Uncle Stitch's 2006 Music Roundup

[salisbury]

A bit self-indulgent this may be, but I'm a music nerd and we music nerds are all about the LIST LIST LIST so here we go:


My Top 5:

1. Muse, Black Holes and Revelations - While not quite their OK Computer as some gushing critics would have us believe, Black Holes... still packs in eleven grand slams while deepening Muse's conspiracy-theories-in-space mythology. A steller album but let's bring back the huge guitars next time, lads.
2. Beck, The Information - Returning to form after last year's good-but-not-great Guero, Beck's latest is pitched somewhere in the loneliest regions of outer space, a Dark Side of the Moon for the the indie set. Each song builds upon the cosmic space of the previous until the album floats off into the dark ether with the epic stoner closer track.
3. The Mars Volta, Amputechture - First impression: impenetrable masturbatory crap. Final verdict: the best manifestation of the fearless Mars Volta indie-prog aesthetic to date.
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Show Your Bones - As much as I loved their old sound, it turns out this band is phenomenal when they stop being the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and instead record a Pixies album.
5. Wolfmother, Wolfmother - Utterly ridiculous and rightfully so.

Honorable Mention:

• Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not


• Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere


• ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, So Divided - Mostly killer but I could have done with less hot-indie-band aping and more utter destruction.


• Thom Yorke, The Eraser

Great Once You Cut Out the Filler:

• Justin Timberlake, Future Sex/ Love Sounds


• Lady Sovereign, Public Warning

Disappointments:

• The Strokes, First Impressions of Earth - "See I'm stuck in a city/But I belong in a field." No you fucking don't.


• TV on the Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain - Sacrilege, I know, but at least their previous disc had some actual songs.


• Outkast, Idlewild - Clearly it's time to take Andre 3000 behind the woodshed and set Big Boi free.


• The Decemberists, The Crane Wife - As steller as most of this is, I'm afraid "The Perfect Crime #2," "When the War Came," and the first two thirds of "The Island" are simply unforgivable. And where are the heart-breakers?


• The Flaming Lips, At War with the Mystics - My god it kills me to say anything remotely negative about this twelve-year favorite, but goddamn they've forgotten how to write a song.

Single of the Year:

• Justin Timberlake, "Sexyback" - Twenty years of synth funk and electro pop vacuum packed into four minutes of brilliance, complete with a spoken guided tour.

Not a bad year, although there were some colossal disappointments (I'm looking your way, Mr. Coyne). Next year is already shaping up nicely, with new Radiohead, Arcade Fire, and PJ Harvey on the horizon.

Roll on 2007.