50 Best Albums of 2006

This year I was able to give a listen and review almost all the albums thanks to the record companies doing something right for the first time in years by letting fans listen to albums even before they are released. So here are the best albums I heard this year. And where most other music blogs unroll their best albums of the list full with artist you have never heard of, here is my list of pretentious free albums (okay the list is actually only 82% pretentious free, just had to put the Artic Monkeys on my list). Click on the album to buy the album in iTunes. If you like feeling the CD in your hands check out this list at My Amazon Store (including last year's list). Also if you want to read my orginal review, click the link below the album's name. Agree with my list? Disagree? Feel free to list your favorite albums of the in the comment section:


1. Continuum - John Mayer
It's Not a Silly Little Moment, it's Not the Storm Before the Calm

2. Eye to the Telescope - KT Tunstall
Her Face Is the Map of the World

3. We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions - Bruce Springsteen
Oh Mary Don't You Weep

4. Eyes Open - Snow Patrol
The Final Word in the Final Sentence

5. Taking the Long Way - Dixie Chicks
It's Been Two Long Years Now Since the Top of the World Came Crashing Down

6. Stand Still, Look Pretty - The Wreckers
The Radio's Playing Old Country Songs

7. American V: The Hundred Highways - Johnny Cash
He Said "John Go Do My Will"

8. The Believer - Rhett Miller
Sex in Wartime Is Sweeter Than Peace

9. Modern Times - Bob Dylan
Sing a Little Bit of These Workingman Blues

10. Blue Collar - Rhymefest
Who Rapper You Know Before His Album Drop Is a Grammy Winner

11. 9 - Damien Rice
She May Rise if I Lay You Down

12. Once Again - John Legend
Tonight I Wanna Groove and Let the Music Make You Move

13. Nothing Left to Lose - Mat Kearney
All I Had Was Just a Vision, All I Had Was My Ambition

8. Whatever They Say I Am I'm Not - Artic Monkeys
(Never Goot Around to Reviewing, Sorry)

15. Hip Hop Is Dead - Nas
If You Asking Why IS Hip Hop Dead There's a Pretty Good Chance You're the Reason it Died

16. Corinne Bailey Rae - Corinne Bailey Rae
Girl Go Ahead Let Your Hair Down

17. Broken Boy Soldier - The Raconteurs
You've Found a Friend That Knows You Well

18. The Road to Escondido - J.J. Cale & Eric Clapton
If You Can't Hear the Music, Turn it up Loud

19. Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers
California Show Your Teeth

20. Game Theory - The Roots
I'll Make it Hotter Than Shaft in Africa

21. Bleeding Heart Graffiti - Nina Gordon
I Will Sing This Song and All My Friends Will Sing Along

22. The Greatest - Cat Power
No Wind or Waterfall Could Stop Me

23. Ten - Brian McKnight
When Was the Last Time You Were Truely Satisfied

24. Living with War - Neil Young
Let's Impeach the President for Lying

25. Like Blood for Honey - Holly Brook
Though I'm Young and Cynical it's Not My Only Crime

26. Love Their Country - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Yippee-I-Yay Yippee-I-Yo

27. Who I Am - Alice Peacock
Trust the Power in My Voice

28. Acoustic Extravaganza - KT Tunstall
I Don't Have to Raise My Voice

29. High & Mighty - Gov't Mule
Musings From the Back 9: Music Edition II

30. Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
If I Keep Holding Out Will the Light Shine Through

31. Food & Liqour - Lupe Fiasco
Come in Hip-Hop We've Come to Resurrect You

32. Both Sides of the Gun - Ben Harper
The Only Songs to Sing Are Those Sung Again

33. Highway Companion - Tom Petty
If You Don't Run You Rust

34. Nightcrawler - Pete Yorn
Walk Me Out in the Morning Sun

35. Revelations - Audioslave
The Orginal Fire Has Died and Gone but the Riot Inside Moves On

36. Bird on a Wire - Toby Lightman
You're a Flower Blooming in the Desert Sunshine

37. Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George - Jack Johnson and Friends
There's No Stopping Curiosity

