Best Of 2006: Albums

Build A Taj Mahal On Vacation Time:
Mike C.'s Favorite Music Of 2006

Top 50 Albums

1. PERNICE BROTHERS – Live A Little (Ashmont)

This would be much easier if it were 1966. Revolver would by my favorite album of the year. It would top all the critics' polls, if such polls had existed. It would be one of the biggest sellers of the year, you'd know what it sounds like, and there's a good chance you'd already own it and love it too.

Alas, your TV no longer has just three networks, your phone no longer has just numbers, and your record store no longer...well, your record store probably no longer exists, so maybe that’s not the best example. The point is, most pop culture is not universal. And that's ok. The fall 2006 release of Live A Little, the fifth Pernice Brothers album, was not widely heralded as an event of major cultural significance outside of the worlds of a few thousand dedicated fans. And while some may label me an elitist snob for naming a fairly obscure independent release that has sold about 5,000 copies to date as my favorite album of the year (whilst others who have heard it, and find it too boring or slow might just think I'm overrating it), the selection of a personal favorite that spoke to me is what seems most meaningful. The category I've set up is "favorite album of the year," not "favorite album of the year that most people have already heard of."

Even in a more tightly focused culture where mass phenomena were easier to create—think Elvis or The Beatles on Ed Sullivan—there still is almost no chance that the Pernice Brothers, the band that inspired me the most in 2006, would achieve enormous sales or fame. It's been years since I listened to any new album as much as I've listened to Live A Little, and while I am close to this music, I can step back from it and admit that its appeal is not universal. It rocks a bit in spots, but by and large it is a collection of quiet, poignant stories that probably are not likely to resonate with everyone.

But Live A Little is special. It is album of songs about travels by foot, car, plane, and within the human imagination. It makes smart lyrical nods to Tommy James, The Shirelles, The Clash, and numerous authors without obnoxiously calling attention to how clever those references are. It adheres to a sonic worldview in which The Smiths, Pretenders, and New Order are filtered through The Zombies as well as early Wilco. It has songs like "Zero Refills," which sounds like the mature adult offspring of The Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why," and "Cruelty To Animals," in which the Meat Is Murder author calmly sings "Alouette, gentille alouette" while seeking shelter from the storm of barbarism that begins at home. It also has, inconspicuously located at track number seven—meaning it would lead off side two of this 12-song collection if you had to flip the thing over after 20 minutes to hear the rest—quite possibly the best song created by anyone in the last 20 years. Live A Little bursts with brutal honesty, and passion, and humor, and thoughtfulness of the kind not so commonly heard on an indie rock record. Seems like without tenderness there’s something missing.

Even the album title is perfect. Of course it is meant in the typical, encouraging sense of the phrase: go on, have some fun, live a little. But in typical Pernicean fashion, there is no way not to also interpret in it a second, sarcastically funny meaning: as in, to live only a little, to not be living quite enough. Laughing in the face of pain and sadness, and conquering ennui with a deep breath and a clever pun, is the central theme of Pernice's art. Though none of his previous work has been less than excellent, Pernice's realistic but not pessimistic worldview has never shown itself as fully flowered as it does here.

Critical overstatement is a danger. Grand, sweeping declarations are often regretted by the author soon after they are printed or posted. But hang it all; if I've ever wanted to write a rave, this is it. To posit that Live A Little is a work of such originality, genius, and beauty that it is unlikely to be matched this decade in its power and achievement by any work of art, not just in music but in any medium—literature, film, painting, glass-blowing, collage, mime, skywriting, sand sculpture, anything—is not hyperbole. It is understatement.

2. BELLE & SEBASTIAN – The Life Pursuit (Matador)
After a couple of middling albums in a row, the foremost purveyors of Scottish twee return to their form with their finest album since their 1997 breakthrough If You’re Feeling Sinister. The songs are sharp musically and lyrically, and for once, they even sound like they’re having a bit of fun. That fun rubs off on this engaging collection that does not contain any songs that are less than excellent.

3. SMART BROWN HANDBAG – Harry Larry (Stonegarden)
A designation like “most underappreciated band on the continent” is awfully difficult to quantify definitively, but Smart Brown Handbag might really be it. We’re talking about a band that has recorded and released ten full-length albums in ten years but has never reported SoundScan sales of more than 102 copies of any of them. Granted, they probably have sold more than 102 of at least some of their albums at merch tables during shows—not that they’ve toured in years—but it is probably accurate to say that there are unsigned bands playing junior high school dances who have sold more albums than Smart Brown Handbag.

