Audities Top 20 of 2006.

The Audities community has voted on their top 20 of 2006. Here it is, with where the disc placed in the Absolute Powerpop Top 100 of 2006:

1. The Nines – Calling Distance Stations (23)
2. Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. – Land Of Pure Imagination (N/E)
3. L.E.O. – Alpacas Orgling (4)
4. The Feeling – Twelve Stops And Home (56)
5. The Format – Dog Problems (5)
6. Cheap Trick – Rockford (14)
7. Chris Brown – Now That You’re Fed (8)
8. Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs – Under The Covers, Vol. 1 (-)
9. Pernice Brothers – Live A Little (47)
10. Jon Auer – Songs From The Year Of Our Demise (79)
11. Belle And Sebastian – The Life Pursuit (-)
12. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (-)
13. Bob Dylan – Modern Times (-)
14. Sloan – Never Hear The End Of It (HM)
15. The Winnerys – Daily Urban Times (68)
16. Cloud Eleven – Sweet Happy Life (saved for 2007)
17. The Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers (-)
18. Wisely – Parador (-)
19. Lindsey Buckingham – Under The Skin (-)
20. Josh Rouse – Subtitulo (-)

N/E-Not Eligible for my list; see original post. HM-Honorable Mention

A few comments: I like this list a lot better than 2005's, which had a high number of "indie rock" acts placing higher. With a list drawn from 113 entrants, there's going to be a bias toward bigger names, some not even power pop, hence the presence of luminaries such as Dylan, Neko Case, and Lindsey Buckingham. I still stand by my opinion that Subtitulo was Josh Rouse's weakest album in years, and would have made a great EP instead, and I thought The Raconteurs was a slog.

As for some of my favorites that weren't in the top 20, #1 Bob Evans landed in a tie for 40 with fellow Aussie Michael Carpenter. I have no doubt Suburban Songbook would have placed higher had it been widely available in the USA. #2 Supraluxe was shut out, although they did place #42 in David Bash's top 100 list. No love for Andrew LeDrew (technically 05), Copperdown or David William either. Rhett Miller, who I had at #7, was #21. And The Goldbergs, at #6, undoubtedly came out too late in the year as a relative unknown act to make a wide impact.

For the full Audities list (which goes down to 50), click here.