The 12 CDs of Christmas:
Best of 2006 Year in Music Review
January 1, 2007

Introduction

In this new age of music distribution it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when a particular album or single is released to the public. Between The Internet, radio, television, and record stores sometimes it is anyone’s guess what falls where on the musical calendar. Something like Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy, for example, has been muttered about for over ten years now. But what’s that album’s reality? Songs have leaked here and there, some officially released, some not, and just about every year the album finds a slot on numerous record store release boards and Axl tells us, “it’ll be out in a couple months.” So how should one fit anything by G N’ R anywhere on a list he was trying to compile? Simple: make it up as you go along (and when commenting on the “new” Guns N’ Roses, just skip it altogether, at least until Rose gets rid of those awful dreads).

In 2005 I picked She Wants Revenge’s self-titled debut as my second favorite album of the year. However, the album wasn’t officially released (according to the record company) until the end of January 2006. But lo and behold I had the entire album a good two or three months before 2006, so I included it anyway. Hence it is omitted this time out.

In a different scenario, My Morning Jacket’s Z officially hit stores October 4, 2005, but the single Off the Record didn’t hit radio waves until January 10, 2006. So this time, I considered the album in 2005 (though it never made the cut) but the single grew on me in 2006 and therefore made it into contention for single of the year this go ‘round. Make sense? Well, it hardly does to me either.

Anyway, with that explanation out of the way I now bring you my list of favorite albums for 2006, or more accurately, the 2006 I experienced and enjoyed the past 365 days. Bon apetit!

The Top 12 CDs of 2006:

#12
The Overlooked album of 2005:
Oasis – Don’t Believe the Truth

For a number of years now the truth has been that Oasis sucks, or at least their new albums do. On the Shoulders of Giants and Heathen Chemistry, the two predecessors to Don’t Believe the Truth, were indeed quite crappy. So why expect anything different when Truth dropped in late 2005? Frankly I didn’t and that is surely the reason I never listened to a song from the album at the time. However, in 2006 I gave it a shot and damn this album is good. I won’t compare it song-for-song to Definitely Maybe or my favorite Oasis album, What’s the Story Morning Glory, as those are surely more complete and better, but this entry is certainly more diverse and unpredictable than either of those masterpieces and quite entertaining to boot. In fact, at least in my mind, this album would have been a top twelve choice had I been paying closer attention in 2005. But alas, rather than let my ignorance keep a good album down I shall posthumously include it here.

Best Songs: Mucky Fingers, Let There Be Love, Lyla

#11
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones

On first listen it is easy to dismiss the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs second album, Show Your Bones, as nothing special. My hand immediately goes up as I did just that. In fact, this is the second time I’ve done that as a similar dismissing resulted from my first encounter with their 2004 breakthrough debut. But upon further spins Show Your Bones slowly but surely improves, a certain portent that things are indeed better than they might at first appear.

So what is it about this band that sneaks up on you when you least expect it turning straw to gold? The screeches and whines of femme fatale Karen-O are at once grating and endearing. Likewise Nick Zinner’s stomping, scratchy guitar riffs. So perhaps some combination of the two, like vinegar and baking soda causing an eighth grade science project lava explosion is the reason for my surprised glee. Who knows but it all mostly works resulting in a handful of good singles and a smattering of less than stellar throw-a-aways that are good enough filler for me. The album plays well at parties and is a blast for cruising down the main drag in Anytown, USA. And isn’t that what music is all about sometimes?

Best Songs: Cheated Hearts, Dudley, Turn Into, Gold Lion

#10
Scissor Sisters – Ta-Dah!

Ta-Dah! is certainly the gayest album I heard in 2006. That’s not a bad thing, I’m just saying. :)

The Scissor Sisters are a band more or less (probably more) doing what few other bands are doing these days. No, not co-opting the sounds of the ‘70s and ‘80s. I mean, come on, everyone is doing that. The Scissor Sisters break from the pack by making flamboyant dance music that’s fun. No, I don’t mean “cool,” I mean Electric Six style fun where good times triumph over all notions of self-obsessed trendy hip. Know what I mean? We’re talking Elton John lisping through Crocodile Rock fun. Freddie Mercury parading in a leotard radio ga-ga-ing his little heart out fun. Now do you know what I mean? Good. Those dudes were never particularly “cool” but they certainly are “fun.”

