You may wonder why the hell it took me so long to put this list together but all I can say is sometimes life just knocks you down and starts kicking. In the past month I missed Christmas with my family because of horrible weather, was fired from my (real) job and got in a car accident. To say I could give two shits about music lately would be more than a mild understatement, but I figured I'd better get crackin' on this, because there is an onslaught of new releases just around the corner (reviews of the new Shins, Clinic, Menomena, The Good Bad & The Queen, Deerhoof, Kristin Hersh, Lily Allen and Of Montreal are all on the horizon). The first thing that I have to address here is that fellow critic Ryan Slack at Zboneman (and friend of mine) is nuts. To say that there were barely 25 albums worth mentioning in 2006 is I'm sorry to say, absurd. I liked his number one pick (Danielson's Ships) and it didn't even make my top 50, so that tells you what kind of year I personally thought we had.

If you frequent the site, I'm sure it isn't much of a brain buster to figure out what I thought the number one album was. I only gave out one five all year long and that went to M. Ward's Post War, a shocker of an album that I never saw coming. The lo-fi folkie who quietly impressed on his last four albums makes a full band sound debut that knocked my socks off. Not to mention that he produced Jenny Lewis' stellar solo debut (which also didn't make the cut here), so I'd say he had one hell of a 2006, wouldn't you? The rest of the top 50 I have pined over for two weeks now and this is what I came up with. If one of us here at Zboneman didn't get around to reviewing a pick, there'll be a brief synopsis after said album. Enjoy the list and let the debate begin!

1. M. Ward - Post War

2. Neil Young - After The War (Neil got tired of waiting for Gen. X & Y and Americans for that matter (Young is Canadian by birth) to make the next great protest record so he just did it himself. Now before you go after Young for being a Republican basher, remember this is the man that made 1980's Hawks And Doves, a semi pro-Reagan concept album. It took Neil only a week to put this album together and the immediate feel helps the tone of the record which is that something needs to be done about Iraq and this inept administration not soon but right now. When Young is furious, he's always at his best and this is his best album since 1989's Freedom; you know, the one that BASHED the Reagan administration for being a bunch of blundering and blathering idiots after their reign of sorry rule).

3. Comets On Fire – Avatar (Far and away the best Hard-Rock or Metal album of the year and maybe of this decade. Ben Chasny from Six Organs Of Admittance and company melt your face off for nearly an hour and yes, you should be damn grateful for it).

4. Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass

5. TV On The Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain

6. Girl Talk – Night Ripper (I'm not usually one for Mash-Up records but this one is essential. This is the best I've heard since The Grey Album and who knows, Greg Gillis may just be the next Danger Mouse).

7. Phoenix – It's Never Been Like That

8. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

9. Ghostface Killah – Fishscale

10. The Hold Steady – Boys And Girls In America

11. Built To Spill – You In Reverse

12. Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped

13. Asobi Seksu – Citrus (Shoegaze is back baby! This New York band will have you digging for your old My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive records so you can revisit how good they were, but not before you hit replay on this one at least ten more times because this one is that addicting).

14. Kelley Stoltz – Below The Branches (If Ringo Starr would have ever made an album with The Velvet Underground this is how I imagine it would have sounded. Stoltz is a dead ringer for Starr vocally, but Ringo never made an album this good without those three other lads from Liverpool).

15. Sunset Rubdown – Shut Up I Am Dreaming (Everyone seemed to go ga-ga over Wolf Parade last year but I hope Spencer Krug pursues this project further because it's far superior. Dropping the Modest Mouse schtick, Krug wanders down the Bowie/Roxy Music rabbit hole and comes out all the better for it).

16. Lily Allen – Alright, Still

17. Mission Of Burma – The Obliterati (Lord knows I wanted the Punk godfathers 2004 return record OnOffOn to be special but lets face it, it wasn't. This however is an entirely different story altogether. Finally an album that proves that the 1981-82 period that spawned the masterpieces Signals, Calls And Marches and Vs. wasn't a fluke after all).

18. Sparklehorse – Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain (Mark Linkous is a tad of a recluse (this generations Brian Wilson? Perhaps.) so any new Sparklehorse album is a welcome surprise. What isn't a surprise though is Linkous is now 4 for 4 when it comes to making stellar LP's. Danger Mouse as producer is kind of a head scratcher but don't let that fool you, this IS a Sparklehorse record and a fantastic one at that).

