Best Albums of 2006

2006 was a pretty good year for music, in my opinion. I managed to listen to a decent amount of new stuff and got into some good older stuff. The bad thing about music is that there's too much stuff from the past I need to hear, but they keeping coming out with new stuff too fast as well. Muse and Incubus both had pretty good new albums in Black Holes and Revelations and Light Grenades, and I got introduced to Sonic Youth with Rather Ripped, which definitely has me interesting in checking out their older stuff.

Best of 2006

6. Cursive - Happy Hollow


Happy Hollow doesn't come close to replicating the absolute brilliance of their previous release, The Ugly Organ, but it really isn't too fair to compare anything to one of my favorite albums ever. In between records, Cursive lost a cellist and added horns to their sound, and while they still sound distinctive, it just isn't as darkly interesting. They can still do good songs they're just missing an edge musically.

Not that that edge isn't as present as ever in the lyrics. The entire album is a brutal condemnation of the hypocrisies and evils of modern Christianity, and sometimes it sounds like Tim Kasher is being controversial for its own sake. He makes good points though, and this is overall pretty good indie rock.

5. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium


A bit of a letdown, to be honest. The Chili Peppers pumped out two great albums in a row with Californication and By the Way, and we've been anticipating something new for four years, and then we learn it's a double album, and it ends up being a good two hours of music, but it's lacking that something that makes it great. It's possible it's just a fault with the multi-album format, it's harder to maintain a high level of quality for something that lasts that long. There are plenty of great songs to be found, but because of the sheer number, a lot of them blend together into solid, but unremarkable funky-pop-rock-whatever. None of it's bad, it's just stretched a little thin. Flea can still play bass like no one's business, and John Frusciante continues to hone his craft as one of the best guitarists in the world, and Anthony Keidis can actually sing these days. What they need to do next is go back to focusing on a smaller, more focused project. Not that they have to, with the mountains of money they must be swimming in.

4. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere


Cee-lo, who I don't know much about, and Danger Mouse, who did the intriguing Grey Album, combine to form a band that isn't really hip-hop, but takes a lot of its best elements, adds in a distinctive, good voice and great, um... producing, and ends up making one of the best songs ever. No, really, "Crazy" is up there. It's just a good song. It's not the only one either, as every single track is at least catchy, and most are unique, well constructed, and truly interesting. I can see why it wouldn't be for everyone, but I enjoy the hell out of it.

I'll take the time now to explain how all the hip-hop-type stuff I listen too is weirdly related. Gnarls Barkley is comprised of Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse. Dangerdoom is comprised of Danger Mouse and MF Doom, and their album features Cee-Lo and Ghostface Killah. Demon Days by Gorillaz was produced by Danger Mouse and features MF Doom. I've been thinking about listening to some more rap lately and the first album to get that comes to find is the acclaimed Fishscale - by Ghostface Killah. Whatever.

3. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - So Divided


Trail of Dead fell out of the cushy position they had as a critical darling with Worlds Apart, which I thought was completely great (and introduced me to the band), and I couldn't really figure out why. I can see why someone would prefer Source Tags and Codes, but to say it's great and Worlds is bad... I just don't understand it. They're the same band. A little different, with less focus on songwriting and more on loudness and a bit of oddness, but still the same. So Divided was received a little better, though they still are far from where they were publically in 2002. I just hear a really good rock album, but I guess that's just me.

2. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain


This and Gnarls Barkley show me that I'm becoming more and more of a sucker for bands that aren't what I usually actually listen to. I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough to describe what this band is like and why it's good, all I can tell you is that I just love listening to it. The mix of vocals is unique and interesting, the style totally works, and they're not half bad at just playing some rock. I really should be able to explain it better, but you should just listen if you don't. Also, make you sure you check out "Dry Drunk Emperor", which you should be able to find online for free. Not only is it a good song, it's a great condemnation of the presidency of George W. Bush (he's horrible).

1. Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me


Some feared their follow-up to Deja Entendu might be too accoustic. They were wrong.

The Devil and God is hard as hell. Except for a couple tracks, every song is a balance between soft and hard, light and dark, good and evil, as the title implies. The heavy parts are made more powerful by the contrast with the downplayed strumming before it. It's not as lyrically clever as they were previously, but it's stronger musically, in my opinion. It's definitely cemented itself in the pantheon of my favorite albums, like, ever. It helps that I first listened to it under optimal conditions, in a car with a like-minded friend as the sun went down in late Autumn. Set the tone perfectly.

I don't think it's fair that Brand New still gets lumped with other emo bands it used to be closer to musically, like Taking Back Sunday. They were like that once, but that was long ago, they started shifting a few years ago, and now they've gone even further. I'm interested in seeing how they continue to develop and seperate themselves from other bands.

Delayed Entries

Audioslave - Audioslave

I'm not a huge fan of the band, but I really do think this is a great album. It's just completely full of good, hard rock songs. People say good things about Superunknown but I'd say this is the best thing anybody in this band's done that I've heard. I guess they've broken up now, though.

Clinic - Walking With Thee

Weird band, very distinctive vocals and different kind of sound that still sounds like rock, even when their aren't guitars. I'm not always in the mood for something like this, but it's a good change of pace.

Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Their long-awaited double album, the first disk is pretty normal long, well-crafted prog metal, and the second is an epic, forty minute song (broken into several tracks) that sounds sometimes as much like the score to a musical as an album. Not really much metal there at all, but I really don't know what "normal" Dream Theater sounded like at that point, as Trains of Thought, which I got before this is supposed to be easily their hardest work. It doesn't really matter, it sounds good.

Dredg - El Cielo

I got into Dredg with 2005's Catch Without Arms, but I think I really fell in love with them with this. It has a lot of what made Catch great like the wonderful vocals and nice melodies combined with harder segments, but El Cielo is really more creative, different, and just better, I think. Just a fun listen at all times.

Gorillaz - Gorillaz

I didn't listen to Gorillaz much besides the singles until Demon Days, and that might have skewed me a bit, as a lot of people seem to prefer this, and I don't. It's still definitely very good though. It's a little less varied in sound and vocals than their follow-up, but has plenty of great hooks and sounds spread through the whole thing, and is just fun to listen to.

Longwave - There's a Fire

It's kind of hard to describe Longwave, since sometimes they're jamming in a totally dark, indie way, and sometimes it's pure pop rock. You should just listen to them and see what you think, since not many people do. They have elements of a lot of bands like U2, Interpol... I don't know, I don't really listen to bands like this a lot.

Opeth - Ghost Reveries

Between Opeth and Dream Theater, I should be able to get my fill of progressive metal for the rest of time. The guy's voice is seriously amazing, one minute he's giving you perfect death growls, and the next he's singing in a truly pleasant, normal tone. Hard, pounding metal combines with great musicianship and softer moments.

Porcupine Tree - Deadwing

They're only progressive, not metal, but since the guy produced Opeth at some point, I guess that's hardcore enough. It wasn't as well received as In Absentia, so I better check that out, since I think this is really good on its own. Some of the songs take a while but I'm never bored, it's very well crafted and plenty catchy in spots. Pretty damn good background music.

Radiohead - Kid A

I guess that since I liked this, I'll like pretty much anything Radiohead does. It's not rock music anymore, but it's still very interesting to listen to, and as electronic as it is, it still manages to seem to have a soul. I prefer their sound before the turn of the century, but it's still good now.