2006 in Music

I love "best of" lists.  And since I’m such an avid consumer of music, film and media in general, I always feel inadequate when reading a publication’s official year-end "best of" list.  After all, how can I possibly increase the size of my consumption palate to equal that of an expert who is paid to consume and review.  I can’t.  But I can at least offer my survey of the things I did enjoy.

With that, I’m starting with music.  For starters, reviewing the music I loved in 2006 is the easiest place to start.  With the magic of iTunes, I’m able to simply create a Smart Playlist for all music with "Date Added in the range of 1/1/2006 - 12/31/2006".  My last.fm profile is also a useful reference, though it is a bit corrupt as my wife and I share a computer at home so my listening patterns tend to be a bit skewed there.  But both of these tools make reviewing the year in music much easier than attempting to recall all of the films I saw over the last year (in 2007 I think I will start using delicious to tag reviews of each movie I see).  And remembering my favorite concerts, even though I save ticket stubs when I can, is even more difficult.

Looking back, there was a ton of great music in 2006.  While compiling this list, I’ve learned that an album ingrains itself in the cultural locker of my brain much more intensely if it is something that I listen to while driving as compared to something that I listen to while working or at home (this is a new one for me as, having moved to LA in mid-2005 from NYC, I hadn’t driven with music in a long time).  This had the unintended consequence of skewing my list to invariably harder and more up-tempo music than I would have anticipated.  For example, I’m a huge M. Ward fan — his 2005 album Transistor Radio was one of my favorites of 2005 — but I just didn’t listen to his new album Post-War very much this year as it isn’t exactly driving music.   

While on the subject of 2005, as an added bonus I’ll state that my favorite album of 2005 was Bright Eyes — I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.  This album was absolutely cathartic to me during my final few months in NYC, and it got the slight nod other 2005 favorites including Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s self-titled debut (which spent a good month in constant car CD player rotation after I moved to LA) and The Game — The Documentary (how could I move to LA and not throw some love to South Central?).

One small disclaimer: My list below includes my favorites from among the new albums that I personally acquired in 2006.   So please don’t call "foul" if you notice that an album below actually came out in 2005 (or earlier).

With that, here’s my list:

1. The Boy Least Likely To — The Best Party Ever
I’m actually bit surprised that this album is at the top of my list.  But I just love it.  It stayed in my car CD player for a good 6 weeks or so straight during the summer.  The indie-pop songs are incredibly simple but fun.  And I just don’t grow tired of it.  Period.  Belle and Sebastian’s Dear Castastrophe Waitress may have been my favorite album of 2004.  And they will show up on my top concerts of 2006 list after putting on a killer show at the Hollywood Bowl this year.  But I grew tired of their 2006 album The Life Pursuit almost immediately.  The Boy Least Likely To clearly replaced them in my listening rotation.  In fact, my biggest musical regret of 2006 is skipping their concert at Spaceland — especially because I went on to get rear-ended by a drunk driver that night when I could have been standing with a Bohemia listening to "I See Spiders When I Close My Eyes", one of the best pop songs of the year.

2. Figurines — Skeleton
Another mainstay in my Mazda.  And I did happen to catch these guys at Spaceland this past fall.  This Danish act unapologetically channels two great early 2000s kings, Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, and churns them into a wonderful sound that is all their own.

3. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s — Show Your Bones
In 2006, I fully embraced my move to LA and bought a surfboard.  This summer, I spent at least one weekend day each week in the water, attempting to not get absolutely pummeled.  This album was my soundtrack.  It will forever remind me of driving with windows open to Manhattan Beach / El Porto with my board on top of my car, board shorts on, and a smile on my sunglasses-wearing face.