Unquestionably top heavy, a bit samey sounding throughout, and not as great as their debut, Ta-Dah! is still a blast that will have you feeling like dancing in no time.

Best Songs: I Don’t Feel Like Dancing, Ooh, I Can’t Decide, Kiss You Off, Lights

#09
Placebo – Meds

As always, Placebo’s fifth full-length album is a take it or leave it affair that begins and ends with singer Brian Molko, who once again croons like a drag queen with a cold. One minute of any one song on the album and you’ll know if his particular voice is for you or not. Like Billy Corgan a decade earlier, Molko’s voice is an unmistakable hit-or-miss affair. I just happen to like it.

Meds is high school drama club angst meets Wednesday Goth night at the local discoteque. In other words driving guitars and back beat, plenty of feedback, and coming-of-age androgeny. It isn’t anything unique but it also isn’t anything particularly trendy either. And that’s most of the fun. Meds is chock full of energetic rock ‘n roll with an edge, something that seems to be lacking in this era of American Idol sameness. And that’s a good thing.

Best Songs: Broken Promise (duet with Michael Stipe), Meds, Infra-Red, One of a Kind, Pierrot the Clown

#08
The Strokes – First Impressions of Earth

The Strokes certainly aren’t what they used to be, but First Impressions of Earth is still more entertaining than just about any disc I heard in 2006. Featuring the best faux-Barry Manilow cover they’ll never admit to stealing (compare Razor Blade to Manilow’s Mandy, I dare you) it is getting fairly obvious the greatest band of the new millennium is running out of ideas. But seriously, who cares? Even if some of the songs on this album are half-finished efforts these guys still rock and First Impressions still has a couple of their best songs ever (You Only Live Once and On the Other Side). You won’t find me spending 35 bucks to see them live these days but you certainly will find me continuing to play the hell out of their albums, including this one, and desperately looking forward to their next impression of whatever planet they may wind up on in the future.

Best Songs: You Only Live Once, On the Other Side, Razor Blade

#07
Rock Kills Kid – Are You Nervous?

Though some may consider them nothing more than a poor man’s Killers, Los Angeles, California’s Rock Kills Kid have something more up their sleeve than their eye liner wearing contemporaries. That something is versatility. Where The Killers are one-note wonders who do a good job in basically stretching one type of ‘80s song as far they can on their debut Hot Fuss (the rockin’ synth-pop top forty tune), Rock Kills Kid recall the ‘80s in much more breadth and depth.

Playing name that influence can be fun with Are You Nervous?, but the real joy comes when you sit back and soak it all in. This is an excellent pop album that can satisfy Cold Play cry-babies, Cure neophytes, and even ‘80s synth-pop classicists.

Best Songs: Hide Away, Are You Nervous?, Run Like Hell, Back to Life

#06
Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere

Like Al Green making love to the movie Videodrome while playing old school Nintendo, Gnarles Barkley is a band that’s way out there. Engineered by music maestro Danger Mouse and the real soul patrol of 2006, Cee-Lo, Gnarls recalls Beck playing with junk culture in a pop format. The duo bends and bristles, contorts and tussels creating short, succinct memorable ditties while diverting from the typical pop pattern with unusually down cast lyrics and an array of bops, blips, and chirps. In other words, St. Elsewhere is the album of 2006 to listen to if you want to hear just how strange the musical landscape can be these days and how just about anything can come along and be a top seller when we might least expect it.

While the song of summer 2006, Crazy, is unquestionably a pop masterpiece that anyone can appreciate and enjoy (and for the most part everyone has as the single was everywhere), the rest of the album certainly lives up to that song’s hype though not necessarily in the expected manner. St. Elsewhere turns out to be much deeper than the unusual production may at first imply and is the best modern soul album in ages.

Best Songs: Just a Thought, Crazy, Smiley Faces, Storm Coming

#05
The Pipettes – We are The Pipettes

A ‘50s style girl group in polka dot dresses with an updated attitude and a backing band called The Cassettes… what’s not to love? Sure, they’re gimmicky, but the UK’s Pipettes’ debut features a wash of catchy, upbeat tunes that could perk up even the most droll misanthrope. And they even introduce themselves with the discs opening track “We Are the Pipettes.” Isn’t that charming?

