Albums of the Year 2006 – Andy Leslie

1. Duke Special: Songs from the Deep Forest

Truly special Belfast torch song & vaudeville – songs of passion sung with a beautiful voice in a broad Ulster accent. Never mind special – unique.

2. Muse: Black Holes and Revelations

Music of huge ideas and imagination, music with a great zest for life, music that isn’t afraid of complexity or of looking daft.

3. Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
Such hype! Quality counts though, and you can’t argue with the thrilling noise and the archly-observed lyrics. Hard to see where they can go from here, but still a triumph.

4. Jarvis Cocker: Jarvis

National treasure back with great tunes and righteous anger. Key track: Running the World – sing along with the chorus.

Live music has been great. Several exceptional events, the standout being Nick Cave. I’d not seen him before – such intensity, such presence. Also wonderful shows from British Sea Power , whose vision of an English pop pastoral gets more convincing all the time, and Gogol Bordello, Ukrainian gypsy punks with a live show of raw electric enthusiasm like early Pogues.

There were a couple of major disappointments this year. The Flaming Lips released ‘At War With The Mystics’, a record which recycled old ideas and accentuated their whacky tendencies at the expense of their thoughtful, ideas-driven creative side. Still, they became festival and stadium stars, so what do I know? Mystery Jets, a live favourite of 2005, released a terribly lacklustre debut – ‘Making Dens’ – which comprehensively failed to translate the glorious enthusiasm and joy of the live stuff onto record.