2006 toplists, pt 1
Ok, so I may be late to this game, but I've been busy with a lot of shit... anyway, here's what we have for the non-top-10 part of my list, roughly ordered by how much I like them, top to bottom:

Clipse - We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol. 2
I really fucking loved this one - i've probably listened to it much more than anything that actually came out this year. I might actually rank this above their full-length, as far as how much I enjoy the two albums... but it came out in '05, relegating it to this category. If you enjoy Clipse at all, go pick this one up. I think you can get it for something like $6 through mixunit.com.

Justice - s/t
I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say these guys deserve a new subgenre, but I haven't heard anybody else do low-fi/noise/house before (or at least, not as well as Justice). There are a couple of fantastic tracks on this EP, but the rest is a bit lacking. Thankfully, these guys do remixes of a lot of other tracks, where their production work can really shine - check out Soulwax - NY Excuse (justice remix), which is way better than the original. Look around on hype machine for other stuff too, there's quite a few of them worth a listen (or 20).

Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
Perhaps this is a good example of how release dates can affect year-end lists... I think this came out in spring sometime, and I listened to it quite a bit then, but only once in the second half of the year - so it's probably better than I'm remembering it to be. I did take issue with the mastering as well, though; they went for kind of a low-fi (some might call it "analog") sound which rolled off the high treble somewhat. I didn't think it sounded so good, and I'm anal about that sort of shit, so it lost points in my book.

M. Ward - Post-War
A really solid album from M. Ward. I never really got into his older stuff so much, but this album seems a bit more accessible than, say, Transfiguration of Vincent. A solid effort, and I enjoy the production - in fact I might (gasp!) steal a few tricks from this album for one I'm mixing. Definitely a good listen - this one just missed the top 10. What the hell, I only really paid a lot of attention to my top 5 anyway. Let's just say it's tied for something around #10 or so.

LCD Soundsystem - 45:33
Maybe it's the version I have, but it's not exacly 45:33 as the title would lead one to believe. Close enough, though. I really liked LCD SS's double album from last year so I thought I'd check this out... there are some great moments here, but since it's one long mix they're not as easy to pick out like we'd normally do with tracks on an album. Essentially, distilled down, this might be the equivalent of two solid album tracks, but they're good enough to warrant a mention here. In its current form, though, this is better background music since most of the elements either take too long to develop or just don't work quite right.

Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Beirut had a huge amount of music blogger buzz going for him... I think 4-5 tracks were posted various places before the album even came out. Once it did, though, I must say I was a bit disappointed... a few of the tracks here are really incredible, but about half of the album does next to nothing for me. But I have somewhat eccentric tastes, and other people like this more than I...

Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
It's no "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out", but it's another decent album from these indie lifetieme achievers. This feels longer than 15 tracks; perhaps in part because it opens and clsoes with 10+ minute jams which don't really showcase the band's best work. Aside from that, it's a little inconsistent throughout, but still a good listen.

Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Ok, ok, everybody was listening to this, myself included - I liked it a lot for maybe three weeks-a month, but it's one of those albums that lost something after the initial infatuation wore off. Kind of like "Hail to the Thief", at least in my book.

Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
Yet another "blogger-buzz"-band. This entire album leaked a couple months before actual release, though. Having been compared to the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, this is an odd fit, stylistically, for my tastes - but as I posted earlier this year, something just 'sticks' with this album. It's catchy, but not immediately so; all the arrangements work well, and the songwriting is solid. The one thing that stuck out as a negative for this band was the lyrics - which is particularly odd, since I almost never have any complaints about lyrics (within the genres I normally listen to, that is). Several songs on the album elicit a "what the fuck"-esque response from me, which detracts from the overall experience. That, and it sounds like the vocalist has marshmallows in his mouth at times - or he's chewing on his own cheeks. Anyway, after a going through the album a dozen times or so, this just wasn't working so well for me, though the first few listens were a lot of fun.


On to pt. 2...

- posted by vcmc @  1/01/2007 01:06:00 PM