We're now into the second half of December so it's serious "looking back at the year that was" time. The other day, Darrell left a comment suggesting a topic of "best CDs of 2006" as an idea for a blog post, something that I'd already been contemplating for awhile. I'm not ready to make my final selections yet... instead I'm just going to list my contenders, the albums in my iTunes library that were released this year that at least merit some consideration. I'm not sure if I'll do a Top 10 or maybe separate them into different categories... I'll come up with something, I'm sure, but this is the beginning of that process.
Before I get to that, let me lay down some thoughts I've had about pop music (a recurring theme here lately, I know, but that's what's on my mind, fwiw.) This year and next mark the anniversary of what I think are the two best years of popular music that's ever been released in the English-speaking world. I'm referring to 1966 and 1967, and especially '67. There were so many breakthrough albums that are now classics, if not downright legendary and epoch-defining, that came out in that brief stretch of time. And I subscribe to the pet theory that says the middle years of a decade are the ones that hold the most lasting significance when looking back, that go the furthest to define the era, if you will. 1966-67 were the hippie years. 1976 was the bicentennial and 1977 was the key year for both punk rock and disco. 1986 and 1987 were perhaps not so instantly evocative but they were the height of the Reagan years, when Iran-Contra hearings and the Black Friday stock market crash took. Musically it was when U2 hit full stride, Guns'n'Roses and Public Enemy debuted, and R.E.M. first entered the mainstream. '96-97, saw Clinton got reelected and the seeds of the Lewinsky/impeachment mess were sown. 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. were shot and killed, Radiohead's "OK Computer" and Chemical Brothers "Dig Your Own Hole" were released (maybe they aren't the classics to you that they are to me!) But I will admit, the music of the more recent decades doesn't quite feel like it has the same staying power as the releases of 66 & 67 have over the past 40 years. Let me repeat that for emphasis: FORTY YEARS! I will probably list some of my favorites from that era in a future post...
But for now, here are the titles of releases that seem hefty enough to get me thinking that maybe, just maybe, they will elicit fond memories and be worth listening to years from now.
At War With The Mystics - The Flaming Lips
Black Holes and Revelations - Muse
Classics - Ratatat
Comfort of Strangers - Beth Orton
Endless Wire - The Who
Fab Four Suture - Stereolab
Face the Promise - Bob Seger
First Impressions of Earth - The Strokes
Game Theory - The Roots
Goodbye Alice in Wonderland - Jewel
How We Operate - Gomez
I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass - Yo La Tengo
Last Man Standing - Jerry Lee Lewis
Living With War - Neil Young
Love - The Beatles
Modern Times - Bob Dylan
On An Island - David Gilmour
Other People's Lives - Ray Davies
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
Post-War - M. Ward
Rather Ripped - Sonic Youth
Simpatico - Charlatans UK
Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Straight Outta Lynwood - "Wierd Al" Yankovic
Surprise - Paul Simon
Tales from the Turnpike House - St. Etienne
The Eraser - Thom Yorke
The Information - Beck
The Lemonheads - The Lemonheads
The Garden - Zero 7
The River in Reverse - Elvis Costello & Allen Touissaint
Under The Covers, Vol. 1 - Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys
Yeah! - Def Leppard
So... is there a "Revolver" or "Aftermath" or "Blonde on Blonde" or "Freak Out!" or "Pet Sounds" or "A Quick One" or "Sounds of Silence" anywhere in there? Ehhh... I don't see (or hear) it! And that list is hardly exhaustive... I'd be interested in learning about any other notable releases that readers would like to suggest, while I've still got a week or two to check out some new tunes!
Sunday, December 17, 2006
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7 comments:
Well, Dave, you've certainly outdone me in terms of new musical awareness this year. I've found myself more often than not going to releases from a few years back for rediscovering some artists I had shelved (Bruce Hornsby), or discovering some that I overlooked initially (The New Radicals, Joseph Arthur!!!).
Still, I have run across a few releases that I consider significant:
The Boxing Mirror - Alejandro Escovedo
Life Short, Call Now - Bruce Cockburn (his best in years, IMHO)
All The Road Running - Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris
I also have been enjoying Endless Wire a great deal.
Thanks for those suggestions, Chuck, particularly the last two (I'm not so familiar with Escovedo.) I suppose that Bilbo is bugged that I haven't followed up on Cockburn's latest even though he plugged him on his blog a few months ago.
I also borrowed Joseph Arthur's 2006 CD (Nuclear Daydream) from the library just the other day, but didn't put it on my list because I haven't listened to it closely enough to consider it "qualified." But what I have sampled sounds pretty good.
Endless Wire is definitely establishing itself in my mind as a latter-day classic. It is at the very least a strong finalist on my list and could end up winning an award!
Oh, I also forgot to add Springsteen's "The Seeger Sessions." The main reason being that for some reason, I couldn't get the stupid DualDisc format to rip successfully to my computer so it's not in iTunes. Still a pretty rollicking set of performances of folk classics though.
I think you would like Escovedo. He's a former punk rocker now who now resides in Austin, Texas and combines punk elements with roots/americana styles - has written some beautiful stuff. I actually like his previous release - Man Under The Influence - a bit better than the Boxing Mirror, but this post was about 2006 releases, after all :-)
And I intentionally left Nuclear Daydream off my list, since it didn't move me nearly as much as Arthur's previous two albums - Our Shadows Will Remain and Redemptions Son. Those were both incredible releases - probably generated personal expectations too high for Nuclear Daydream to meet. So if you haven't heard those two, I'd encourage you to track them down (run don't walk...).
Gonna have to look up Bilbo's Cockburn review...
Bilbo bugged?...Nah...Personal preferences rule the day when it comes to music...
Yah, I was just teasing with ya, Bilbo. I know you're way too mellow to take my omission of Cockburn as anything resembling a snub. I actually do like his older stuff, but a guy can only squeeze so much new music in! (Though I admit, I did expand my horizons more this year than I have in quite a few...)
Bilbo, I checked out your Bruce Cockburn review and comments/recommendations to Julie. Sounds like we enjoy different aspects of Bruce's work - as you said "personal preferences rule the day", or as they say in the south (where I'm from) - "there ain't no accounting for taste" :-)
My own favorites from Cockburn are Humans and Nothing But a Burning Light. I've used his "Cry of a Tiny Babe" song at church several times - probably because I like to be able to say "hooker" during a at church service :-)
I didn't connect well initially with Charity of Night or Breakfast In New Orleans, though I will take your recommendation to heart and make sure to load them onto the iPod soon.
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