The '06 Music Hierarchy

Ranked by Preference:

10

THE BLOOD BROTHERS - Young Machetes [I knew the minute I heard it that their 2004 album "Crimes" was a transitional work; what I didn't realize that the competing side project albums in '05 (Neon Blonde and Head Wound City) were also part of that transition. Now that the band understands and can fully control all the various influences and impulses that war within their heads, they're possibly even more unstoppable than before, and if this doesn't have all the urgency of "Burn, Piano Island, Burn" it's blessed with more eclecticism and fascinating angles. As much as I love "Burn," it's the sound of a band who would have burnt themselves out; "Young Machetes" shows how these amazing musicians avoided that trap without losing their fire. This shit is vital.]
DESTROYER - Destroyer's Rubies [Holy crap. Strikes the perfect balance between spiky and sweet, melodic and maniacal, cool and crazy, careful and ramshackle. Plus, the lyrics are hilarious, heartfelt and ridiculously literary. If all pop music sounded like this, my ears would explode from happiness. Thank you, Dan Bejar. You're awesome and a half.]

9

SCOTT WALKER - The Drift [This here be some creepy shit, yo. Not sure it all makes perfect sense, but rare is the piece of music that has such a physical effect upon me. Chamber pop never sounded so terrifying.]
ISIS - In the Absence of Truth [Review forthcoming.]
P.O.S. - Audition [A hip-hop (nervous) breakdown rendered digital. Brash, defiant and noisy as hell; a couple tracks feel unfinished, but mostly this is so awesome. 'P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life' will easily be the year's best single.]
AN ALBATROSS - Blessphemy (Of the Peace Beast Feastgiver and the Bear Warp Kumite)
MR. LIF - Mo' Mega [Jesus Christ I love this guy. Even on a track that seems ill-advised (the faux-reggae 'Washitup!' for example), he still manages to pull it off. Nice to see him exercising more than his political muscle too -- 'Collapse' makes a fine personalized companion piece to 'Success' (from "I Phantom"), and Lif even indulges his rarely-seen sense of humor on a couple of tracks (notably 'Murs Iz My Manager'). El-P does most of the beats, too, which always makes me tingly inside.]
CURSIVE - Happy Hollow [A somewhat less caustic version of Tim Kasher's main outfit than their last release ("The Ugly Organ"), which takes some getting used to, and Lord knows the music initially suffers from the missing cellist; once you know what to expect, though, the melodies emerge and the earworms come out in full (in particular, I can't stop intoning to myself the first chorus to 'Bad Sects'). Neither hollow nor terribly happy, but darkly compelling it is indeed.]

