Best music of the year

This really isn't misanthropic at all, but my editor ran out of room and to had to trim considerably. In my defense, it was a really good year of music (and I've already heard a couple of things in the last few days that may have made the list had I heard them before my deadline).

What an interesting year of music. While the mainstream music industry continues to implode under the pressure of an ever-changing market; where heavily hyped albums came and went without making much of an impact on the listening audience; and where anyone with a bit of cash can make a professional sounding album and even get it into stores (if not into the homes of savvier-than-you-think consumers), excellent releases continued to come out.

Over the past 12 months I have heard somewhere between 400 and 500 new albums. A lot of it was the typical dreck that comes out every year, but a lot of it was of the highest quality. No matter the other pressures, artists continue to write, record and release phenomenal work. And the changing economics of the music industry are forcing more and more to either 1) try and make a living on a major label, even though most of the marketing budget has gone to the likes of Paris Hilton or 2) make it on their own outside of the mainstream industry. Either way, they are making music directly from the heart. And either way, consumers willing to dig a bit are the real winners here.

There are 40 releases listed below, and I could have easily included another 20 (or 40 really, it was a good year). There isn’t much separation on the list. Once you get past the top four (my absolute favorites of the year), the rest are packed in pretty close.

My favorites of 2006:

P.O.S. Audition

The pride of Hopkins, Minn. unleashed a stunning sophomore album, proving that hip-hop can still be a creative, powerful force. Rapping about politics, relationships and just living life, P.O.S. shows makes music that doesn’t reach for cheap thuggery, misogyny or homophobia to make its point.

The Hold Steady Boys and Girls in America

Tim Finn would never make it past the first round of American Idol, but his lyrics are among the best of this generation of songwriters, and the brilliant, classic-rock influenced music of the Hold Steady make up for deficiencies in Finn’s vocal skills.

The Decemberists The Crane Wife

Lost a bit because the band’s last album (“Picaresque”) was so brilliant, The Crane Wife is a more than able follow up. The band’s music is more mature, and the mixture of different folk music styles (focused on British instead of American) with pop influences of the last century make for an infectious, and often compelling collection of songs

The Sword Age of Winters

Metal was hip this year, and a lot of the bands trying to channel the spirit of 1971 were plain awful, but the Sword had a lot more than vintage analogue gear backing them up. These Texans can flat-out rock and not only don’t care what you think of their rocking, but want to share the power of their rock with the rest of the world.

Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

An easy formula for a top album: Great voice + great music + great lyrics. Case brought the entire equation on her most mature and fully realized album.

Lady Sovereign Public Warning

A similar formula applies here, though this working-class U.K. rapper uses more of a great beats + great delivery + great lyrics on her terrific debut.

Converge No Heroes

Ever have a day where you hate not just your life, or what’s happening in the world, but the very fact that life exists on this world? The boys in Converge have those kinds of days all the time, and No Heroes brings that home over the course of a dozen blasts of pure rage.

The Flaming Lips At War with the Mystics

Another great album lost in the shuffle, in part because the previous album was absolutely brilliant. The Lips were a slow starting group (they’ve been around for more than 20 years) that took time to develop a signature style that matured along with the players.

Bob Dylan Modern Times

What tha? Dylan issued his third strong release in a row, and the easy-going, early rock and R&B vibe here works well with the increasing crust on his voice. It’s as if finally being old (instead of just sounding that way) has unlocked talent he hid away following the motorcycle accident all those years ago.

Mastodon Blood Mountain

Instead of trying to out-heavy 2004’s Moby-Dick-inspired Leviathan, these Virginia boys delved deep into the moody side of heavy rock, making an album that sounds like Pink Floyd, if Pink Floyd had been joined by Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath and Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple, while keeping a freaked-out Syd Barrett on to write songs.

Battle of Mice A Day of Nights

Break-ups make for great music. Break-ups involving creative members of a single group make for brilliant records (see Fleetwood Mac and Richard and Linda Thompson for a couple of prime examples). Add in players from two underground purveyors of experimental metal, and you have an often brilliant, often tough to listen to exploration of a relationship gone sour.

Belle and Sebastian The Life Pursuit

After spending their career producing twee music for a small if adoring fan base, these Scots expanded their sound with a bouncier, ‘60s pop and R&B-infused style. I can’t speak for other long-time fans, but I loved the change in direction, which brought some freshness to a formula that was growing increasingly stale.