What’s staggering about SBH’s inability to find an audience is that their sound is so accessible; they do not engage in avant-garde musical wankery. Nor, it’s perhaps not obvious enough to avoid stating, do they suck. Their MySpace page—on which I appear proudly as one of the band’s 59 friends, as of this writing (and I'm in their Top 12, but I swear I've never even met them)—pegs their sound accurately by listing The Smiths, Prefab Sprout, and Death Cab For Cutie under the “sounds like” tab. But as they sagely state in the “influences” box, “After ten years we are our own influence.” I would add that there’s more than a dash of the mellower side of early R.E.M. in many of their songs. As stated in this space two years ago, and as put forth by one of the more brilliant American music reviewers of the last decade, Glenn McDonald, the continued anonymity of Smart Brown Handbag is truly one of the great musical conundrums of the indie rock era. The craziest thing about it this band is that they keep getting better. Harry Larry is one of their best.

4. JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS – Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love)
Is this where I congratulate myself for waiting until number four before ranking an album that was both ecstatically embraced and backlashed upon by the musical hipster cognoscenti? The Rilo Kiley frontwoman takes a countrified vacation that shouldn’t have surprised anyone who paid attention to the acoustic numbers on the band’s last album, and hate it or love it, there really wasn’t anything else out there this year that sounded quite like this.

5. BEN KWELLER – Ben Kweller (ATO)
Lacking a potential monster hit single like his first two solo efforts, this album nonetheless coheres as a piece of work better than anything else the former teenage leader of Radish has done. Playing all the instruments himself and benefiting from smart production by Gil Norton, this album shows Ben’s songcraft taking a step up to the next level.

6. BUTCH WALKER – The Rise And Fall Of Butch Walker And The Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites (Epic/One Haven/Red Ink)
This collection of smart rock songs that oughta be hits might strike some as a tad slick—Butch has produced Avril Lavigne—but there are plenty of tattooed love girls and boys who believe the former frontman of Marvelous 3 (a band I never cared about) is more than just a cooler Bryan Adams. What puts this effort over the top is not the T. Rex homage “Hot Girls In Good Moods” or any of the other upbeat rockers, but the versatility he demonstrates in the trio of ballads that anchor the album. A sleeper that I never expected to make my top 10.

7. NEW YORK DOLLS – One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This (Roadrunner)
Speaking of sleepers, what were the odds that, despite three-fifths of this seminal NYC pre-punk band’s original members being dead, their third-ever studio album—and first in 32 years—would be such a vital collection of music? David and Syl carry the torch admirably for fallen dolls Johnny, Jerry, and Arthur, with David writing some of the year’s best lyrics this side of Joe Pernice. Read the Christgau piece.

8. GOLDFRAPP – Supernature (Mute)
The British synth-rock duo led by Allison Goldfrapp continues to evolve in fascinating ways. Band most likely to unleash a masterpiece at some point.

9. THE HOLD STEADY – Boys And Girls In America (Vagrant)
Third time out for these Brooklyn hipsters whose shit-stirrer of a native Minnesotan frontman has been known to talk up the Twins in front of NYC area audiences. Their neo-Springsteen/Lynott schtick still sounds pretty fresh.

10. HUMA – We Are Here For You (Cult Hero)
Cool bands continue to spring from my old college town of New Brunswick, N.J., despite the loss of the established live venues, dance clubs, and record stores of yore. The finest one I’ve heard in the last few years, the coed trio Huma, make post-space-age twee tunes of the most smile-inducing variety on their full-length debut. Most genuinely heartfelt album title of the year.

11. RHETT MILLER – The Believer (Verve Forecast)
This dashing gent somehow seems so much cooler without his alt-country bandmates from The Old 97’s. Or maybe it’s just that he tries harder when he’s on his own, resulting in more compelling songs. Though there are one or two skippable tracks, and it’s a slight notch down from his earlier solo effort The Instigator, there’s enough here to keep fans of smart straight-on rocknpop feeling groovy.

12. THE SOUNDS – Dying To Say This To You (New Line)
At their best, Maja Ivarsson and her Swedish cohorts evoke a perfect hybrid of Blondie and Depeche Mode. These moments don’t sustain the album all the way through, but they’re transcendent enough.

