Monday, November 27, 2006

Albums Of The Year: The Also-Rans

It's nearly time to deliver my Top 5 albums of the year. It's been especially difficult this year to select a top 5, not because of the high quality of the albums put out, in fact quite the opposite. I've had to search long and hard to find anything that impressive... and luckily, my oh my, some gems were found.

Of course, to narrow it down to my favourite 5 (each of which will get their own blog soon) means that there were some that almost made it, but sadly didn't - and yet they still deserve your attention. Here are the also-rans...


THE VINES - 'Vision Valley' (10)
The Vines have come back from insanity and a genuinely ill front-man to present a killer back-to-basics album that reminds us why we loved them in the first place. 'Take Me Back' shows an incredible amount of songwriting growth, and the whole thing screams "we like making music again". A warm welcome back to the silly gazzahs.


GIANT DRAG - 'Hearts And Unicorns' (9)

An amazing album of lo-fi drums and electric guitars (the kind The White Stripes would make if they were any good), riddled with searing riffs and poisonous lyrics - such as the dynamite 'you fuck like my dad'. This nearly made it, but a couple of lacklustre tracks (such as an awful cover of Chris Isaac's 'Wicked Game') just kept it outside the top5.


TV ON THE RADIO - 'Return To Cookie Mountain' (8)


Almost worth admission for the album title alone. This was nearly a contender for one song alone - which, for my money, is nearly the track of the year - 'I Was A Lover'. Hearing that song should be a law. Again, a couple of not-so-good songs smothered in techno-wankery (despite David Bowie) lowered this otherwise excellent album just outside the 5.


TOM WAITS - 'Orphans: Bawlers, Brawlers and Bastards' (7)


If this list was just about album titles then Tom would win. A 3-disc, 56-track marathon, any other artist would crumble under the pressure of such a prolific release. But this is Tom Waits. Eccentric and original. His voice is the key; if you like it you'll love the album, if you don't you won't get past track 3. I'm in the former catagory. This is a staggering series of work that only misses out because, no matter how eccentric you are, and how much of the material is pure gold, with so many songs there's going to be a few rough diamonds. Was very tempted to include him solely on the bravery of this endeavour.


BRIGHT EYES - 'Digital Ash In A Digital Urn' (6)
An absolutely stunning album, combining Connor Oberst's traditional folk/blues songwriting with digitised beats and rythms. Shouldn't work but it does. This would have been number 1 for sure, but unfortunately it was released last year and I only discovered it a few months ago. Which makes it completely my fault. Sorry, Connor!

Top 5 Coming Soon...

1 Comments:

Blogger Jon said...

ooh very nice, good choices, but slow down! I've still got 3 more years to document til I get to 2006! Don't pre-empt me!

3:33 PM  

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