Best Songs of 2006

As I did for 2005, I made an in-the-moment Best of 2006 back in the day. It featured 32 songs. I even made CD packaging for the 2-hour mix, its cover a crossword puzzle of my own creation. Well into 2007, I would revisit the year with a new compilation of 18 favorites from 2006, largely ones I had missed—rather that simply omitted—with my first pass.

All 50 of those songs are included here, plus 50 more. Most of the remainder were songs I would not discover until 2008 and beyond, but a good portion of them were ones I liked, but did not yet love, back in ’06. Time has a funny way of changing our opinions, so long as we maintain a connection with the thing we once believed we’d pegged. With that in mind, it might be more accurate to say that my connection to these songs, both the ones I pronounced as “best” back in 2006, and those which I would not find until much later, has only deepened over time.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available, but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

(I Wanna) Call It Love

Sondre Lerche

Duper Sessions

Astralwerks

Notes
Ain’t No Other Man

Christina Aguilera

Back to Basics

RCA

Notes
Show Me What You Got

Jay-Z

Kingdom Come

Roc-A-Fella

Notes
Check On It

Beyoncé

Check On It

Sony

Notes
Easy Love

MSTRKRFT

The Looks

Last Gang

Notes
In My Arms

Mylo

Destroy Rock & Roll

Breastfed

Notes
My Love

Justin Timberlake

FutureSex/LoveSounds

RCA

Notes
Montanita

Ratatat

Classics

XL

Notes
Say It Right

Nelly Furtado

Loose

Geffen

Notes
Better Way

Ben Harper

Both Sides of the Gun

Virgin

Notes
Soldier Jane

Beck

The Information

Interscope

Notes
Incinerate

Sonic Youth

Rather Ripped

Geffen

Notes
Lazy Eye

Silversun Pickups

Carnavas

Dangerbird

Notes
Wolf Like Me

TV on the Radio

Return to Cookie Mountain

Interscope

Notes
The W.A.N.D.

The Flaming Lips

At War With the Mystics

Warner Bros.

Notes
Mountain Side

Chris Whitley & The Bastard Club

Reiter In

Red Parlor

Notes
God’s Gonna Cut You Down

Johnny Cash

American V: A Hundred Highways

American Recordings

Notes
Decoder Ring

Pufferfish

Hello Zero

self-released

Notes
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground

Chris Thile

How to Grow a Woman From the Ground

Sugar Hill

Notes
When Doves Cry

The Be Good Tanyas

Hello Love

Nettwerk

Notes
Restless

Langhorne Slim

Engine EP

Namack

Notes
Couch Song

Sera Cahoone

Sera Cahoone

self-released

Notes
For Today

Jessica Lea Mayfield

White Lies

self-released

Notes
The Big Guns

Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins

Rabbit Fur Coat

Team Love

Notes
With a Gun

The Minus 5

(The Gun Album)

Yep Roc

Notes
Strangers

Golden Smog

Another Fine Day

Lost Highway

Notes
To Go Home

M. Ward

Post-War

Merge

Notes
Singular Girl

Rhett Miller

The Believer

Verve Forecast

Notes
The Heart Bionic

Bobby Bare Jr.’s Young Criminals Starvation League

The Longest Meow

Bloodshot

Notes
Level

The Raconteurs

Broken Boy Soldiers

Warner Bros.

Notes
Gold Lion

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Show Your Bones

Interscope

Notes
Munich

Editors

The Back Room

Fader
Thoughts of Rena

The Voom Blooms

The London Heads

self-released

Notes
Be Good

Tokyo Police Club

A Lesson in Crime

Paper Bag

Notes
You Only Live Once

The Strokes

First Impressions of Earth

Sony

Notes
The Book I Write

Spoon

Stranger Than Fiction

Sony

Notes
Long Distance Call

Phoenix

It’s Never Been Like That

Parlophone

Notes
In the Morning

Junior Boys

So This Is Goodbye

Domino

Notes
True Skool

Cold Cut

True Skool

Ninja Tune

Notes
45

The Saturday Knights

45 digital single

self-released

Notes
Long Time

The Roots

Game Theory

Def Jam

Notes
Heaven

John Legend

Once Again

Columbia

Notes
How Long Do I Have to Wait for You?

