Kaki King
9. superrrrrr man
10. "Poison Cup,"
M. Ward
11. "Hours," TV On The Radio
12. superboy
13. "Our House," Eric Matthews
14. aquaman
15. "Strange Form Of Life," Bonnie "Prince" Billy
16. "This Time (I'm gonna try it my way)," DJ Shadow
17. batman 1968
18. "Borrow Your Cape," Bobby Bare Jr.
19. green lantern
20. "You Can Make Him Like You,"
The Hold Steady
21. teen titans
22. "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)," The Decemberists
23. "Major Arcana," The Isles
24. "Zero Refills," The Pernice Brothers
25. the atom
26. "You Can't Judge A Book," Spanky Wilson & Quantic
27. "Party's Over," The End Of The World
28. the flash
29. "The Book I Write," Spoon
30. "God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get)," El Perro Del Mar