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The odds of my having a best-music-of-2006 list I can live with by the end of first quarter 2007 are not looking good. Today I added two new candidates to the list.

The central problem, I think, is that 2006 was a year with a ton of extra base hits, but very few home runs (ooh! a gratuitous sports metaphor. sorry.). So the competition for slots, say, 3 through 50 is unduly fierce.

Today’s new contestants:

• The Strays - Le Futur Noir (TVT, eM)(late)
  This is the sort of glossy, big money production I usually hate, but the consistent energy level (and some solid hooks) get me grinning and head bobbing despite myself. The Strays are on well-trod ground, but they’ve digested enough influences that they don’t sound like a ripoff of anything in particular. The bonus covers ep for emusic members is surprisingly worthwhile; The Strays play “Bastards of Young” just a little faster and tighter than The Replacements did, and strip the signature see-saw riff out of The Godfathers’ “Birth, School, Work, Death.”
• Relay - Still Point of Turning (Bubble Core; eM)(late)
  Mostly picture-perfect, texture-rich shoegazey rock, with a smattering of more atmospheric, less propulsive tracks. Plenty of “damn, that’s gorgeous” too offset a bit of “eh, that’s kind of snoozy” and a fair quantity of “it’s beautifully assembled, but this one’s not as hooky.”

Here’s the rest of the list.

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