Band of Horses Everything All the Time

Probably as close to generic “indie” as you’ll find on this list, except that the group (not to be confused with video-game-music inspired Horse the Band) is extremely good and the songs show none of the frustrating detachment that has plagued the underground in the last decade or so.

Celtic Frost Monotheist

I really didn’t expect this group – one of the most influential underground metal acts of the 1980s – to ever make a comeback. And I certainly didn’t expect it to be this good. Dark, moody and loaded with grooves that reach deep into the soul, Monotheist shows that old timers can’t just play rock n’ roll, they can own it.

TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain

Perhaps the greatest complement you can pay a group if that the music is nearly impossible to describe. TV on the Radio defies all descriptions, except for the basics: New Yorkers, experimental, eternally in a groove; and quite, quite good.

Midlake The Trials of Van Occupanther

One advantage of doing this year-end list a bit later than others is that I can find music I may have missed. So, thank you Onion A.V. Club, I would have never found this wonderful mix of ‘70s-influenced country-rock without you.

Mogwai Mr. Beast

Long the darlings of the indie scene, Mogwai’s latest… isn’t going to drive them to the mainstream. Still, Mr. Beast mixes ambience, heaviness and a level of beauty not expected from a group of this ilk.


Raconteurs Broken Boy Soldier

Back to the A.V. Club for a second. In explaining why this didn’t make the cut for their best-of list, the writers mentioned it is only the “fourth-best” White Stripes album. Which is true, but that still puts it among terrific company. Jack White mixes well with a full band, providing a larger pallet for him to ply his signature interpretation of the blues.

Wolf Eyes Human Animal

If you’ve ever seen the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, there is a moment – after about half an hour of creepiness – when Leatherface jumps on screen and kills his first victim. From there on out, it’s a non-stop descent into hell. That’s this album.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones

Another group fights the sophomore slump with an album that was fairly easy to dismiss as a disappointment at the beginning of the year, but stayed in circulation on my iPod through the months and ended up as one of my favorites of the year.

Heck, it was a great year, here’s 20 more quality releases:

Beck The Information
Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint The River in Reverse
The Coup Pick a Bigger Weapon
Drive-By Truckers A Blessing and a Curse
Thea Gilmore Harpo’s Ghost
Gojira From Mars to Sirius
Isis In the Absence of Truth
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins Rabbit Fur Coat
Jesu Silver
Lamb of God Sacrament
Peaches Impeach My Bush
Psalm One The Death of Frequent Flyer
Napalm Death Smear Campaign
Rasa Temple of Love
Sonic Youth Rather Ripped
Sunn 0))) and Boris Altar
Tennessee Boltsmokers Hydro Radio
Wailin’ Jennys Firecracker
HankWilliams III Straight to Hell
Tom Waits Orphans


Dude…They’re still alive?
Iron Maiden comes back with a pretty good album, A Matter of Life and Death.

Artist who would have been in the Top 10 if she hadn’t canceled a concert in Door County to attend an awards ceremony
Rosanne Cash

Best way to pretend to be a rock star
Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II. Why play air guitar? These days, you can fire up a Playstation 2, hold the special guitar controller and rock out to “Smoke on the Water” and “Bark at the Moon.” Sometimes, the 21st century is really cool.

Best song from an otherwise mediocre album
“Crazy,” Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere

Most Disappointing
Soul Asylum

Would be most disappointing if last year’s album hadn’t already lowered my expectations
Bruce Springsteen

Overrated
The Arctic Monkeys

An end-of-the-year passing.

James Brown left the earth on Christmas Day. Sad? Certainly. But the Godfather will live on – not just in his own music, but also in the heart of funk, R&B, rock, soul and hip-hop. Let’s have a moment of silence from all the turntables around the world.

Welcome to the end of the year

This may be a day late and a dollar short, but here I am inside the blogsphere, ready to share my wisdom with the rest of the world. Or, at the very least, share the views of a geeky, gay, left-wing, 37-year-old arts and entertainment writer/freelance editor from a not-frigid-at-all Minneapolis. (Say what you want about global warming, but it is the end of December and there are tiny clumps of snow clinging to the grass -- some of which is still green! This would have never happened when I was a kid, when the snow fell like... well, snow.)

So what can I add to the muddle of the internet? God knows, but I'm here to find out. My interests are pretty diverse -- my job involves writing about music, theater and anything else I can sell off to my editors; while my free time is taken up with SF/fantasy books, off-the-wall film and TV and a variety of digital games and ones that require a bit of social interaction to complete. So expect the... I guess the unexpected (or at the very least, random thoughts on most anything under this, or any other, sun).