My favorite albums of 2006
Okay I posted a new article on musicrex.com listing many “best albums of 2006″ by some of the leading bloggers and music publications. Hopefully it will help you find some great music to listen to in the coming weeks.
It is only appropriate for me to list my favorite albums of 2006 as well. I didn’t get to listen to quite as many new CDs as I did last year, but I was lucky enough to listen to lots. Of course this list is highly influenced by the concerts I attended. Seeing an artist perform live makes all the difference in my appreciation of their music.
This year saw a revival of “shoe-gazer” type rock music and a lot of the albums I liked fell into this category. Serena Maneesh, Dirty on Purpose, The High Violets and Asobi Seksu all exhibited strong influences from My Bloody Valentine, Lush and Catherine Wheel, some of my favorite bands ever.
Here are the albums I enjoyed the most this year:
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones
Released in April, there never was a better rock album that I heard all year. Nick Zinner is an amazing guitarist and I really like Brian Chase on drums. Of course there is nobody like Karen O at a live performance and she really outdid herself at the show I saw in Denver. This group has matured and their new songs showed real growth as musicians. I can’t wait to see where they take us next.
The High Violets – To Where You Are
Angelic lyrics, blistering guitar and strong hooks make this an unforgettable album. Maybe because it was released early in the year everyone forgot it, but it is a crime it is on so few best-of lists. More pop-oriented than the other shoegazer titles this year makes it enjoyable even if you aren’t a fan of MBV.
Silversun Pickups – Carnavas
Every song on this album is strong, but I was especially partial to “Rusted Wheel” and “Lazy Eye,” which proved just how good this group is at slowly building a tune into an emotional experience.
Asobi Seksu – Citrus
The dreamy vocals and wall-of-sound guitars made this an easy pick for me. Their concert performance was even better than the album.
Art Brut – Bang Bang Rock & Roll
Wow these guys are just so amazing. Even though it was released last year in the UK, it didn’t make it here until May. Incredibly fun, simple beats and songs your brother could have written. If only he had!
Dirty on Purpose – Hallelujah Sirens
A merge of two popular trends this year: they are from Brooklyn and they play shoegazer-type songs. They have a great guitarist and two guys sharing the dreamy vocals.
Tilly and the Wall – Bottoms of Barrels
This album was so much fun and went way beyond the originality of the tap-dancing percussion. Maybe it should have been the soundtrack to “Happy Feet” instead of the warmed-over stars in the movie.
Viva Voce – Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
This 2-person band from Portland blew me away in concert. Their album is more understated than the balls-out live performance, but still a great experience.
The Rainman Suite – Losing With Style
On the face they are a straight-ahead, old-school punk rock band from LA. Then they throw in the rock ballads which are incredibly strong. I probably listened to this more than any other album this year. An unsigned band with a really talented front-man in Josh Robinson.
Serena Maneesh – Serena Maneesh
Sometimes I wondered if this was just a lost album from My Bloody Valentine. This group from Norway channeled some of my favorite sounds of the last decade into a great new album.
How to find the Best Music of 2006
December is my favorite time for music discovery because that is when everyone makes their lists of favorite music released during the past year.
Traditionally, few new records are released in January and February, but that never bothers me because I am always busy catching up on what I missed the previous year.
How best to take advantage of this deluge of music recommendations? Well, I start by searching out best-of lists that have titles on them I am already familiar with and then check out the albums on those same lists that I have never heard.
Also, you might want to check out albums that are getting lots of buzz from many different critics. Metacritic is a particularly good place to start. Metacritic is a site that compiles lists of music reviewed by major online and offline publications.
Once I find an album I am interested in checking out I often go first to the artist’s myspace site to listen to a few songs. Often the artist’s web site will also have tracks to download or listen to. In fact, you would be surprised at how many artist web sites stream an entire album so you can check it out.
Once I find an album I want to listen to more often and buy, I usually check eMusic
to see if it is available there. I have a monthly subscription at eMusic that allows me to download many more albums each month than I would be able to afford otherwise. One of the great things about eMusic is the tunes are all in mp3 format and will play on any computer or digital music player.
If an album is not on eMusic I will often check out Amazon to see if it is available at a good price as a used music CD. You would be surprised at how many great new releases are priced at less than $5.00 on Amazon if you search the used merchandise. This happens because many albums don’t get airplay and are not well-known, but there are still hundreds of discs distributed by the record companies as promos. A lot of these end up saturating the used market the first few months after the release of an album.
In the coming days I will link to as many best albums of 2006 lists as I can and label them according to style or preference of the reviewer to help you navigate them.
Also, later this week I will list my favorite albums of the year too.