8

BE YOUR OWN PET - be your own PET [Ah, the exuberance of youth! This makes me want to jump around, shout, cuss, break shit and generally behave like a snotty fifteen-year-old again; thanks to Messr. Matt for finding and liking this one.]
OUTKAST - Idlewild [ATTENTION HATERS: Have you ever actually listened to an OutKast album before or did you just ride in on the 'Hey Ya!' hype wave, I mean jesus. This album is a refinement and restatement of everything towards which Andre and Big Boi have been pointing hip-hop since "Aquemini" and it swings like mad too. What I mean to say is stuff it haters in my opinion.]
MATMOS - The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast [I can't believe the sounds these guys use to make dance music, and I can't believe that those sounds actually result in funky, danceable, all-around super music. These guys must be, like, wizards or something.]
BORIS - Pink [Over the last couple of years there've been awesome dirge-metal releases from Isis, Pelican, Neurosis and others. Now Japan is getting into the act, and nobody does noise like Japan. Boris is here to rape your ears and crush your soul. I couldn't be happier. {ADDENDUM, 12/5: Actually, this isn't dirge at all for the most part -- aside from the first and last cut, this is mostly whipsaw-fast atmospheric hardcore. Still great stuff, obviously, but yeah, what was I thinking, etc.}]
PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS - Stepfather
PEEPING TOM - Peeping Tom [Mike Patton's long-gestating 'pop' project, despite the supposed genre label, turned out just as weird as could be expected. The thing is, this stuff's still kinda catchy -- you hum even as you scratch your head. The smiling, candy-colored soundtrack to the apocalypse (apopcalypse?). Also: Best packaging of the year! Mike Patton Can Do Anything, Example #422: He got Norah Jones to croon the word 'motherfucker.']
THE COUP - Pick a Bigger Weapon [Pam the Funkstress's surprising reserve on the production on a couple of tracks (especially the first couple) keep this from equaling its predecessor "Party Music" (there's nothing here nearly as neck-snapping as the earlier album's 'Everythang'). Which should say something about the level Pam and MC Boots Riley work on, since this still funks the hell out of damn near any other hip-hop release you'll hear this year. If this is what Marxist revolution sounds like, gimme a Little Red Book and get me on the damn dance floor.]
THE PERNICE BROTHERS - Live a Little [2005's "Discover a Lovelier You," though pleasant, left me underwhelmed; it sounded a bit like Joe Pernice was in a rut, and there weren't any tracks that matched the shimmering melancholy of 'Flaming Wreck' (from "The World Won't End") or 'Baby in Two' (from "Yours, Mine and Ours"). Well, a year later, Pernice hasn't changed a damn thing -- if anything, he's regressed even further, ending the album by re-recording 'Grudge F**k,' an old favorite from his former group the Scud Mountain Boys. Yet, it all clicks beautifully. Why does one work better than the other? I wish I could explain it, but I can't. All I can do is listen, enraptured.]
GNARLS BARKLEY - St. Elsewhere [Cee-Lo: You're forgiven for those two decent-but-uneven-and-overlong solo joints. Danger Mouse: You keep proving you're better than people want to give you credit for. 'Crazy': I can't stop listening to you. You're like sonic crack. All the other songs: You're good too.]
NICK CAVE AND WARREN ELLIS - The Proposition Original Soundtrack
EAST WEST BLAST TEST - Popular Music for Unpopular People
SONIC YOUTH - Rather Ripped [Comments forthcoming.]
STRIKE ANYWHERE - Dead FM [Review forthcoming.]
MISSION OF BURMA - The Obliterati [Young band's fire tempered with old band's sense of grace and modulation equals a rock disc that outstrips the work of most bands half these guys' ages. 'Nancy Reagan's Head': Soooo going on a best-of-year mix.]
OCRILIM - Anoint
DAUGHTERS - Hell Songs
CONVERGE - No Heroes [This album is not an 8. It's either a 9 or a 7, maybe both. I've listened to it six or seven times and it refuses to let me pin it down. Some of it seems like an acquiescence to all the misguided fanboys who rejected "You Fail Me" as a sonic departure, and some of it seems determined to carry the advancements of that album even further. (The amazing 'Grim Heart/Black Rose' is the best example of the latter, while the warpspeed beatdown of 'Hellbound' exemplifies the former.) I know it's good stuff, I'm just unsure - still! - on how good. I might need to listen to it a dozen or so more times.]

