The Dixon is another winner, following a great album called The Invisible Man. "Girlfriend" is a hot play on Pure Pop radio; the rest of the album is just as good. The Foster disc is a clear winner, too, with some incredible songs, such as The Summer of the Son of Sam. Great stuff.

There are so many great albums out there--it's hard to include them all on a list, which is why I don't make them as a general rule. I used to, but then I'd regret I didn't include something. Better to not have to live with the guilt, I guess.

Alan
http://www.purepopradio.com
http://www.buhdge.com
---- Sam Smith <sam@lullabypit.com> wrote: 
> Hi. Really enjoying the lists, as always, and as always, in utter dismay
> at the number of highly regarded bands I haven't heard yet. Clearly I
> need more money to buy discs and more spare time to listen to them.
> 
> Reading everybody's 2006 takes has brought me back around to a question I
> have wondered about, but never asked. I know from experience that most of
> what I buy in a year will be reflected in my year-end list, mainly
> because I tend to sample pretty thoroughly before I buy. So it's unusual
> for me to buy something and then conclude that it sucks. Ergo, if you
> like a CD and it's not on my list, that may well mean that I just haven't
> heard it yet.
> 
> I'm wondering if this is how it is with the rest of you. Let me ask a for
> instance question. Take a disc like Don Dixon's THE ENTIRE COMBUSTIBLE
> WORLD IN ONE SMALL ROOM or last year's Jeffrey Dean Foster disc. The
> Dixon is on my 2006 list and I have seen it on one or two others, and I
> may have been the only one here to lodge a vote for Foster last year.
> Now, I'm wondering how anybody could hear these records without
> respecting them enough to put them on their lists (just like a lot of you
> would look at my list and wonder why certain things were omitted). My
> guess is that very few people heard them, though. So their absence is a
> reflection of "not hearing" rather than "not liking."
> 
> But I may be wrong. Not that we have to be talking about this disc, even,
> but I wonder if people here are leaving a lot that they hear off their
> lists, or if they're doing a lot of evaluation prior to acquisition so
> that most of what they buy IS here.
> 
> And as a side note, did anybody listen to the Dixon (or Foster) and
> decide that they weren't worthy?
> --
> 
> _______________________
> 
> Sam Smith
> 
> [TABLE NOT SHOWN]