I’ve just finished year two of a very geeky project: listening to as many of the year’s releases as I can, picking a favorite song from each, and creating an mp3 sampler CD-R with those songs. 2006’s disc features 142 songs, from Alejandro Escovedo’s “Arizona” to Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ “Phenomena”.

Here’s the first third of the list:

Alejandro Escovedo - Arizona (Edit), from “The Boxing Mirror”
Ammoncontact (featuring Cut Chemist) - Drum Riders, from “Zentertainment 2006 Sampler”
Ani DiFranco - Millenium Theater, from “Reprieve”
Arab Strap - Don’t Ask Me To Dance, from “The Last Romance”
Arctic Monkeys - Riot Van, from “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not”
Babybird - Beautiful Place, from “Between My Ears There’s Nothing But Music”
Badly Drawn Boy - Promises, from “Born In The UK”
Band Of Horses - First Song, from “Everything All The Time”
Barbara Morganstern - The Operator (Single Edit), from “The Grass Is Always Greener”
Bat For Lashes - Horse And I, culled from BBC Radio’s “Tom Robinson Session”
Be Good Tanyas - For The Turnstiles, from “Hello Love”
Beatles, The - Within You Without You Tomorrow Never Knows, from “Love”
Beautiful South, The - The Cat Loves The Mouse, from “Superbi”
Beck - Cellphone’s Dead, from “The Information”
Beirut - Mount Wroclai (Idle Days), from “Gulag Orkestar”
Belle & Sebastian - Funny Little Frog, from “The Life Pursuit”
Ben Folds - Lost In The Supermarket, from “Over The Hedge Original Soundtrack”
Beth Orton - Shadow Of A Doubt, from “Comfort Of Strangers”
Bob Dylan - The Levee’s Gonna Break, from “Modern Times”
Bonnie Prince Billy - Then The Letting Go, from “The Letting Go”
Bruce Springsteen - Erie Canal, from “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions”
Built To Spill - Traces, from “You In Reverse”
Camera Obscura - I Need All The Friends I Can Get, from “Let’s Get Out Of This Country”
Cansei De Ser Sexy - Bezzi, from “Cansei De Ser Sexy” (U.S. Release)
Casey Dienel - Doctor Monroe, from “Wind-Up Canary”
Cat Power - Could We, from “The Greatest”
Cat Power - Wild Is The Wind, from “iTunes 2006 Session”
Cesaria Evora - Tiche, from “Rogamar”
Charlatans, The - Sunset And Vine, from “Simpatico”
Church, The - Overview, from “Uninvited, Like The Clouds”
Colin Meloy - Charlie, from “Colin Meloy Sings Shirley Collins EP”
Corrina Repp - Safe Place In The World, from “The Absent And The Distant”
Cut Chemist - The Garden, from “The Audience’s Listening”
Dan Bern - Breathe, from “Breathe”
Daniel Johnston - Some Things Last A Long Time, from “Welcome To My World”
Danielson - Bloodbook On The Half Shell, from “Ships”
Decemberists, The - Perfect Crime #2, from “The Crane Wife”
Destroyer - Sick Priest Learns To Last Forever, from “Rubies”
Devo 2.0 - Freedom Of Choice, from “Devo 2.0″
Dirty Martini - Blooming, from “Tea And Revenge”
Ditty Bops, The - Angel With An Attitude, from “Moon Over The Freeway”
Dolorean - The Biggest Lie, from “To Elliott From Portland” (Elliott Smith tribute)
Ed Harcourt - Rain On The Pretty Ones, from “The Beautiful Lie”
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint - Who’s Gonna Help Brother Get Further
Fiery Furnaces - Oh Sweet Woods, from “Bitter Tea”
Fiona Apple - Sally’s Song, from “Nightmare Before Christmas Original Soundtrack”
Flaming Lips - Yeah Yeah Yeah Song, from “At War With The Mystics”
Frank Black - Johnny Barleycorn, from “Fast Man / Raiderman”
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy, from “St. Elsewhere”
Go Home Productions - Flaming Mary Can (Out) Run Prince, www.gohomeproductions.co.uk
Gomez - Notice, from “How We Operate”
Graham Coxon - You And I, from “Love Travels At Illegal Speeds”
Grant Lee Phillips - Age Of Consent, from “Nineteeneighties”
Grizzly Bear - On A Neck, On A Spit, from “Yellow House”
Hamell On Trial - Heat, from “Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs”
His Name Is Alive - In My Dream, from “Detrola”
Indigo Girls - They Won’t Have Me, from “Despite Our Differences”
Jake Shimabukuro - While My Guitar Gently Weeps, from “Gently Weeps”

Go Home Productions - Flaming Mary Can (Out) Run Prince - This is the only 2006 mashup that I can truly rave about. Where does Mark Vidler get these ideas? Setting Mary J. Blige over Flaming Lips’ “W.A.N.D” is truly inspired.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 20th, 2007 at 12:57 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.