Mosey's Top 10 of 2006-first installment

10. Joanna Newsom-Y’s

This is one of those haunting records that grows on you--slowly, creeping up inch by inch. Also, this is going to sound extremely cheesy, but I think It’s helped me to grow (yikes, worse than I thought). Now look, see-(I start snapping here) it used to be I only liked pop music….there was a time that I couldn’t even follow a Bjork song… “where is this going?” I would ask myself, then throw the cd across my living room in annoyance. Now I feel like I finally understand! There are hooks, in the work of both Bjork and Newsom that seem to dig into you slowly instead of catching you quick and frying you up for dinner. My favourite part occurs in the last song, where Newsom’s voice reaches a feverish squeak while repeating the phrase “and I miss your precious heart” over and over again. Plus it’s got lots of harp!

9. Emily Haines-Knives Don’t Have Your Back

This grew on me too….so much so that after only a couple of listens, I actually convinced a friend not to buy it. I take it back! It’s not really pop music, see…the piano sort of meanders around. Sometimes chugging a rhythm, sometimes not so much. If you listen closely, between the low notes of the piano, you can hear the sound of a rocking chair on a porch far, far away. I love the darkness of this record, and Haines’ low raspy voice breathing: “this call costs a fortune and it’s late where you live” in Crowd Surf Off A Cliff.

8. Sufjan Stevens-Avalanche and Christmas Songs

I love this prolific bastard…though with each album he seems to get further and further away from his “plan” to write an album dedicated to each of the states in the United States-still I wouldn’t put it past him. Avalanche is the outtakes from his previous album Illinoise, but I think I like it better….it’s possibly more of a pop album. The Christmas album is not as annoying as it sounds…Stevens mostly makes cute pop songs that mention Christmas. It’s a limited edition 3 cd set with awesome packaging including stickers and the cords to play along with all the songs!

7. Jolie Holland-Springtime Can Kill You

The first song kills me-it’s about taking the bus home after staying at your (new?) lover’s house the night before and how everything seems to be drenched in sunlight and coated in honey. She’s “still dressed up from the night before, silken hose and an old parisian coat” sigh. Couple this with the pretty, drowsy barroom voice of Holland and you’ve struck gold. It’s dark and sad too-the song Stubborn Beast is subtitled pleading bitterly with fate and includes one of my favourite lines from the album: “But like a stubborn beast when the barn is on fire, I might resist you when you try to save my life”

6. Neko Case-Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

I’m pretty sure that Neko is the re-incarnation of Patsy Cline. I’m probably not the first to postulate this, however, but I never read music magazines anymore so who knows. I’m just realizing that the dates work-Cline died in a plane crash in 1963, Case was born in 1970. C’est possible! Cline was never punk rock enough to get banned from the Grand Ole Opry, I guess, but the 50’s were tamer times. So Maybe Neko is Cline crossed with the ghost of Sid Vicious. Case also has a heap of indie cred hip-ness by way of: first, going to art school in Vancouver, second: playing drums in the punk band Maow, and third: singing with indie-rock darlings The New Pornographers and alt-country heroes The Sadies. But fuck all that, this album is brilliant. Thanks to Case, people everywhere are holdin’ out for That Teenage Feelin’.

authors note:Mosey thought this top ten might be getting a bit wordy and hard to digest in one sitting, so she will hold you in suspense (that's right I'm grabbing you there) until the final installment....and also she hasn't completely decided on number 5...