Shop our Big Takeover store for back issues, t-shirts & CDs
Follow The Big Takeover
My Top 10 Albums for 2006
As a qualifier, this is a list of my ten favorite full-length albums of 2006. I only include new material here as reissues are exempt. Thus, the list doesn’t represent everything I was into or loved this year. For example, I went through a serious BEACH BOYS phase earlier this year where I bought all of their albums and more recently (within the last few weeks), I’ve gotten heavily back into the hardcore punk of my youth along with the even heavier and faster grindcore as well after watching a PLASMATICS documentary DVD. Furthermore, I’m sure that I’ll hear albums released this year that I just didn’t get around to listening to or never even knew existed and perhaps some that would have even made my list if I would have known about them. Also, since this list doesn’t include EPs, that means that perennial favorites of mine like VOXTROT and THE LONG BLONDES (though they made a great Lp this year as well, it fell a bit short) aren’t represented here. Then again, that’s what an EPs and singles list is for.
With that said, here’s my list. It’s in no specific order, though if I had to pick a favorite for the year, I’d go with MISSION OF BURMA.
Although I liked their 2004 comeback album OnOffOn, I felt that most of its best songs were cast-offs from their early ‘80s heyday and that CLINT CONLEY’s singing and the overall production could have been better as well. There are no such qualifiers here. Simply put, this is the album that OnOffOn should have been. Or perhaps that’s unfair to say as it may have taken them a “Good, Not Great” (to borrow a title from this amazing album) album to get to this step of their career. Nevertheless, this album hits you over the head with the amazing “2wice” and never lets up for its 51 minutes. You want highlights? How about “Donna Sumeria”? When I saw them play this song last January (when this album wasn’t out yet), I commented to my friend that it sounded like they were riffing on DONNA SUMMER’s “I Feel Love”. He thought I was insane, but judging by the title, I was right. It’s the heaviest post-punk adaptation of disco I’ve ever heard. There’s no lightweight stuff here, as other highlights like “Careening with Conviction,” “1001 Pleasant Dreams” and the incredible closer “Nancy Reagan’s Head” (song title of the year) prove. The production is crystalline clear (though just rough enough), much like their early ‘80s heyday, and the writing, singing and playing are top-notch as well. In fact, I like it so much that it made me question whether this part of their legacy is just as good and relevant as their historic highs of the early ‘80s. While I don’t have an answer for that, their recent live shows have been astounding as well and this Lp makes the strongest possible case. It’s quite simply the best “second act” or “comeback” album I’ve ever heard (though it’s the second album in their comeback), far topping other worthwhile efforts from other reformed punk bands this year such as RADIO BIRDMAN’s fine Zeno Beach or the surprisingly listenable NEW YORK DOLLS effort One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This.
This is Scott Walker’s first album since 1995’s terrifying and haunting Tilt and his first for 4AD and what an album it is. Even more terrifying, haunting, minimalist, dark and perplexing, this proves that the eleven-year wait was well worth it. I was completely riveted when I heard this as I was COMPLETELY unprepared for it. It’s music that makes your entire body shake as it overpowers you. Other reviewers have harped on the unusual instrumention within, most notably a percussionist playing a piece of meat, but that misses the broader point.
Because of the heavy subject matter (“Jesse” uses the stillborn brother of ELVIS PRESLEY as a metaphor for the horror of the 9/11 attacks) and its overall feel, this is a very difficult album to listen to, so I didn’t listen to as much as some of my other favorites here. However, it’s an incredible artistic achievement made even moree so by the fact that in his sixties, Scott Walker is making the boldest, most experimental music of his entire four-decade long career.
I’ve always liked TV on the Radio, but I never truly loved them until this year due to a combination of their absolutely incredible live shows as well as this awesome album. While I liked all of their previous releases, they truly put it all together on this album. Yes it’s a little less raw and bit more mellow than their first album Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, but what little they sacrifice in intensity is more than made up for by mood, atmosphere and a newfound appreciation for electronic blips and bleeps that enrapture the listener into their strangely beautiful world. Opening track “I Was a Lover” utilizes the doo-wop harmony vocals of their earlier efforts to great effect, but “Wolf Like Me” (one of the year’s best tracks) is the strongest track, perhaps their best song ever. Its soaring verses and anthemic chorus recall the early U2 of Boy as TUNDE ADEBIMPE howls (no pun intended) the vocals with pure intensity. Other highlights include “Province” (featuring TVOTR fan DAVID BOWIE on backing vocals) and “Dirty Whirl Wind”, but this is an album best enjoyed from start to finish and preferably on headphones, where its idiosyncracies can really be heard.
