I was planning on writing a well considered essay on the music that meant the most to me in 2006. It would have been high toned, and intelligent and probably a lot of hot air. Instead, I opened iTunes and sorted my music by "play count," which is a more honest reflection of what I really listened to. I was surprised by some, embarrassed by others and every now and then, reminded of some impossibly swell moments from my life in 2006.

The Moon and the Stars from "Startime" by Mr. Wright This English guy smoothes out my rough edges when I listen to one of his Gainsborough-tinged tracks. Every time "The Moon and the Stars" filled my ears I was in the midst of a tender romantic embrace, or at least that is what this musician tricked me into thinking. J'taime Monsieur Wright.

Way Out from "Show Your Bones" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs Nothing this band had offered before prepared me for the melancholy and passion of this album. It's not that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs abandoned their punky roots, they wove them into music that has the power to curdle emotions and yet also express the pain at the center of love and human emotion.

Das Crakle Pop One night, halfway through a large bottle of bourbon, after moving all the furniture so we could dance, D and I were streaming music from a Berlin radio station when the DJ started a set of electro-glam that had to be recorded. By the time we got my Mac capturing the stream we realized we were experiencing one of life's weirdly ecstatic, wildly Dionysian scenes where two people become one in emotion. The next morning when we awoke in a cloudy haze and replayed the track we dubbed it, "Das Crakle Pop." I may have told D auf wiedersehen, but I still put this track on when I dance in the center of the room.

There is No There from "The Lemon of Pink" by The Books Laptop music doesn't get any better than that created by these guys. This album consisted almost entirely of sampled music interwoven by their software genius. This track, with its quote about Gandhi, its driving acoustic strumming and banjo, its pastiche of melody, made me stop and listen the first time I played it, and it still makes my eyes a little damp listening to it now.

The Four Days from "The Seventeen Stars" by The Montgolfier Brothers This simple musical track doesn't feature the tender, almost spoken, lyrics of this British duo, and I was surprised it was the track of theirs I heard the most. But like their lyric songs, it captures a mood of quiet, wintery sensitivity, an atmosphere of simple longing, a transcendent nanosecond of life expanded to a few minutes of truth.

Fancy from "Show Your Bones" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs The ability to move musically from up-tempo to down, from shouted rage to whispered longing, isn't found in many pop songs. Who would have thought the Yeahs would have accomplished so much in only their first full-length album.

Gold Lion from "Show Your Bones" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs This is beginning to seem like the year "Titanic" swept the Academy Awards. If you heard anything from "Show Your Bones" it was probably this song released as the single from the album.

Honeybear from "Show Your Bones" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs Enough already. Take my word, buy this disk.

In a Manner of Speaking from "Nouvelle Vague" by Nouvelle Vague Every review of this disk said the same thing, in a manner of speaking. Making bosa nova covers of 80s hits sounded like a really bad idea. But with the first syncopated beat of their rendition of this song written by Winston Tong for Depeche Mode, my eyes teared up, the skin on my chest tightened, the hair on my arms stiffened. These were the four most emotionally wrenching minutes of 2006.

You Are What You Love from "Rabbit Fur Coat" by Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins It pleases me to know that this track made it, and there couldn't be a better one to end this list. Jenny Lewis does much the same with her band Rilo Kiley that she does on this solo project, backed by the Watson Twins, who themselves mostly reproduce their usual talents here. But this combination, minus the Riko Kiley sound, and with the addition of what is usually a soft country accompaniment, caught my ear. Especially this mostly upbeat song about a cheating person who's asking her lover to reconsidered her, to trust her one more time.

"I'm fraudulent, a thief at best, a coward who paints a bullshit canvas."

Yeah, I know this person.

"But you are what love and not what loves you back. So I guess that's why you keep calling me back."

Tell me about it.

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After writing my post about the ten songs I listened to the most in 2006, I was about to burn them to a disk for a friend. But it seemed silly not to fill the CD, so I shared the 20 top songs with him. And as an additional attraction, I offer my thoughts about numbers 11 through 20 here.

Rollover the titles for links

Tokyo from "The Lemon of Pink" by The Books Adding their own snippets of music to the patchwork quilt they render out of samples, The Books make soundscapes not songs. This second song from the "Pink" to make my list made me remember a ride on a smoke filled bullet train speeding to Kyoto from Tokyo.

Star Time from "Star Time by Mr. Wright Mr. Wright on the pointlessness of fame: "I really liked your pose, you were so ironic, so iconic. The world won't stop, or remember you when you're dead and gone. Life goes on, and on and on."

Ouch!

Krti: Krpa Jucutaku from "Sambho Mahadeva: Music For Vina" by Rajeswari Padmanabhan, Karaikudi Sambasivayer Subramanian, Tanjore Upendran Okay, so don't bother trying to pronounce any of this, just listen to a jam session of Indian classical musicians in a tribute concert to Vina; I have no idea who that even is. But this track instantly sets a rhythm in motion that seems to have the power to get Siva himself dancing.

Cheated Hearts from "Show Your Bones" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs The most pop-ish song on this incredible disk. "Cheated by the opposite of love." Okay, who won't identify?

The Big Guns from "Rabbit Fur Coat" by Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins This toe-tapping ditty plants itself firmly in an ironic Country and Western idiom. But its lyrics, delivered with delectable twang, stake out a territory unfamiliar to Nashville. I loved this disk so much I gave it to my mother. She's still scratching head from the experience.

The Charging Sky from "Rabbit Fur Coat" by Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins With almost more slide guitar than any song can withstand, this song was the "B" side of the title track single release. Lewis' lyrics blend stark statements about the trouble the world is going through with funny lines about the personal troubles of typical people in a comment on the weird lack of perspective at the heart of navel gazing.

String Bean Jean from "Push Barman to Open Old Wounds" by Belle and Sebastian Golly, it sounds like small town Scottish boho kids have lots of fun. It all makes me long for the golden days when I was 21 and hanging out with the art majors. Except our accents weren't as cool. 2006 was the year I finally took the time to listen to everything by this group, and I'm a better man for it.

Courage + Modesty from "The Horse" by The Chap I downloaded this album and loved it. I immediately bought the previous disk from The Chap, who lay down rhythms and then build charming experiments on top. I dare you to listen and not dance, all the while thinking existentially about their minimalist musings.

A Love Reputation from "Chess Northern Soul" by Denise LaSalle Chess was a small soul label and this disk defines the northern style of soul found in cities like Chicago and Detroit. There isn't one bad track on the collection, and only two by the same artist. Miss LaSalle informs us that she is known throughout the world due to her love reputation. She can't help it, how could she, as she sings, "My way of loving won the Nobel Prize."

Stop from "Music to Hide and Seek" by Neoangin I have so many memories firmly adhered to this song that describing it makes me a little giddy. The German dude who records as Neoangin plays all the instruments himself, and the completely electronic sound he has mastered is so silly, so simple, so stunningly original while being so utterly artificial that you'll think you've heard every track before. Listening to "Stop" I'm surprised it wasn't number one on my most played list because if I could marry a song, this would be the one. I know I'd never be unhappy if I did. The lyrics explain that most people make life way to difficult.

Some people tell you that you are too old to try it like that, but if you really want you should try it right now.

Some people say that it is the money that they love, but sometimes you see them in their houses and they don't look happy at all.

Stop making me nervous. Stop

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