My recommendations 2006:Lantern by Clogs

Clogs: Lantern
Brassland 2/7/2006

Available on Emusic

Most indie rock bands, if they are successful by any standard, succeed by writing witty lyrics or by crafting a distinctive style of playing their instruments. It's much more difficult to compose memorable and affecting melodies. Few bands achieve this feat more than a handful of times in their careers, let alone stake their entire livings on it by recording instrumentals almost exclusively. Those that do can usually expect lukewarm results at best. Clogs are an outstanding exception to this heuristic. Lantern dispenses with vocals on all but one track and relies almost fully on Clogs' formidable compositional prowess. Guitar, strings and drums are more than enough for them to win the listener over; lyrics would only get in the way.