#25: Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing by Keith Urban: Keith Urban has certainly become one of country's biggest names and most recognizable faces. With his great music in studio, his incredible live show, and his life outside of music (Such as, you know, wife Nicole Kidman), Urban has certainly become a poster boy for country music. And on Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing, he makes good on his popularity by continuing to make some excellent music. The lead single and opening track of the disc, Once In A Lifetime, typically fuse together the rock and country sounds Keith has been able to do so well. But it is tracks like Stupid Boy and I Can't Stop Loving You where Urban shines best. He has the ability to great country music that keeps traditional fans happy while drawing in a new breed of country (And, for the traditionalists, the addition of Brooks & Dunn's Ronnie Dunn on Raise The Barn certainly doesn't hurt either). Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing continues to put Urban on the track to superstardom.
#24: Into The West by Pilot Speed: One of the late-year surprises of 2006, Pilot Speed's Into The West wouldn't even have been considered, except for the fact that the entire disc was offered for 7 or eight bucks on iTunes late in the year. It became one of the best purchases of the year. Into The West was worth every penny, with tracks like Into Your Hideout and Barely Listening offering the disc some single material. Meanwhile, tracks like Knife-Grey Sea and I Won't Leave You compliment the disc in a great way. And the over eight-minute track Don't Stare offers listeners a nice reprieve in the middle of the disc with a solid instrumental extending the end of the song. Into The West is one of the list's most obscure offerings, yet it would have been hard not to recognize a disc of this caliber. And so, Pilot Speed becomes one of the list's surprise hits and ends up as the year's #24 disc.
#23: Louder Now by Taking Back Sunday: It was easy to include Taking Back Sunday on this year's list. What was difficult was making a case to put 22 discs ahead of it. Tracks like What's It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?, Liar (It Takes One To Know One) and, of course, the hit single MakeDamnSure, Louder Now was chock full of incredible alternative tracks. Divine Intervention and Twenty Twenty Surgery bring some excellent offerings into the middle of the disc, and Error: Operator and I'll Let You Live close the disc and give the disc a pretty complete feeling. Certainly one of the year's best offerings, it almost seems unjust to put Louder Now as low as #23. And yet, it had to be done, because there were just so many good discs this year.
#22: Colorblind by Robert Randolph & The Family Band: Another disc that certainly falls into the category of "surprise hit," Colorblind put forth an incredible mix of rock and gospel flavors that is simply one of the most fun discs to appear on the Top 25. Ain't Nothing Wrong With That sets the pace for the disc and has a great mix of rock and funk musical stylings. Put that together with some solid vocals and some great gospel background singers, and you have one excellent. Repeat the process eleven times, mix up the musical stylings a little bit, add in some well-known guest artists (Like Eric Clapton and Dave Matthews), and what comes out is a disc truly deserving of a spot in anyone's Top 25 albums of 2006.
#21: B Collision by David Crowder Band: Remix discs always have a tough time finding their way into the Top 25 of the year. The idea of the same songs from a year or two ago appearing again is hard to justify. But, if David Crowder Band has proven anything, it is that they aren't guys who "remix" songs. They strip them down and start over, creating completely different songs. This is very true of B Collision, which takes some of the tracks off of last year's A Collision (Which came in at #2 on last year's Top 25) and puts them forth in the bluegrass styling. Often, this means softer, stripped down and, at times, darker, than the original. But, this actually created an incredible overall effect. Separate these tracks from each other, and they're nothing special. Put them together like this, however, and you have a themed disc that has quite a nice effect. So, though it may be hard to put a remix disc on the Top 25 albums of the year, it was simply harder to not put a disc like B Collision on.
#25-#21
#20-#16
#15-#11
#10-#6
#5-#2
#1