They’re cute, they sing well, and they are The Pipettes! This is a blast from the past with just the right touch of modernity and it gets even more fun with repeated listens. Girl power has returned!

Best Songs: Pull Shapes, Dirty Mind, Sex, ABC, One Night Stand (a song that channels the awesome 80’s all-female Raincoats).

#04
Regina Spektor – Begin to Hope

The second most bizarre voice on my list (#2 takes the cake in that category), Regina Spektor plays a mean piano and is better than Fiona Apple. That’s probably the best way I can describe Spektor’s major label sophomore triumph.

I had my eye on her after 2004’s Soviet Kitsch and her Post-Modern Girls duet with The Strokes in 2005, and this album fulfills that potential and then some. The bubble of Kitsch here becomes a most delectable and eccentric simmer complete with provocative lyrics and story telling, excellent cohesion, and drum machines galore (gotta love the drum machines!). And let’s not forget Spektor’s name checking Guns’ N’ Rose’s November Rain. Yes, that November Rain. Now I’m not one for pop culture name dropping but this particular reference is simply spectacular. As is Begin to Hope, an album with the power to miraculously remind us of the best of Tori Amos, Lilith Fair, Antony and the Johnsons, and a feminist Adam Duritz all at the same time… or perhaps that’s just me.

Best Songs: On the Radio, Fidelity, Apres Moi, Better

#3
Band of Horses – Everything All the Time

At the urging of musical confidant Jeff Dillon, I took the plunge on these guys after a night of drinking at Bukowski’s when the man suggested I might like these lads. A week later, I was certain he was correct.

Everything All the Time sparkles in a way no other album did for me this year. It is moody and uplifting at the same time. Maybe that’s why Jeff likes it. Definitely that’s why I like it. These Seattleites create mature music that’s great for lounging around and ideal for self-introspection. Really, it’s what I’ve been expecting from My Morning Jacket for four years now (though they’ve never quite delivered, content to jam more than rock). Band of Horses rock even as they cradle you in their arms lulling you into the most comfortable of confines.

With haunting lyrics, elegant riffs, and even a banjo thrown in for good measure Everything All the Time is the college rock album of the year in the best sense of the genre.

Best Songs: The Funeral, The Great Salt Lake, The First Song, Weed Party, Monsters

#2
Bob Dylan – Modern Times

For the third time in ten years this is the album critics are naming Dylan’s newest comeback. Well, in my opinion Dillon is never “coming back,” he’s always just bobbing around. But if there ever was a Dylan post-1975’s Blood on the Tracks disc worthy of the curmudgeon’s old stuff this is it. Say what you want about the old coot, but Modern Times is an album just about anyone can appreciate. The album is really that damn good.

Plain and simple, Bob Dylan is The Man and love him or hate him, there aren’t too many lousy voiced cranky crooners who could do a thousandth of what he has accomplished with this disc, now some thirty years past his prime. But this is Dylan we’re talking about and when did he ever follow the rules?

If you listen to one album this year you weren’t interested in during 2006, Modern Times should be that album.

Best Songs: Thunder on the Mountain, Beyond the Horizon, Workingman’s Blues #2

#1
Joseph Arthur – Nuclear Daydream

Every couple of years I seem to find myself in the same musical state: confused. But each time there’s Joseph Arthur, plugging away with yet another release no one will give a shit about and as out of time as anything I’ve heard that year. But that’s Joseph Arthur for you.

Always strange yet unequivocally alluring, Arthur’s albums always pique my interest yet somehow never quite get me all the way through. Something just slightly falters, something just doesn’t quite fit, and I’m again left wondering why he can’t get it right all the way through. 2004’s Our Shadows Will Remain was very close. 2006’s Nuclear Daydream is spot on and the Joseph Arthur I’ve been waiting for.

From the opening Too Much to Hide to the castrato-like Slide Away to my favorite, the freewheeling Enough to Get Away, to the haunting finale, Nuclear Daydream, there isn’t a bad track in the bunch. Though each one sounds as if it could be from a completely different album if not a completely different artist, they are all as smooth and cohesive as butter and damn good to boot.

