Half Term Report 2006
In which Dead Kenny casts his rheumy eye over the albums released for the first time in the UK between January 1 and June 30 2006 and delivers his subjective but undeniably authorative verdict as to the twenty best. Not exactly an exciting year in terms of new developments but as usual there was plenty of quality about if you were prepared to look for it. Indeed, couldn't find places in the selection for the fine debuts by Ladyfuzz and The Research, nor Broken Social Scene's self-titled record which yielded some of the best tracks of the year to date (7/4 Shoreline, Superconnected) but also some of the most indigestible filler.
1. ST.ELSEWHERE - GNARLS BARKLEY
2. Hearts And Unicorns - Giant Drag
3. Show Your Bones - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4. The Greatest - Cat Power
5. Schmotime - Absentee
6. The Trials Of Van Occupanther - Midlake
7. Ballad Of The Broken Seas - Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
8. Scale - Herbert
9. Silent Shout - The Knife
10. Into The Red - Tina Dico
11. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
12. Howling Bells - Howling Bells
13. Meds - Placebo
14. Be Your Own Pet - Be Your Own Pet
15. In Colour - The Concretes
16. At War With The Mystics - Flaming Lips
17. Let's Get Out Of This Country - Camera Obscura
18. Bitter Tea - The Fiery Furnaces
19. We Are Not The Infadels -Infadels
20. Rabbit Fur Coat - Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins
Other opinions are available -
Largehearted Boy's Half Time Report.
Sweeping The Nation's Half Time Analysis.
Skatterbrain's Top 10 of 2006 (so far...)
- what's yours?
In which Dead Kenny casts his rheumy eye over the albums released for the first time in the UK between January 1 and June 30 2006 and delivers his subjective but undeniably authorative verdict as to the twenty best. Not exactly an exciting year in terms of new developments but as usual there was plenty of quality about if you were prepared to look for it. Indeed, couldn't find places in the selection for the fine debuts by Ladyfuzz and The Research, nor Broken Social Scene's self-titled record which yielded some of the best tracks of the year to date (7/4 Shoreline, Superconnected) but also some of the most indigestible filler.
1. ST.ELSEWHERE - GNARLS BARKLEY
2. Hearts And Unicorns - Giant Drag
3. Show Your Bones - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4. The Greatest - Cat Power
5. Schmotime - Absentee
6. The Trials Of Van Occupanther - Midlake
7. Ballad Of The Broken Seas - Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
8. Scale - Herbert
9. Silent Shout - The Knife
10. Into The Red - Tina Dico
11. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
12. Howling Bells - Howling Bells
13. Meds - Placebo
14. Be Your Own Pet - Be Your Own Pet
15. In Colour - The Concretes
16. At War With The Mystics - Flaming Lips
17. Let's Get Out Of This Country - Camera Obscura
18. Bitter Tea - The Fiery Furnaces
19. We Are Not The Infadels -Infadels
20. Rabbit Fur Coat - Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins
Other opinions are available -
Largehearted Boy's Half Time Report.
Sweeping The Nation's Half Time Analysis.
Skatterbrain's Top 10 of 2006 (so far...)
- what's yours?
4 Comments:
YYYs, Giant Drag and Cat Power would probably all be in my top ten too, as would Howling Bells. You could add to those four (in no particular order and pretty much off the top of my head) My Latest Novel, Mogwai, You & The Atom Bomb, The Strokes, Graham Coxon and Secret Machines. Haven't yet got Bitter Tea or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (or News & Tributes and Rather Ripped, both almost certainties to be in there come the end of the year), and the Concretes and Flaming Lips albums have been sitting around unplayed for a while. So much to listen to at the moment!
Ah Ben, too busy to listen to The Concretes, that's a sad state of affairs, and things will only get worse when you're working again. The album's very frontloaded so play tracks 1-5 first chance you get.
The new F.lips takes a bit of getting used to, but it's a grower, and as I recently noted here on PV, it all makes sense live.
Of your additions, I've got the My Latest Novel (it's OK but a bit middle-of-the-road for my tastes) and The Strokes (as with BSS, it's a bit hit-and-miss) but they couldn't force their way into my 20.
As good as a lot of these albums are, though, I'm hoping we'll see some more inspiration and excitement in the second half of the year. Or is it me being jaded?
I can't think of anything much less middle-of-the-road than My Latest Novel!
But I don't think it's just you being jaded - there have been some great albums released in the first six months of the year, but nothing that has absolutely blown me away. I wondered whether I was suffering from excessively heightened expectations following the Arcade Fire, Low, Futureheads and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds albums of the last couple of years.
Oh c'mon, Ben, I'm *definitely* hearing a 'David Gray' element in MLN's music, you're clearly in denial!
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