Now I believe everyone that checks out the Spill here knows that I am a pretty big music guy (not that I've particularly shown it on this here blag, but I have had a few clips here & there... or just on the left-hand side).
So now finally my top 6 music picks from 2006...
With my heart tucked in the sweet sounds churned from a guitar (preferably with drums, bass, and vox) making "rock music", I (thankfully) am very aware and very happy that there is so much other great music from all genres (as I'm especially blessed to learn from my worldly landlords - always a treat). So it's impossible to really have an "ultimate" top list, but regardless, here what I'm saying you should get from 2006:
(reviews are linked to album title)
6. Cat Power - The Greatest (great soothing acoustic-y music - great to unwind and relax to!)
5. TV on the Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain (fantastic & definitely worthwhile, but it is a hard first listen - but most very worthwhile!)
4. Mastodon - Blood Mountain (amazing innovative hard rock - it's always great when a band with the same tools as all the others makes something sound so new!!)
3. LCD Soundsystem - 45:33
This is basically tied with my #2... I don't really know when is a good time not to have this on! It's available only on itunes (bummer - but you can download it for free from singingfish) & was intended to be for running (it's sponsored by Nike), but it's so great that you really don't need to be running or exercising (although it doesn't hinder). It is a 45min continuous mix of different paced electronica music and obviously I very highly recommend!! The best background & earphone music I had on all year!2. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Yes... the Clipse are back! Idealistically it's a pretty cliched rap album (money/drugs/hos) but the rhymes are fantastic (any rapper that spits an anti-JayZ line like, "I ain't coming atcha quote, unquote "Famous Rapper"/ Who turn positive, try to tell ya how to live" is onto something good in my eyes), and the beats are bar-none. It's the Neptunes again providing the background (rumour has it more Chad than Pharrell - cause of it's dark sound) and really the album is a great great listen from start to finish. The single Mr. Me Too isn't even one of the best 5 songs on the disc! Help your inner gangsta and buy this album!And my Number 1 Album for 2006 is....
1. The Replacements - Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? (The Best Of the Replacements)
I know that this is probably pretty anti-climatic as a band that's been broken up since '91, being at the very top of such a prestigious list such as mine, but this best-of introduced me to a band that I had only heard about (and usually in regards to as being an influence for bands that I liked). It's a 20 song chronologically done best-of that shows a band start off as a bunch of bratty punks evolve into hidden pop rock formulators... and by the end they're almost balladeers. I can say that I became pretty obsessed with about 12 of these songs will mixing it up with the other 8 that I found to be first-rate. "Alex Chilton" woke my rock n' roll ears up, "Left of the Dial" is one of the best heartbreak songs ever, if only beaten by their "Within Your Reach" or "Answering Machine". And "Message to the Boys", (one of the 2 new songs on the disc) is easily one of the best pop rock songs I heard all year (traditional in form & amazingly executed in stuck in your head!)! And I haven't even mentioned "I Will Dare" which is one of the best songs I have ever heard period!!! Geez... this could go on and on, and I'm sure that by now you get the picture.So if you want something fantastic that doesn't sound like Coldplay backwash or the Killers, pick this up!
~fin~
Jx
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