38. Year of the Dog… Again - DMX
We Gon' Get it, Get it Started Again

39. Move by Yourself - Donavon Frankenreiter
Don't Stop Doing What You Believe In

40. Coming Home - Lionel Richie
You Feel it, I Feel it, Let's Not Pretend

41. On the Outside - Starsailor
I Hear Them Screaming on the Radio

42. Feedback - Jurassic 5
We Would Say Our Rhymes to the Beat Right

43. Till the Sun Turns Black - Ray LaMontagne
Musings From the Back 9: Music Edition II

44. When Your Heart Stops Beating - (+44)
The Past Is Only the Past with the Lights On

45. Kingdom Come - Jay-Z
When I Come Back Like Jordon Wearing the 4-5

46. Show Your Bones - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Sometimes I Think I'm Bigger Than the Sound

47. The Evolution of… - Robin Thicke
Don't See the World Through Someone Else's Eyes

48. Sam's Town - The Killers
Nobody Ever Had a Dream Round Here

49. Under the Iron Sea - Keane
Love Is Just a Lyric in a Children's Rhyme

50. Loose - Nelly Furtado
I've Been Hurt by My Past but I Feel the Future

I Got My Degree in Crying

Long time readers know my dislike of the national karaoke contest that is called American Idol. The show is usually loaded with singers who are not good enough to land a record contract without going on a reality show singing songs that are not all that good to begin with. And to back up my theory is that aside from original idol Kelly Clarkson none of the winners have really lived up to the moniker (granted Carrie Underwood found a niche fan base) when thirty million people watch the show yet they barely go platinum. But anyways.

The latest, and most surprising karaoke winner went to Taylor Hicks, a guy so old he actually older than me, and let be honest, if you are older than me, you by definition cannot be an idol. Even though I avoid the show like the plague, it’s very hard to avoid updates and people talking ad nausea about the show and whenever I saw Hicks was still in the running I would think to myself, Him? Seriously?” I always thought him staying in the competition was like back in high school where you vote the kid from the “special” classes to win the talent show just to make him feel good. But apparently a whole nation felt bad for him leading to the worst winning song in American Karaoke history, Do I Make You Proud? To answer the question, no. In fact “Weird Al” Yankovic asked a better question, Do I Creep You Out? And to that a resounding yes.

And so just like all the previous Karaoke winners, a rush was put on to get his debut album out before Christmas, and like previous albums, the rush shows. The album is chalk full of bland pop songs that aren’t helped by Hick’s who sounds like Michael McDonald if Michael McDonald actually sounded white. Just for good measure they even throw in the prerequisite Diane Warren song (Places I’ve Been). And if you think Hick pseudo-blue-eyed-soul is cheesy, wait until you hear him try to croon a balled. Also helping out Hicks is Rob Thomas (no not the guy behind Veronica Mars) who penned Dream Myself Awake, as well as an unreleased Bryan Adams tune, The Right Place. Hick even dusts off two songs he wrote for an earlier album (wait a minute, I thought American Karaoke was an amateur competition, how does he already have an album?).

One of the reason former contestant fail is most likely because your normal viewer much prefers their karaokers to sing other people’s songs instead of creating their own. Hicks alleviates that problem a little by adding a cover of Marvin Gaye’s Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home). And he also rips off samples Ray Charles What I’d Say on Heaven Knows. But when it comes down to it, the album is one of those after a half an hour you realize, “what that’s still on, I totally forgot I was listing to it,” the album is that boring. And being mediocre is actually worse that being bad. Say what you want about Paris Hilton (and I said a lot during her review: Since I'm Already Screwed Here's Message to You), but she managed to make the worst album of the year and there is something novel in that. Anyone can be mediocre like Hicks and the other Karaokers, but it takes a lot of talent (or in this case extreme lack of it) to be the worst of the worst.