Unlike many fans, I really liked last year’s Discover a Lovelier You. In fact, it made it onto last year’s Top 10 list. With that said, this record (coming only a year after its predecessor) is a stronger effort. At 12 songs, it’s more concise and the quality control per track is thus better. Musically, it recalls the first 2 Pernice Brothers albums Overcome by Happiness and the magnificent The World Won’t End much more than the last two in that its main influences are ‘60s chamber pop and early ‘70s stuff like BADFINGER (just check out the awesome remake of Joe Pernice’s SCUD MOUNTAIN BOYS track “Grudge F***”) and err, BREAD (whose “Everything I Own” is namechecked in “Grudge F***”). It’s almost as if Joe took note of the fans’ negative reaction toward the last album or perhaps he realized that its ‘80s influenced direction was a dead end. Nevertheless, Pernice Brothers are not an experimental band. They just do what they do (writing amazing pop songs) and they do it better than anybody and for that they should be lauded. This Lp’s highlights also include the anthemic “Somerville”, the tribute to writer “B.S. JOHNSON”, the insanely catchy “Microscopic View” and the even catchier, JOE STRUMMER-referencing “High as a Kite”.
Although this isn’t as strong as last year’s excellent Picaresque (which was my favorite album of last year), this is still a great album and a fine progression for a great band. Their first album for a major label, this album fortunately finds The Decemberists stretching their boundaries instead of commercializing their sound. Before I heard this, I’d thought that COLIN MELOY’s main strengths were in writing mid ‘80s indie-pop tinged melodies reminscent of his idols THE SMITHS, R.E.M and ROBYN HITCHCOCK. However, the more prog-rock elements of this record have made me question that notion. Sure the pop element (especially on “O, Valencia” and “The Perfect Crime”, which also recalls prime-era TALKING HEADS) is still there in full force, but more experimental exercises such as the 3-part “The Island” also work remarkably well. Honestly, it’s probably the first time I’ve ever heard something reminscent of EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER that I enjoyed and if The Decemberists can pull that off, I have to give them props. With all the good here, my one minor beef with this record is that there are no individual songs as affecting as “The Engine Driver” or “We Both Go Down Together” from Picaresque, not to mention “Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect,” “Odalisque” or “Billy Liar” from their first two records. Then again, this album is strong enough that it easily secured a place in the Top 10 nonetheless.
Forget everything you may have heard or read about this record. Yes she has a squeaky voice (though thankfully less so on this record). Yes the songs range from 7 to almost 17 minutes and there are only 5 of them. Yes she plays a harp and looks like she come straight out of the Renaissance Fair. All of that has nothing to do with why I like this record. Much like my experience with TV on the Radio, I liked her previously but Ys (as well as her terrific live show) really made me a fan. All of what I mentioned above is just smoke and mirrors for a great, female singer-songwriter album. Instead of a confessional piece, however, Ys is beguiling and confusing. At first, it’s hard to make heads or tails out of Joanna’s lyrics, but that’s part of the point. This record unfolds with every listen and after a while, the listener realizes that “Monkey and Bear” becomes a metaphor for manipulation and exploitation and that “Sawdust and Diamonds” (the other standout track here), with its cries of “desire”, says more in its ambiguity than many more straightforward songwriters could ever care to. You can interpret it a variety of ways, but it’s no less affecting. Oh and the string arrangements (done mainly by VAN DYKE PARKS) and production (by STEVE ALBINI) are excellent as well. In fact, contrary to some people’s claims, the string arrangements enhance the overall effect and don’t detract at all from Joanna’s incredible playing and vocal performances. Joanna is the real deal. I look forward to what she has in store for us next.