7

AGAINST ME! - Americans Abroad!!! Against Me!!! Live in London!!! [Review forthcoming.]
PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS - Mercy [Lacks the helter-skelter, all-consuming passion that made "Up in Them Guts" so tough to shake, but the band's mean-eyed reclamation of first-wave emo techniques is still impressive stuff.]
JOHN ZORN - Moonchild [Zorn turns Joey Baron, Trevor Dunn and Mike Patton loose in a studio and lets 'em jam the fuck out. Of course I liked it: Despite some aimlessness, it's righteously violent a la Zorn's earlier work with Painkiller and Naked City.]
AKIMBO - Forging Steel and Laying Stone [Comments forthcoming.]
BUILT TO SPILL - You in Reverse [Not their best work (that would be "Perfect from Now On"), but still stirring stuff.]
THE DUKE SPIRIT - Cuts Across the Land [These guys probably listen to a lot of PJ Harvey... and God bless 'em for it. {ADDENDUM, 10/26: Actually, this album's too long. Still good stuff, though.}]
THE TWILIGHT SINGERS - Powder Burns [Dulli's new outfit still lacks the consistency, not to mention the brashness, of the Afghan Whigs (the Singers, even at Dulli's cockiest, are essentially an introspective band), and I think I've finally made peace with the fact that he'll never record another "1965." That said, guy can still write a hell of a song -- his music is rare in that it truly deserves to be called cinematic -- and there's several songs here that rank among the finest of Dulli's career, 'Bonnie Brae' and the title track in particular. {ADDENDUM, 10/16: My status as a Dulli fanboy led me to overrate this at first; the first three tracks, in particular, comprise a gruesome mini-suite of aimless, muddled fiascohood. Gains its bearings as it goes, thank God, and it's still Greg goddamn Dulli after all. But this may be the weakest effort of his career. 'Forty Dollars,' though, is so awesome.}]
VIVA LA FOXX - I Knew it Wasn't Love, But...
JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS - Rabbit Fur Coat ['Run Devil Run': bad. Title track: decent but overbaked. Everything else: Jenny Jenny Jenny, I love you.]
DYSRHYTHMIA - Barriers and Passages [If Don Caballero was really, really into death metal, they'd probably make an album like this. I can't shake the feeling that it's all technique -- it doesn't breathe like, say, Isis or Pelican -- but it's still damn good. Watch these guys.]
F***ED UP - Hidden World [Review forthcoming.]
KRISIUN - AssassiNation [Brazilian death metal! RAHHH! Makes me think of back in the day when Sepultura didn't suck. Ah, memories...]
SHEARWATER - Palo Santo
DANGER DOOM - Occult Hymn EP [Didja like "The Mouse and the Mask"? This is more of the same. Not that that's a bad thing. Nothing here is quite as bugged out as 'Vats of Urine,' but it's still MF Doom.]
MINISTRY - Rio Grande Blood [So what Al Jourgensen needed to get back to full strength was another Bush in the White House? Interesting. Probably his strongest work since the grievously underrated "Filth Pig," and could easily serve as a sequel to the sludgy bombast of "Psalm 69"; shame about the dip into 9/11 conspiracy-theory with 'Lies Lies Lies,' though.]
GHOSTFACE KILLAH - Fishscale [Ridiculously overlong and weighted down with a few too many dumb skits (i.e. 'Bad Mouth Kid'). However, when the stellar production and Tony Stark's rhyimg prowess are the center of attention, everything clicks. A little excess can be forgiven when you're as talented as this guy.]
NELLIE MCKAY - Pretty Little Head [Comments forthcoming.]
EAGLES OF DEATH METAL - Death by Sexy... [This album is very greasy. You should not listen to it. You should put it in your hair.]
ARCTIC MONKEYS - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am Not [Is it life-changing? No. Is it solid, likeable rock-n-roll? Yep.]
MASTODON - Blood Mountain [More ambitious than "Leviathan," for sure, but also missing a little something that made the earlier effort so compelling. Wish I could say what it is, though. I'm stumped.]
WE ARE SCIENTISTS - With Love and Squalor [I totally didn't expect to like this, as the lead single 'Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt' annoys the living crap out of me. The smarmy self-satisfied vibe I get from that song, thankfully, doesn't carry through to the body of the album, which is mostly polished and catchy, with 'Cash Cow' being a particular highlight. I still don't understand why so many bands these days are obsessed with ripping off '80s New Wave, but at least they could all be as interesting as this. (She Wants Revenge can eat my ass.)]
SHOOTING AT UNARMED MEN - Yes! Tinnitus! [The first post-Mclusky project from a member that defunct outfit sounds... a lot like Mclusky, actually. To be more specific, Shooting at Unarmed Men sounds like Mclusky if the latter guzzled NyQuil as a force of habit. The moodier tone quashes some of the inner fire, but there's enough solid moments (i.e. the awesome 'Girls Music') to keep this interesting.]
LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR - The Ultimate Destroyer [Brawny old-school death metal from a group that includes one of the guitarists from Pelican. Not nearly as ambitious or interesting as that group, but it doesn't need or want to be -- it's perfectly content to merely tear your ears off. And there's nothing wrong with that.]
ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES - Love Their Country [Review forthcoming.]
FIGURINES - Skeleton [These guys like Modest Mouse even more than The Duke Spirit like PJ Harvey. It's cool, though -- I like Modest Mouse too, guys.]
BAND OF HORSES - Everything All the Time [Comments forthcoming.]
TOOL - 10,000 Days [An improvement over "Lateralus," which was probably the worst possible album these insanely talented dudes could have released; still, I don't understand why they feel the need to be modern metal's version of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. This is good, but I wonder what happened to the band that could effortlessly balance the prententious and the accessible -- you know, the band that made "AEnima."]

