Discology: CDs : DVDs : LPs

Hello and welcome to my Top 12 CDs of 2006.

I know, I know, why 12 when the usual is 10? Why not? There was a lot of good music out there this year to get excited about and sometimes I just want to act outside of the box. My request with this list is to ask each of you reading it to send me back your list of Top CDs of the year, be it as many or as few as you would like. I want you to contact me or each other and talk about why you liked the music you did. 

This is not a challenge. but I know that Mike is currently working on a Top 40 list and that has got to be hard to pair down considering the multitudes of CDs that he buys each year.
I look forward to your lists.

Top Twelve for 2006:

1. Mew- And The Glass Handed Kites – When a band challenges me to listen to music differently (as A Perfect Circle’s Mer de Noms did in 2000), it’s always a more engaging experience then the usual faire of rock music that is released every year. You know the usual album construct?: It’s 10-12 songs; 1^st song kicks off like a rock being dropped into water; the 3^rd, 7^th, and 9^th songs are the hooks that reel you back in; with the last song being the overtly sappy ballad.

   What is most striking about Mew, a Danish quartet, is that they approach their sound with a series of contrasts instead. The primary contrast is the arcing of falsetto vocals over the grounding riffs. It defines the bands’ sound, but it’s just one of many pleasing contrasts that let you know that they are up to something better: an album unlike the ones built before, or as often. For clarification, by “album” I also do not mean a collection of songs that can be played at random, but rather a collection of songs that bleed into one another so profusely that the songs sometimes defy beginning and ending; that they must be listened to in order as the band has intended.

   With this as the blueprint, that the album starts off with the non-lyrical (not non-vocal) “Circuitry of the Wolf”, a piece that traps the listener who is still pondering the title’s meaning, while the music gives shape to the inevitable rise of the falsetto chorale from the deep in the mix?  It may sound ominous, but it’s actually quite lovely as the music crescendos and transitions into the first of many song-blocks. From there, the album guides you through several movements that are epitomized by the sequence of “Fox Cub”, “Apocalypso”, “Special”, and “The Zookeeper’s Boy”. “Special” is especially appealing with a guitar hook so infectious that it could have been track 3, 7 or 9 on a typical10 track album, as opposed to track 6 in a sequence of 14. There are also moments of guile when the drums change tempo so subtly that it approximates an audio vertigo.  It is moments like this, that allow the listener to become more in tune with the work, where subtlety and nuance are key.

   Through many of the album’s movements, I strained to understand what Jonas Bjerre is singing about, but arrived at the notion that because his voice is so instrument-like (as with Dead Can Dance’s Lisa Gerrard) that it sometimes ceases to be about the lyric rather than being just lyrical. This is not to detract from the actual lyrics though, which are sung in English, and can be found in the booklet with its intentionally difficult font, because voices are as much about the quality as much as the words themselves.

   Ultimately, amidst the contrasts, Mew has orchestrated quite a few moments of joy within their epic first American release. I still don’t know what else to call them, these moments of joy, I can only revel in them as I listen to And The Glass Handed Kites over and over—another rarity for me.

2. Appleseed Cast- Peregrine – Epic song building from another band that likes using birds as a point of reference.
3. Joseph Arthur- Nuclear Daydream – This is the first release on Joe’s own label, Lonely Astronaut, which finds him charting new territory as a singer/songwriter.
4. Michael Brook- An Inconvenient Truth (Soundtrack) – Michael’s album here works as a solo effort as much as an accompanying score for one the most important films of our times.
5. Michael Brook- RockPaperScissors – A proper solo album that stretches beyond the use of the Infinite Guitar sound of Michael’s prior solo releases and hosts many guests in support– both alive and passed on.
6. Foo Fighters- In Your Honour – One loud…one not so loud. The later is the more interesting from the Foo’s and was so well translated on last summer’s acoustic tour.
7. Mellowdrone- Box – A few remakes of songs off of the two earlier EP’s pepper their first full-length. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
8. Now It’s Overhead- Dark Light Daybreak -Dream-pop that defies the era in which it was made.
9. Gregory Page- Love Made Me Drunk – Listen while thinking of a French café in the 30’s…and you are there.
10. Scanners- Violence is Golden – Raw and snappy from a younger PJ Harvey sound-alike.
11. Transit-Transit – I just discovered these guys in the past few months and need to hear more from this indie rock quartet that focuses on lyric as much as music.
12. V.A.S.T.- April – Jon has constructed his most understated and straightforward release simply because it lacks much of the studio filigree of prior releases.