13. TRIS MCCALL – I’m Assuming You’re All In Bands (Jersey Beat)
The de facto poet laureate of Hudson County, Tris McCall finds inspiration for most of his writing—both as a composer of music and a copious writer of prose—close to home. As militantly pro-Jersey as they come (this side of me, anyway), McCall ventures just a few miles east off the mainland, two skinny little rivers over to planet Brooklyn, for a concept album about the indie rock culture of New York City’s self-proclaimed hippest borough. Though Jersey still permeates the spirit of the mostly bouncy, hyper-literate songs (one is even titled “Princeton Can Use A Man Like Joel,” and the hidden bonus track is a gorgeous paean to the county Tris calls home), this is a dandy day trip—and rest assured that McCall does not take the easy way out now. Not that he ever would.

14. ED HARCOURT – The Beautiful Lie (Heavenly/EMI import)
What Coldplay might sound like if they were fronted by Rufus Wainwright. Oh, and if they were actually cool.

15. HOT CHIP – The Warning (Astralwerks)
A late entry onto the list, and the only one of these 50 albums that I did not actually hear until January 2007. Might have ranked higher if I’d gotten my hands on it sooner and had more time with it. This is startlingly good electronic pop that often sounds eerily similar to the dance album The Aluminum Group has been threatening to make for years. Detached, understated vocals mixed with sharp beats and a vague sense of alienation permeating the proceedings. Pretty great.

16. THE DIVINE COMEDY – Victory For The Comic Muse (Parlophone)
That most debonair Northern Irish lad (cad?) Neil Hannon trots out his baroque wit (pith?) on a charming album that amounts to a realization of its title, which may or may not be tongue-in-cheek (tongue-in-chic?).

17. THE COUP – Pick A Bigger Weapon (Epitaph)
The only 2006 hip hop album I have listened to more than once in its entirety. That’s clearly my loss, but the genre was a natural victim of my curtailed music listening during the past year. The group whose 2001 album Party Music caused quite a stir due to an album cover that showed the twin towers on fire—and it was released before 9/11—keeps up its fierce politics on songs like “Baby Let’s Have A Baby Before Bush Do Something Crazy.” Guests Talib Kweli and Black Thought help make “My Favorite Mutiny” the year’s best funk workout, a moment worthy of the finest work of Lyrics Born. Has a few weak moments (especially the lame skits) but does reward repeating listenings.

18. HAMELL ON TRIAL – Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs (Righteous Babe)
Not the strongest set of songs from the one-man punk-folk rebel rouser, but even his trifles are worthy of many a spin. Read the Christgau piece on him, too.

19. THE ROBOCOP KRAUS – They Think They Are The Robocop Kraus (Epitaph/Ada)
The Nürnberg five-piece synth-and-guitar attack of the year. Surprised some of these tracks weren’t bigger talk of the MP3 blogs and indie dance club hits. The beat of the songs is so martial that they could only be German, yet they also sound like they’re having more than a bit of fun.

20. THE KILLERS – Sam’s Town (Island)
The band everyone wanted to hate in 2006 acquitted themselves reasonably well on an album that didn’t get tons better with repeated listenings, but certainly didn’t get worse. The cringeworthy, Vegasy moments are admittedly bad, and at times the performance and production coalesce into fleeting seconds of unlistenable histrionics, but even these flaws are forgivable when the songwriting’s this good.

21. THE EARLY NOVEMBER – The Mother, The Mechanic, And The Path (Drive-Thru)
In which an unknown south Jersey indie band that’s too offbeat and mellow to truly be considered emo feels gutsy enough to release a triple album. The first two discs are straightforward rock songs, and the third is the true “concept album” portion. I probably never would have heard about this had it not been for a lengthy, intriguing review by Tris McCall (yes, he of this year’s number 13 album, he’s also quite the critiquer of music). Still, I probably would not have bought this CD if I hadn’t stumbled upon it at the Greenwich Village location of Tower Records in December, priced to move at 70 percent off list, four days before the storied retailer went out of business. Life is a series of coincidences.

22. PRIESTESS – Hello Master (RCA)
This is rawk, 2006.

23. ELECTRIC SIX – Switzerland (Metropolis)
Maybe they threw this one together a little too quickly? The third album from this MC6 (there are indeed a half-dozen of them, and they are from Detroit) is a solid notch down from their first two albums, which were virtually flawless in their hybridization of “hard” rock and disco. There still are some moments here, but the band just sounds tired.

24. THE STROKES – First Impressions Of Earth (RCA)
It’s too bad you only get one chance to make a first impression, because many peoples’ initial take on these guys was that they were too cool for school and not worthy of the hype. Three albums in now, they haven’t taken over the world, but instead carved out a niche. It’s a nice niche with a lot of good stuff that anyone who can’t help but slag them is missing out on. You only live once.