Oh and if I were Snow Patrol, I’d look into copyright infringement for Hicks obsessive use of the similarly sounding silly catchphrase. Well maybe wait to see how the Mariah Carey/Mary Carey lawsuit turns our.

Song to Download - Dream Myself Awake

Taylor Hicks gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

All These Places Feel Like Home

When devising this site, early on I decided there were three types of albums I wouldn’t review, Greatest Hits, Live Albums, or Soundtracks. I put a moratorium on Greatest Hits because everyone knows all the songs anyways and really the only reason to talk about them is to discuss what was left off (think I’m on Fire missing from Bruce Springsteen’s) and Live Albums are pretty much Greatest Hits just, well, played live. Soundtracks are a different beast because they fall into two different categories, a collection of older songs that everyone knows then there are films will lower budgets who just stick nameless bands that record labels pay to put on for promotional purposes. Really there hasn’t been a soundtrack worth listening to in the past decade. Well except for one: the Garden State Soundtrack.

The soundtrack for Grammy winner Zach Braff was so good it turned a decent movie into a much better one. Who new the dude from Men at Work was still making music and good music at that? Yeah, the song that was supposable supposed to change my life didn’t really do so; the soundtrack to his second movie, The Last Kiss is still worth talking about. It does look like since the success of the last album, Braff got a little more money as he has a couple more visible names this time around. Coldplay are back, but Braff dipped into there second album this time for one of the standout tracks from A Rush of Blood to the Head, their best album to date, with Warning Sign. Chocolate off of Snow Patrol’s Final Straw starts off the soundtrack and my favorite Fiona Apple song not named Never Is a Promise, Paper Bag from the album whose name is so long it would double the length of this post also makes an appearance. Also the always solid Aimee Mann makes an appearance.

Coldplay aren’t the only Garden State overlap as Carey Brothers, who’s Blue Eyes was one of the better track, is back with the not as good Ride as he goes in more of a psychedelic way opposed to the more singer-songwriter vibe of Blue Eyes. Other notable tracks include Star Mile by Joshua Radin that could have easily fit on the Garden State Soundtrack. Turin Breaks deliver a great snooty English acoustic song, Pain Killer. El Salvador by Athlete sounds like if the Barenaked Ladies were British. The sadly overlooked Rachel Yamagata gives one of the best performances on the album with the piano driven Reasons Why. But the label of the best goes to Ray LaMontagne, who may be best know for having the original karaoke queen, Kelly Clarkson, sing one of his songs, Shelter, at the televised Katrina benefit ReAct Now: Music and Relief, or his great version of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy that is making it’s round across the internet and qorth hunting down. LaMontagne’s song here Hold You in My Arms sound’s straight of the singer-songwriters heyday of the sixties but without sounding dated. (Also look for a review of his latest album soon here on the 9th Green.)

Remy Zero is another Garden State holdover, but its nineties alternative rock track Prophesy, even though decent, doesn’t fit on the soundtrack. Amos Lee puts on a stellar performance with the stripped down Arms of a Woman, but it can be easily overlooked with the superior LaMontagne track, which has the same vibe, on the same album. Filling in the virtually unknown actress who also sings role of Bonnie Somerville is Schuylar Fisk, who you should remember as the female lead in Orange Country finishes off the album with a duet with Joshua Radin which is neither memorable nor bad.

But the album is not without its flaws. Imogen Heap delivers a weird acapella song Hide and Seek whose layered vocals just don’t stack together well. Then there Rufus Wainwright, who I can never get into because I can’t get past his lisp/slurred speech singing style, with Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk. But overall the soundtrack makes me earger to see the movie which won’t be out until September 15th. But for those that want a sneek peek, check out the video podcast where Zack Braff talks little about the movie, but some of the segments prominently feature Rachel Bilson, who definitely isn’t Natalie Portman, but is still easy to look at anyway.

