Top 10 CD's of 2006!
It's time for David Jett's top 10 cd's of 2006! As usual, the criteria is a combination of many things...album quality, amount of time the cd spent in my car cd player, etc. Live recordings and best of compilations are not eligable (if they were, the new Oasis best of double cd would be right up there!) People always complain that there is not much good music these days. Well, there's a lot of crappy stuff out there, like any other year, but you can find plenty of good stuff if you take the time to look. And listen.
This year saw good cd's from Beck, Nellie McKay, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Camera Obscura, Dwight Yoakum, Cheap Trick, Joan Jett, Van Hunt...none of these made the top ten this year. Who did? Let's rock and/or roll...remember, these are the top ten, but in no particular order...
1. Rhett Miller, The Believer. There's a trick to writing a good power pop song. Keep it short, simple and catchy. Marshall Crenshaw and Nick Lowe were masters at it. So were Matthew Sweet and Evan Dando (for a while.) Rhett Miller, both solo and with the Old 97's, writes song you instantly embrace. The first time you hear them, you think you've heard them before. That's a good thing in this case.
2. Jet, Shine On. Well, no big surprise here. Jet is a great mix of AC/DC and Oasis (uh,I mean, the Beatles...) And they look like a rock band. And they are from Australia, which brings us to another no-brainer if you know me...
3. Kasey Chambers, Carnival. Kasey is a huge star in Australia. She would be here too if radio stations were worth a shit anymore. (Buy satellite radio!) She is one of the few artists who can make me both cry and smile all in the span of a 3 minute song. There's a cool young teenage girl who comes into my work a couple times a week and reads manga. I had Kasey Chambers on the overhead play. She heard a song, asked who it was, and instantly bought it. Kasey is cool that way. Take that, My Chemical Romance!
4. Be Your Own Pet, self-titled. A hot new band out of Nashville, BYOP combine Blondie, Sonic Youth, and, well, just youth. These guys are young, but already totally kick ass. And the lead singer, a hyper, elfish blonde gal, is a whirlwind during live shows (well, ones she actually plays instead of crying in the van cause she had a fight with her boyfriend, but that's another story...) Live, you can't take your eyes off this girl. And their sound is refreshing and energetic. I think that's cause they like to rock. Who would have guessed?
5. Jenny Lewis, Rabbit Fur Coat/Amy Millan, Honey From The Tombs. Ok, kinda cheating here and listing two cd's. But they have a lot in common. Both are great cd's. Both are solo cd's from ladies in great bands (Rilo Kiley and The Stars.) Both show off a more folksy/americana side. Both have haunting voices. Both are have that look that makes you want to recklessly fall in love with them. And, Jenny Lewis did a video patterned after an episode of Hee Haw. Brilliant and charming. If I really wanted to cheat on this entry, I could also include the solo cd's from Nina Gordon and Emily Haines (Veruca Salt and Metric.) But that's if I wanted to cheat.
6. Muse, Black Holes and Revelations. I've always said that Muse sounds like Coldplay, if Coldplay weren't such pussies and rocked out every now and then. We'll leave it at that.
7. Primal Scream, Riot City Blues. Primal Scream has been around for a while, but like a lot of bands I like, never made it as big in the US and they did in Britain. This band started out sounding like lost Rolling Stones sessions, then went electronic. They come full circle here, producing the best Stones cd since the, uh, Stones. "Country Girl" is quite possibly my favorite song of the year.
8. Artic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's Not What I'm Not. Well, that's a long title. Another "bigger in England" band. They were hailed as the second coming of The Strokes (or Jesus, it's hard to remember. Man, them Brits sure know how to hype a band!) If you don't own this cd, you're a horse's ass. Or is that arse...
9. The Killers, Sam's Town. A lot of people slagged this cd since it was less dance and more Bruce than their debut album. I'll admit, it took a little longer to grow on me, but I ended up loving it just as much.
10. Band of Horses, Everything All The Time. I said this list is in no particular order. I lied. This is my number one cd of the year. And nobody has heard of them. Go figure. This is like the "High Fidelity" Beta Band scene. I've put this cd on at work, and by the third song, someone is always saying, "hey, who is this? I need this!" You need it, too.
11. (yes, the top ten has an eleven, cause I had done this list and totally forgot about this cd, so I'm adding it in...) Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere. Cee-lo and Danger Mouse. The best single of the year. Great r&b. A Violent Femmes cover. Some rap. Weird beats. How can this not be great?
Here are a few cd's which just barely missed out on the top ten:
Towers of London, Blood Sweat & Towers. Based purley on the one-two punch of "Fuck It Up" and "Fuck It Up" Acoustic Version. These boys sure do like the Clash and The Sex Pistols. Good on 'em!
Lady Sovereign, Public Warning. A white, clever, English, female rapper. That fills that niche. Fun cd.
Placebo, Meds. Some bands, like The Hold Steady, make you want to chug a beer. Others, like Primal Scream, make you want Jack Daniels. I have never shot up, have never wanted to, and I'm 100% sure I never will. But if I did, I would want to be listening to this. Wow. That was a weird recommendation.
CSS, Cansei De Ser Sexy. Mostly female electroclash thing. Very fun.
Carrie Rodriguez, Seven Angels On A Bicycle. She's in the Lucinda Williams mold, just younger and hasn't smoked and drank as much. Beautiful voice and melencoly songs.
Dixie Chicks, Taking The Long Way HOme. They made Toby Keith mad (good.) They lost some of their more redneck fans (good.) They refused to back down (good.) They made a fantastic album (great.) These gals have spunk. And with all due respect to Lou Grant, I love spunk!
Coming up soon: best singles of 2006 and Worst Music of 2006 (that one's always fun...)