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

Naturally

Daptone

Notes
Idlewild Blue

Outkast

Idlewild

La Face

Notes
Crazy

Gnarls Barkley

St. Elsewhere

Downtown

Notes
Throw It All Away

Zero 7

The Garden

Atlantic

Notes
Harrowdown Hill

Thom Yorke

The Eraser

XL
And I Was a Boy From School

Hot Chip

The Warning

Astralwerks

Notes
Love Connection

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

Etiquette

Tomlab

Notes
Find a Way

Smoosh

Free to Stay

Barsuk

Notes
Standing in the Way of Control

Gossip

Standing in the Way of Control

Kill Rock Stars

Notes
Riot Radio

The Dead 60s

The Dead 60s

Sony

Notes
A Certain Romance

Arctic Monkeys

Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

Domino

Notes
Hospital Beds

Cold War Kids

Robbers & Cowards

Downtown

Notes
Rich Wife

The Long Winters

Putting the Days to Bed

Barsuk

Notes
Make You Feel Better

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Stadium Arcadium

Warner Bros.

Notes
Unemployable

Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam

J

Notes
The Great Salt Lake

Band of Horses

Everything All the Time

Sub Pop

Notes
So Far We Are

French Kicks

Two Thousand

Vagrant

Notes
Parade of Punk Rock T-Shirts

Maritime

We the Vehicles

Flameshovel

Notes
Chariot

Page France

Hello, Dear Wind

Suicide Squeeze

Notes
El Otro Lado

Josh Rouse

Subtitulo

Nettwerk

Notes
Rectify

Beth Orton

Comfort of Strangers

Astralwerks

Notes
Wall Street

Pablo

Half the Time

230

Notes
How to Say Goodbye

Paul Tiernan

Belle

self-released

Notes
All in Good Time

Ron Sexsmith

Time Being

Universal/Ironworks

Notes
Good Man

Josh Ritter

The Animal Years

V2

Notes
Penny on the Train Track

Ben Kweller

Ben Kweller

ATO

Notes
Someday Baby

Bob Dylan

Modern Times

Columbia

Notes
Three More Days

Ray LaMontagne

Till the Sun Turns Black

RCA

Notes
People Get Ready

The Frames

The Cost

Anti

2007 U.S. release.
Underneath the Waves

The Twilight Singers

Powder Burns

One Little Indian

Notes
Been Here Before

Jeremy Enigk

World Waits

Lewis Hollow

Notes
Lisa

Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers

Esopus CD No. 4: Imaginary Friends

Esopus

Notes
Live With Me

Massive Attack

Collected

Virgin

Notes
Love You More

Alexi Murdoch

Time Without Consequence

Razor & Tie

Notes
Postcards From Italy

Beirut

Gulag Orkestar

Ba Da Bing

Notes
Alaska

Camera Obscura

Let’s Get Out of This Country

Merge

Foreign bonus track more commonly released in 2007 on If Looks Could Kill.
Willie

Cat Power

The Greatest

Matador

Notes
Goodbye

The Maldives

The Maldives

self-released

Notes
Falling Through the Roof

Horse Feathers

Words Are Dead

Kill Rock Stars

Notes
Waves of Grain

Two Gallants

What the Toll Tells

Saddle Creek

Notes
Walk the Line

The Tallest Man on Earth

S/T

Graviation

Notes
Safe Travels

Peter and the Wolf

Lightness

self-released

Notes
Tire Swing

Kimya Dawson

Remember That I Love You

K

Notes
Eyes

Rogue Wave

Eyes digital single

Sub Pop

Notes
On a Neck, On a Spit

Grizzly Bear

Yellow House

Warp

Notes
The Wait

Built to Spill

You in Reverse

Warner Bros.

Notes
Gone Beyond

Akron/Family

Meek Warrior

Young God

Notes
Smoke Without Fire

Bright Eyes

Four Winds

Saddle Creek

Notes
Star Witness

Neko Case

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Anti

Notes
If It’s the Beaches

The Avett Brothers

The Gleam

Ramseur

Notes
In the Sun (Free Acoustic Couch Rehearsal)

Michael Stipe & Joseph Arthur

In the Sun EP

Warner Bros.

Notes
Falling Slowly

The Swell Season

The Swell Season

Overcoat

Notes
How We Operate

Gomez

How We Operate

ATO

Notes
Maybe I’m Right

Pete Yorn

Nightcrawler

Columbia

Notes
Satellite

Guster

Ganging Up on the Sun

Reprise

Notes
The Crane Wife 3

The Decemberists

The Crane Wife

Capitol

Notes
Liner

Justin Vernon

Hazeltons

self-released

Limited release
You Are Free

Joseph Arthur

Nuclear Daydream

Lonely Astronaut

Notes