Song to Download - Hold You in My Arms

The Last Kiss Soundtrack gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

The Final Word in the Final Sentence

Over the two years iTunes has been issuing their Free Single of the Week, they have introduced us to a wide variety of songs; some didn’t make a dent in the musical landscape while others have gone on to be legitimate hits. I always find it funny when what was once a free single ends up a top seller because the people buying it could have gotten it for free at one point. But anyways. Arguable the best free song over the past two years was Run by Snow Patrol. I played the song obsessively, eventually making the song the most played song on my iPod so naturally I was chopping at the bit to hear their new material on the newly released Eyes Open.

The album opens with a sixties influenced You’re All I Have with synthesizers and harmonies but with guitars turned up. Over the next forty-five minutes the band takes you on a sonic journey from the highs to the lows that almost make you understand the U2 comparisons. Not in that they sound like the band, no one will ever be able to recreate the sound The Edge gets out of his guitars, instead Snow Patrol are able to craft music that doesn’t sound like anything else but is still palatable to a wide listening audience. Much like Run, Chasing Cars has and ebb and flow to it that just grabs you by the ear buds.

The journey you envision in your mind just maybe the theme of the album as they tell us to, “Just close your eyes until you can imagine this place, you're our secret space at will” (Shut Your Eyes). Then at the end of the journey they want so much to open your eyes Cos I need you to look into mine” (Open Your Eyes) to make sure we both got there before we get to the last track, The Finish Line.

Along the way there is the lullaby, complete with xylophones that could be used in a Disney ride in an alternate universe, on You Could Be Happy. Then there’s the grandeur Make This Go on Forever that, if it went on forever I wouldn’t have minded. The song builds and builds on piano as more and more people join the choir that helps out on the chorus. Then the album then quickly crashes into the more somber Set the Fire to the Third Bar, a beautiful ballad that Martha Wainwright helps with moody word especially when the two singers hit the chorus, “I'm miles from where you are, I lay down on the cold ground I, I pray that something picks me up and sets me down in your warm arms.”

If there was one negative to Snow Patrol is they still have yet to master the straight away rocker in the vain of Vertigo. When they do on songs like the unfortunate first single Hands Open as well as It’s Beginning to Get to Me and Headlights on the Dark Road seem to blend into each other and are too much like a couple songs off the last album. If on future releases they are able to craft a bombastic stadium anthem or two, they just may live up to the moniker of this generation’s U2.

Song to Download - Make This Go On Forever

Eyes Open gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Car Mix - March '05

Every once in a while I like to make a CD to play in my car of recent music I'm listening to. Here my most recent CD.

1) Bold as Love - John Mayer (Taken from the Tsunami Aid: Concert of Hope which can be bought on connect.com)
2) Across the Universe - Various Artists (Taken from this year's Grammy awards. Proceeds, like the previous song, goes to Tsunami relief organizations. So don't say I didn't do my part, that's $1.98 right there.)
3) Sunday Morning (Acoustic) - Maroon 5
4) Trouble - Bonnie McKee
5) Breathe (2AM) - Anna Nalick (Along with Trouble, these were both former Single of the Week on iTunes. Most of them are really good so you should always check them out because you may find gems like these.)
6) Telescope Eyes - Eisley
7) Collide - Howie Day
8) Daughters (Home Demo) - John Mayer
9) Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own - U2
10) Existentialism on Prom Night - Straylight Run (I found this song free at mtv.com. Yet another steal.)
11) Chocolate - Snow Patrol (I was turned onto this band when their song Run was a Single of the Week. Solid album)
12) Work - Jimmy Eat World
13) Let Me Go - 3 Doors Down
14) Boulevard of Broken Songs - Green Day vs. Oasis (One of the best mash-up that I have heard in a while. It's built around the Green Day song and has hints of Oasis' Wonderwall and throws in some Travis and Aerosmith to round out the song. Highly recommended if you can hunt it down.)
15) Why [Remix] - Jadakiss, Common, Styles P and Nas
16) Jesus Walks - Kanye West, Common & Mase
17) Twisted (Remix) - Mobb Deep, Jae Millz, Joe Budden
18) Drop it Like it's Hot (Lil John Remix) - Snoop Dogg