25. GNARLS BARKLEY – St. Elsewhere (Downtown)
How nice of this Barkley fellow to make an entire album about my mother’s favorite TV show of the 1980s.

26. BOB DYLAN – Modern Times (Columbia)
I love Bob Dylan’s music so much, he’s the one person in music who I would actually be scared to meet. An album this highly praised by an artist I admire so much, but which I’m so highly ambivalent about, could only land right smack in the middle of the countdown. Others have pontificated elsewhere more eloquently about this than I feel inspired to do right now. If this is what getting old sounds like, it doesn’t seem quite so bad. Then again, most old people are not as rich and famous as Dylan.

27. THE RAPTURE – Pieces Of The People We Love (Mercury/Universal)
Last night a band saved my dj life. DJs like me need more hipster dance rock with grooves this tight and choruses this hooky; no really, we do.

28. ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE VENUS 3 – Olé! Tarantula (Yep Roc)
Still mostly obtuse, except for the album-closing tear-jerker dedicated to the late New York Doll bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane,” this is more upbeat, if five percent less engaging than his last stellar effort, Spooked. Great fun, though, with Peter Buck along for the ride on lead guitar. Anyone who knows what Robyn’s on about in his lyrics is hereby pledged with the duty of sharing that knowledge with the world.

29. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (Columbia)
It’s all well and good, but he could have done so much more with this. Look, you’re doing an album of old folk songs by a left-wing musical deity, and you’ve already publicly expressed your disgust with the president and his extremist agenda, so Bruce, why are you wasting your and our time with “Froggie Went A-Courtin’” when you could be doing “The Torn Flag” or some other, bolder political statement? Ok, Dan Bern just did something with that one a couple years ago, but how many people heard it? You’re Bruce, you have a huge audience. There’s nothing wrong with this album, it’s just not as meaningful as it could have been.

30. ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. – Yours To Keep (Rough Trade)
The solo Stroke has some mighty catchy tunes to offer. A cool little surprise.

31. MORRISSEY – Ringleader Of The Tormentors (Sanctuary)
Morrissey, so much to answer for. Hopes were high in the wake of the return to form on his last album, You Are The Quarry. Though nowhere near as bad as his worse solo moments—when was the last time you spun Kill Uncle or Maladjusted?—this has to rank as something of a disappointment. As demonstrated on the album’s longest track, the semi-epic “Life Is A Pigsty,” he is still capable of unbridled greatness. Still thrilled to have one of the gods back and productive, and looking forward to the next one.

32. THE RACONTEURS – Broken Boy Soldiers (V2/Third Man)
The stock I put into this record rose and fell more times than, um, a really volatile stock. (Can you tell I don’t play the market?) In the end, it’s a solid rock album with a few memorable tunes by a whole that manages to be a little less than the sum of its impressive parts.

33. THE FRATELLIS – Costello Music (Universal import)
Fun British ‘70s glam ripoff artists.

34. JOHN LEGEND – Once Again (Columbia)
The title implies more of the same as what was on the debut, but while there’s no standout track a la Lifted’s minor classic “Ordinary People,” this may actually be a stronger effort in toto. I honestly expected less, but the beats and melodies are just too good to dismiss.

35. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE – The Black Parade (Reprise)
I don’t think Queen got enough respect in their day, either. The band that catapulted from headlining The Loop Lounge in Passaic Park to a perennial top 10 MySpace search term nationally does north Jersey proud on their second major-label set. If you’re from Jersey and you don’t root for this band, then the terrorists have already won.

36. PRIMAL SCREAM – Riot City Blues (Columbia)
These Scottish-based vets have reinvented their sound many times through eight albums in 20 years, and here they take the back to basics approach, leaving the more electronica-flavored stylings of their last two efforts behind in favor of a blues-rock sound that suits them well. They even had the biggest U.K. hit of their career with album opener “Country Girl.” Right on.

37. EDITORS – The Back Room (Kitchenware)
It would take a British band to out-Interpol Interpol, of course, and here it is, with songs that even boast a memorable hook or two.

38. YEAH YEAH YEAHS – Show Your Bones (Interscope)
Cool attitude? Sure. Songs? Sadly, only in spots. Worthwhile? Yes, but only to a point.

39. MAGNET – The Tourniquet (Filter)
40. LLOYD COLE – Anti Depressant (One Little Indian)
They write the songs that don’t make the whole world sing, but those are rarely the most meaningful songs anyway...so who cares?

