I spent more on music this year than most of the last few combined ( although a good chunk was on remasters, boxsets and comps), but there was some good stuff as far as original albums went. My Top 10 (in no order):
1.)Keane-Under The Iron Sea
2.)Iron Maiden-A Matter Of Life And Death
3.)Phoenix-It's Never Been Like That
4.)Placebo-Meds
5.)Toto-Falling In Between
6.)Tom Waits-Orphans
7.)Dresden Dolls-Yes, Virginia
8.)Strokes-First Impressions Of Earth
9.)Morningwood-Morningwood
10.)Joe Satriani-Super Colossal

If I had to pick a #1 it would be the Phoenix album. I love it. Every song is great and it's the perfect album to drive to in the summer-especially driving at night down the shore.
Each song is hook-filled and catchy with great vocals and guitars-and they're French, go figure! Sounds like a combination of The Strokes and The Beach Boys to me. Not as many vocal harmonies but more in the melodies.
I hope all you guys give it a listen-you will be very pleased you did. It's just good, simple music played and written very well.

More reissues than new stuff for me this year. Many of "my" bands were between albums, so I have to cheat a little and include demo downloads to make it to 10 newies for 2006:

(01) The Rifles/No Love Lost
(02) The Gigolo Aunts/The Pride Of Potsdam: 20 Years Of Sonic Splendor (counting this collection as a new album since it begins with several new songs)
(03) The Cosmic Rough Riders/The Stars Look Different From Down Here
(04) Little Man Tate/(demos)
(05) Arctic Monkeys/Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
(06) Milburn/Well Well Well
(07) Paul Weller/Catch — Flame!
(08) Ocean Colour Scene/Live Acoustic At The Jam House
(09) Dan Sealey/Mr Marshall (demos album)
(10) Howie Payne/(demos)

I can never remember a whole year's purchases, and I hardly ever buy newies, so:

Jerry Lee Lewis - Last Man Standing
Elton John - The Captain and the Kid

Playing it safe here.

I count 56 new releases that I either own, have a burned copy or have mp3's of and have heard enough to judge. with that my top 10 would be

The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Zero 7 - The Garden
Tom Petty - Highway Companion
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Beck - The Information
Tom Waits - Orphans
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
The Editors - The Back Room (2005 in U.K.)
Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit

there was lots of stuff I'm happy with that didn't make the top 10 (Dylan, Gilmour, Fagen, Seger, Church, Rancounteurs, Trail Of Dead, The Slip, Sonic Youth, Tool, New Cars, Metheny, Scissor Sisters, Lemonheads, The Who, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tommy Keene, Destroyer, Built To Spill, Gnarls Barkley, Paul Simon, Springsteen)

albums I could take or leave (Prince, Mudhoney, Flaming Lips, Strokes, Robyn Hitchcock, Sloan, Keane, Pere Ubu, Mars Volta, NY Dolls, Golden Smog, Sufjan Stevens, Twilight Singers, Mission of Burma, Cheap trick, Elvis Costello, Pearl Jam, Portastic, Band Of The Horses)

and some dissapointments (not that these were the worst three of the year, more a case of high hopes being dashed)

Elton John, Neil Young, TV on The Radio,

2006 was a great year in music for me so in no particular order here are my top 10:

Derek Webb--Mockingbird (technically a December '05 release but I didn't get it until the end of January and it's easily one of the best albums I own period)
Kenny Rogers--Water & Bridges
Tool-10,000 Days
Johnny Cash--Personal File
Bob Dylan--Modern Times
David Gilmour--On An Island
Chicago--Chicago XXX
Paul Simon--Surprise
Johnny Cash--American V: A Hundred Highways
Elton John--The Captain and the Kid

I was hoping to pick up Keane-Under The Iron Sea at the Tower close-out but alas it was not to be.

I've been waiting to see if that gets releases in Surround like the last one did.

I don't know if I bought more new releases than reissues this year but I am sure that I bought more new releases than in some years past. So I have two top tens this year, mostly in no particular order.

