Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Individual Lists

Several of the contributors to ALIEN CORPSE have submitted a list of the "Top Ten Albums of the Year" for 2006 -- Sadly, two of these lists don't have ten items. Either these contributors are REALLY devoted to their choices or have nothing good to say about 2006. Here they are.

CPM
1. Joanna Newsom, Ys

JLD
1. Grandaddy, Just Like the Fambly Cat
2. The Strokes, First Impresssions of Earth

TH
1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones
2. Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere
3. The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
4. TV On The Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain
5. Beck – The Information
6. The Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers
7. The Streets – The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
8. David Bazan – Fewer Moving Parts
9. Regina Spektor – Begin to Hope
10. Razorlight – Razorlight

DS
1. Band of Horses, Everything All the Time
2. Mew, And the Glass Handed Kites
3. Built to Spill, You in Reverse
4. Grandaddy, Just Like the Fambly Cat
5. mewithoutYou, Brother, Sister
6. Sonic Youth, Rather Ripped
7. Silver Jews, Tangewood Numbers
8. The Long Winters, Putting the Days to Bed
9. The Violet Burning, Drop Dead
10. Norma Jean, Redeemer

11 comments:

Tim Horsman said...

Ok, DS...you asked for it. You asked me to comment on your list and here it is...it's a good list. Wait, I didn't finish. It's a good list for "Top 10 Albums for 2005-2006." Follow me on an enchanting journey of CD release dates.

The Violet Burning, Drop Dead - Released November 3rd, 2005

Mew, And the Glass Handed Kites - Released October 18th, 2005

Silver Jews, Tanglewood Numbers (which was also misspelled on your list) - Released October 18th, 2005

That other list that only contains two albums, one of which is THE STROKES (shudder) suddenly looks much more taut.

Man, that's fun.

JohnLDrury said...

My list would have been much better and longer with 2005 records included. Reasons: (1) there were a number of good releases in '05 and (2) I am often 6 months behind the curve of new records.

Anonymous said...

The Silver Jews was released in October 2005 (year-end lists often include the last few months of the previous year, anyway)

Mew's album was released in October 2005 in EUROPE. It was released in the US in June (maybe July) of 2006. Check itunes, dude.

I don't know where your info on the Violet Burning came from. Check their website. Drop Dead came out on Valentine's Day 2006.

Those are the facts, bro-sef!

Now, about your list, Tim: what should I say? What's the right word?

The right word is: mainstream. All of your selections (except for Bazan, which was an EP, not an LP; should we not put restrictions on such things?) were major label crap. I mean, the YYYs are your number one? Where are your indie roots, my man?

Tim Horsman said...

Ok, my info came from Amazon, and it was shoddy...but even including one album from 2005 on an 06 list is a little weak...

Dude. 1) Listen to Decemberists and TV on the Radio and tell me that they are not two of the most well-constructed albums of the last 10 years. 2)Mainstream is hardly what I would call Spektor, Razorlight, and the Streets. Ask 50 people in there 20s to name one song of any of these artists and ONE person will be able to.

Just because something is on a major label, doesn't mean it sucks. And at this point, it doesn't mean it's mainstream either. Record companies have learned that there is money to be made in the "indie" market. Don't be that teenager that said, "They used to be cool before they sold out."

PS I'm pretty sure that last year we had this EXACT same argument and we were on different sides. Miss spouting these diatribes in person.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I think we did have this argument before.

So let me change the argument a tad.

Tim, this is what you did. You went and looked at everyone else's Best of lists (Rolling Stone maybe, Spin probably, Pitchfork maybe, maybe some sales charts) and purchased albums that you did not find on your own naturally.

It just seems fixed to me. Why didn't you just write about the albums you found on your own?

Anonymous said...

Tim, thanks for leading me to this site of some fine music scholars.
I like all of your lists some stuff I haven't listen to yet. My top ten of 2006 (hope all came out in 2006).

1. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat
2. M. Ward – Post-War
3. Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers
4. Johnny Cash – American V: A Hundred Highways
5. Band Of Horses – Everything All the Time
6. Bob Dylan – Modern Times
7. Loose Fur – Born Again in the USA
8. Damien Jurado – And Now that I’m in Your Shadow
9. The Flaming Lips – At War with the Mystics
10. Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupather

Tim Horsman said...