6

COUGARS - Pillow Talk [Hot, driven rock 'n' roll, at least until the album's second half where the songs stretch longer than is reasonable.]
GHOSTFACE KILLAH - More Fish [Yeah, okay, it's a burnoff.]
MADE OUT OF BABIES - Coward
ACEYALONE - Magnificent City [Solid set from the SoCal hip-hop mainstay. Having said that, there's a couple of clinkers ('Highlights' and 'Mooore' kill the album's momentum in the middle), and this isn't on the level of either his or producer RJD2's best work. Except 'A Beautiful Mine.' And 'Solomon Jones.' Those kick to kill.]
DANIELSON - Ships [At first, this is way too twee and hyper-cute for my tastes. Then it finds a weird, cracked rhythm and becomes the best thing ever. Then it goes on too long and becomes exasperating. Still, not bad, has its moments, overall worth hearing.]
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE - Futuresex/Lovesounds [You know how, for the last ten years or so, every pop-singing chick with a voice and a body has been tagged the next Madonna? Ignore that -- Justin Timberlake, like it or not, is the next Madonna, and we might as well get used to him. Certainly the man's predilection for experimentation and willingness to revamp his image has made him slightly less intolerable than the average pop star, and with this latest album I can't deny it any longer: Dude knows what he's doing. Maybe one day he'll make an album that's actually a Justin Timberlake album rather than a showcase for Timbaland, but at least he collaborates well, which a step in the right direction. The songs here tend towards overlength (especially in the slack second half), but the majority is just slinky and strange and (dare I say it?) sexy enough to beguile. Also, 'Sexyback' is the weirdest goddamn single released by a major artist in many, many years and should not -- no, CANNOT -- be ignored.]
CHIHEI HATAKEYAMA - Minima Moralia [This sort of mellow minimalism is generally not my thing, but I'm not so obstinate that I can't recognize that, for what it is, it's pretty damn good. Not something I'd listen to all the time -- listening to this in the car, for one, could cause an accident -- but it's pleasant.]
ART BRUT - Bang Bang Rock & Roll [These guys are basically a hipster's answer to the Arctic Monkeys, and for once the band with less irony wins. Cheeky and fun without being especially good, except for 'Emily Kane' which is a bloody miracle of a song.]
TEETH OF THE HYDRA - Greenland [Review forthcoming.]
STAGGERING STATISTICS - All of This and More
GOOD RIDDANCE - My Republic
YAKUZA - Samsara [If you elide the endless dull improv session at its tail, Yakuza's debut EP "Way of the Dead" showed off a promising band whose fusion of hardcore, math-metal and free jazz was tantalizing. So much for that; now they're just a metal band that has a saxaphone skronk through the din every now and then. They're still talented, and this is still good music; unfortunately, it's also a little bit dull compared to what they're capable of.]

5

BAD ASTRONAUT - Twelve Small Steps, One Giant Disappointment [Review forthcoming.]
OM - Conference of the Birds [Arranging your sound around the bass rather than the guitar, when you're playing heavy music, is a tried-and-true tactic to emphasize the power of your riffage. It's a tactic employed by many bands I enjoy. Dropping the guitar entirely, though... that's not so tried or true. There's a reason for that. This works in fits and starts, but there's not enough here to justify an album that spans two songs across 35 minutes. Spin your Sleep or Earth discs again instead.]
METALLIC FALCONS - Desert Doughnuts [Beautifully arranged, with a wonderful calming effect. However, much like CocoRosie before it (which is similar if creepier), I can't shake the conviction that this is all really, really goofy.]
MOUTH SEWN SHUT - Pandemic = Solution [Loud! Hard! Fast! Also! Kinda! Monotonous! (The speed-ska track 'Finally Came Down to Bombs' that closes the album is pretty neat, though.)]
THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN - Plagiarism EP
SOUL POSITION - Things Go Better With Rj and Al [RJD2's post-"Deadringer" career has been one letdown after another, and this long-in-the-works collaboration with Blueprint doesn't change anything. Has its moments, but any album that includes both the hilarious 'Blame it on the Jager' and the strident, reactionary 'Sex, Drugs, Alcohol, Rock-n-Roll' must be scattershot by nature.]
DEAD TO ME - Cuban Ballerina [This review is crap.]
PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES - Elan Vital [After the first two songs, I was ready to defy the haters. Then the album turned into a pile of wan post-punk crap. There's good parts interspersed through the album, but rarely do these parts span the length of an entire song. Listening to the lyrics, meanwhile, merely reminds me why a lot of the rock music I listen to these days de-emphasizes the intelligibility of the lyrics. Memo to the guy with the Casio: Whatever you think you're doing, stop it. Memo to the guy with the trumpet: That goes double for you.]

