For me -

The Dresden Dolls - Yes, Virginia

Anyone agree with me here?

Helvetia - "The Clever North Wind"

Darc Mind "Symptomatic of a Greater Ill "


Looks like Pitchfork and Stylus didn't even review those albums, but they are really amazing and worth to buy imo.

I nominate two albums:

Magnolia Electric Co. - Fading Trails

It received generally positive reviews, but it does not seem to register on any EOY lists. Although not the most original album of the year, Molina continues to show some damn fine songwriting skills. And even if orginality were a factor, Arctic Monkeys obviously would not top any lists.

The Instruments - Cast Half a Shadow

A fantastic (insert freak/folk/experimental genre-name of choice) record. Experimental music not done for the sake of experimenting, good songs and good arrangements. Can't for the life of me understand why it did not register on any critics lists. (Especially since bands like Animal Collective and Deerhoof have gotten permanent subscribtons to good reviews.)

I feel like I shouldn't even be replying to this, but I was listening to Beck's "The Information" in a music store the other day, and it was awesome (although I didn't hear the entire album). I was surprised that it is currently not in AM's Top 3000, and is only at #61 for the year.

Gomez - How We Operate

There are so many underated albums this year IMO that I can't list them all (Camera Obscura, Pipettes,...). But here are the ones that are completly overlooked :
David Mead - "Tangerine"
Barth - "Under the trampoline"
Spearmint - "Paris in a bottle"
Peter Von Poehl - "Going where the tea trees are"
Ed Harcourt - "The beautiful lie"
Jim Noir - "Tower of love"
Joseph Arthur - "Nuclear daydream"

At this moment, only 2 albums of my top 10 is in the top albums 2006 of Acclaimedmusic : Midlake and Belle &Sebastian.

1) Badly Drawn Boy
2) the Feeling
3) Camera Obscura (as usual)
4) the Lilys
5) the Silversun Pickups
6) the Blood Arm
7) the Pipettes
8) Goldfrapp (sales were good but critics don't know where to put it since it came out in both 05 and 06)
9) the Gossip
10) Belle and Sebastian

Tim, I'm not sure we can say that "The Life pursuit" is underated. All year long, it received very good reviews. OK, the album is only #38 in AM top albums of 2006 and it deserves much better. But considering that americana, hip-hop and experimental records always get year after year the highest ranks in EOY lists, #38 is not such a bad rank for a pop record.

Concerning the new BDB record, it's a little disappointment for me. I love the song "Nothing's gonna change your mind" but I think the rest is too MOR.

Can you tell one word or two about the Silversun Pickups ? I've never heard of this band before.

I just found out about them as well. They're from Silverlake. Los Angeles is going to be huge is music next year and the Silversun Pickups, Darker My Love, the Blood Arm and the Ettes are at the forefront. Silversun Pickups claim to be influenced by MBV but they have this kind of pitchy lead singer who reminds me of Placebo and JJ72. I'm looking at metacritic and Belle and Sebastian have been in 5,810 top ten lists which is pretty high compared to the others on the list. I hope they shoot straight up the list. It's definitely better than any of the records by the bands that they've influenced like the Shins, Maximo Park, the Decemberists and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I guess because they're older critics don't take them seriously. I got the new Midlake cd for $3 at Tower. Is it any good? As far as singles for next year the new Bloc Party is already better than anything they've ever written. I hope the rest of the album sounds as good.

Also...

Woven Hand - Mosaic

I guess there is no accounting for taste, but for this album to not be even in the top 100, is just dumbfounding...