My Favorite Albums of 2006
So its the end to anther year, and I've made my picks. This year Slowtrain, a great music shop located on 221 E. 300 S. in Salt Lake City, asked me to write up a brief review of my favorite albums for a magazine they were putting out. So here it is, my picks of 2006, enjoy! And tune into Not a Side Show tonight at 10 pm to hear my favorite band Elbo Finn!
7. The Flaming Lips – The Fearless Freaks 20 Years of Weird 1986 - 2006
I suffer from the same disease that so many Lips fans have, I want the new album to be like the last one. So when At War With The Mystics was released this year I was excited, then slightly disappointed, then I realized I’m not going to fall in love with this album until I see it performed live, you just can’t beat The Flaming Lips in concert. The Fearless Freaks is a re-cut edition of the album handed out at South by Southwest this year as a sort of soundtrack to the Lips Fearless Freaks rockumentary. TFF features some new studio tracks like Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear and the Prince-esque Free Radicals and live songs new and old, original and covers. Hearing this album takes me back to 1994 when I saw my first Lips concert, the acid screaming guitars, the happiest lyrics ever written, Christmas lights, bubble machines and a Flock of Seagulls cover, yeah it was just that good.
6. Slug Magazine’s Death By Salt 2: Salt The Earth
If Salt Lake City ever experiences a mainstream musical boom like Seattle or Austin has we all know the record industry would fuck up and sign Metal Gods as their SLC poster child. Simply amazing SLC bands like Red Bennies, Vile Blue Shades, and Fifi Murmur would be overlooked and once again Ska music and Provo would reign down upon us. I don’t know about you but that’s not a world I want to live in! Thankfully, Slug Magazine has showcased 42 non-Ska or cover bands from Utah and each band has their own slick trading cards, how cool is that? With more bands then can be mentioned in this small article, Death By Salt 2 gives you everything from Hip Hop to Hard Rock and plenty more then you can imagine, it’ll make the perfect gift for people who prefer not to be disappointed.
5. Califone – Roots & Crowns
The first time I’d ever heard of Califone was when they collaborated with Isaac Brock to form Ugly Casanova, ever since I haven’t missed a release. If you like good fall music, 12 string guitars, washboard warm drums, a few horns, and a little bit of fiddle you’ll love Califone. This is the ninth album release by Califone and if it would have been released in the middle of July it probably wouldn’t have sounded as warm as it did in October. Roots & Crowns is the perfect driving music for the Swell or any road that cuts through the sage.
4. Islands – Return to the Sea
After Nick Diamonds The Unicorns disbanded I feared that the sweeter then sugar music I loved so much would soon become extinct, much like that glorious horned palomino. Much to my surprise Nick and Jamie rose from the ashes of The Unicorns and with the inspiration of Paul Simon’s Graceland formed Islands and put out Return to the Sea ten pop tracks with hints of hip-hop, calypso, country, and sugar, lots and lots of sugar.
3. The Mars Volta – Amputechture
Is it just me, or do people hate The Mars Volta because they’re described as “Progressive”? Another album devoid of short songs, and heavily influenced by Latin, jazz, and punk music with some special guitar “noodling” provided by John Frusciante. Amputechture in a nutshell, is about the deterioration of society by religion. If you really want to get the feel of this album, turn off all the lights, crank it up to 11, lie down, and let the guitars melt you into the floor.
2 Beck – The Information
Recently my father and I were listening to The Information and about halfway through “Think I’m In Love” he turned to me and said, “I swear I’ve heard this song before, isn’t this song by that band that used to open up for Dr. Hook?” We searched the web, and looked through his record collection and we couldn’t find this phantom band. So there you have it folks, you want to know why Beck kicks so much ass? He’s got a time machine and is traveling back in time, killing off one-hit wonders and assimilating their hits into his new albums. I can’t complain, Beck keeps putting out albums and each one is better then the last, but take heed Beck, HANDS OFF HALL & OATES!
1. Pavement – Wowee Zowee Sordid Sentinels Edition
Originally released in April of 1995, Wowee Zowee was 18 tracks that covered almost every style of music. I was given WZ by a Deadhead friend of mine and as soon as his back was turned I threw it away, how could some hippy have any idea what kind of music I liked? Well I was wrong, 5 years later I bought WZ and after listening to the album a few dozen times I started to think that Pavement might be the best band of the 90’s. Then I read an interview with Stephen Malkmus about WZ, apparently this album was supposed to be listened to on random. As soon as I had a chance, I put it in my stereo, hit random and was convinced, Pavement was he best band of the 90’s. The Sordid Sentinels Edition is 2 discs, 50 tracks, several unreleased songs, and some amazing live tracks. Please enjoy the happy-go-luckiness of this album and keep your fingers crossed hoping for a Pavement reunion in 2007.
