December 19th, 2006
The A.V. Club writers share their individual lists with additional commentary.
Christopher Bahn
1. The Decemberists, The Crane Wife (Capitol)
A beautiful sprawl. the 12-and-a-half minute epic "The Island" sounds like some lost gem from the height of 1970s prog-rock, while staying modern enough to avoid being lumped in with the dinosaurs of that era.
2. Belle & Sebastian, The Life Pursuit (Rough Trade/Matador)
3. Elf Power, Back To The Web (Rykodisc)
The kid brother of the Elephant 6 collective has toned down the more overtly Hawkwind-esque fantasy elements of its songwriting, but dreamy psychedelia is still at its heart.
4. TV On The Radio, Return To Cookie Mountain (Interscope/4AD)
5. P.O.S., Audition (Rhymesayers)
With the political outrage of a hardcore punk and the lyrical dexterity of a born MC, the leading light of Minnesota's Doomtree collective makes an aggressive, witty, winning second album, with guest vocals from Atmosphere's Slug and The Hold Steady's Craig Finn.
6. Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, Ole! Tarantula (Yep Roc)
All the English eccentric's best traits come together on this warm-hearted, funny, hummable, lyrically oddball disc, Hitchcock's best work in 15 years.
7. Subtle, For Hero For Fool (Astralwerks)
8. Tom Waits, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (Anti-)
9. The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls In America (Vagrant)
10. Bob Dylan, Modern Times (Sony)
Andy Battaglia
1. Ricardo Villalobos, Fizheuer Zieheuer (Playhouse)
2. LCD Soundsystem, 45:33: Nike+ Original Run (no label)
3. Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies (Merge)
Destroyer's Daniel Bejar is the best lyricist in rock, and—not exactly typically for him—he sounds driven to make that less of a secret on an album as allusive and elusive as the best poetry.
4. Trentemoller, The Last Resort (Poker Flat)
Adapting haute techno sound-design to moody, methodical swells of post-rock, Danish DJ/producer Trentemoller made a capital-A album that upped the ante for what minimal-minded electronic music can do in a full-length format.
5. Scott Walker, The Drift (4AD)
No album this year had a better song with a guy singing while punching a slab of meat.
6. Various Artists, Superlongevity 4 (Perlon)
A two-disc compilation for the best and weirdest techno label in Berlin (and, for that matter, the world), Superlongevity offers up 17 hectic, humid, hallowed tracks by Pantytec, Melchior Productions, Cabanne, Luciano, Matt John, and more. Most of the year's best Perlon-stable stuff came out on vinyl 12-inches or on other labels (seek: Luciano & Melchior Productions' "Father"), but there's enough mystique here to go on.
7. Matmos, The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of The Beast (Matador)
8. Shearwater, Palo Alto (Misra)
9. Uusitalo, Tulenkantaja (Huume)
10 Midlake, The Trials Of Van Occupanther (World's Fair/Bella Union)
This masterfully produced album sounds like high-period Fleetwood Mac. So why did the guys in Midlake go so far out of their way to angle themselves as just another lazy, shambling indie-rock band in their live show?
Aaron Burgess
1. Mastodon, Blood Mountain (Reprise/Relapse)
2. Converge, No Heroes (Epitaph)
3. The Melvins, A Senile Animal (Ipecac)
4. Enslaved, Ruun (Candlelight)
5. Tool, 10,000 Days (Volcano)
6. Scott Walker, The Drift (4AD)
7. Make Believe, Of Course (Flameshovel)
8. Gojira, From Mars To Sirius (Prosthetic)
9. Nachtmystium, Instinct: Decay (Battle Kommand/Southern Lord)
10. Deftones: Saturday Night Wrist (Maverick)
Scott Gordon
1. TV On The Radio, Return To Cookie Mountain (Interscope)
2. Pernice Brothers, Live A Little (Ashmont)
3. The Decemberists—The Crane Wife (Capitol)
4. The Thermals, The Body, The Blood, The Machine (Sub Pop)
5. The Black Keys, Magic Potion (Nonesuch)
6. Johnny Cash: American V: A Hundred Highways (Lost Highway)
7. Lupe Fiasco, Food & Liquor (Atlantic)
8. The Twilight Singers, Powder Burns (One Little Indian)
9. Hamell On Trial, Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs (Righteous Babe)
10. Alejandro Escovedo, The Boxing Mirror (Back Porch)
Liam Gowing
1. Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love)
In many ways a flawless record, Rabbit Fur Coat captures an artist quietly stepping out from the comfortable dugout of an established act and knocking her crucial first solo pitch right out of the park. Critics far and wide have championed Lewis' spot-on cover of The Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care" as the album highlight, but Lewis' country-tinged and Southern soul-drenched originals are the real gems, chart-toppers in some alternate universe where Wal-Mart offers its employees a dental plan.
