Shallow Trenches

This is not a music blog. But as it’s not clear what kind of blog it is, I’ve decided that I’m allowed to post my favourite albums of 2006, just like every music blogger in the universe. If a phenomenal album fails to appear on this list, it’s probably because I’m only a part-time music geek, and haven’t heard it yet. Except if you’re looking for Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, which I just plain didn’t like.

1. Joanna Newsom - Ys
• Hit repeat and let this album soak in. It’s not immediate, but it’s a rewarding listen. She’s toned down her squeaky voice, added daring orchestration (courtesy of Van Dyke Parks), and written stories in the form of songs. My favourite album of 2006.
2. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
• I love smart music, and even more so when it’s as fun to listen to as the Decemberists. I’m not sure if this album, their first on a major label, is better than their last outing (Picaresque), but it’s still great. Best track: Shankill Butchers.
3. Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
• This is more pure fun. Regina is literate like the Decemberists, has a unique voice like Joanna Newsom, but doesn’t sound a thing like either of them. This is almost unadulterated pop music, unlike the quirkier music that came before Begin to Hope, but if I’m looking for a pick-me-up, this is my album of the year.
4. Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds
• Despite the title, Owen Pallett’s 2006 release is largely thematically dark, musically dense and ambitious. Even if he has said in interviews that he hates how the album turned out, I quite enjoy it.
5. Danielson - Ships
• I would not have enjoyed this two years ago, back when I insisted that music had to be aesthetically ‘pleasant’. Daniel Smith is a strange, strange man, and his music reflects that. He seems to have gathered together every musician he knows to make sweet, grandiose music that is endlessly catchy.
6. Destroyer - Destroyer’s Rubies
• I’ve finally gotten over Dan Bejar’s voice. Or grown to like it. Or at least tolerate it. This is a good album. His others are probably good too. Eventually I’ll listen to them.
7. The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
• I wasn’t sure whether or not this album would make my best of 2006 list. I was largely disappointed by it, but since it’s the Mountain Goats, it’s still better than 98% of the music out there. I just wish someone would make John Darnielle angry again.
8. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
• If there’s one album on this list that people will judge this list by, it’ll be this one. Well I like it. So there.

I will confess to some hypocrisy as I write this. My music collection, some purchased from www.emusic.com, and some ripped from CD’s, is exclusively in the MP3 format. The ubiquity of that type of compression makes it an ideal choice for storing music files, since I can play them on my Discman, in my private Flash jukebox, or on just about any operating system. Still, the MPEG layer-3 format is plagued by a few problems.

Besides a compression algorithm that has been bested by a few newcomers, like AAC (think iTunes), MP3 is also a patented format that requires licensing from the Fraunhofer Institute for encoding and decoding. Because of this, most free Linux distributions, including Debian and its derivatives, do not include support for MP3 playback ‘out-of-the-box’.

The music on this site is available for free in MP3 format, but it is also available in the freely-licenced, open-source Ogg Vorbis format as an alternative. Not only is Ogg Vorbis unencumbered by legal requirements, its sound quality is also at least as good or better than MP3 at similar bitrates.

So consider trying out the Ogg Vorbis version of the music here. There is an installer for Windows codecs (version 0.71) that will allow you to play Ogg files using Windows Media Player.