| | This past year I've wrapped myself in music. If you've been thinking
about it, save those pennies and buy yourself those really nice
speakers you've been wanting. It's worth it.
In order of loveliness, my favorite tracks of 2006:
Track - Artist - Album
01. The Race Is On Again - Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
02. Fearanoia - Summer Hymns - Backward Masks
03. Where I'm Anymore - Grandaddy - Just Like the Fambly Cat
04. Buckle - Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
05. Knives Of Summertime - Sparklehorse - Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
06. Rubies - Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
07. Hey Chicken - Loose Fur - Born Again In The USA
08. Chinese Translation - M. Ward - Post-War
09. Another Sunny Day - Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
10. Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken - Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country
11. Leaving The Nest (It's A Long Way Down) - Benjy Ferree - Leaving The Nest
12. Farther - Great Lakes - Diamond Times
13. Grandma Airplane - Black Lipstick - Sincerely, Black Lipstick*
14. Busy Doing Nothing - Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song
15. History Of Lovers - Iron And Wine / Calexico - In The Reins*
16. Jenny - The Minders - It's a Bright Guilty World
17. Smiley Faces - Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
18. Crack The Whip - Spinto Band - Nice and Nicely Done
19. Origins - Blood Feathers - Curse & Praise
20. Pangea - Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Broom
21. Swans (Life After Death) - Islands - Return to the Sea
22. Postcards from Italy - Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
23. Louisiana - The Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off
24. Stadiums and Shrines II - Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
25. Since K Got Over Me - The Clientele - Strange Geometry*
26. Priest's Knees - Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
27. Casella Walk - The Dap-Kings - Various Artists - Daptone 7 Inch Singles Collection, Vol. 1
28. With a Gun - The Minus 5 - (The Gun Album)
29. The Lovers' Rights - The Rosebuds - Birds Make Good Neighbors*
30. Get A Shot Of The Refrigerator - Stereolab - Fab Four Suture
Honorable Mention:
Your Eyes - Aloha - Some Echoes
Again & Again - The Bird & The Bee - Again and Again and Again and Again
Black Cab - Jens Lekman - Oh You're So Silent Jens
* These were 2005 releases, but make the 2006 list because of their
importance to me over the past year. But to be faithful to the accepted
program for end-of-year music lists, I've stuck to new releases as much
as possible.
Notes
01. After thinking about it for a while, this Yo La Tengo song is
decidedly my favorite of 2006 based solely on how it just grips and
fills my heart.
02. I've been listening to Zachary's rough mixes for a long time, and
hearing the finished version for the first time made me so happy I
actually cried. "There's no reason in this world to be afraid of
love..."
03. I was very disappointed in this final Grandaddy release, but this
track totally echoes the plodding along I did this year, for good
reason, much like a "garage sale Sunday."
04. You know when you hear a new band and it sounds like nothing else
you've ever heard, and you get really excited and even a little smug?
That was Tapes 'n Tapes for me this year. Their guitars just sound so
good.
05. Thanks to The Professor for introducing Sparklehorse and I to each
other. Amazing. I spent a lot of time lying on the floor in front of my
speakers with this album, especially this song.
06. Absolutely beautiful. The first time I listened to this song I
replayed it. I couldn't believe it was playing, that it actually
existed. This song really deserves #1 in terms of grandness. Oh, Destroyer.
07. Jeff Tweedy has this way of letting out these little high-pitched,
throaty squeals sometimes that makes him absolutely adorable. The "hey"
in "hey chicken, you're all talk" is my favorite instance of this.
08. One of my favorite moments this year was listening to an All Songs
Considered podcast in which Bob Boilen interviews M. Ward with the zeal and wherewithal
of a 14-year-old boy. So irritating! Yet somehow really satisfying. But M. Ward's performance on the
show was impeccable, graceful and fantastic.
09. I drove up to LA lonestar one evening with a ticket in my hand,
parked in a parking deck, walked down to the Wiltern, endured an empty
room sloppy obnoxious performance by The New Pornographers, watched the
room fill with American Apparel / Skinny Black Jeans teenagers, and
saw Belle and Sebastian put on the best performance I've ever seen. I
absolutely WAS that older chick at the concert by herself. And when
they played this song, Stuart
Murdoch was losing his voice and pulled off a brilliant vocal
performance as a result, straining to hit notes that he usually
seamlessly cascades over, and it brought the biggest smile to my face.
10. Speaking of amazing concert performances, Camera Obscura sounded so
powerful live that I almost fell over several times and had to stand
against a wall for most of the concert. This song is lovely. And I want
her hair.
