pakmannen on 10/12/2006 at 21:02
Quote Posted by Paz
Hello Saferide - Would You Let Me Play This EP 10 Times A Day?Swedish pop lady who sings about OCD and stalking people and various other slightly odd things. It's breezy and lively and many people will find it annoying as fuck, but I love it dearly. She also did a full-length album last year which is equally as solid (but I didn't know about her at that stage).
May I ask where you heard about her? I wasn't aware she was known outside Sweden. But yeah, she's funny,
Long lost penpal is hysterical. (And
If I don't write this song someone I love will die is a pretty catchy title as well as a song)
Right. Five albums from 2006, in no particular order:
Muse - Black holes and revelationsWhat's up with everybody loving it? Granted, i only got it a few days ago but it's certainly not up to par with Showbiz or Origins? I like some of it,
Starlight is a great single, but stuff like
Knights of Cydonia just doesn't do it for me. Strange considering i listen to a lot of spanish and mexican music. (or maybe that's why :P) The idea sounds good in theory but I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. Maybe it will change in a couple of listens.
Flaming Lips - At war with the mysticsA disappointment at first but seeing them live really helped me appreciate it that much more. Especially songs like
Free radicals,
Vein of stars and
The wand, which i thought were pretty weak to begin with.
Pompeii am Götterdämmerung and
Cosmic autumn rebellion are both gorgeous. But yes, the highlight of the live show was still
Race for the prize and
A spoonful, so..
Calexico - Garden ruinI was a little bummed that they strayed from their trademark western/mexico/folk sound, but it still has some good songs on it.
Panic open strings,
Roka,
Nom de plume to name a few. Quite a few fillers, and their "epic" ending to
All systems red is just stupid and akward. On the plus side, joey burns has become a competent singer.
Beirut - Gulag orkestarReally good debut album from an american guy who plays some kind of balkan folk music. Jeremy Barnes from Neutral milk hotel apparently helped out with the album, and when i think about it, the two bands are kind of similar. Only Beirut is, like, balkan and stuff. Except he's from USA. Yeah.
Thom Yorke - The eraserGot some good songs, got some not so good songs. Often a little tooo electronically barebone for my taste, but
Analyse and
Atoms for peace are excellent.
SlyFoxx on 10/12/2006 at 22:31
Picking a top 5 is a tall order. But off the top of my head.
Pink Floyd, Animals
Rush, Permanent Waves
Queen, Queen II
Steely Dan, The Royal Scam
Judas Priest, Sad Wings of Destiny
Honorable mention...Jim Croce, Time In A Bottle
Vivian on 10/12/2006 at 23:07
Incidentally, does anyone else read Plan B? ((
http://www.planbmag.com/) http://www.planbmag.com/)
So far, they've scored very high in the 'music I'd never heard of but have grown to like intensely' index. In fact, I would say that armed with a particular taste (indie [propah indie, if you know what I mean], the more highbrow end of metal, ridiculous wierdo music, modern folk or anti-folk or whatever, balls-out rawk), this magazine and a working internet sound machine, you really have no excuse for not falling in love with at least one new band-thing a week.
Aja on 12/12/2006 at 01:57
I've been doing a lot of catching up this year (Olivia Tremor Control's 'Black Foliage Animation' is an amazing album).
I'm not gonna write any wretched pitchforkeseque reviews, but I will say The Information is a bitchin album, not even counting the fact that it has the one of the best presentations of any release (stickers for the cover and bonus DVD all for a low low price).
Also, being the dork that I am, I bought the soundtrack to Okami: five CDs of japanese drum and flute music taken from the game. The packaging is intense, and the music is perhaps the best I've heard this year.
I haven't heard much else from '06. though I have high hopes for the latest Volcano the Bear release. I also really want the new collaboration album from MMW and John Scofield, though it doesn't seem to be in stores anywhere.
N'Al on 20/12/2006 at 13:37
I know, I know, a somewhat belated entry, but since I actually bought quite a few albums released this year, for once I can actually contribute to a thread like this. Having said that, (
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Bank-CD-Rom-Alice-Chains/dp/B0000296JW/sr=1-12/qid=1166612395/ref=sr_1_12/202-1139054-8787814?ie=UTF8&s=music) this has been my personal best album purchase this year.
Anyway, here goes (in no particular order):
Tool - 10,000 DaysI'll start with this one since it's been mentioned by a few others before. Very good album, but not Tool's best imo. The reason is that there's too much... don't know what to call it, really. It's not filler, since it sounds far too interesting for that, but it's just that the album doesn't rock enough. They've really gone all out on the 'Pink Floyd of metal' with this one (17 mins of
Wings, Pt. 1 and 2), so lots of songs are more atmosphere than actual songs. Nevertheless, when they
do rock (
Vicarious, Jambi, The Pot) they rock! In fact, these could easily be among Tool's best songs.
