Grant's Top Ten

Grant's Top Ten

 

Here are the albums that I listened to and enjoyed the most in '06.

 

1)     Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped

2)     Neko Case – Fox Confessor…

3)     Cat Power – The Greatest

4)     The Strokes – First Impressions…

5)     The Decembrists – The Crane Wife

6)     Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam

7)     Thom Yorke – The Eraser

8)     Built to Spill – You In Reverse

9)     Graham Coxon – Love Travels…

10) Morrissey – Ringleader…

 

Honorable Mention (good, but I didn't listen to them all that much for some reason):

Joanna Newsome – Ys

Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid…

Hot Chip – The Warning

 

Over-Hyped:

The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls… (hasn't The Boss already done this?)

 

Biggest Disappointments:

The Electric Six – Switzerland

Basement Jaxx – Crazy Itch Radio

 

Favorite Songs:

The Strokes – 'Red Light'

Pearl Jam – 'World Wide Suicide'

Sonic Youth – 'Pink Steam'

Thom Yorke – 'Cymbal Rush'

 

Favorite Live Shows:

1)     Art Brut at the Entry

2)     Electric Six at First Ave

3)     Neko Case at First Ave

 

Most Disappointing Live Show:

The Strokes – not only did I feel like an old man amongst all the high schoolers, but the band seemed a little small on the Orpheum's big stage (both in sound and concept).

 

Dust Offs/Reissues/Compilations:

Sam Cooke – Portrait of a Legend

Talking Heads – Speaking In Tongues

REM – And I Feel Fine…

 

Other Thoughts for The Top Tens (since I am too lazy to post comments):

1)     The Current – the only DJ I like is Bill DeVille (Mark Wheat is literally worse than Hitler) but I think we are lucky to have a high quality FM radio station broadcasting so much variety in Minneapolis.

2)     Justin Timberlake – he's not Michael Jackson for sure and 'Losing My Way' is pretty painful, but I liked a lot of the songs on FutureSex. Plus, I think it is great that some of the 4.6 million people who have bought the album may really get into 'What Goes Around' or 'Damn Girl' after they forget to put 'My Love' on repeat.

3)     Dylan – I believe Dylan said he didn't think anyone had made an interesting sounding record in 20 years (referring more to the recording process and not the musicianship or songwriting).  I'd have to agree with him that most new pop music is way overcompressed ( i.e. Strokes) and sounds terrible when compared to Dylan's best recordings from the '60s and '70s. I also agree with Mickey though, Dylan talked shit and then didn't really deliver with his own album.   I though Modern Times was good, but Joanna Newsome's albums sound waaaaay more interesting than Modern Times, both from a recording standpoint and the quality of the music.  David Byrne has posted here about how recording techniques have changed music and whether or not we should even care if studio compression and mp3s are degrading the sonic quality of the music that is consumed.