17.

Ben Kweller
Ben Kweller

This is the first time I’m going to say this, but, I’m sure, not the last – the fact that an album of this quality is so low in the list says volumes about the overall standard of the albums released in 2006. I cannot think of a post-millennial year that has produced so many great albums. This is Ben Kweller’s best release, and by some distance. It makes up for the great disappointment of its predecessor, On My Way, which was nearly poor enough to make me ignore this, his third solo album. Thankfully, I got it anyway, and was rewarded with eleven sweet pop gems, all coated in sugar and masterful songwriting. ‘Back to basics’ would be a fair description, I think. Every track is easy to love, and you somehow get the feeling that this is because it has been loved so much in the composition. Kweller played every sound on this disc, and as such, it must be seen as a work of real skill. At times, uplifting, as with the wonderful ‘Penny on the Train Tracks’, whilst at others, beautifully melancholic (see my personal highlight, ‘Until I Die’). A career best, I think. If he tops it next time out, he’ll have made the big league.