19. Rosanne Cash – Black Cadillac (So many critics were willing to lavish praise on Johnny's swansong but many overlooked daughter's heartbreaking record that will probably go down as her best. Losing two parents in the same year and then writing a full album about it? If you haven't heard this one yet be sure you don't sit down to do so without a hanky to dry your eyes with).

20. Johnny Cash – American V: A Hundred Highways

21. Donald Fagen – Morph The Cat (Steely Dan's frontman releases his first solo album since 1993's under whelming Kamakiriad and comes up with something just as special as his 1982 classic The Nightfly. If Steely Dan's last album Everything Must Go didn't satisfy your itch this album will definitely give you something to scratch about).

22. Head Like A Kite – Random Portraits Of The Home Movie

23. Islands – Return To The Sea (Many mourned the all too sudden death of the quirky and promising Indie-Rock outfit The Unicorns but Nick Diamonds and J'aime Tambeur returned as the more mature and understated Islands. With Tambeur already announcing his departure from this group as well, who knows what the future holds between these two, but at least we got a pair of great albums from them, just under different aliases).

24. Tapes N' Tapes – The Loon

25. Band Of Horses – Everything All The Time (Former Carissa's Weird members Ben Bridwell and Matthew Brooke get their Neil Young & Crazy Horse jones on with this stellar debut. Similar to the situation with Islands, Brooke has left to pursue other interests, so who knows if this B.O.H. album will be the last. If it is though, at least we've got this awesome work to remember them by.

26. Stuart A. Staples – Leaving Songs (The Tindersticks lead man finally gets around to making his solo debut and it's as wonderful as his band's heyday work. If you're not familiar with Staples' voice, think of prime era Leonard Cohen or Scott Walker but not that recent Drift era Scott Walker because that shit is beyond terrible. Honestly, what is it that people see in that record?)

27. Isis – In The Absence Of Truth (More dense Sludge-Metal from the band that is quickly becoming the most influential in the bunch. Do they owe Botch a great deal of gratitude? Certainly. But they've also surpassed their greatness in spades).

28. Murs and 9th Wonder – Murray's Revenge

29. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – So Divided

30. Mono – You Are There (Just like Scotland's Mogwai or Canada's Godspeed You Black Emperor! Japan's Mono specialize in beautiful Post-Rock that doesn't hold much value in vocals. Gorgeous drones that sound their most beautiful on headphones and a darkened room).

31. Cat Power – The Greatest

32. T-Bone Burnett – The True False Identity (Burnett will forever be first and foremost linked to putting together the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack which at times can be unfortunate in overshadowing his sparse but brilliant solo career. This album put together with guitar virtuoso Marc Ribot is a stunning return to solo work that Burnett hasn't visited since 1992).

33. Golden Smog – Another Fine Day

34. The Thermals – The Body, The Blood, The Machine

35. Oh No – Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms (Madlib's little brother samples Hair's Galt MacDermot for a full album and proves that there's now two geniuses to deal with in the Jackson family).

36. Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 – Ole! Tarantula

37. Clipse – Hell Hath No Fury

38. The Melvins – A Senile Animal

39. The Roots – Game Theory (The Roots' Def Jam debut doesn't disappoint in the slightest. More Hip-Hop oriented than Phrenology and better than The Tipping Point this is definitely The Roots' best work since 99's Things Fall Apart).

40. Bob Dylan – Modern Times

41. The Black Heart Procession – The Spell

42. Heartless Bastards – All This Time

43. Wolfmother – Wolfmother (This band has caught a lot of flack for riding the coattails of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and all I can say is what's wrong with that? Not too many bands are doing it these days and I'd much rather have more of them right now than all these 80's influenced bands that are a dime a dozen lately. I say rock on with your bad self Wolfmother! Let those devil horns fly already).

44. Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (At first glance, an album's worth of Pete Seeger covers sound kind of obvious during wartime, but then you hear this album and it just blows you away. Springsteen treats these songs with such passion, vigor and grace that it's hard not to get swept up in these old time classics re-spun in a way that sounds atavistic, yet modern in the Boss's care).

45. Yeah Yeah Yeah's – Show Your Bones

46. Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam

47. Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit

48. The Raconteurs – The Raconteurs

49. Grizzly Bear – Yellow House

50. Mates Of State – Bring It Back