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Clay's Best Albums of 2006
Even more so than with movies, I acquired nearly everything on this list because I was already a fan of the artist or I'd heard samples of the music and suspected I would be a fan. The sole exception is the last-place album, Nelly Furtado's Loose, which I picked up cheap at the newspaper auction and couldn't get through even once before ejecting it and tossing it aside. The rest of these albums I enjoy to at least some degree.
Some of these albums I haven't heard very much, and that affects their placement on the list. The Elvis Costello CD, for example, I've given only a single full listen. Same goes for Dixie Chicks. But rather than hold off on compiling my list until I've heard everything a half-dozen times, I decided that if I'm not giving a CD repeated listens, it's probably for a reason. Of course, any one of these could wind up as a future favorite. It's happened before. I "discovered" Lucinda Williams long after I'd bought and given a couple cursory listens to Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, an album I now consider one of the very best in my collection.
A few of these artists played themselves right off the Top Ten list, hindered by their own ambition. Nellie McKay put out an album of 12 wonderful songs, but felt the need to pad it (onto a second disc, even) with 8 mediocre ones. Regina Spektor (pictured) evokes Fiona Apple in her passionate piano balladry but slips into avant garde weirdness on a couple tracks late in her otherwise excellent album. Beck made the Top Ten but would have been Top Five had he cut just one track from the overlong ending of his CD.
Finally, the artist I'm the most excited about over the past few months didn't even release an album this year.
Feeling that my preference for foreign language works shouldn't be limited to movies, I dipped my toe in Shakira. (OK, there's an image nobody needed.) Actually, I started my Shakira collection with her last, English-language release and was impressed, though I found the lyrics and some of the singing a little awkward. As mine would be, were I to put out an album in Spanish (as opposed to my stellar English-language CDs). So I picked up Donde Esta Los Ladrones?, widely considered her best album, and was blown away. Granted, I have no idea what she's singing, but the music, performance and production are top-notch. And she's responsible for all of it. So strange how a performer can be so huge in the rest of the world and barely make a blip here until she dyes her hair and gets all crazy-sexy on MTV. She sold out the AmericanAirlines Arena five times, a record for that venue, so I guess my Hispanic brothers and sisters (or is that hermanos y hermanas) know what's up. (As does Gabriel Garcia Marquez, reportedly a huge fan and friend of hers.) I've gotten her three other albums since then, and I've been wildly impressed with each. Viva Shakira!
Now, on the the list...
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#1 - Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
My favorite band released what may be their finest album yet way back in February and it never left the top spot of this list. This sunny pop and white-boy funk (Scottish white-boy funk, no less) is a world away from the acoustic loveliness of their classic If You're Feeling Sinister but still they manage to sound like themselves from the first note to the last. Thirteen songs packed with sharp lyrics, infectious melodies, expertly placed horns and strings, and the best backing vocals I've heard in ages — when Belle & Sebastian are at the top of their game, it isn't even fair to ask the rest of the recording industry to compete.
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#2 - John Mayer - Continuum
He's not even 30, and John Mayer has put out his third straight album of wonderful, transcendent blues pop. And Continuum is his finest moment to date. His sound is much richer here, his songs more laid back and lived in. Working triple duty as writer, performer and producer, he's crafted a supple, sexy collection of guitar rock that recalls the best of Sting and Eric Clapton. I'm generally not big on guitar work, but when Mayer makes that thing sing, I can't get enough. Forget how VH-1 cute he is... this guy is the real deal.
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#3 - Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Leave it to the legend to defy the odds and, at 65 years old, put out his third straight masterpiece. Forty years after the astounding run of Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, Dylan has done it again. But now he's the wizened and battle-worn song-and-dance man who's seen it all and then some. He doesn't have time for the wild-eyed poetry of his youth. He's singing about sex and death, love and theft. Every song on this album is a treasure, but the high points for me are 'Nettie Moore' and 'Ain't Talkin',' two epic tales that stand alongside the greatest songs of our greatest songwriter.