4. The Elected — Me First
Now that I’m in LA, it is only fitting for me to have one LA band in the top 5, right?  The Elected are the clear winners of this award (though I’m just starting to listen to the Silversun Pickups a bit too).  Molly and I saw The Elected at The Echo this spring and they were wonderful.  "Ah," you say, "but Sun, Sun, Sun was their 2006 album."  Yes, it was.  And it is a pretty good album.  But I also purchased Me First this year, which they released in 2004.  And it is a fabulous album.  In a time when my favorite alt-country band of the late 1990s, Wilco, has gone on to become one of the top-grossing major label "indie" bands, The Elected picks up where Tweedy and company left off after A.M.  If you only listen to one song by this band, please listen to "Greetings in Braille".  The Elected’s frontman, Blake Sennett, is also a member of Rilo Kiley (who’s own frontwoman, Jenny Lewis, released her own solo album this year — Rabbit Fur Coat — which made my honorable mention list).

5.  The Hold Steady — Boys and Girls in America
If The Elected pick up where Wilco left off after A.M., then The Hold Steady pick up where Wilco turned away from straight-up rock’n'roll after completing Being There.   Rounding out my top 5 of 2006,  The Hold Steady’s collection of straight forward rock songs about drunken high school parties is as mature in sound and songwriting as the lyrics are entertainingly immature (one song features a repeating chorus of "I’m gonna walk around and drink some more") .  If you want a true driving album, this is one that can keep you going — just don’t act out the lyrics while behind the wheel.

6. Cat Power — The Greatest
So I have to have at least one down-tempo album in my top 10, right?  This is it, hands down.  Just absolutely beautiful.

7. The Rakes — Capture/Release
Blame the Arctic Monkeys.  All of the hype over that band caused me to start listening to them.  And then Yahoo! Music Unlimited, which I was using avidly for awhile in early 2006, recommended British bands The Rakes and The Editors to me.  And both of them ended up in my year-end album list even though the Arctic Monkeys did not (the Arctic Monkeys’ single "Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts" is a classic nonetheless).  I actually may prefer The Rakes’ EP Retreat, which I listened to avidly while waiting for the full album, but I’ll give them credit for adding a few additional good tracks to the full length effort.  If this were 2005, the British scene would have seen Art Brut’s album Bang Bang Rock and Roll in this place, and it probably would have made my top 5.  But don’t fret, Rakes, #6 ain’t bad either.

8. Destroyer — Rubies
You can only imagine my pleasure when I got to track #2 of this fantastic album and heard a chorus of "the kids they were all right…".  But they had me even before that.  Imagine Billy Corgan fronting a poppier Sparklehorse and you start to get the picture of this bizarre but catchy little band.

9. The Futureheads — News and Tributes
Disclaimer: I pretty much can’t stand The Futureheads debut album.  With annoyingly trendy songs like "Le Garage" and "Robot", they turned me off immediately.  But News and Tributes did a 180 on me.  It is less poppy, less trendy, and more toned down.  "Skip to the End" is a 2006 classic.  This was another surfing album for me…and one that stayed in heavy rotation in my car’s CD player.

10. Mastadon — Blood Mountain
I rallied a group of friends to see Austin, TX, based The Sword at Spaceland earlier this year.  I was intrigued by the rise of indie-rockers playing true heavy metal.  Though it was a fun concert, the Sword’s album is just so-so.  The same can’t be said of Mastadon’s Blood Mountain.  This is the real deal.  And it was one of my favorite albums to listen to at work in 2006, where my listening tastes skew to the harder stuff.

Honorable Mention: 11-20
These albums didn’t make my top 10 but certainly cracked my listening rotation this year and are worth listening to.

11. Hot Chip — The Warning
12. Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins — Rabbit Fur Coat
13. Ghostface Killah — Fishscale
14. Bruce Springsteen — We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
15. Danielson — Ships
16. Editors — The Back Room
17. Wolfmother — Wolfmother
18. Decemberists — The Crane Wife*
19. TV on the Radio — Return to Cookie Mountain*
20. Band of Horses — Everything All the Time*

*I’ve really been enjoying these over the last couple of weeks but haven’t had them long enough to state that they are definitively great, otherwise they may have been higher on the list.

Got any tips for me?  As I said in my lead-in, there’s no way I can keep up with the full world of music in 2006.  But if you found anything particularly wonderful, please let me know.

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