New Releases
KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope
Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris - All the Roadrunning
Ornette Coleman - Sound Grammar
Paul Motian - Garden of Eden
Bob Dylan - Modern Times
I'm Your Man Soundtrack
Matthew Sweet/Susanna Hoffs - Under the Covers Vol.1
Joan Jett - Sinner
The Roots - Game Theory
Dave Holland - Critical Mass

Reissues/Archives
David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name
Neil Young - Live at the Fillmore East
Charles Mingus - Music Written for....UCLA
Eno/Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Weather Report - Forecast: Tomorrow
Bruce Hornsby - Intersections
The Byrds - There is a Season
Gram Parsons - Complete Reprise Sessions
Judee Sill - Abracadabra
Beatles - Love

The discs that caught me most by surprise were Tunstall and Knopfler/Harris. A lot of infectious music. I still listen to both about once a week.

I only bought six 2006 releases all year:

1. Bruce Springsteen, "Hammersmith Odeon, London '75"
2. Bob Dylan, "Modern Times"
3. Christina Aguilera, "Back To Basics"
4. The Who, "Endless Wire"
5. The Who, "Live In Toronto" (ostensibly an upgraded version of "Who's Last")
6. Keith Moon "Two Sides Of The Moon" (2-disc upgrade)

I also bought only one 2006 CD single all year, the Who's "Wire & Glass". The only other 2006 releases I have plans to pick up in the indefinite future are the Pete Townshend solo remasters.

One thing I've never done (see the thread about chronological compliations) is organize my music by year of release, but I just might have to--2006 might wind up being one the most underrepresented years in my collection...

Mine were in no particular order...

1)"The Captain and the Kid"-Elton
2)"Face the Promise"-Bob Seger
3)"Live it Up"-Sammy Hagar
4)"The Seeger Sessions"-Bruce

That's all that I could come up with. Major disappointments for me were...

Fagen, Buckingham, Gilmour, Paul Simon, Petty, and Billy Joel's "12 Gardens"

Jeff

I'll be curious to see how many releases end up on the same lists. So far, I know I've seen Tom Waits on a few!
Music4Life:
I agree about Fagen and Gilmour-I thought those were a waste of time. Petty I didn't bother with but it sounded OK and Buckingham I liked what I heard but not enough to buy.

I can't put these in any particular order........

Fox Confessor Brings The Flood- Neko Case
Rabbit Fur Coat- Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins
The Greatest- Cat Power
Bottoms of Barrels- Tilly and the Wall
Last Days of Wonder- Handsome Family
Orphans- Tom Waits
Nashville- Solomon Burke
River In Reverse- Elvis Costello/Allen Touissant
Cursive- Happy Hollow


and some of these may/may not be in my top 10 also....depending on my listening mood.....

The Captain and The Kid- Elton John
Modern Times- Bob Dylan
Sun, Sun, Sun- The Elected
All This Time- Heartless Bastards
Kris Kristofferson- This Old Road
Joanna Newsom- Ys
In Concert Volume 1- The Sadies
Regina Spektor- Begin To Hope
Belle and Sebastian- The Life Pursuit
Sufjan Stevens- Christmas
Whispertown2000- Livin In A Dream
The Watson Twins- Southern Manners

plus a bunch of reissues/vault releases......I just tried to stick as closely as possible to new releases, although "Orphans" is mainly a compilation of older tracks plus new ones

Frank Zappa - Imaginary Diseases

Studio Albums:

1) The Decemberists-- The Crane Wife
2) Gomez-- How We Operate
3) Beck-- The Information
4) Beth Orton-- Comfort Of Strangers
5) The Strokes-- First Impressions Of Earth
6) Honeydogs-- Amygdala
7) Outkast-- Idlewild
8) Bob Dylan-- Modern Times
9) Josh Ritter-- The Animal Years
10) Loose Fur-- Born Again In The USA

Live Albums:

1) Paul Weller-- Catch Flame!
2) Dungen-- Bonnaroo 6-17-06
3) Mike Doughty-- Bonnaroo 6-18-06
4) Jeff Tweedy-- Sunken Treasure: Live In The Pacific Northwest
5) My Morning Jacket-- Okonokos


Jeff

I hope I think of more (I don't catalog my collection by year), but at the moment as far as 2006 new releases all I can come up with is 4:

1. Bruce Cockburn - Life Short Call Now
2. RHCP - Stadium Arcadium
3. Madeline Peyroux - Half A Perfect World
4. Shawn Colvin - These 4 Walls

& I haven't heard it yet, but I strongly suspect I'll love the Maria McKee Acoustic Live when I get it! Really sad that's all I can come up with for the entire year.

