2006: 15 of the Best. #15...

Welcome to the start of the "Ain't Superstitious, But These Things I've Seen..." year-end review. In this, we'll be looking at some of the best tracks that were released this year, and counting right on down from 15 to 1 (though, as mentioned Friday, there will be breaks along the way with Christmas songs just to keep you in that Yuletide spirit).

How does this series work? Simple - I didn't want to do a "Best Albums" list because a lot of times (this year and always), some pretty mediocre albums are put out with some pretty fantastic songs peppered in, and once inawhile, the best song of the year might even be found on a single's B-side (as it was this year). You might have heard the songs, you might not. You might have the songs, you might not. Point is, at the end of the countdown, you're gonna have a killer mix CD.

Rules? Not many. This countdown was the result of my opinion and my opinion alone, and if you want to fight me, I'd welcome it. The only rule is that I won't repost some of the year's best if I've already posted the tracks. So apologies to the likes of Corinne Bailey Rae and Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins... you've had your moment and it'd be unfair to the others if I posted your highlights again.

That said, we're now in my 4th paragraph of explaining a list of 15 good songs. GET ON WITH IT THEN...

#15 - Jon Langford - Little Bit of Help

From: Gold Brick (or Lies of the Great Explorers, or Columbus at Guantanamo Bay)
Label: Roir
Released: March 7, 2006
Buy it: Here.

Between the Waco Brothers, the Mekons, the Pine Valley Cosmonauts and whatever 14 other bands he put together yesterday, it's not often you get a Jon Langford "solo" album proper. The bulk of Gold Brick was recorded in just one day and comprised of songs he had laying around that didn't fit his other bands' respective molds. Those two factors in itself should sound like a recipe for absolute indifference, but while the album does have its share of uninspired moments, it also has quite a few fantastic ones. Langford said that only on listening to playback of the entire album did he realize that all the songs dealt with themes of colonization, immigration and finding one's niche in society - not exactly the stuff of the Billboard Hot 100 (like that matters here anyway), but delivered pretty damn catchily in tracks like "Little Bit of Help." Against a pub-cum-blues rock backdrop with a bit of rollicking piano, Langford sings of the fall into inertia, black eyes, bloody noses and sowing seeds for slaughter without even once coming off like a goth or metalhead, and he even makes you want to dance all the while. You never could fault that boy for a lack of originality... Great choice to open the Gold Brick album and kick this countdown off alike.