Flash's Big 5 of 2006

It's that special time of year again. No, not the holidays, but rather those pretentious 'Best of 2006' various publications (and particularly mp3 blogs) love to cough up to prove how cool they are. And I admit I'm not immune. The stellar site Indie For Bunnies
solicited mine and many other opinions, and while my votes didn't make it to the final tally, it's certainly worth your time. Compiling a list this year was not as easy as it was in the anemic year of 2005 (you can recall where my head was at here), when the pickings were certainly slim. This year, however, there was a motherload of good jams, and I really had to do some basketball playoff style brackets to figure it out. Whatever you listened to this year, I hope you loved it. Here's the discs that kept my beer cold:

1. Gnarls Barkley "St. Elsewhere" Holy Crap, I liked (loved) an album that also made Entertainment Weekly's Best of List. Does that make me crazy?
Download Gnarls Barkley vs Ben Sims: The St. Elsewhere Mix

2. The Racontuers "Broken Boy Soldiers" Jack White makes my list again this year, this time with his other band The Raconteurs. The 70s classic rock flourishes and full-band sound still rocks my Ipod on a regular basis. Download "Steady As She Goes (acoustic version)"

3. Thom Yorke "The Eraser" I was never much of a homer for Radiohead, and I suprised myself at how much I loved this disc; a melancholic laptop masterpiece that fully realizes the electronic tendencies of the last three Radiohead albums. Download "Black Swan"

4. The Lemonheads "The Lemonheads" Evan Dando returns with two members of The Descendents to pick up precisley where he left off eight years ago. It's like bumping into that cool stoner dude you used to know way back when. Download "Become The Enemy"

5. Zero 7 "The Garden" It's the sunnier side of downtempo, and while not as majestic as their first two discs, it's still a stellar piece of work. Download "Throw It All Away"