and the winner is... (music edition, part 1)
So I didn't get to scoop the Grammy Awards, but I still want to list my selection for the top fifty albums of 2006. If they can do it in February, so can I. Besides, now you can find many of these for a good used price. Unlike my lifelong occular boycott of the Oscars, I have watched snippets of the Grammys, but would never try to stomach the entire event, which I imagine would feel like eating all your Halloween stash in one sitting while drinking a Boone's Farm. Mostly I tune in when either reunions, e.g., The Police this year, or 'supergroup jam sessions,' e.g., the tribute to Joe Strummer in 2003, take place. Because, frankly, I'm not the key demographic for the Grammys. Also, I don't really give two figs who wins the award for "Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media" or "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental." And my Oscar objections apply to the Grammys as well: abject wealth and bad comic timing just doesn't interest me. Anyway, I think I can intellectualize why all these albums are deserving, but it's something we can do in the comments; I'll limit my justifications here.
50 Spank Rock - YoYoYoYoYo
49 Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea
48 Steve Wynn - ...Tick...Tick...Tick
47 Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
46 Built to Spill - You in Reverse
I saw Spank Rock at Pitchfork Music Festival last summer, and their album makes the cut on the strength of their live performance, esp. since it translates well between album and venue. Lots of bleeps and blorps, but also some pretty solid vocal agility, think Frogger meets Too Short. The track "Rick Rubin" is a good mixtape addition. Former Dream Syndicate and Gutterball frontman, and member of the paisley underground, Steve Wynn still makes smart and loud rock music. Plus, I love watching his drummer, Linda Pitmon, play; she abuses the kick pedal. Built to Spill's latest is a return to the rawer, turn it up and yank it off, knobwise, sound I liked so much on their 2000 live album, though top to bottom this isn't as strong an effort as their last couple of outings.
45 Bonnie "Prince"
Billy - The Letting Go
44 Mr. Lif - Mo'Mega
43 Kaz Kyzah - Confessions of a Gofessional
42 Decemberists, The - The Crane Wife
41 Drams, The - Jubilee Road
Like Built to Spill, both Will Oldham, in his Bonnie "Prince" Billy persona, and The Decemberists put forth albums that, while certainly worth hearing, aren't their strongest efforts. But Billy's "Cursed Sleep" is as sweetly gothic as anything he's ever penned, and I find the backing vocals slithery and spinetingling. Kaz Kyzah's mixtape, once available for free download, is creamy-smooth Bay Area hip hop, especially the track "Cocaine." If you can find it, get it. I include The Drams's debut because I still dig Brent Best, formerly of sadly defunct Slobberbone. Best has always had good twang sensibilities, and it's nice to hear him balance them with some keyboards and other pop flourishes. He's never been the best songwriter, but the full effect is fun, so I'm willing to let it slide.
40 Belle & Sebastian -
The Life Pursuit
39 Mogwai - Mr. Beast
38 Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
37 Coup, The - Pick a Bigger Weapon
36 Detholz! - Cast Out Devils
Belle & Sebastian finally made a happy record. Good for them. Clipse's album, unlike Kyzah, is gruff, often discordant, and visceral. One of my darkhorse picks for last year is Detholz! (Death Holes) latest album, only available online for purchase. This earnest group of ex-Wheaton College students (they were kicked out) sound the way I imagine Devo might if they tried their hand at emo, which works, somehow, for the most part.
35 Lil Wayne & DJ Drama
- Dedication Vol. 2
34 Girl Talk - Night Ripper
33 Buddha Machine - FM3
32 Mission of Burma - The Obliterati
31 Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas
Girl Talk's album, the Finnegan's Wake of mashups, is best listened to in a group where everyone is clamoring to be the first to identify the dozens and dozens of samples. It's Trivial Pursuit for the ears. I find it sad and disconcerting that a band like Mission of Burma has to come out of retirement to teach bands how to play loud music that isn't superficial. I mean, this is the band who, after releasing a single full-length album twenty years ago (and one helluva EP), has released two albums over the last three years. Their guitarist suffers from tinnitus for heaven's sake. think 'angel and the badman' when you listen to Isobel Campbell, who used to be the twee-est member of Belle & Sebastian, and Mark Lanegan's, ex-Screaming Trees, duet album. It isn't consistently terrific, but when it clicks, as it does on their cover of Jack Elliott's "Ramblin' Man," it clicks.
I've been talking it up for a year now, and I still think the Buddha Machine is a must-have postmodern toy. It looks like a cheap plastic transistor radio, but it contains nine distinct tracks by ambient duo FM3 that can be played perpetually (until the battery dies) through its single, tiny, tinny speaker. The ability to endlessly listen to a looped composition captures the spirit of ambient music that often goes missing on tracks with definitive starts and stops. Buy one, put it on your desk or nightstand.
30 Beach House - Beach House
29 Long Blondes, The - Someone to Drive You Home
28 Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
27 Soul Jazz Records Presents - Tropicalia:
A Brazilian Revolution in Sound
26 Alejandro Escovedo -The Boxing Mirror
Here are the adjectives used by critics to describe Beach House's eponymous album: haunting, soothing, beautiful, Polynesian. RIYL: Mazzy Star. Yeah, it's soothing, romantic dinner at home music, and the track "Tokyo Witch" is another good mixtape bet. The Long Blondes may be my favorite new band from 2006, and another instance of what a great year 06 was for female rockers (more on that later). The album sounds conventional, but lyrically it is a refreshing and rare glimpse into the companionable and supportive homosocial world of women without men. The tropicalia album is one of two inclusions of pre-06 material, but it is a fabulous re-collection of a sound--fusing folk, bossa nova and rock n roll--that deserves a reawakening, most notably the reunion of Os Mutantes. Austin icon Alejandro Escovedo's latest is his first release since being sidled with heavy debt and diagnosed with hepatitis C, and, understandably, his most personal album to date. One critic referred to it as "Alejandro Agonistes." Leadoff track "Arizona" is a slow moaning song that belies the often rowdy album that follows.
The second half tomorrow...
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