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#4 - Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
In a good year for women (see #12-17 on this list), Neko Case is the only babe to crack my Top Ten. And she cracked the hell out of it. I picked this CD up, having never heard of her, after seeing it mentioned on a number of year-end lists. And wow. This album strikes me as a sort of sequel to REM's Fables of the Reconstruction, in spirit if not exactly sound. The songs are haunted campfire tales about mythic characters. The music is rich and deep, sad but uplifting. And that voice... aching, gorgeous, etched with experience. I don't know if this masterwork is typical of Case's output, but I'm dying to find out.
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#5 - Josh Rouse - Subtitulo
Rouse delivers his sixth straight winner. Recorded during a lazy year spent in Spain, Subtitulo is low-key and mellow, a glass of cool lemonade on a hot summer day. Why this guy isn't a huge star is beyond me. It's a testament to how damn great he is that this is probably my fifth favorite of his albums and it's still better than almost anything else I heard last year. Especially effective are the Simon & Garfunkel-esque opener, 'Quiet Town,' and the exuberant pop majesty of 'It Looks Like Love.'
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#6 - Beck - The Information
Beck got more press for embracing the YouTube generation than he did for the actual music on this album. The CD cover was do-it-yourself, providing a sheet full of stickers and an empty grid. He made cheapo videos for every song and released them on the Web, encouraging fans to do the same. Clever stuff. But the songs are the thing, and these are great songs. A mix of funk, blues, folk and electronica that only Beck could deliver. It's near-perfect until a couple unnecessary tracks at the end which drop it a notch or two.
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#7 - The Beatles - Love
I've read a lot of purists claim they dreaded this album until they actually heard it. I never felt that way. The idea excited me from the start and the execution blew me away. Experimentation aside, the first thing to love about Love is the incredible sound — hearing these classics remastered reminds me that The Beatles CDs in my collection are over 15 years old, and sound it. Bring on the reissues! Beyond that, the mix-and-match approach revitalizes some overlooked gems and amplifies the power of eternal classics. It forces you to listen to The Beatles with new ears, something I haven't been able to do since high school.
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#8 - Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Springsteen took a couple pages from Dylan's book with this release, combining the loose, informal atmosphere of The Basement Tapes with the old-timey songbook mining of Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong. The result is one of my favorite Springsteen albums, right on the heels of last year's Devils and Dust, another of them. The music, recorded by a large group of musicians "live" on acoustic instruments in single takes, is ecstatic, roof-raising stuff. Bruce and the band breathe new life into well-worn tunes and the listener has as good a time as they did.
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#9 - Keane - Under the Iron Sea
Here's an underrated band that fits into that Coldplay/Radiohead mold but is better than either of them. The lineup mirrors that of Ben Folds Five — piano, bass and drums with no guitar — but the sound couldn't be more different. This is atmospheric, grand, passionate stuff. But it's hook-heavy and fun to listen to, even if this album is a bit more dense than their debut. The centerpiece track, 'Hamburg Song,' is among the most gorgeous ballads I've heard in years.
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#10 - Guster - Ganging Up On the Sun
It's always interesting to watch an indie band grow into the use of high-tech studio production. Guster started as a college band whose trademark was the use of hand-played congos in lieu of a traditional drum set. Their most popular album, Lost and Gone Forever, is a low-fi beauty. But over the past two records, they picked up the drum sticks and concentrated on production as much as songwriting. Far from a sell-out, the results have been wonderful. Their literate, melodic pop/rock songs are as good as ever, and sound amazing. Here, they dabble in country and prog rock to delightful effect.
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And the rest...
11. Paul Simon - Surprise
12. Jenny Lewis - Rabbit Fur Coat
13. Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
14. Nellie McKay - Pretty Little Head
15. Aimee Mann - One More Drifter in the Snow
16. Christina Aguilera - Back to Basics
17. Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way
18. Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint - The River in Reverse
19. Tom Petty - Highway Companion
20. Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked Ladies Are Me
21. Nelly Furtado - Loose
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