Best Albums of 2006 - Padrino's Year in Review

[Padrino]

this was an excellent year for music, and i really wanted to compile a list of the top 10 albums of 2006 that i think you should all be buying as last-minute christmas gifts for yourselves or others. the following albums are, in my opinion, the musical equivalent of the best this year has had to offer. there is a wide range of talents in the review below, so please, if you're looking for new and intriguing music, check some, if not all, of these out:

10. Alias & Tarsier - Brookland/Oaklyn (05/23/06)

this bicoastal collaboration with vocalist tarsier and drum programmer/producer alias assembled slowly as the two participants traded music and vocals back and forth via the internet. tarsier's voice is languorous and pretty to the point of nearly vanishing beneath the weight of the album. in a different context, her vocal deliveries might be dull, but here, they're the ideal silvery complement to alias's ice-blue keyboard surges and sputtering drums. the songs move with elegant deliberation, and are captivating in a sort of remote way. they possess the serenity of objects dusted with snow, and the twinkling piano and staticky percussion of the majority of the songs motor the record towards a gentle crescendo beneath tarsier's sweet nothings and alias’ slick production and trip-hoppy beats. the result is a wonderful merging of dreamy synth-pop and electronic rock.
Alias & Tarsier on Myspace

9. Crime In Choir - Trumpery Metier (11/28/06)

crime in choir is an instrumental progressive rock band from san francisco, ca, and ‘trumpery metier’ is their third full length release. notably missing from this album, though, is virtuoso drummer zach hill, who appeared on crime in choir’s first two records, but crime in choir perseveres in his absence. ‘trumpery metier’ is an indie-prog monolith, blending intense math-rock spazz-outs with incredibly dense and dreamy melodies. with this release, crime in choir seem intent on reinvigorating and updating the post-rock genre for today's discriminating, post-everything listeners, and ‘trumpery metier’ shows every indication of being a landmark recording of the early 21st century.
Crime In Choir on Myspace

8. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium (05/09/06)

in a quasi-return to their roots, the red hot chili peppers succeed once again with an incredibly ambitious double album release. ‘stadium arcadium,’ fortunately, doesn't suffer from the filler factor associated with double lp’s. it rocks, raps, and soars at a frantic pace, and john frusciante is let loose for the first time in all his years as the chili peppers guitarist. he has redefined what it means to be a modern rock & roll guitarist, and pays tribute to jimi hendrix with his wailing-wah-wah-filled guitar solos. the band finds themselves returning to the funk, and flea's slap-bass is in top form. more than all of that, though, anthony kiedis has been able to elevate his melody to new heights. he can still rock a rhyme, but he learned how to sing at some point as well. as for chad smith, well...he's the quiet yet ever-consistent drummer that paces a band highlighted by guitar-and-bass gods. this album is the culmination of everywhere the peppers have been for the duration of their careers. these guys practically have "sex, drugs, and rock & roll" tattooed on their balls, and this album is just as much a time of reflection as it is a step forward for the los angeles greats.
Red Hot Chili Peppers on Myspace

7. The Cat Empire - Cities (04/04/06)

the cat empire is a six piece line-up with roots in jazz, blues, rock & roll, hip-hop, ska, soul, reggae, cuban, salsa, gypsy, dancehall, dub, and latin...otherwise known as mad australian music that breaks down all of the genre barriers. the band calls ‘cities,’ their third full length album, a project with roots somewhere between paying tribute to their respective hometowns and an experiment in the sounds they've found abroad. with an incredible horn section and a frontman who paces the album with an upbeat and vibrant velocity, this is great summertime music. hell, its great anytime music. you just have to be ready to get up and dance around some. a lyric of theirs essentially describes what they're all about: "music is the language of us all!"
The Cat Empire on Myspace

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[Padrino]

