Even though it's already April, I thought I'd share the list I made a while back of my favorite 10 albums from 2006. I've updated the list a little after hearing new stuff since I made it.
10. Cat Power - The Greatest
A very personal, and painfully beautiful record proving that Chan Marshall is a singer-songwriter of the finest caliber.
9. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
JT was and is still the man.
8. T.I. - King
What You Know was pretty much the rap anthem of the year. What more needs to be said?
7. Girl Talk - Night Ripper
Favorite moment: "Laffy Taffy" over a sped up electronic beat seguing into Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" guitar solo. Or is it the "Tiny Dancer" piano riff backing up Biggy on "Juicy"? Or is it Fleetwood Mac's "Little Lies" trading off with 69 Boyz "Tootsie Roll"? Too much to like here.
6. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Clipse's Pusha-T and Malice have got to be 2 of the most lyrically bad-ass rappers in the game. Not to mention, great production work by the Neptunes makes this an obvious choice.
5. Mastodon - Blood Mountain
Proceed with caution. This album will destroy you! \m/!
4. Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Spending a semester in England earlier this year, this record was the perfect soundtrack for driving through the sunny, pastoral countryside of the Yorkshire Dales. Bright, cheery, from the UK, and highly addictive.
3. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
I don't know how I missed this one, but damn! This is the first time in a long time that I've a heard some decent straight up, down-to-earth, rock n roll! Not just in the rockin guitar/piano riffage, but Craig Finn's lyrics are an astoundingly accurate depiction of our generation's youth culture.
2. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
This album has a tremendous amount of detail, each song a perfect composition in its own right. Ed Droste has created some of the most haunting melodies that sound simultaneously distant yet familiar, soothing yet troubling, tangible yet ethereal.
1. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Agreeing with the critical consensus on this one, what really makes Cookie Mountain superb is its fascinating production work. Layers of sound make it feel like being enveloped in dark and ominous cloud where you can't always make out the shapes, but you have an overwhelming sense of texture, rhythm, and feeling. The amorphous quality of the songs makes them unendingly relistenable since new things are discovered each time. Not to mention, the core of these great songs rests on great sung melodies.
Honorable Mentions:
Hot Chip - The Warning
Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Herbert - Scale
Ratatat - Classics
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
I might add that 2007 is already off to a great start. Ive been absolutely addicted to excellent releases from Of Montreal and LCD Soundsystem. Menomena and the Shins also make early contenders for this year's list.
1 comment:
Good list Eddie- Grizzly Bear was interesting, I agree with TV on the Radio and TI, and of course, Mastodon rawks \m/.
I'm gonna have to renew my suggestion that you check out Opeth's "Damnation" album. I think you'll like it for the same reason you like Grizzly Bear- it's got those haunting melodies, that familiar-yet-distant, soothing-yet-troubling, and more on the ethereal quality. It's a bit darker though, especially the lyrics- but really cool, especially when contemplating sneaking into an abandoned mental asylum, like Chelsea and I did...
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