I’m one of those guys who has a lot of access to music, yet would rather listen to the same song fifteen times in a row. As a result I tend to stick to the same music so here is a quick look of the five albums I liked in 2006.

1. Various Artists - Justice League Mixtape - N.C. State of Mind

Near the end of 2005 I really got into Little Brother which meant I had to check out all their old stuff. I think I was spinning this album on the warm New Years Day while playing some poker and it ended up being my default work out music throughout the summer. Some good tracks, but generally I’d listen to track one then skip to track five, where the mixtape really took off.

Favourite Tracks: Edgar Allen Flow - State Of The Art, Away Team featuring Cesar Comanche - On, Cesar Comanche - Pest, The Away Team featuring Joe Scudda & Big Pooh - On The Line

2. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twits - Rabbit Furcoat

Came across Jenny’s video for Rise Up With Fists on rage one late night before going to bed and I don’t know what it was, but I didn’t turn the channel until that video had finished. Up to then I’d never heard of Rilo Kiley or been a big country/folk/soul rockc guy but this stuff is just really easy to listen and chill out to due to it’s lovely music mixed with some chilling lyrics (so you must pay attention to what is coming out of Jenny’s mouth). One of the great unknown finds of the year.

Favourite Tracks: Big Guns, Rise Up With Fists, Melt Your Heart, Rabbit Furcoat

3. Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor

My favourite hip hop album of ‘06. I heard of Lupe thanks to Kanye West’s second album (which I thought was pretty average) and while I found him decent, never really made any attempts to get into his music. Then around June I kept on reading hype into him since his album leaked (just like what happened with Talib Kweli’s last year) and he was going back into the studio to add a few more tracks. So I got a hold of it and wow, it sure was something special. Just an incredible album full of vivid storytelling plus some great beats - the way rap music should be.

Favourite Tracks: Kick Push, The Instrumental, He Say She Say, American Terrorist, The Emperors Soundtrack

4. Panic at the Disco - A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out

Yeah I’m not afraid to say it, I really liked this album. I’ve never been one for boys who wear girls jeans (which reminds me of the time I saw an asian emo in the city, boy that was funny) or songs with really pretentious titles but these are just great wrong songs where you really have to pay attention to the lyrics, otherwise you may as well not bother.

Favourite Tracks: The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage, Time To Dance, Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off, I Write Sins Not Tragedies

5. Girl Talk - Night Ripper

I really used to be into mash-ups. Go Home Productions once did this nine minute track which from memory was called pop-comp-a-lation where he mashed up different songs where the lyrics flowed together. Girl Talk takes this one step further by taking a whole bunch of hip hop beats, pop lyrics, oldie guitar samples and rap flows and managed to blend them together near seamlessly. Illegal as hell, but go and check it out before some stupid music journo declares it “the new Grey Album”. “Uh huh, this my shit.”

Favourite Tracks: That’s My D.J., Too Deep, Summer Smoke, Hand Clap

Apologizes go to The Wreckers - Stand Still Look Pretty, Sway - This Is My Demo, A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory, The Roots - Game Theory and Laura Imbruglia - Laura Imbruglia.