The Top 50 Albums of 2006 : Rolling Stone

>> Hate 'em, love 'em -- don't be shy in telling us -- but if you think you can really blow us away, build your own Best Album of the Year showcase here.. Yeah, you might even score some cash.

41 Friendly Fire [Listen]
SEAN LENNON
As the son of a Beatle, Sean Lennon certainly has the right to make music in his father's mode. Indeed, Sean's boyish, nasally voice is a near-spittin' image of his dad's Rubber Soul-ballad croon. But there is also a lot of the Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson and Brazilian tropicalia in the disciplined sparkle and feathery distress of Friendly Fire. Actually, the most overt Beatlesque moment on this record is the bottlenecklike effect of the lead guitar in "Spectacle" -- it sounds like George Harrison's spirit dropped by to say hi.

42 Under the Skin [Listen]
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
In "Not Too Late," Buckingham looks back at his life in Fleetwood Mac with frantic flamencolike guitar: "Reading the paper, saw a review/Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew/Now that's been a problem/Feeling unseen." He could fix that by making records more often. But the eccentricity of Skin suits Buckingham's reflections on his past life and current blessings. And he is secure enough to cover madrigals by Donovan ("To Try for the Sun") and the Rolling Stones ("I Am Waiting"), with quietly magnetic results.

43 Tropicalia: A Brazlian Revolution in Sound
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Finally: a comprehensive, junk-free compilation of Brazilian tropicalia, which in its late-Sixties heyday was a political, pop-friendly mix of rock, bossa nova and other native rhythms. Tropicalia cherry-picks from the genre's biggest names -- Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Tom Ze -- without settling on a single sound. Any of these twenty cuts could light up a mix tape.

44 Show Your Bones [Listen]
YEAH YEAH YEAHS
The New York mod squad's hotly awaited second disc is a triumph: dark, spooky, lithe, broodingly sexy, with Karen O venting her heartbreak and libidinal heebie-jeebies into post-punk tunes with a new kind of goth-cowgirl twang, and Nick Zinner deploying a fresh array of vampire guitar-noise splatters. Bonus: "Gold Lion" made it onto Pants-Off Dance-Off, the ultimate rock & roll desideratum of 2006.

45 Fox Confessor Brings the Flood [Listen]
NEKO CASE
For the country-rock fan who wonders why they don't make them like they used to, Case brings her smoky voice (Emmylou Harris meets Liz Phair), rootsy band (featuring members of Calexico and the Band's Garth Hudson) and cryptic songwriting, as in the scary "Dirty Knife."