11. Another All Songs Considered podcast moment - such a great song. I don't really know what else to say.
12. I saw Great Lakes open up for The Clientele this year as a
stripped-down three piece. Ben Crum rocked out so balls to the wall
that even the fussy, image-conscious LA audience was bobbing along. I
like their new album, and this song is great, but I wish that some of
the energy from their show could have been captured on this album. It
was really hard for me not to throw back my PBR and dance along when
they played "Sister City," betraying my Athens Indie heritage. I let it
out a little because it would have been a tragedy not to enjoy their
performance.
13. If I could play in any band right now, it would be Black
Lipstick. They're simultaneously beautiful, serious, flippant, funny,
and adorable. I can't wait to hear what they come up with next.
14. Everyone needs a song to put on after their friends drop them off
at home around 2:30 AM, when you're too drunk to go to sleep and have
all of this pent up energy to expend. This was that song for me this
year. Saxophone never sounded so awesome.
15. Iron & Wine consistently surprises me, and their collaboration
with Calexico was perfect in so many ways. You can hear the smiles on
their faces in this song.
16. And yet another concert moment for me - I just have so much respect
for Martyn Leaper as a songwriter and singer. I love everything he puts
out unconditionally, which is to say that some of his stuff is
marginal, but I'm pulling for him and am so smitten with him as a
musician that I overlook the dark, depressive quality of this recent
album that seemed to stifle the overall import of the music. The
fundamental goodness is still there, and I saw an excellent performance
up in LA this year at The Derby to a nearly empty room populated with
ex-Portland/Seattle-record-store-clerk-looking men that revived my
little obsession.
17. Am I the only person who thought this was a better single than
Crazy? "And oh yeah, take a little pain just in case..." Gorgeous.
18. This song and "Oh Mandy" were on so many mix tapes I received
this year, but the rest of the album? Hmmm... But I adore this song and
the oohs and the jerky cadence.
19. Blood Feathers is a side project of a band called Mazarin, and this
album is a rare little burst of cheesy happiness that just swirls
around and lands gently on any day.
20. Doooh Bap Ba Ba Dap, ooh Bap Ba Ba Dap, ooh Ba Ba Ba Dap
21. I just appreciate this epic song. No explanation necessary.
22. This record got a lot of buzz this year, because for some reason,
he's associated with Jeff Mangum, and there's this extensive network of
NMH fans around the world looking for something, anything, please! So
lots of music blogs talked about this, and I gave it a try. This song
just stands out as an amazing compositional piece of art and vocal
performance.
23. I love The Walkmen. Their most recent album, a cover of someone
else's obscure album, is a huge disappointment to me, because I believe
in this band! And the album that this song is from is also a
disappointment. I know y'all got it. I'm waiting. At least there was
Louisiana to keep me interested. Why does this make my top 30? Because
it's so satisfying to sing along to: "I've got my hands full / I've got
my haaaaaands full." And the horns are so gratuitous and out of place.
But still perfect. "There's thunder and there's lightening a hundred miles away..."
24. I love these guitars! They sound so good. "And I'm sorry that anybody dies at all these days..."
25. The Clientele were amazing in concert this year. I was so pleased.
And they have provided much of the soundtrack to my 2006. This album is
more mature and refined, which gives them a new direction that I'm not
sure I'm entirely comfortable with. But this song, oh, this song.
"Don't think I'll be happy anyway / just scratching out my name."
Something about the way Alasdair MacLean sings that line is so undeniably self-conscious, you can't help but melt a little for him.
26. I know it offends someone's sensibility for lists that Destroyer
appears on here twice. But this song, such amazing piano and guitar
camaraderie. And lovely Destroyer lyrics. And oh, Destroyer.
27. I discovered Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings this year, and this
singles collection from Daptone Records came out to reinforce the fact
that whatever is going on up there in New York City with all that funky
FUNK is just plain amazing. Favorite moment of lingering 2006 was
dancing for two straight hours to this album, along with some Sharon
Jones, with a friend on New Year's Eve. And then finding a new friend,
certifiably with that "thing," dancing along with the other friend and
I, and I'll just trail off there...because you don't need to hear about
me and my brick walls.
28. The quirkiness of this album made me smile so much this year. When
I didn't want to listen to anything else I put this one on. Stable,
sure and good.
29. More of that personality defining going on with this band and this song.
30. Stereolab still got it.
Honorable Mention:
Aloha - I found this band because Polyvinyl sent along a promo copy of
Some Echoes in the mail to me along with a delayed order. I think their
next album is going to be really good, I just have a feeling... I like
the melodies and the xylophone and dramatic optimism.
Again & Again - I have heard this song around, in boutiques, in the
grocery store, etc. And then it was on the latest Paste compilation. I
really like how basic the lyrics are and how complex the sound is. And the first LA band I've ever remotely liked.
Jens - "I killed the party again..." Total cuteness.
|
| | Posted 1/14/2007 11:44 AM - 82 Views - 4 eProps - 2 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