It's time for David Jett's top 10 cd's of 2006! As usual, the criteria is a combination of many things...album quality, amount of time the cd spent in my car cd player, etc. Live recordings and best of compilations are not eligable (if they were, the new Oasis best of double cd would be right up there!) People always complain that there is not much good music these days. Well, there's a lot of crappy stuff out there, like any other year, but you can find plenty of good stuff if you take the time to look. And listen.
This year saw good cd's from Beck, Nellie McKay, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Camera Obscura, Dwight Yoakum, Cheap Trick, Joan Jett, Van Hunt...none of these made the top ten this year. Who did? Let's rock and/or roll...remember, these are the top ten, but in no particular order...
1. Rhett Miller, The Believer. There's a trick to writing a good power pop song. Keep it short, simple and catchy. Marshall Crenshaw and Nick Lowe were masters at it. So were Matthew Sweet and Evan Dando (for a while.) Rhett Miller, both solo and with the Old 97's, writes song you instantly embrace. The first time you hear them, you think you've heard them before. That's a good thing in this case.
2. Jet, Shine On. Well, no big surprise here. Jet is a great mix of AC/DC and Oasis (uh,I mean, the Beatles...) And they look like a rock band. And they are from Australia, which brings us to another no-brainer if you know me...
3. Kasey Chambers, Carnival. Kasey is a huge star in Australia. She would be here too if radio stations were worth a shit anymore. (Buy satellite radio!) She is one of the few artists who can make me both cry and smile all in the span of a 3 minute song. There's a cool young teenage girl who comes into my work a couple times a week and reads manga. I had Kasey Chambers on the overhead play. She heard a song, asked who it was, and instantly bought it. Kasey is cool that way. Take that, My Chemical Romance!
4. Be Your Own Pet, self-titled. A hot new band out of Nashville, BYOP combine Blondie, Sonic Youth, and, well, just youth. These guys are young, but already totally kick ass. And the lead singer, a hyper, elfish blonde gal, is a whirlwind during live shows (well, ones she actually plays instead of crying in the van cause she had a fight with her boyfriend, but that's another story...) Live, you can't take your eyes off this girl. And their sound is refreshing and energetic. I think that's cause they like to rock. Who would have guessed?
5. Jenny Lewis, Rabbit Fur Coat/Amy Millan, Honey From The Tombs. Ok, kinda cheating here and listing two cd's. But they have a lot in common. Both are great cd's. Both are solo cd's from ladies in great bands (Rilo Kiley and The Stars.) Both show off a more folksy/americana side. Both have haunting voices. Both are have that look that makes you want to recklessly fall in love with them. And, Jenny Lewis did a video patterned after an episode of Hee Haw. Brilliant and charming. If I really wanted to cheat on this entry, I could also include the solo cd's from Nina Gordon and Emily Haines (Veruca Salt and Metric.) But that's if I wanted to cheat.
6. Muse, Black Holes and Revelations. I've always said that Muse sounds like Coldplay, if Coldplay weren't such pussies and rocked out every now and then. We'll leave it at that.
7. Primal Scream, Riot City Blues. Primal Scream has been around for a while, but like a lot of bands I like, never made it as big in the US and they did in Britain. This band started out sounding like lost Rolling Stones sessions, then went electronic. They come full circle here, producing the best Stones cd since the, uh, Stones. "Country Girl" is quite possibly my favorite song of the year.
8. Artic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's Not What I'm Not. Well, that's a long title. Another "bigger in England" band. They were hailed as the second coming of The Strokes (or Jesus, it's hard to remember. Man, them Brits sure know how to hype a band!) If you don't own this cd, you're a horse's ass. Or is that arse...
9. The Killers, Sam's Town. A lot of people slagged this cd since it was less dance and more Bruce than their debut album. I'll admit, it took a little longer to grow on me, but I ended up loving it just as much.
10. Band of Horses, Everything All The Time. I said this list is in no particular order. I lied. This is my number one cd of the year. And nobody has heard of them. Go figure. This is like the "High Fidelity" Beta Band scene. I've put this cd on at work, and by the third song, someone is always saying, "hey, who is this? I need this!" You need it, too.
11. (yes, the top ten has an eleven, cause I had done this list and totally forgot about this cd, so I'm adding it in...) Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere. Cee-lo and Danger Mouse. The best single of the year. Great r&b. A Violent Femmes cover. Some rap. Weird beats. How can this not be great?
Here are a few cd's which just barely missed out on the top ten:
Towers of London, Blood Sweat & Towers. Based purley on the one-two punch of "Fuck It Up" and "Fuck It Up" Acoustic Version. These boys sure do like the Clash and The Sex Pistols. Good on 'em!
Lady Sovereign, Public Warning. A white, clever, English, female rapper. That fills that niche. Fun cd.
Placebo, Meds. Some bands, like The Hold Steady, make you want to chug a beer. Others, like Primal Scream, make you want Jack Daniels. I have never shot up, have never wanted to, and I'm 100% sure I never will. But if I did, I would want to be listening to this. Wow. That was a weird recommendation.
CSS, Cansei De Ser Sexy. Mostly female electroclash thing. Very fun.
Carrie Rodriguez, Seven Angels On A Bicycle. She's in the Lucinda Williams mold, just younger and hasn't smoked and drank as much. Beautiful voice and melencoly songs.
Dixie Chicks, Taking The Long Way HOme. They made Toby Keith mad (good.) They lost some of their more redneck fans (good.) They refused to back down (good.) They made a fantastic album (great.) These gals have spunk. And with all due respect to Lou Grant, I love spunk!
Coming up soon: best singles of 2006 and Worst Music of 2006 (that one's always fun...)
badangela:
Primal scream's latest elbum is great. Quite different from their other stuff but I still love it.