The first four were easy:
Thom Yorke, The Eraser
Kaki King, Until We Felt Red
Jose Gonzalez, Veneer
Metal Hearts, Socialize
The fifth slot was harder to fill, so I declare a 3-way tie:
Joanna Newsom, Ys
The Decemberists, The Crane Wife
Cat Power, The Greatest
I've also spent a good portion of my 2006 discovering classical music. And while I'm not ready to assemble a top 5 classical recordings list, I am deeply indebted to How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, a series of 48 audio lectures by Robert Greenberg. These lectures were just the introduction I needed to start my exploration of classical music. I can't recommend this set highly enough for anyone who wanted to delve more deeply into classical music but didn't know where to start. After listening to these, I will never again mistake the music of Haydn for Handel, nor Beethoven for Bach. Available on CD from the San Francisco Public Library (great for ripping to your iPod).
Canvassing year-end lists has gotten much harder now that every blogger in creation has one. And, of course, the bloggers are now aggregating those lists for you. So my hats off to Large Hearted Boy for his terrifyingly comprehensive list of "best of" lists.