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6. Damien Rice - 9 (11/14/06)

damien rice’s new record, ‘9’, treads similar sonic territory to his debut album, ‘O’, in that it's largely slower and more stripped-down acoustic singer-songwriter fare, interspersed with songs of thicker dynamic texture. the range of emotion he sometimes captures in a single song can almost be all-inclusive, and ‘9’ doesn’t fail to deliver on that very human scale. this was captured to a lesser degree on ‘O’, but you could still get a sense of what could happen. on ‘9’, the dynamics have been reigned in just a bit more. there are less whispery moments, but there are also more aggressive moments. overall, it's a bit more judiciously balanced, and the emotion is, most importantly, still there. rice has produced a release which equals and perhaps even surpasses his debut, a album that takes you through emotional highs and lows you are unlikely to hear anywhere else this winter.
Damien Rice on Myspace

5. Cat Power - The Greatest (01/24/06)

chan marshall, otherwise known as the artist cat power, could sigh her way through the ingredients on the side of a cough medicine box, each polysyllabic chemical name sounding sexier and sexier as she draws hard on a cigarette for effect, and it’d be worth your free listening time. she could lay back on a strange bed, sheets crumpled from the night before’s unsettled slumber, each toss and turn well documented in a crease, and read aloud the hotel’s mini-bar menu, and you would willingly call the premium-rate number to listen in. there’s few men in the world that could not be lulled into some foolish act of adoration or another by the merest whisper from the mouth of chan marshall, and her most recent offering, ‘the greatest,’ doesn’t disappoint us suckers for a girl with a pretty voice and a six-string acoustic guitar. this album was recorded in memphis, tn, and the folk and blues influence of the area shines through. ‘the greatest’ isn’t so flatly confessional as to be artless, or so overly emotional as to be maudlin. cat power’s plaintive sentiments are still nakedly honest, strangely restrained, yet unfettered. and oh my, you can just lose yourself in that voice.
Cat Power on Myspace

4. Band of Horses - Everything All the Time (03/21/06)

listening to band of horses’ big, hazy atmospherics feels a little like steering your car through 100 miles of white-hot desert, blindly navigating a landscape that feels simultaneously comforting, strange, and infinite. ‘everything all the time’ is an unexpectedly epic collection of high, lonesome rock songs. this is 2006's perfect comedown record, each lulling guitar and strained, earnest vocal hitting like a puff of warm breath on your cheek, reassuring and sweet. reminiscent of the shins, though without the garden state stigma, band of horses has crafted a masterpiece.
Band of Horses on Myspace

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[Padrino]

3. Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist (10/31/06)

there are many multitudes of facets that wonderfully pepper deftones' 'saturday night wrist.' the riffs are absolutely on the heavy side, the drumming is crisp and unrelenting in its guidance of the album's direction (which twists and turns throughout), and chino moreno's vocal performances are faultless. from the ethereal beauty of tracks like 'beware' and 'cherry waves,' to the brutality of 'rapture' and 'rats,' this album dips and soars with a grace rarely achieved by bands belonging to the harder rock persuasions. 'saturday night wrist' means as much to modern rock & roll as any album made with the intent to push the boundaries of the musical period in which the album was crafted. its deceptively tuneful, see-sawing between melancholic reflection and jaw-clenching frustration. it incorporates disparate elements of heavy metal, punk, alternative rock, classic rock, and electronica rock within its tumultuous grooves, and there's also enough cohesion between the mortar blasts to keep the music tight and unified.

yes, 'saturday night wrist' is incredibly experimental and innovative, but it also overflows with undeniable hooks, which serve as reminders that first and foremost, deftones will always be about strong, emotionally resonant songs. today's deftones have emerged stronger, smarter and more excited as a result of their experiences. as one of the few acts lumped into the nu-metal scene in the 90's who have maintained musical credibility throughout their career, deftones have again showed that their creative fires burn much brighter than all of their pigeonholed peers. whether they were ever truly a nu-metal outfit is something that only the individual can determine. what is a complete certainty, though, is that regardless of sub-genre classification, deftones are a fantastic friggin' rock band. that much is smack-yourself-silly obvious after listening to the track-by-track cohesiveness of 'saturday night wrist'. count along with me, why don’t you? just be sure you're nowhere near anything easily breakable during the moment when those truly massive drums kick in.
Deftones on Myspace

