Lloyd Cargo

1. Extra Golden - Ok-Oyot System
Choosing the best album of 2006 is arbitrary, but I can say this band provided me with my favorite moment of the year. Sweaty, bottle of Newcastle in hand and best friend in tow, watching Extra Golden dispense blistering benga grooves at the Bohemian National Home in Detroit was the closest I got to transcendence.

2. J Dilla - Donuts
Extraordinary circumstances aside, Donuts has a certain je ne sais quoi that can only be credited to an incredible passion for music. This is what soul music sounds like in 2006.

3. Comets on Fire - Avatar
Their rock might be druggy psychedelia, but don't mistake Comets on Fire for a bunch of hippies - these dudes have some serious balls.

4. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Grizzly Bear took a page from The Band's handbook and hid themselves in a secluded house to produce this gem. The results aren't comparable, but the spirit is there.

5. Ornette Coleman - Sound Grammar
Ornette was ahead of his time in 1958 and he's still ahead of his time now. Great albums like this just make enjoying his genius while he's still alive all the more sweet.

6. Cornelius - Sensuous
You can't call Cornelius
the Japanese Beck anymore, he's better than that. In fact, The Information sucked.

7. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Cagey, mysterious . sexy. Dylan? American legend still showing new dimensions? Dylan.

8. Cat Power - The Greatest
The only thing hotter than Chan Marshall is Chan Marshall with a horn section.

9. Boris & Sunn0))) - Altar
While not quite living up to the mind blowing potential of this collaboration, Altar's impact can still be measured on the Richter scale.

10. Nomo - New Tones
Ann Arbor's own Nomo took their Afro-funk to the international level on this party-in-a-jewel-case.

Kimberly Chou

1. The Knife - Silent Shout
Someone once described "Silent Shout" as "BSS meets the background music from a PBS special or Nova, with Aphex Twin." Not quite. The title track is easily the poppiest, but the rest of Shout will convince you that it was right to stick around after Deep Cuts.

2. Prince - 3121
With the stuttered booty-smacks and digital moans of "Black Sweat" and other lip-biters, 2006's Prince shows he's still fully capable of p-control.

3. Ghostface - Fishscale
Ghost is one of the only Wu-Tang members to put out consistent albums, and Fishscale is proof.

4. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Zach Condon, with a little help from friends, channels Boban Markovic with a Serge Gainsbourg eccentricity pulled off in earnest. Not bad for a 19-year-old, Balkan-folk fan.

5. T.I. - King
The synthetic string braggadocio of "What You Know," T.I.'s chocolatey drawl, the blaxsploitation backbone of "King Back" - could anyone say no to Tip's latest effort?

6. Justin Timberlake - Futuresex/Lovesounds
Thanks to the perverted, drag-foot slide of the title track, the boardwalk flirtation of "Damn Girl" and electronic love letter "My Love," you'll never have to defend your JT appreciation again.

7. Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards
Rather than becoming a vainglorious mess, each of the three discs holds its own. If Orphans was Waits's excuse to cover Daniel Johnston - well, he should have done it sooner.

8. Brightblack Morning Light - Brightblack Morning Light
The duo defines its name as "a color of the day when the truth of the universe is faded into a veil of blue sky." That doesn't make sense, but when it's just good fucking music, definitions are technicalities.

9. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
So we salivated in anticipation of Hell Hath No Fury for two-plus years - and it was for good reason. Malice and Pusha T bring the braaattt, braaatttt, ka-ka-kat-kat with unrelenting furor on crisply produced tracks that include one of the best singles of the year.

10. Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas
This millennium's coming of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra just might break your heart.

Matt Kivel

1.J Dilla - Donuts
Dilla's mashed-up '60s soul, inverted backbeats and elastic bass loops shine brilliant and funky, recalling a life entrenched in musical expression.

2. Joanna Newsom - Ys
The epic story-songs on Ys are stunning examples of Newsom's deeply personal vision. Van Dyke Parks's arrangements surround every word and illuminate the virtuosity of the compositions.

3. The Knife - Silent Shout
This is music for the three a.m. crowd; drunk and stoned disco-junkies, too intoxicated to stop dancing and walk home through the bleak city streets.

4. Liars - Drums Not Dead
The Liars moved to Berlin, locked themselves in a studio and extracted all the post-WWII angst that the city had to offer.

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