NME's top 50 albums of 2006 are:

1. Arctic Monkeys - 'Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not'
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - 'Show Your Bones'
3. Muse - 'Black Holes And Revelations'
4. Hot Chip - 'The Warning'
5. CSS - 'Cansei De Ser Sexi'
6. Gnarls Barkley - 'St Elsewhere'
7. Long Blondes - 'Someone To Drive You Home'
8. The Strokes - 'First Impressions Of Earth'
9. Kasabian - 'Empire'
10. My Chemical Romance - 'The Black Parade'
11. Howling Bells - 'Howling Bells'
12. The Killers - 'Sam's Town'
13. Panic! At The Disco - 'A Fever You Can't Sweat Out'
14. TV On The Radio - 'Return To Cookie Moutain'
15. Thom Yorke - 'The Eraser'
16. Amy Winehouse - 'Back To Black'
17. The Futureheads - 'News And Tributes'
18. The Rapture - 'Pieces Of The People We Love'
19. The Longcut - 'A Call And Response'
20. The Streets - 'The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living'
21. The Raconteurs - 'Broken Boy Soldiers'
22. The Flaming Lips - 'At War With The Mystics'
23. The Knife - 'Silent Shout'
24. The Secret Machines - 'Ten Silver Drops'
25. Mogwai - 'Mr Beast'
26. Jarvis - 'Jarvis'
27. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - 'Clap Your Hands Say Yeah'
28. Morrissey - 'Ringleader Of The Tormentors'
29. The Spinto Band - 'Nice And Nicely Done'
30. Cat Power - 'The Greatest'
31. The Sunshine Underground - 'Raise The Alarm'
32. Lily Allen - 'Alright, Still'
33. The Bronx - 'The Bronx'
34. Albert Hammond Jr - 'Yours To Keep'
35. Forward Russia - 'Give Me A Wall'
36. Datarock - 'Datarock'
37. Be Your Own Pet - 'Be Your Own Pet'
38. Metric - 'Live It Out'
39. The Young Knives - 'Voices Of Animals And Men'
40. Midlake - 'The Trials Of Van Occupanther'
41. The Gossip - 'Standing In The Way Of Control'
42. The Automatic - 'Not Accepted Anywhere'
43. Beck - 'The Information'
44. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - 'Ballad Of The Broken Seas'
45. Bob Dylan - 'Modern Times'
46. Semi Finalists - 'Semi Finalists'
47. Wolfmother - 'Wolfmother'
48. Get Cape Wear Cape Fly - 'The Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager'
49. Absentee - 'Schmotime'
50. The Kooks - 'Inside In/Inside Out'



unreal - the absent Belle and Sebastien album is a glowing omission.

didn't surprise in the least that the Arctic Monkey's album would take number one, since critics have been masturbatory over it, since January.

Heh they still stand by their embarassing Arctic Monkeys support?

I truly do not understand the adulation the Arctic Monkeys get. I don't care for their album at all.

nor did I, a couple of songs are okay, but the rest (and majority) of the album is sooo forgettable. The lead singer can't barely carry a tune anyway - I don't get it...

even the second album from the much touted Kasabian. The songs are simply nowhere as good, effortless, or engaging as the first album.

Re: The Arctic Monkeys. I love the singles. I mean, I'm totally, absolutely, completely nuts over them. Most of the rest of the album is pretty lame.

They just don't like Scotland, or at least the B&S type bands, because Camera Obscura isn't on there either.

-ringding-

Expecting NME to give any positive recognition to Belle & Sebastian is an exercise doomed to failure.

I agree, their priorities seem to be promoting shit bands like The Horrors

Arctic Monkeys is a cool lil' band and I dig all the songs on the album.

That list could not be any more NME if it tried...

I also must say that I like how numbers 17 through 24 are all bands named "The Somethings"... It looks kinda funny.
-ringding-

Maybe they did not like the Belle & Sebastian album. I can only speak for myself, but out of around 400 albums I heard this year, It easily makes my 5 worst of the year list. That said though it seems like something NME would of liked, as their Top 50 seems to be limited trendy hipster pop. There are some albums I like on that list, but all in all they seem to have very limited tastes in music.

Hardly what I would call a description of the best album of the year.

Of the albums listed, I own only the Bob Dylan one (although I downloaded Morrissey's). Yep, I'm completely out of the music loop.

And I agree that Belle and Sebastian should be on there.

I'll agree with NME's inclusion of Muse, The Strokes, and Thom Yorke, but not much else.

That's a nice theory, except for the fact that NME has had it in for Belle & Sebastian for at least 7 years. Granted, a lot of it had to do with the now defunct (relatively) Sinster mailing list.

Believe me, if there's one subject you don't want to second-guess me on, it's Belle & Sebastian.

You tease! What's the story?
-ringding-

for the record, NME's James Snodgrass gave the Belle & Sebastian album an "8" - however the NME team complies their list, I guess there wasn't an overall decision the album wasn't Top 50 worthy.

Then please grace us with a proper description.

Oh, there's not much of a story. The Sinister mailing list started in 1997 and it was primarily British fans of the band for the first couple of years, and the list was linked with the band. A lot of the members lived in Glasgow, some of them were aquainted with the band, etc. Their manager was on the list for years. You have to remember that B&S were still relatively unknown in Britain until about 2000, and they weren't anywhere near as press-friendly as they've gotten to be. They never allowed their picture to be taken, they didn't give interviews, etc. When B&S started becoming well-known after they won the Brit Award in 1999, NME started mentioning Sinister whenever they mentioned B&S, the implication being that B&S was popular as a sort of weird cult.

Now that B&S are pretty well-established as a band of some fame in Britain, that link has sort of died out, but NME's dislike of B&S remains.

Okay, I guess there was kind of a story there.

I've only heard of 8 of those artists and have only heard 3. I must be out of touch with today's music.

I would have liked to seen Iron Maiden's "Matter of Life or Death" on there. Metal gets no love.

Btw, who/what is NME?

No Neko Case

A British music magazine of the type read feverishly by what the Brits call "anoraks". They're infamous for overrating faddish, flavor-of-the-minute bands and British music in general while having gudges against and subsequently underrating other (perhaps more accomplished) artists. They specialize in producing "best of" or "worst of" lists that deliberately contain controversial selections to get press and provoke people.

how true...

I read NME every week back in the '80s.