2. Subtle - For Hero : For Fool (10/03/06)

‘for hero : for fool’ is subtle’s second full lp release, and first major label release, and it moves at a relentless pace that will feel familiar to anyone who's been fortunate enough to have witnessed their incredible live set. adam “doseone” drucker is one of the tightest frontmen on the road right now, whether he's stalking the stage or yanking plastic utensils out of a black-and-white-striped skull, he's a constant stream of jerky, just-right gestures, and you can practically hear all of them on this recording. the mic is in love with dose no matter what he's doing, and dose is in love with the mic, from his paper airplane high notes to the deep percussive grunts. though the words move so fast that you won't appreciate any of the lyrics until you can sit down and read them, preferably someplace quiet. such is the heady nature of ‘for hero : for fool.’ it dabbles in musical styles from across the board, and doesn’t apologize for it. its hip hop, electronica, and post-rock raped by demented melodies and trampled all over by dose’s spitfire poetry and relentlessly fluent vocal delivery that seems to mold into something different at every song gap. to describe dose’s delivery is like trying to describe a sunset to someone who’s never seen one. its incomprehensible, silly, beautiful, and altogether poetic. its not so much a playground rap battle flow, but a cadence used to thread his free associating verses into the beats, allowing the record to spontaneously turn yet retain a sensationally entrancing grasp on beat and listener.

and when i say this, i mean it completely: doseone’s vocal performance on ‘for hero : for fool’ will go down in legend as one of hip hop’s finest. he tells the story of an aspiring rapper named ‘hour hero yes,’ and from the opening track to the epic closer, there’s no room for subtlety. where dose reigns supreme vocally is in the orchestration of each song’s arrangement, and while he dictates the pace, it helps that he has an exceptional band backing him up, complete with a finely played cello and a not-so-subtle drum machine manned by dose’s infamous partner, jel. pictorially envisaged, ‘for hero : for fool’ is a work of art crafted through the introduction of each member’s aural ejections and finally cut and pasted into the most skewed pop music ever heard. here’s the best way to sum it up: it’s like the coolest power rangers episode never created. this isn’t boundary pushing as such, because you sense boundaries never existed at all in the mind of doseone. there’s a spherical creative zone in that head of his, and if he’s going to find himself isolated one day it’ll only be when he finds himself where he started. its too soon to tell if america at large is ready for dose's poems, his intricate imagery, or his ongoing story about a rapper named ‘hour hero yes.’ the lights are on, no detail gets lost, and no matter how cerebral the music may be, the whole thing's so loud that it bangs your head for you. welcome to the world of doseone.
Subtle on Myspace

1. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain (07/03/06)

’return to cookie mountain’ could be the only other record after 'saturday night wrist' that i never tire of this year. each time i hear it, i like it more, and i've listened to it a lot. in one sense, it's a fairly conventional rock record, with big chords, hummable refrains, chorus hooks, and even a few bridges. peter gabriel, u2, and other none-too-hip references are spread out for everyone to hear, though the fantastic singing gives tv on the radio their own spin on the rock anthem. when I try to explain tv on the radio to people who haven’t heard of them, the first thing on the checklist is the lead singer, a stoic romantic who falters but never whimpers. he's got about the best set of pipes in indie rock, yet on ‘return to cookie mountain,’ his greatest strength lies in how well he stands back and blends in with the other voices in the band and especially with the atmosphere evoked by the band and the producers.

the production value on this album sounds like nothing else out there at the moment, dug in between the songs' cracks, all thick and sludgy and opaque, ensuring that the biggest moments never hit all at once. like their first albums, the songs build on loops, grooves, and drones. they feel familiar, but they've never sounded this good or this thick. even the voices cascade on top of each other, which obscures much of the lyrics. nothing can cut through except the sharp and vigorous rhythm section. maybe that's why this album has such an incredible pull: it doesn't make an atmosphere so much as a space to spend time in, and tv on the radio doesn’t narrate their songs as much as they bear witness to them. with ‘return to cookie mountain,’ we get inside their heads and watch through their eyes the tyrants, the druggies, the cocky lovers, the losers, and those beautiful fools who still surrender to lines like "love is the province of the brave." and tv on the radio are standing in the center, watching it all go by again, and again, and again. its good to be along for the ride, though.
TV on the Radio on Myspace

so that's my year in review. if nothing else, i hope you give a listen to one or two of these artists.