While THE FLAMING LIPS stumbled this year with the disappointing At War with the Mystics, it’s notable that Midlake (who garnered many a Lips comparison when they started out) made not only the year’s best Flaming Lips record, but the year’s best FLEETWOOD MAC record as well. The influence of the Mac is all over this record, from the rollicking “Roscoe” (one of the year’s best tracks) to the yearning “Head Home” while the title track (though it’s just called “Van Occupanther”) is one of the few tracks that earns the Flaming Lips comparisons this band used to get. Don’t let the Fleetwood Mac comparisons put you off, though. Beside the fact that I really enjoy that particular era (mid to late ‘70s) of the Mac’s output, there’s a lot more going on here. LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM (who released a highly regarded solo album this year as well) would probably never write lyrics about lonely alchemists, secluded 19th century villages and the like. Listening to this record, one gets the feeling that frontman TIM SMITH questions the modern world and unlike JONATHAN RICHMAN in the early ‘70s, he would rather go back and live in the past. Sure on one hand it’s a bit romantic and even delusional to just blindly assume that things were better in the past, but at its heart, this album is all about the desire to escape and for something more pure and meaningful. Plus, it has some of the finest ‘70s rock-inspired melodies I’ve heard this year.
Although last year’s polarizing Rehearsing My Choir surely alienated fans that would’ve otherwise enjoyed this release, I predict that in years to come, their catalog will be looked upon with fondness and that they’ll be considered a truly legendary band. I’m not suggesting that quality is equal to quantity, but they’ve now released four full-length albums (not including EP and main songwriter MATTHEW FRIEDBERGER’s two solo albums that were released over the summer) in a little over 3 years and they ALREADY have another album in the can. While not everything has been great, much of it has, so while it takes years for bands like YEAH YEAH YEAHS to make a disappointing (though still good) second album, this great and prolific band is the exact opposite of that.
As for this album, it’s somewhere between the singles collection EP and 2004’s excellent Blueberry Boat in that it deftly combines the pop (“Waiting to Know You”) and experimental (check out the backwards vocals in “The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry”) aspects of the band.
I loved their last two records (in fact 2000’s ...And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out was the record that got me into them), but it’s still nice to see the venerable Hoboken veterans rock out a bit more on this album. Right off the bat, it starts out with the bruising CAN meets White Light, White Heat drive of “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind” as if to heed off casual fans who may have thought that Yo La Tengo were all about the mellow aspects of the last two records and to welcome back those wanting more noise akin to 1997’s I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One and their other ‘90s records. This isn’t the entire story, however. This is perhaps their most diverse album with territory ranging from the JAMES MCNEW-sung Northern Soul of “Mr. Tough” to the Nuggets-style garage rock of “I Should Have Known Better” and “Watch Out for Ronnie”, all bookended by two long drone pieces. Meanwhile tracks like “Sometimes I Don’t Get You” could have come off either of their last two albums. The last song is another noisy rave-up called “The Story of Yo La Tango”, but after an album this strong, I can only hope that there are more chapters left to their own story.
In 2004, when their previous album (the brilliant No Cities Left) was released in the UK and the US (it had been released in Canada a year prior to that), I put it on my Top 10 list for that year. My initial reaction to this fine effort was that it isn’t as good as its predecessor. And while I still feel that way to some extent, I also feel that it can hold its own quite nicely. First, it must be noted that this is a much rawer-sounding album than ANY previous Dears album. In interviews, lead singer and songwriter MURRAY LIGHTBURN said he was going for a more live-in-the-studio feel and they certainly achieve it here. Furthermore, as opposed to the Brit-pop influenced chamber-pop of their prior records, this album actually kind of rocks. “Death of Life We Want You” reminds me of NIRVANA (?) and some of the other tracks recall The Bends-era RADIOHEAD. Don’t be fooled, though. Murray’s heart is still very on his sleeve and unlike so many bands who put style over substance, he’s about connecting emotionally with the listener. It’s just that now he’s found love (with keyboardist NATALIA YANCHUK) and has a child, so he seems more content. In fact one can view this as a concept album about his newfound happiness as songs like the first single “Ticket to Immortality” and “Bandwagoneers” refer to an unnamed “our” and “we” in its lyrics. If I have one complaint, however, it’s that the studio version of “You and I Are a Gang of Losers” (the album’s title track) pales in comparison to the amazing versions I’ve heard them do live since last year. I think this song could benefit from a single remix or edit of some sort and if it’s done properly, it could be a huge hit. It sounds like an ‘80s prom theme for the misfit kids in JOHN HUGHES movies and I mean that in the best possible way.