"Tim, this is what you did. You went and looked at everyone else's
Best of lists (Rolling Stone maybe, Spin probably, Pitchfork maybe,
maybe some sales charts) and purchased albums that you did not find on
your own naturally."

Here's the thing about that. I did look at what other people had to
say about 2006, but at none of my usual sources of information (even
at this point I haven't seen RS's list, or Pitchfork, or even Spin --
my subscription issue including the lists came AFTER our lists were
posted, and I've delayed reading) I was perusing some online websites
in late November to find some new music as I hadn't bought anything
good for a while. I took a recommendation from Jason Heron's blog to
check out TV on the Radio when it was released and another unknown
recommendation (maybe amazon) about the Decemberists. Upon listening
to these two albums, they were better than anything I had heard in 06,
but since they were recommendations they were lower on my list. Every
other album was either anticipated or pre-ordered (I've bought every
Beck album since Mutations when it came out with the exception of Sea
Change). Since the list was composed I got a recommendation from Alex
Hershey's list about Damien Jurado's newest album...that would have
made the list.

Again, take a listen to Decemberists and TV on the Radio, I feel that
this discussion/argument/debate would probably be moot if you had
spent time with these records, because in spite of the fact that they
made other lists, THEY ARE ACTUALLY GOOD.

It's insulting to say that I padded my list with albums that "I did
not find on my own naturally." Should I seal myself in an oxygen tent
and wait for the names of new bands and good albums to come to me in a
trance-like state? How else would one find good music? You take
recommendations from websites, friends (in that order when you live in
Hawaii and have no friends in proximity that care about music, read:
no friends) and magazines that you trust and check out the music.
Otherwise you would consume every piece of music created and spend no
time enjoying good music because you would be too busy searching for
the next thing no one had heard of. I have neither the money or time
(with two children listening to alphabet songs while I drive them to
the beach) to consume that much music.

Plus, Dan, how did you find out about Band of Horses (which sucked
outside of "Funeral" and "the Great Salt Lake" and DOES SOUND LIKE MY
MORNING JACKET no matter how much you want them not to)? Was that an
organic find?

Don't condemn me for liking music that others like, just because your
choices suck and don't show up on anyone's lists, ever. But then
again, you were always more indie than the rest of us (wink).

Anonymous said...

touche!

Yeah, I still like Band of Horses no matter what. (I think I found them through the Sub Pop podcast.) Speaking of MMJ, did you see their live DVD Okonokos? Very good.

Oh yeah, I had a question: how did you break the ties? I saw several albums had the same points, but you ranked them some how. I'm not complaining because my albums seemed to benefit, but I was just curious.

Peace,
Dan

Tim Horsman said...

BoH did record two great songs...both of those songs almost made my
songs list, and I heard them first through subpop podcast which I
think you recommended because of those songs. Maybe we could do a
podcast list next week on the corpse? I could come up with 10, though
they wouldn't all be music related.

Anonymous said...

band of horses are incredible. can't believe that their songs "part one" and "st. augustine" weren't on the list. i think these two tracks, along with funeral highlight the album. also, just happenned to listen to red house painter's "songs for a blue guitar" today for the first time since IWU, i think. i thought about you, tim. i think it was on the way to BW3s when i rode with you and first heard the album. also, no tom waits? the brawlers disc is so great. haven't heard all of the joanna newsome yet, but love what i have heard. dylan's "modern times" would make my list too.

anyway, good to hear you guys bickering over indie/mainstream music again. i've missed that.

take care,
jason shrontz

Grant E Swartzentruber said...

You needed...

Tv on the Radio
the Decemberists
Jenny Lewis & the Watsons
Band of Horses
m. ward
neko case
flaming lips
yo la tengo
the thermals (though they are a little god-less)

...for your list to have any credibility as a 2006 tops list.

I refuse to read this blog until the list reflects these choices.

Or you should at least apologize for short-sightedness.

And I dont even know what 'Grandaddy' sounds like- so maybe I should shut-up.