4

KATATONIA - The Great Cold Distance [Accurately titled -- a colder or more distant metal album would be hard to come by. I kinda want to meet these guys and give them all big hugs so that they cheer up a little and maybe write songs in more than one key next time around. The two songs I've heard off "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" whup the crusty crap out of everything here.]
THE LADIES - They Mean Us [Hey, Zach Hill: Maybe you should try not releasing every single note you play every year. I mean, I know people get on Conor Oberst for his prolificacy, but you've got him outpaced by leagues. Anyways, maybe if you concentrated on releasing one good album a year instead of twenty scattered ones, you've be able to give us more than self-indulgent fragments of your considerable talents. Seriously, dude -- slow the hell(a) down.]
DEFTONES - Saturday Night Wrist [All the problems with this album can be surmised from lead song/lead single 'Hole in the Earth' -- it's more a sketch for a song than an actual song, and all that follows it is similarly confused and tentative. Deftones seem unsure of where to go with their artful aggression now that nu-metal (a scene they were always too good for anyway) has imploded; after trying a return-to-grunting-basics album where the only track that worked was the shimmering 'Minerva,' they've gone in the other direction and re-emerged as an art-rock ensemble. Too bad that many of the songs are undercooked, and even the ones that should work (like 'Xerxes') are turned into gruel by the muddy production. I hate to say it, but I think the ship has sailed on these guys.]
THE BLACK ANGELS - Passover [I usually like stoner metal, but this is boring. Call me when you can play more than two riffs that you learned from a Black Sabbath album.]
PORTUGAL. THE MAN - Waiter: "You Vultures!" [If we take it as a given that prog-rock is back for good, and if we also accept that the Mars Volta are this generation's Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and if we also accept that Tool is a modern King Crimson and Coheed and Cambria are equal to Rush, then it must follow that Portugal. The Man is the equivalent of Genesis post-Peter Gabriel - a band that, though in thrall to some prog trappings, sands all the interesting edges and angles off those trappings in an attempt to make their music more user-friendly. Thus, Portugal makes music that is safe, accessible and totally boring in every way. Accomplished, but who really gives a crap about that?]

3

VARIOUS - Release the Bats: The Birthday Party as Heard Through the Meat Grinder of Three One G [The gothic hysteria of the Birthday Party isn't as well suited as I'd expected to the noise-rock landscape of the Three One G label. A couple not-bad moments, with Melt-Banana and Error standing out; mostly, though, this is awful. Ssion's No-Wave version of 'Nick the Stripper' is the low point, and Cattle Decapitation's 'Release the Bats' is... puzzling.]

PENDING

NEKO CASE - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
CAT POWER - The Greatest
COMETS ON FIRE - Avatar
THE MARS VOLTA - Amputechture
MOUTH OF THE ARCHITECT - Time and Withering
REGINA SPEKTOR - Begin to Hope
SLAYER - Christ Illusion
TAPES 'N TAPES - The Loon
THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES - Easter
TV ON THE RADIO - Return to Cookie Mountain
UNDEROATH - Define the Great Line
VOXTROT - Raised by Wolves EP
WOLFMOTHER - Wolfmother
THOM YORKE - The Eraser
JOHN ZORN - Film Works XVII: Notes on Marie Mencken