41. NEKO CASE – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Anti)
She’s good here, but she’s so much better in her role as occasional lead singer of The New Pornographers. This does have some very strong moments.

42. ARCTIC MONKEYS – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (Domino)
It's good, really, it's good. It's just not great. Worth having in your collection if you have everything else of this ilk. You know how I know I’m not going to be listening to this in two years? I’m not even listening to it now.

43. WILLIE NILE – Streets Of New York (Reincarnate)
A solid comeback by one of those mostly forgotten late ‘70s/early ‘80s singer/songwriters a la Steve Forbert, the kind of guy a lot of Springsteen fans tend to like. If not for the return of the Dolls, this would win the New York City Album Of The Year Award.

44. BADLY DRAWN BOY – Born In The U.K. (Astralwerks)
The unpredictable British rogue Damon Gough takes his obsession with the ‘70s in general, and the Bard of New Jersey in particular, to new heights with this, his most listenable work since his debut.

45. WE ARE SCIENTISTS – With Love And Squalor (Virgin)
46. PHOENIX – It’s Never Been Like That (Astralwerks)
Hipster rock that didn’t totally suck, volume 2006.

47. KEVIN FEDERLINE – Playing With Fire (Reincarnate)
48. “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC – Straight Outta Lynwood (Zomba)
Two classic quotes uttered by Alan Alda’s megalomaniacal film director character Lester in Crimes And Misdemeanors come to mind. One: “If it bends, it’s funny; if it breaks, it’s not funny.” Two: “Comedy equals tragedy plus time.” Federline and Yankovic both bend. And do the math: each offers music of comparable sincerity and absurdity. That they did not tour together was one of the year’s great missed music marketing opportunities.

49. JOHNNY CASH – American V: A Hundred Highways (American)
For a while, I actually forgot that I had bought this. Not that it’s terrible—not by a longshot—but like the Nirvana Unplugged album, it’s a little depressing to hear such a mighty talent more or less dying on tape. There are probably at least 30 other, better Johnny Cash albums everyone should own before they get this one.

50. THE SLEEPY JACKSON – Personality (One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird) (Astralwerks)
And that’s the way I like it, that’s the way I like it.

Also Worthy
PETE YORN – The Nightcrawler (Red Ink/Columbia)
VARIOUS – My Old Man: A Tribute To Steve Goodman (Red Pajamas)
ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO – The Boxing Mirror (Back Porch)
THE LEMONHEADS – The Lemonheads (Vagrant)
DAMONE – Out Here All Night (Island)
MAGNET – Hold On Tour EP (Filter)
KEANE – Under The Iron Sea (Interscope)

Perhaps Worthy
SCISSOR SISTERS – Ta-dah (Universal)
OUTKAST – Idlewild (LaFace/Zomba)
THE STILLS – Without Feathers (Vice)
JULES SHEAR – Dreams Don’t Count (Mad Dragon)
DIXIE CHICKS – Taking The Long Way (Open Wide/Columbia)
THE FUTUREHEADS – News And Tributes (StarTime)
THE HORRORS – The Horrors (Stolen Transmission)
THE FLAMING LIPS – At War With The Mystics (Warner Bros)

Likely Worthy, But I Didn't Hear Them In Full
JARVIS COCKER – Jarvis (Rough Trade import)
DAN BERN – Breathe (Messenger)
ASHFORD BREAKS – Traitor EP (no label)
THE THERMALS – The Body, The Blood, The Machine (Sub Pop)
PEACHES – Impeach My Bush (XL)
MATES OF STATE – Bring It Back (Barsuk)
TOM WAITS – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (Anti)
GOLDEN SMOG – Another Fine Day (Lost Highway)
PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS – Stepfather (Red Urban)
EAST RIVER PIPE – What Are You On? (Merge)
THE LONG BLONDES – Someone To Drive You Home (Rough Trade)
THE RAKES – Capture/Release (V2 Intl)
CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy (Sub Pop)
STEPHIN MERRITT – Show Tunes (Nonesuch)

Not Worthy
THE STREETS – The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living (Vice/579/Atlantic)
MEAT LOAF – Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (Virgin)
DONALD FAGEN – Morph The Cat (Reprise)
MATTHEW SWEET/SUSANNAH HOFFS – Under The Covers Vol. 1 (Shout! Factory)
CAM’RON – Killa Season (Asylum/Diplomats)
TAPES N’ TAPES – The Loon (XL)
BILLY JOEL – 12 Gardens Live (Columbia)

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