The Sound of Year End.

Year end: a time when we not only hang our stockings by the fireplace with care (or, lacking both a fireplace and a stocking...), but also a time when we look back on the year that was. Last year was 2003, right? Man, time flies.

In short, many of us get all weepy-eyed and reflective. Or not. In celebration of an annum, which had its share of highs and lows, the attached .rar file will provide you with you a sampling of highlights from the year that was in my headphones. Or earbuds -- whatever the kids are calling them these days. Brings new meaning to the term, "spinning the wax" when referring to music. Enjoy -- unwrap this.

Favorite Albums of 2006 (song titles in brackets):

1. The Greatest: Cat Power ("The Greatest" and "Willie"). Welcome to Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power. I was first introduced to her on a Matador records compilation in the late-nineties and even then, there was something eerily, aurally captivating about her. Then I promptly mostly forgot about her until The Greatest came out this year. Which, smoky and emotive, captured my heart again, likely becoming my favorite album of the year -- cold, brittle jewel case to cold, brittle jewel case.

2. Let's Get out of the Country: Camera Obscura (Let's Get out of the Country). Moving to a more robust sound than on Biggest, Bluest Hi-Fi and Underachievers, Please Try Harder, twee-poppers Camera Obscura came into their own in 2006 with a better-than-solid album from beginning to end. I could have included any number of songs from this album, but this one kept coming back to me this year as a call to travel. So it wins.

3. Begin to Hope: Regina Spektor "Samson". "Apres Moi" was the other song from Begin to Hope over which I could have worn out the click wheel of my iPod this year. If I had an iPod, that is. I found that to be a very powerful song, a contrast to the brilliantly written and softly sung, "Samson", a further stripped-down version of which appeared on Ms. Spektor's earlier album, Songs.

Random Favorite Songs of 2006 (album titles in brackets):

The Shins: "Phantom Limb" (Wincing the Night Away); The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Dudley" (Show your Bones); Asobi Seksu: "Thursday" (Citrus); Robert Pollard: "Dancing Girls and Dancing Men" (From a Compound Eye); Silversun Pickups: "Lazy Eye" (Carnavas); Emily Haines: "Our Hell" (Knives Don't Have Your Back); Albert Hammond, jr.: "In Transit" (Yours to Keep); The Long Blondes: Giddy Stratospheres (Someone to Drive you Home); The Decemberists: "Yankee Bayonet (I will be home then)" (The Crane Wife); Voxtrot: "The Start of Something" (Voxtrot EP); The Great Lake Swimmers: Various Stages (Bodies and Minds).

Other new music spinning out of control like Lindsay Lohan: Metric, Rogue Wave, Band of Horses, Midlake, My Brightest Diamond and Beirut.

To all: a Merry Christmas (or whichever holiday you celebrate) and best wishes for a tremendous -- brace yourself, now -- 2007.