For this list of mid-year favorites, I'm going to steal from Michael Davies' addictive World Cup Diary by using his "For" or "Against" style. You can find Davies' blog on ESPN and if you're following the World Cup, it's required reading. Not only is Mr. Davies an excellent diarist, he's also an executive producer for the forthcoming film, Once in a Lifetime, which recounts the rise and fall of the New York Cosmos and the old North American Soccer League. Rajeev and I were lucky enough to catch a screening of the film recently and found it insightful and quite hilarious at times. It'll be out soon in July in theaters here in New York.

Now it's time for the favorites. Before I get to the For and Against items, here is a list of choice albums, EPs, singles, and songs from the first six months of 2006. These are in no particular order by the way.

Favorites, the album division:

The Knife - Silent Shout
Ellen Allien and Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles
Hot Chip - The Warning
Alex Smoke - Paradolia
Booka Shade - Movements
Barbara Morgenstern - The Grass is Always Greener
Calexico - Garden Ruins
I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
El Perro Del Mar - S/T
Senor Coconut and His Orchestra - Plays YMO
Helios - Eingya
Chihei Hatakeyama - Minima Moralia
Various Artists - Panama! Latin, Calypso & Funk on the Isthmus 1965 - 75

Favorites, the EP, Singles and Songs division:

Khonnor - Burning Palace 7"
Sambassadeur - Coastal Affairs EP
The Early Years - All Ones and Zeros EP
Attic Lights - Shiver the Trees EP
The F.O. Machete - What's the Signal? EP
PopJohan - Vaknar EP
The Juan Maclean - Love is in the Air remixes
Depeche Mode - "John the Revelator" and "Lillian" remixes
Aliens - Alienoid Starmonica EP
Hot Chip - "Boy from School", "Over and Over" and "The Warning"
Minilogue - "The Girl from Botany Bay"
The Gossip - "Standing in the Way of Control"
Sebastien Leger - "Take Your Pills (Lifelike Remix)"

For: Any music created by Brian Eno. This includes Eno albums proper, Roxy Music, Talking Heads and even Paul Simon's new record.

Against: I'm running out of Brian Eno albums to discover.

For: Fixed parties at Don Hill's.

Against: Motherf*cker parties at Avalon.

For: Surprises - Young People, Man Man, Naked Ape, Secret Machines

Against: Disappointments - The Strokes, The Streets, The Rapture (W.A.Y.U.H. single), The Flaming Lips and Gnarls Barkley, but only because "Crazy" made the rest of the album sound so average. Ok, the rest of the album was average.

For: FIFA World Cup Germany 2006

Against: Dave O'Brien and Marcelo Balboa, the U.S. national team, the Italian diving team, the refs and fake injuries.

For: Swedish music

Against: The Swedish national football team. No one has surrendered to Germany that easy since the French in World War 2.

For: Seeing Asobi Seksu at Joe's Pub, Goldfrapp at Irving Plaza, Hot Chip at the Bowery, Scissor Sisters at the Bowery, Stephen Malkmus at the Knitting Factory, Optimo and Erol Alkan at Don Hill's and other great shows I can't remember right now.

Against: Missing Radiohead, the rain that ruined SFA, and all the other great shows I couldn't go too.