~Matt Zellmer

 

[Roman]

Man, you should put the links to the Amazon record rather than the MySpace thingie.

Much easier to listen to and purchase.

 

[mcsluggo]

Wow!

Thank you very much for the effort!

I definately WILL check out some of those. I was just moaning to my wife yesterday about the fact that I no longer knew who-the-hell was out there anymore.

Having kids is a great experience overall, but it does NOTHING BUT HARM to the coolness of your music selection!

I just spent a full week convincing my kids that "love-cats" by the cure was a song about two of their stuffed kitties, so that I could listen to about 5-minutes of Head-on-the-door and Japanese-Whispers (on random play). My tenacity is slowly (VERY slowly) paying off: My 3-year old now always demands Velvet Underground when she gets in the car (pre-feedback days, of course, she really only likes the first 2 songs of "V-U & Rico") and my 5 year old loves a couple of pixies songs (Wave-of-Mutilation and here-comes-my-man) and "backrobber" by the clash... but this is all a helluva lot of work, and rarely worth the effort! And that is for songs I already know-- new stuff -- fuggettaboutit! I'm so out-of-touch that i have ZERO idea of who to even give a chance to! (sigh, and I used to go to shows ALL the time <snif>)

I'll try some of these, thanks!

 

[nebs]

I like the links to myspace.

I'll probably give The Cat Empire a listen. I liked what I heard so far.

I'm pretty much stuck on old school music btw. I hardly listen to much newer stuff unless it's an artist I already like.

 

[StevenHW]

What? No mention of Ron Artest's or Kevin Federline's CD?

Just kidding!

 

[Padrino]

Wow!

Thank you very much for the effort!

I definately WILL check out some of those. I was just moaning to my wife yesterday about the fact that I no longer knew who-the-hell was out there anymore.

Having kids is a great experience overall, but it does NOTHING BUT HARM to the coolness of your music selection!

I just spent a full week convincing my kids that "love-cats" by the cure was a song about two of their stuffed kitties, so that I could listen to about 5-minutes of Head-on-the-door and Japanese-Whispers (on random play). My tenacity is slowly (VERY slowly) paying off: My 3-year old now always demands Velvet Underground when she gets in the car (pre-feedback days, of course, she really only likes the first 2 songs of "V-U & Rico") and my 5 year old loves a couple of pixies songs (Wave-of-Mutilation and here-comes-my-man) and "backrobber" by the clash... but this is all a helluva lot of work, and rarely worth the effort! And that is for songs I already know-- new stuff -- fuggettaboutit! I'm so out-of-touch that i have ZERO idea of who to even give a chance to! (sigh, and I used to go to shows ALL the time <snif>)

I'll try some of these, thanks!

you've got your 3 year old listening to the VU??? good man! that's friggin' schweet, my friend! get 'em listenin' to good music a a young age, i say...or they'll be forever damned to the depths of top 40's adult contemporary radio bull****.

as for me, next to writing, music is my greatest passion, so i make it a point every week to give a new artist a chance. i don't always come away with great stuff, cuz its hard to find excellent new bands on a weekly basis, but i've discovered some pretty amazing music this year. these 10 albums only scratch the surface, but i don't have the patience to review 50 albums for y'all. wish i did.

at any rate, i hope the myspace links are useful. to one of the posters above, i didn't bother with the amazon.com links, cuz they primarily deal in 30 second clips, and i refuse to refer music to people on the basis of the first 30 seconds of every song on an album. it just ain't enough. the full songs on these artists' myspace pages should give some evidence of their talents, so based on that, hunt them down on amazon.com and buy the album! or support your local sacto record stores. that's how i do it, baby!