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Location: Loveland, CO.
Preoccupations: God, words and tunes.
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In the Year of the Blind, the Funny-Eyed Album Is King
OK, so I got ambitious and went for it a day later. At least now I can take the rest of the year off (provided nothing else comes along)...
Well, here we are, at the end of another year. And while there's a lot worth keeping, there's also a lot worth leaving behind. If you've been following along (or even if you haven't), I shan't repeat any of it.
And musically, this wasn't the best of years either. Actually, there's a pretty good chance that it was the worst one I can remember, ever. Most of these albums (and all of the new ones) have been talked about, so I'll keep the comments really simple. But let's just say you have to get to #10 in my discoveries list before you find an album that's topped by anything that came out this year.
Another interesting thing I noticed was when we started discussing Top 10 lists on another message board, the initiator had a category for Best Comeback. And it hit me: Almost ALL of the best albums of 2006 were comeback albums. The old guys, by and large (with one painful exception) saved this from being an absolutely moribund year musically.
Anyway, let's start with the Top 10 Discoveries of the year (i.e., those that didn't come out this year, but that's when I found them). Links to the original reviews are provided when available:
10. Derek Webb -- Mockingbird -- And again, note that this is as good as ANY Christian album did this year. Another shocking turn of events.
9. Frank Zappa -- Hot Rats -- I'm really looking forward to Andre's promised buyer's guide to the Zappa pantheon. Suffice to say, the boy was at his best when he DID, in fact, "shut up and play yer guitar."
8. Adrian Belew -- Here -- A small personal revelation, and all the Beatles riffs you can eat.
7. Patti Smith -- Peace and Noise -- I'm gonna get to my own column on Patti next year -- promise. In the meantime, we remembawwwwwwwww - EVERYTHING! Hah-hah...
6. Peter Hammill -- The Silent Corner and Empty Stage -- The lovely "Song for Wilhelmina" is worth the price of admission, and The Tortured One doesn't stop there.
5. Lou Reed -- Magic and Loss -- Not everything on here IS magic, but the stuff that is is deep, deep, deep. And loss -- yeah, we got that one here in spades.
4. Graham Parker -- Struck by Lightning -- I don't think you can find another album this side of fellow sometime Woodstock residents The Band that glorifies and illuminates domestic life this well.
3. Frank Zappa -- Burnt Weeny Sandwich -- Yeah, I've been spending a lot of time with c.1970 Zappa lately. The disposable opening and closing doo-wop songs aside (yes, I know I'm dissing "WPLJ" - deal with it), this here masterpiece manages to fuse rock, jazz, AND classical, and one wishes he'd broken as much ground after this, rather than becoming everyone's favorite musical dirty-joke teller. "The House We Used to Live In" will knock you on yr butt, pick you back up, and knock you back on yr butt again. It's that good.
2. Modest Mouse -- Good News for People Who Love Bad News -- This album is just a joy. Inventive, funny, weird, while synthesizing every influence it can get its hands on. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Brian Wilsons of the 21st Century. Well, we'll see about that, but the promise is there, anyway.
1. Peter Hammill -- In Camera -- Faith, unbelief and everything between and beyond. A terrifyingly powerful album.
As for 2006, starting from the bottom up:
Disappointment of the Year: The Lost Dogs -- The Lost Cabin and The Mystery Trees. It's not even close. Runner-up would be Beck's The Information, which nonetheless makes the Top 10 list below (although the fact that it did underscores what a disappointment this year was in general).
Best Album of 2006 That I Can't Include (and would be the best if I could include it): Twenty Twenty: The Essential T Bone Burnett -- I said enough back at the link. Buy, and enjoy.
And now, onto this year's "Top 10":
10. Jai Agnish -- Mechanical Sunshine -- OK, maybe he IS the beneficiary of a (former) hometown discount. But maybe not. It's a nice, quirky little album.
9. Ray Davies -- Other People's Lives -- It's Brother Ray, for crying out loud. Still, I hope tomorrow he finds better things.
8. Slaid Cleaves -- Unsung -- A deliberately minor affair, wherein perennial good guy Slaid covers his (mostly) unsigned buddies' tunes and gets them all a payday. That said, "Call It Sleep" ranks with anything Slaid's written himself.
7. Beck -- The Information -- CSM artist still has his guero groove thang on, but not much else going on here. (CSM = Contemporary Scientologist Music, BTW. 
)
6. Tom Verlaine -- Songs and Other Things -- Perhaps a bit skimpy in the coherent lyrics department, but AH, THAT GUITAR! How I've missed it....
5. Brian Eno -- Another Day on Earth -- Busy little boy this year. When's he's OK, he's ambient, and he's ALWAYS ambient. And when he's very good, he's disturbing. Well, on this one anyway.
4. T Bone Burnett -- The True False Identity -- Only 14 years overdue, and just about picks up where he left off on The Criminal Under My Own Hat. Give this one to your favorite Bush-hating evangelical friends; they'll thank you for it.
3. Paul Simon -- Surprise -- Definitely some life left in the old boy, and he celebrates it quite well here.
2. Weird Al Yankovic -- Straight Outta Lynwood -- Yes, I know. But it's funny from the word "they"; pushes the envelopes of good taste and polite humor decidedly more than usual; and besides, the perverse side of me really, really wants to declare "Pancreas" Song of the Year.
And finally....
1. Sparks -- Hello Young Lovers -- Yeah, I don't get it either. I really don't. But it's painfully catchy, bombastically yet self-consciously ambitious, and fun to the point of relentless obnoxiousness. And yet, it doesn't even quite qualify as a Simmons-Certified Tranportational Device(r). Nonetheless (roll those title credits, Jeffrey), in the Year of the Blind, the Funny-Eyed Album Is King.
Thanks for playing along. Now watch, I'll get something in my Christmas stocking that will blow this all away. Well, one hopes, anyway.
Posted by: burninglight at 01:42 |
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