The Smartypants Listeners of NPR Pick their Fave Albums of 2006. Agree? Disagree? Tawk Amongst Ya'Selves. FASHIONTRIBES POP CULTURE BLOG

In an online poll, NPR got its readers & listeners to weigh in with their votes, along with reviewers Robert Christgau, Will Hermes, Meredith Ochs and John Richards. For the NPR podcast and in-depth listener reviews, CLICK HERE.

NPR listeners vote for their Top 10 CDs of the year:

10. Regina Spektor: Begin to Hope "richly textured" songs with "unexpected yet accessible arrangements, and a variety of moods"

  9. Tom Waits: Orphans equal in "breadth, stylistic adventurousness and power" to 1972's Exile on Main St. by The Rolling Stones

  8. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins: Rabbit Fur Coat  "both irreverent and uplifting"

  7. Cat Power: The Greatest  "sad, hopeful, lovelorn, romantic, regretful, sweet" and "a giant leap forward for this ever-intriguing songwriter"

  6. Joanna Newsom: Ys  "an acquired taste" - she screeches & "caterwauls" - "but once you settle into her world, you become addicted"

  5. TV On the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain  no other indie rock/pop bands "push the boundaries of sound in such an imaginable, intelligent and stylish way"

  4. M. Ward: Post War "a mysterious and seductive quality that never grows tiring"

  3. Bob Dylan: Modern Times  "takes literary modernism to its next level, interspersing the lyrics of a confederate poet among blues forms that are rooted in African American tradition"

2. Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood  "another album shrouded in dark beauty" that "sounds the way old black and white celebrity stills look"

  1. The Decemberists: The Crane Wife "phenomenal" music plus "fantastic storytelling, the ability to be incredibly creepy and yet entirely beautiful at the same time, not to mention the use of fun words" (such as dirigible & parallax)

via NPR.org

- Lesley Scott

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