Kickass albums that you forgot to buy

Since I'm your only source for new music - and the only person standing between you and middle-aged obsolescence - I've put together this quick hit list of 2006's essential recordings, some already released, some just over the horizon.

• Teddy Thompson - Separate Ways
• Beth Orton - Comfort of Strangers
• Rhett Miller - The Believer
• Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
• Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas
• Centro-Matic - Fort Recovery
• Josh Rouse - Subtitulo (March 21)
• Cassandra Wilson - Thunderbird (April 4)
• Bruce Robison - Eleven Stories (April 4)
• The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics (April 4)
• Calexico - Garden Run (April 11)
• Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Under The Covers Vol. 1 (April 18)
• Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing and a Curse (April 18)
• Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - All The Roadrunning (April 25)
• Bruce Springsteen - The Seeger Sessions (April 25)
• Pearl Jam - self-titled (May 2)
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium (May 9)
• T-Bone Burnett - The True False Identity (May 16)
• Tim Easton - Ammunition (May 16)
• Twilight Singers - Powder Burns (May 16)
• Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way (May 23)
• Dave Alvin - West of the West (May 30)
• Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint - Title TBA (June 6)
• Bottle Rockets - Zoysia (June 6)
• Allison Moorer - Getting Somewhere (June 13)

Your kids will think you're really cool!