Ain't superstitious, but these things I've seen...
Innerworkings and hiddentrappings of a mind left waiting at the intersection of Life and Music.
2006: 15 of the Best. #12.
..
From: Half the Perfect World
Label: Rounder
Released: September 12, 2006
Buy it: .
Well, thank God that someone tracked her down during that brief and still unexplained (I believe) in 2005. Peyroux's third album (much like the Strokes, come to think of it) didn't really forge any new musical ground, but like its two predecessors (and unlike the Strokes), managed to get by very well, thank you, on it's retro-jazz fittings and Peyroux's voice alone, which sounds like it was lifted right off an old piece of vinyl from the late 1930s or early 1940s. "California Rain" is one of only three originals on the record (which includes covers of songs by the likes of Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Charlie Chaplin), but proves that like a true student of the music she plays, she knows how to absorb every influence she has and mold them into her own unique style.
Well, unique in a 2006 world. One could imagine this kind of thing was run-of-the-mill 60 years ago, but maybe therein lies its overwhelming charm. Who else is doing this, and more importantly, who else is doing this THIS WELL?
I've only been to California once and it didn't rain, which is just as well, considering it was vacation and I liked being out and about. But if it sounds anything like this song makes it - plodding brush stick beat, electric piano, that soothing voice and all..
. I might be up for a bit of it.
2006: 15 of the Best. #13...
#13 -
From: First Impressions of Earth
Label: RCA
Released: January 3, 2006
Buy it: .
Extra! Extra!
Richard Hell fights Barry Manilow and...
the Strokes win? Look, it was hard enough for me to fess up to really digging a Strokes song in the first place, so imagine the sleepless nights I encountered at the thought of including the track among the 15 best of 2006. How these hipster one trick ponies have even made it to the point of having THREE commercially successful albums under their collective belt is far beyond me, but credit where credit is due, and "Razorblade" is a damn fine song - and the only one in their repertoire I'm willing to say that of.
(The information up there, mind you, is only for relevancy purposes - I'm not suggesting you buy the album as I couldn't find another note on it I liked.) I first heard the song on the fantastic back in the first half of the year, and while I knew who it was from the first note sung, I made no attempt to tune out. Musically, same old same old, but finally there's a melody sewn into the fuzz worth getting excited about.
And the breakdown about halfway through where the verse is sung over just the bass drum, a dancing bass line and a singular guitar is, by all accounts and measures, sublime. So there you have it, the Strokes finally find a moment in the sun. Thank God Barry Manilow wrote "Mandy" all those years ago, eh, Casablancas?
2006: 15 of the Best. #14...
#14 -
From: Fort Recovery
Label: Misra
Released: March 7, 2006
Buy it: .
Okay, it may be an easy choice to pick the first single, but "Triggers and Trash Heaps" is easily the most majestic moment on the Denton, TX band's 10th album in as many years (and bewilderingly, the first I'd ever heard of them).
No one's ever going to write about how amazing frontman Will Johnson's voice is, but it does suit the songs he writes perfectly, and the detachment/disillusionment with which he sings, "It's hard to believe the mess you're creating" recalls a place we've all been at some point. It's cold, warm, disenchanted and comforting all at once. It sounds like it was specifically written and recorded to soundtrack a lonely highway drive at 11 p.
m. And it sounds nothing like a song called "Triggers and Trash Heaps" - by a Texan band, no less - should. It's really quite fantastic.
Oh, and I promise not every track on this list will have been released March 7.
#15...
" year-end review. In this, we'll be looking at some of the best tracks that were released this year, and counting right on down from 15 to 1 (though, as mentioned Friday, there will be breaks along the way with Christmas songs just to keep you in that Yuletide spirit).
How does this series work?
Simple - I didn't want to do a "Best Albums" list because a lot of times (this year and always), some pretty mediocre albums are put out with some pretty fantastic songs peppered in, and once inawhile, the best song of the year might even be found on a single's B-side (as it was this year). You might have heard the songs, you might not. You might have the songs, you might not.
Point is, at the end of the countdown, you're gonna have a killer mix CD.
Rules? Not many.
This countdown was the result of my opinion and my opinion alone, and if you want to fight me, I'd welcome it. The only rule is that I won't repost some of the year's best if I've already posted the tracks. So apologies to the likes of Corinne Bailey Rae and Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins.
.. you've had your moment and it'd be unfair to the others if I posted your highlights again.
That said, we're now in my 4th paragraph of explaining a list of 15 good songs. GET ON WITH IT THEN..
.
#15 -
From: Gold Brick (or Lies of the Great Explorers, or Columbus at Guantanamo Bay)
Label: Roir
Released: March 7, 2006
Buy it: .
Between the Waco Brothers, the Mekons, the Pine Valley Cosmonauts and whatever 14 other bands he put together yesterday, it's not often you get a Jon Langford "solo" album proper.
The bulk of Gold Brick was recorded in just one day and comprised of songs he had laying around that didn't fit his other bands' respective molds. Those two factors in itself should sound like a recipe for absolute indifference, but while the album does have its share of uninspired moments, it also has quite a few fantastic ones. Langford said that only on listening to playback of the entire album did he realize that all the songs dealt with themes of colonization, immigration and finding one's niche in society - not exactly the stuff of the Billboard Hot 100 (like that matters here anyway), but delivered pretty damn catchily in tracks like "Little Bit of Help.
" Against a pub-cum-blues rock backdrop with a bit of rollicking piano, Langford sings of the fall into inertia, black eyes, bloody noses and sowing seeds for slaughter without even once coming off like a goth or metalhead, and he even makes you want to dance all the while. You never could fault that boy for a lack of originality..
. Great choice to open the Gold Brick album and kick this countdown off alike.
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