The lyrics, like the music, are quite elaborate. Arthur reveals feelings on loneliness, religion, intimacy and all from point blank range. It’s as if he took Bob Dylan and went all Jackson Pollack on his ass dashing out the political with the salt of his own faith and hope. This is beautiful music with heart and soul.

I love Joseph Arthur and so should you. If there is one concert I am going to see in 2007 it is definitely Arthur. I have made excuses for missing him for far too long. This year I’m done with the procrastinating. Nuclear Daydream is too impressive an album to miss performed live.

Viva la Joseph Arthur!

Best Songs: Enough to Get Away, Nuclear Daydream, Slide Away, Electrical Storm

Here are my other awards for the musical scene in 2006:

Greatest Disappointment of 2006:
The Walkmen – A Hundred Miles Off

I’ll be damned if the first song off the third album by this unorthodox outfit isn’t simply amazing. Louisiana, recorded before any of the hurricane business made Dixieland a most fashionable celebrity cause, is a beautiful ode to the bayou before the flood. But what follows makes me feel as though I’m sucking on a lemon and I’ll be damned twice if the rest of the album doesn’t fall back to earth faster than The Hindenberg.

Walkmen, what the hell happened? I understand you’re trying new things, changing up your style a bit, and trying to take things to the next level after two rollicking good albums and the best concert I saw in 2005. But what the hell is this mess? My best guess: The Walkmen have officially lost their collective minds.

If this album isn’t proof enough take their other 2006 release, Pussy Cats, a song-for-song cover album of a Harry Nilsson record of the same name that’s a thousand miles off, rather than a hundred. Sounding as if the entire thing were recorded in a closet it is a boring, unnecessary head scratcher. And admittedly though I’ve never heard the original Pussy Cats in full this tribute certainly doesn’t make me want to, and obvious sign that they’re in need of 9-1-1.

God, I love The Walkmen, so let’s hope 2007 finds them regaining their senses.

Best Concert of 2006:
Nada Surf outside @ Row-a-palooza, October 26, 2006, Cambridge, MA

I’ve seen Nada Surf a handful of times over the years and never do they disappoint. It isn’t really that I’m a huge fan of the band, though I do like them, it’s that they have continued to grow on me with each new release. In other words, Nada Surf has plowed ahead but in doing so continue to do it better and in a more mature manner each time.

I totally loved Nada Surf’s 2005 effort The Weight is a Gift and hearing those songs performed live was a joy. Not only that, Nada Surf is so good these days in their live performances that they’ve begun returning to their roots giving us the ‘90s anomaly “Popular,” the song that made them famous for all of fifteen minutes.

Now Nada Surf may not be as popular or famous as they were in the mid-90s, but they are much, much better and one of the few ‘90s bands to continue being relevant in the new millennium.

Best Musical Television Performance of 2006:
Gnarls Barkley @ MTV Music Awards June 3, 2006

OK, I admit it (I seem to be doing a lot of that during this list), I don’t go to as many concerts as I used to. In fact, I barely go to any concerts anymore. So that means I need to get my live music fix from television (run that through your head five times fast), just like the other geriatrics I seem to find the most in common with these days. And the performance that stood head and shoulders and torso and legs and step-ladder above anything else I’ve seen this year was the Gnarls Barkley Star Wars spectacle during the MTV Music Awards. If you haven’t yet seen it you must head to YouTube immediately. This is a performance unlike any other. And if you still don’t believe me, I’ve got three words for you: “Wookiee on drums.”

Single of the Year:
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Snow (Hey Oh)

It’s simple. It’s catchy. It’s pleasant. It’s The Red Hot Chili Peppers. John Frusciante is the best guitarist around today and he again proves it with awesome licks on Snow (Hey Oh). Their double album Stadium Arcadium may be all over the place with its share of hits and misses but this particular single is a gem and the best slice of pop pleasure of 2006. Californication part 2? Sure, but for someone who loved it the first time it’s nice to be taken back.

Runner Up:

My Morning Jacket – Off the Record

I first saw these guys in 2002 as the opening act at a Doves show. After watching lead crooner/guitar giant Jim James blow through some unbelievable solos I knew right then and there that I’d hear from these guys again. Slowly and surely they have been climbing into the public eye ever since. Off the Record is James playing to the masses, and very well I might add. This is my favorite track from their latest album Z and also one of the best songs of 2006. Turn it up and enjoy the ride!