Does anyone know of an online list of major label cd's released in 2006? A list would jog my memory! I hope it's just my memory & not that 2006 was really musically that lame! I went through a couple top 100 lists & found a few more I own that in my opinion vary from poor-ok: Who, Petty, Pearl Jam, Evanescence, Neil Young, Sarah McLachlan Xmas, Rosanne Cash, Prince, but nothing other then the 4 above that I was really fond of. I just got the Loreena McKennit & haven't played it, I hope it's good enough to add!

My top 10 for quality of this CD; not just the artist or their history--also in no order
1. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
2. Johnny Cash - American V
3. Hank Williams III - Straight To Hell
4. Johnny Cash - Personal File
5. Mark & Emmylou - All the Roadrunning
6. Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way
7. Golden Smog - Another Fine Day
8. Cheap Trick - Rockford
9. Will Kimbrough - Americanitis
10.Elton John - The Captain & The Kid

Reissues:
1. Old 97's - Hit By a Train; The Best of
2. Boston & Don't Look Back
3. Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels Deluxe Edition
4. Kiss Alive 1975-2000 (except for bonus songs from BB-they suck!)
5. Johnny Cash - At San Quentin Box

Biggest Dissapointments (especially from many I love)(new ones only here)
Tom Petty, Springsteen, Chili Peppers(Probabaly the most overrated this year),
Paul Simon, Chicago (but everything for the past 10 yrs has been boring as hell),
Donald Fagen, Rhett Miller, Elvis Costello(both CD's blew)

Reissue of the year:

Lorraine Ellison: "Sister Love: The Warner Bros. Recordings"

So good that I had to buy two copies!

Some of my picks (both new and reissue) for the year
Amy Grant - Time Again...Live
Joe South - Games People Play/self-titled
Danielle Peck
The Wreckers - Stand Still, Look Pretty
Derek Webb-Mockingbird (I downloaded this album legally for free and it is indeed a great album)

Man, How could I forget about "Rockford" by Cheap Trick? So make that a total of 5 for me...

I've added the Lorrena McKennit to my list of 4 above, it's good.

New releases:
Dylan-"Modern Times"
Primal Scream-"Riot City Blues"
South-"Adventures in the Underground..."
Starsailor-"on the outside"
Lily Allen-"Alright, Still"
Arctic Monkeys-"Whatever People Say..."
Jeremy Spencer-"Precious Little"
Various-"Rogues Gallery"
Gomez-"How We Operate"
Jerry Lee Lewis-"Last Man Standing"

Reissues:
Beatles-"Capitol Albums, Vol. 2"
Bee Gees-"Studio Albums..."
Mott the Hoople-"Mott"
Gram Parsons-The Complete Reprise Sessions"

Comps, Boxes, Etc.:
Strawbs-"A Taste of"
Byrds-"There is a Season"
Various-"The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of"
John Lee Hooker-"Hooker"
The Replacements-"Don't You Know..."
Steeleye Span-"Folk Rock Pioneers in concert"
Beatles-"Love"

Oh, I left those off my list, can I get twelve?

Fav's this year:

On An Island- David Gilmour (I just love this CD, I love its mellow vibe, great to listen to on a lazy sunny afternoon).

Wild Orchids- Steve Hackett

Ten Silver Drops- Secret Machines

RingleaderOf The Tormentors- Morrissey

Dying To Say This To You- The Sounds

Morph The Cat- Donald Fagen


Biggest disappointment:

Endless Wire- The Who