Highlights of 2006: Albums

Joanna Newsom

Ys

It's no mean feat to conjure an entire world with words alone,but Joanna Newsom succeeds in doing just that. She describes it,meticulously, with staggering eloquence and splendor. Her voice iseither an anachronism or a premonition, but in any case, it doesn'tbelong in the present. Nevertheless, hers is the best album of 2006 anddeservedly so; its grandeur and originality are unmatched by anythingelse released this year.

Beirut

Gulag Orkestar

Gulag Orkestar sounds like nothing you've heard before.The trumpets blare. The drums pound in your ears. The strumming of alonely ukulele elicits more emotion than any screaming emo song in thehistory of screaming emo songs.

The voice of Zach Condon -- just 20 years old and a bona fideauthority on the finer points of Balkan folk music -- is a mournfullament whose intimacy is perfectly matched against the vastness ofaccordion and brass.

Belle & Sebastian

The Life Pursuit

Until recently, Belle & Sebastian were generally regarded assad sacks. After all, they hail from Scotland, a place where seasonalaffective disorder is less a disorder and more a way of life. Theirearly albums were depressing and gloomy but nonetheless well-made.Perhaps they took an extended vacation to Barbados, but the group'snewest release, The Life Pursuit, oozes good humor. Sharplyrics, funky beats, a wee bit of vestigial melancholy: everything anindie-lover with the dancing bug could ask for.

Gnarls Barkley

St. Elsewhere

At the intersection of rock, rap and R&B lives Gnarls Barkley. St. Elsewhere was this year's equivalent to last year's Kanye West megahit Late Registration inthat both albums incorporate a sufficiently varied suite of influencesto avoid scaring off and, in fact, to attract unlikely listeners (read:white people). "Crazy" hit No. 1 in the United Kingdom and stayed therefor approximately 34,000 weeks, so it wasn't surprising when Gnarlsencountered a similar windfall stateside. For once, though, all thehype was deserved: St. Elsewhere is an upbeat, catchy and well-produced gem.

Various Artists

Tropic?lia: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound

OK, so this is a compilation. Big deal. As the first time mostpeople ever heard Tropic?lia was in 2006, let's just ignore thetechnicality. Plus, it's a nearly perfect compilation; the album'sselections flawlessly highlight the giddy experimentation thatTropicalismo was all about. Artists whose renown, until recently,extended no further than the water's edge in Rio de Janiero -- OsMutantes, Caetano Veloso, Tom Z??, Jorge Ben and Gal Costa, to name afew -- have sounds, unique to a bygone time and an exotic place, thatsaturate this album like the heavy air in the rainforests of theirhomeland.