Love Hate Relationship of the Year:
Me Vs. The Killers – When We Were Young

For whatever reason The Killers really irritate me. I was so hot for their very first single Somebody Told Me when it first came out in 2004. After that initial crush something changed and I just couldn’t get into the rest of their album. I bid them adieu and for a time didn’t look back even as I considered Somebody Told Me the second best single of the year (Modest Mouse’s Float On wound up taking top honor).

Then, out of nowhere, the band was everywhere and everyone was hot for The Killer’s every song… except that dreary first single. Why was I so out of the loop? What had I missed the first time? Then it finally hit me, too little too late, and I was all about Hot Fuss all the time. My summer of 2005 was indeed dominated by every track on Hot Fuss.

Then came 2006… and Sam’s Town.

God, Sam’s Town is stinkerific. Even the first single, When We Were Young, is just plain dopey. Though not quite as dopey as “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier,” lyrics from a Hot Fuss song I hate so much I can’t help but love, the lyrics here are hilariously silly. However, a Halloween party later, when my inebriation led me to play the new single causing just about everyone in the room to sing along, I can’t help but kick myself once again.

So how do I feel about this song, these guys, this album? I don’t know, but I suppose like my feelings for the evil sensei Kreese in The Karate Kid, these aren’t dudes I really hate, but rather, these are dudes I love to hate. We’ll see what happens next year.

Awkward Lyric of the Year:
Everclear – Portland Rain

Art Alexakis, lead singer of the ‘90s grunge band that never seems to go away, Everclear (what, you thought Pearl Jam!?), is one of my favorite emotional messes. Here’s a guy who never fails to deliver through his lyrics every nook and cranny of his personal life each time out, and I love it! From heroin addiction to black girlfriends to Star Wars bed sheets to an extremely messy divorce that culminated in a double disc concept album this guy is the poster boy for who Chris Carrabba should aspire to emulate rather than whatever sissy he’s currently choosing. But I digress…

So what has Mr. Alexakis done with his seventh studio album in eleven years? Well, he’s brought in a brand new band, surely added a few more tattoos to his already ink drenched body, and given us one of the most cumbersome lyrics that nobody will hear in 2006:

“All I want to do is kiss you while I cum inside of you.”

Give the track a listen. Maybe you’ll find it sexy, as I imagine Mr. Alexakis intended. Or like me, maybe you’ll rewind the song once just to make sure you heard it correctly and then cringe with anticipation every subsequent time you hear it. Either way, it’s nice to know there are still people out there in this politically correct entertainment wasteland who aren’t afraid to drag out even their most intimate diary entries and wave them around for all the world to see. Go Arty, Baby, Go!!

“Take the Power Back” Movement of the Year:
YouTube

Though it was recently purchased by a big corporation and has already begun taking down “unauthorized” videos, YouTube was unequivocably the best thing to come out in Cyberspace this year. Though MTV Classic has likewise tickled my fancy the past year with its nostalgia video programming, nothing beats the breadth of retro videos available by the users of YouTube. So cheers to all the rebels out there posting the best nostalgia at the best prices: free! Oh, hell yeah!

Husband of the Year:
Kevin Federline AKA K-Fed, AKA Mrs. Britney Spears

This guy must be hung like a brontosaursus because really, there is no other explanation.

“Hey Ya” Award for Song You’re Bound to Hear EVERYWHERE Next Year

There is a rumour that Michael Jackson will be releasing an album in 2007. I’m not sure you should really believe that but if history has told me anything it is that when it comes to the self-proclaimed King of Pop you never know. If it does happen, and that’s a big “if,” I predict the album will throw off a single featuring rappers, crooners, American Idol winners, and everything else including the kitchen sink. And you’ll hear it everywhere. The album will eventually yield four #1 singles, three grammy awards, an MTV moon man, and initiate an MJ revival unlike any musical return to glory the world has ever seen. Then, of course, Axl Rose and his newest version of Guns N’ Roses will finally release Chinese Democracy, headline stadiums around the world, and Metallica’s Lars Ulrich will sulk on his psychiatrist’s couch wondering why file-sharing is out to get him. It’s all possible because, remember, this is 2007 and stranger things have happened.