Also, Tool's show at Wembley Arena late last month (hello Senath?) was awesome, so all is forgiven. :p
Eagles of Death Metal - Death by SexyBeing a massive fan of both Kyuss and QotSA I picked this one up cheap, and a very good purchase it was. Although it sounds very much like 'Josh Homme and friends - the jam sessions' that's kind of the point, and it works to the album's advantage. There's an atmosphere of raunchy sleaze running throughout the album (e.g.
I Want You So Hard), and the lyrics are in most cases absolutely hilarious. Trashy, good fun. Plus, the album's gotta win 2006 just for its title.
Audioslave - RevelationsIt's pretty much a given that Audioslave is nowhere near as good as either Soundgarden or RatM (and they probably never will be), so I won't go into that, but if you can get over that, this album is a really good example of Audioslave's sound. It's a bit patchy in places (some songs are simply boring), but overall the album shows how Audioslave's sound has matured over the years.
Shape of Things to Come and
Moth, in particular, are simply awesome rock songs.
DJ Shadow - The OutsiderThis one's an interesting one - the individual tracks are, on the whole, absolutely awesome, unfortunately the thing doesn't work as an album; for that it's far too scattershot. Josh Davis has (finally) decided to put some 'proper' hip-hop tracks onto this album, as opposed to just the breakbeat/ trip-hop stuff on his previous albums. In fact, almost half the tracks on
The Outsider are hip-hop, and what good hip-hop it is (seriously, Dr. Dre and Jay-Z, eat your heart out)! Problem is that all these tracks are frontloaded into the first half of the album, after which it goes back to the more usual trip-hop of yore. Now normally I don't have a problem with albums that cover a wide variety of musical styles; in fact, quite often they tend to be (among) the artists' best work (e.g. see (
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:lgs9keptjq7b) here for one that works), but as I said, in
The Outsider it just doesn't. Shame, I really wanted to like this album.
Biggest disappointment:Portishead still haven't released a new album, wtf?!?
Ulukai on 20/12/2006 at 18:13
Here goes:
* Grandaddy, Just Like The Fambly Cat - It's Grandaddy, and it's arguably their best album ever. Shame it's the last album ever, though.
* Gotan Project, Lunático - Probably best described as latin-tangoesque music, with sampling. It's great for relaxing or as a backdrop to a nice meal for two. I inadvertantly bought two copies, because it comes in such a thin cardboard box.
* Richard Dorfmeister vs. Madrid de los Austrias, Grand Slam - Dub. Not one for the car, but it's great for the right social occasion.
* Snow Patrol, Eyes Open - It's catchy, and I think it's alright. It's in my car.
* The Feeling, Twelve Stops and Home - More really catchy feel-good pop. Again, it's in my car.
Honorable Mention:
* Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
* Sergio Mendes, Timeless
Great Once You Cut Out the Filler:
* Muse, Black Holes and Revelations Ho-hum. I have several of Muse's earlier albums, but IMO this contains way too much cocktackular filler, with the exception of a few tracks which stand head and shoulders above the others.
Disappointments:
* Thom Yorke, Eraser - Catawauling. There's a couple of good tracks, but the live version of Analyse is several thousand times better than all of the album put together. And it ain't on the album. Get out, Thom Yorke.
* Camera Obscura, Let's Get Out Of This Country - There's some really serious arse going on here. Their previous album was interesting, this...isn't.
Single of the Year:
* Nelly Furtado, Maneater - It's all about the video, baby.
Stitch on 20/12/2006 at 19:11
Quote Posted by Ulukai
*
Nelly Furtado, Maneater - It's all about the video, baby.
That is one hell of a video. Let us cling to this life raft lest the rest of your list drive us to blows!
Scots Taffer on 21/12/2006 at 00:07
You're both fucking crazy. That's a terrible song and the video is some dreadful cliched MTV pointless shit.
DJ Shadow released a new album? I wasn't crazy about the Public Press, but I'll give it a shot...
TheGreatGodPan on 21/12/2006 at 03:12
Quote Posted by Scots_Taffer
You're both fucking crazy. That's a terrible song and the video is some dreadful cliched MTV pointless shit.
You're the first person I've heard that shares my opinion on that. That's not a good sign Scots. Maybe you should watch it again and again until you recognize it for the masterpiece it truly is, before you find yourself lecturing youngsters on the tremendous harm done to music by video.