2. The Coup, Pick A Bigger Weapon (Anti-/Epitaph)
A terrific record by one of the most courageous acts in hip-hop, Pick A Bigger Weapon comes spring-loaded with a rainbow coalition of sounds and emotions, from an alternately satirical and scathing rap-rocker ("We Are The Ones") to a funky celebration ("Laugh/Love/Fuck") to a sexy soul-jam ("Ijuswannalayaroundalldayinbedwithyou")
3. Honeycut, The Day I Turned To Glass (Quannum Projects)
4. Cold War Kids, Robbers And Cowards (Downtown)
5. Persephone's Bees, Notes From The Underworld (Columbia)
A smart, retro-groovy Euro-pop record, Persephone's Bees' Notes From The Underworld plays like a funkier Cardigans or a straighter Komeda—it's danceable, tuneful, infectious fun that manages to be both kaleidoscopic and economical.
6. Wayne "The Train" Hancock, Tulsa (Bloodshot)
7. Califone, Roots & Crowns (Thrill Jockey)
8. Sean Lennon, Dead Meat (Capitol)
It's easy to criticize this ridiculously overdue sophomore effort from a limp-voiced trust-fund icon, but his songs remain pristine examples of classic pop songcraft, each one arranged and executed for maximum melodic impact.
9. The Black Keys, Magic Potion (Nonesuch)
10. Silversun Pickups, Carnavas (Dangerbird)
11. Bedroom Walls, All Good Dreamers Pass This Way (Baria)
12. Jay Bennett, The Magnificient Defeat (Rykodisc)
13. Pigeon John, And The Summertime Pool Party (Quannum Projects)
14. Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Anti-)
15. Joanna Newsom, Ys (Drag City)
The second full-length from the harp-playing princess of neo-classical Celtic wood-nymphery, Joanna Newsom's Ys is a staggering accomplishment: a sonic device that teleports listeners to the most outlandish image of Narnia (or Middle Earth) that they can conjure up. The album would rank even higher if Van Dyke Park's otherwise fantastic string arrangements actually corresponded to Newsom's underlying performance.
Marc Hawthorne
1. The Hold Steady, Boys & Girls In America (Vagrant)
2. Mew, And The Glass Handed Kites (Columbia)
3. Band Of Horses, Everything All The Time (Sub Pop)
4. Angels & Airwaves, We Don't Need To Whisper (Geffen)
5. Editors, The Back Room (Fader)
6. We Are Scientists, With Love And Squalor (Virgin)
7. The Raconteurs, Broken Toy Soldiers (V2)
8. Belle & Sebastian, The Life Pursuit (Matador/Rough Trade)
9. Kaki King, …Until We Felt Red (Velour)
10. Owen, At Home With Owen (Polyvinyl)
Jason Heller
1. Make Believe, Of Course (Flameshovel)
2. Midlake, The Trials Of Van Occupanther (World's Fair/Bella Union)
When's the last time a new CD instantly struck you? Midlake's The Trials Of Van Occupanther is a plush, velvet-covered bowling ball of orchestral pop and mystic musing that feels unforced and overwhelmingly forceful at the same time. The disc just keeps on giving: After the majesty of the first track, "Roscoe," all manner of 12-string alchemy and bassoon-imbued beauty ensue. You might lose some breath keeping up with the denser passages, but the album always clears space for plenty of placid rest stops—including the pillowy, piano-lulled closer "You Never Arrived."
3. Pinebender, Working Nine To Wolf (Lovitt)
4. The Hold Steady, Boys And Girls In America (Vagrant)
5. Califone, Roots & Crowns (Thrill Jockey)
6. Young Widows, Settle Down City (Jade Tree)
7. The Thermals, The Body The Blood The Machine (Sub Pop)
8. Planes Mistaken For Stars, Mercy (Abacus)
Planes Mistaken For Stars keeps cutting deep into hardcore to find that primal infection that set everything itching in the first place. And yet Mercy is far from retro: The band's third full-length—which came a hair's breadth from being released on Relapse—marries vicious punk and stoned metal in a frenzy of violence and lust that kicks harder than the collected Victory Records catalog. And Gared O'Donnell's gall-gurgling howl just keeps getting angrier, uglier, and more bloodthirsty.
9. Pink Mountaintops, Axis Of Evol (Jagjaguwar)
10. Red Sparowes, Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red Sun (Neurot)
11. Centro-Matic, Fort Recovery, (Misra)
12. Daniel Higgs, Ancestral Songs, (Holy Mountain)
Daniel Higgs, Ancestral Songs (Holy Mountain)
After a blah disc of (no joke) mouth-harp jams, Lungfish's Daniel Higgs finally released an album befitting his shamanistic stature. Awash in circular chants concerning Jesus, the devil, and death, Ancestral Songs also shows Higgs-the-guitarist to be as adept at droning modality as John Fahey. (Okay, maybe Ben Chasney.) Lungfish fans have long felt the hypnotic gravity of Higgs' words, but who knew he was such an amazing musician? Even the mouth-harp finally makes sense.
13. Kind Of Like Spitting, The Thrill Of The Hunt (Redder)
14. Fucked Up, Hidden World (Jade Tree)
15. This Moment In Black History, It Takes A Nation Of Assholes To Hold Us Back (Cold Sweat)
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