2006 Music in a Nutshell

1. The Decemberists, The Crane Wife / Capitol
For their major-label debut, Colin Meloy and company have crafted a record that is simultaneously simpler and more expansive than 2005’s Picaresque. On The Crane Wife, Meloy’s songwriting has become more personal and immersive without losing his much-vaunted literariness, penchant for storytelling, and folk leanings that garnered his band all of those Elephant 6 comparisons a few years ago. The arrangements have been scaled back, and while the music is far from skeletal, its accessibility is refreshing after the carnival of the last record.

2. Thom Yorke, The Eraser / XL
Yorke took a break from songwriting with Radiohead to put together this minimalist record with longtime collaborator/producer Nigel Godrich. The result harkens back to the electronica that the band explored on 2000’s Kid A but takes it further: the programming, sampling, and looped vocals work together not so much as songs but as soundscapes — something Radiohead, as a rock band, still hasn’t perfected. This music is perfect for driving alone late at night or watching the moon rise with a hip flask of bourbon. It’s not timeless, but at times it feels like it should be.

3. Comets on Fire, Avatar / Sub Pop
I’ve often described Comets on Fire as a psychedelic hardcore band, and they’ve pretty much lived up to that moniker: insane rhythmic noise and polyps-inducing screams share space with phasers and meandering solos on their earlier records (see 2004’s Blue Cathedral for the best illustration—this record garnered my vote for Sub Pop’s noisiest release over Wolf Eyes’ Burned Mind from the same year). On Avatar, however, they leave the hardcore at home, and appear to have listened to a fair amount of blues, jazz, and Americana on their ride back to the studio. This is by far their most accessible record (can anyone even stand their 2001 self-titled debut for more than ten minutes at a time?), with their previous overdriven sound popping up sporadically to highlight their new focus on melody and atmosphere.

4. Isis, In the Absence of Truth / Ipecac
Isis continues to perfect their particular brand of drone metal on In the Absence of Truth. It’s hard to believe that music this heavy can be calm, but that’s exactly what makes Isis interesting from album to album — Aaron Turner and his partners in sludge somehow find ways to make subtle sheets of distortion and crests of screaming. This is music that won’t kick your ass so much as it will soothe your ass after someone else has kicked it.

5. Mates of State, Bring it Back / Barsuk
Mates’ first album away from longtime home Polyvinyl finds the husband/wife duo polishing their cute-pop songcraft to a shine. Gone are the kitschy, jarring multi-part compositions and sudden sonic tangents; instead, parenthood has brought with it an appreciation for maturity and simplicity. Of course, Barsuk is the same label that Death Cab for Cutie called home before their jump to Atlantic — could Kori and Jason follow a similar path?

6. Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions / Columbia
The backstory is something you wouldn’t expect from one of the most mainstream commercial artists around: Springsteen discovered folkie Pete Seeger rather late in life, grew to love the songs of the folk revival from the mid-20th century, invited a bunch of palls over to his (ahem) mansion, and recorded two (practically) live sets, released here. The resulting tour may have been a disappointment — he is a marquee artists, but these songs work better in a wood-paneled meeting hall or a smoky bar than they do in a megamphitheatre — but the record itself is an unexpectedly great tribute to one of the most influential artists of the previous generation. Take that, Dylan.

7. The Vandermark 5, A Discontinuous Line / Atavistic
After cellist Fred Longerg-Holm replaced trombonist Jeb Bishop in Chicago improvised music stalwarts Vandermark 5 following the release of 2005’s The Color of Memory, Ken Vandermark threw out the band’s songbook and started from scratch. The resulting material was previewed in weekly installments at the Empty Bottle in December, 2005, and it utterly blew me away with the shifting textures and the way that the cello both works with Kent Kessler’s bass and as a solo instrument alongside Vandermark’s and Dave Rempis’s reeds. This group just keeps getting better.

8. The Album Leaf, Into the Blue Again / Universal
More of a sequel to 2005’s In a Safe Place than a statement on its own, Into the Blue Again nevertheless continues to outshine the output of Jimmy LaValle’s former band Tristeza. In a year with no chamber rock releases from Sigur Rós or the Godspeed collective and even less from atmospheric pop like Múm, a new record from The Album Leaf is definitely appreciated.

9. Mastodon, Blood Mountain / Reprise
The problem with bands like Mastodon is that unless you have a working vocabulary of their older material (and, ideally, of their particular genre in general), it’s hard to tell what makes a particular release special. In this case, I can easily point to their steadfast commitment to whiplash-inducing metal for their major label debut. But in going further, I can also point to the subtle layers of (almost accidental) melody and overtones that reveal themselves through repeated listens. When there’s this much going on, it’s impossible to not find something new to appreciate each time you listen.

10. The Flaming Lips, At War with the Mystics / Warner Bros.
While The Flaming Lips haven’t yet topped either 1999’s The Soft Bulletin or 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, At War with the Mystics proves that they still have a lot of fight and innovation left in them. With the Lips, treading water is equivalent to (many) lesser bands regressing. Also, their set at Lollapalooza was the best of the entire weekend — my new resolution is to never miss them whenever they return to town as long as we both shall live.

Honorable Mentions:
Adem, Love and Other Planets / Domino
Belle & Sebastian, The Life Pursuit / Matador
Channels, Waiting for the Next End of the World / Dischord
Chin Up Chin Up, This Harness Can’t Ride Anything / Suicide Squeeze
Erase Errata, The Nightlife / Kill Rock Stars
The Evens, Get Evens / Dischord
Joan of Arc, Eventually, All at Once / Record Label
Mission of Burma, The Obliterati / Matador
Mogwai, Mr. Beast / Matador
Sonic Youth, Rather Ripped / Geffen

Biggest Disappointments:

DJ Shadow, The Outsider / Universal Motown
I know that Josh Davis warned his fans that The Outsider was going to be nothing like he’s ever released before. But in doing my best to quash my expectations, I never thought that he was crafting what amounts to a hip-hop mix CD with some of the weakest production I’ve ever heard. Crap, crap, and more crap.

Rainer Maria, Catastrophe Keeps Us Together / Grunion
This one is harder to be disappointed with — admittedly, there are some great songs on Catastrophe, but that’s exactly the problem: since 1996, every release of theirs has been consistently strong from front to back. I’d never thought I’d hear true clunkers from Rainer Maria, hoping that they had learned their lesson from the uninspired slumps scattered throughout 2001’s Better Version of Me. Their last record, 2003’s Long Knives Drawn, was their best since 1999’s Look Now Look Again, which made Catastrophe’s catastrophes even more disappointing. Sadly, the band called it quits at the end of the year. While they won’t have an opportunity to redeem themselves on record, their final three shows in December were a great way to cap both my year and a particular chapter of my life. Thanks for ten years of great music.

Most Anticipated in 2007:
Fridge (Adem Ilhen and Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden back for their first record since 2001’s Happiness!)
Lifetime (looks like that reunion tour was not the end for the famed Jersey pop-punkers)
Mercury Rev
Modest Mouse (apparently featuring, uh, Johnny Marr?)
Pelican
Radiohead (it could happen…)

Issues:
#1: Crisis. [samples]
#2: Rebound. [samples]
#3: Genesis. [samples]
#4: Rehearsal. [samples]
#5: Rapprochement. [samples]
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