(t5!) My Year In Lists 2006: Intro!

Year-end lists become inevitable for me after 356 days of searching, downloading, minimal purchasing, listening, re-listening, compiling, re-arranging, and deleting music. They’re my own personal memoirs so that when I, this obsessive over-analytical cynic, need to reminisce what music in 2006 was like years from now, these lists are here to narrate it, everlastingly archived in the blogosphere. These are my version, my year-end recollection, my favourite albums, my favourite singles, my lists.

So, if these lists are mine, wouldn’t these be irrelevant to you, then? In a way. But, even when both our personal tastes are substantially disparate, I would imagine that your eclectic lists (if you bothered to make one) and mine will intersect at some points. Even if you entirely disagree with the sequence I ranked my apples and oranges in, it should nevertheless inspire some opinion. Certainly, I don’t want us to reach a consensus because, to do that, we also reach our lowest common denominator. To do that is utterly boring.

If you’re not like me, however, and you haven’t completely engrossed yourself in music all year, these lists give you a chance to catch up. They introduce you to music you never knew existed or never knew you liked. And, because of these, not only will your iPods be populated by tracks, albums, musicians, or genres you would otherwise be unaware of; hopefully, the flood gates will open and by this time next year, you would be penciling in your version,your year-end recollection, your favourite music, your lists.

I’ve compiled two lists: the Top 30 Singles of 2006 and the Top 30 Albums of 2006. To exploit the element of suspense, I’ll be posting in descending order, five at a time, from Sunday to Friday (if you do the math, that should add up to 30 a week). The commentaries are more-or-less mine and you have to forgive the mishaps in grammar and punctuation because I can’t afford a proof-reader. The layout, though, is inspired by Stylus Magazine’s own lists. I masterfully googled the pictures and cleverly photoshopped the art myself. Also, there’ll be an intermission between Singles and Albums; my reasons for that are three-fold but I’ll explain it afterwards. As always, comments and rebuttals are welcome.