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Music Archives:
Most Recent
| Highest
Rated | Alphabetical
| Highest Rated 2006
 1. Matthew Ryan: East Autumn Grin (Interscope)
Front-line dispatches
from the thin line between love and hate. Ryan sets loose his demons to
strident rock marches worthy of the Clash, U2 or the Waterboys, while
his scorched-earth ballads fuse Steve Earle's hell-and-back worldview
with a fluid lyrical precision.
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 2.
U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind (Interscope)
Fuses the band's recent
postmodern musical milieu with the straightforward passion of its best
80s work. Not a masterpiece, but another deft recovery.
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 3. Idlewild:
100 Broken Windows (Capitol)
Frustratingly inaccurate R.E.M.
comparisons aside, Idlewild might just become Scotland's own U2. Roddy
Woomble's gritty poetics nicely contrast a broken-glass musical approach
(prophetic title, eh?) girding wordy but insistent melodies.
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 4. Neko Case and
Her Boyfriends: Furnace Room Lullaby (Bloodshot)
Heartache at arm's
length. In the world we should live in, Case's gossamer vocals would
make her bigger than Reba, Shania and Faith put together.
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 5. The
Twilight Singers: Twilight as Played by the Twilight Singers (Sony)
A darker, more esoteric journey from Afghan Whig Greg
Dulli. A makeout record seductive in its languid nihilism.
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 6. Eminem: The
Marshall Mathers LP (Interscope)
The critics and fans are
both right. Frighteningly misogynistic and spiteful, revealed in
intricately coiled loops of shape-shifting wordplay. A maddeningly
talented rapper more menacing than a roomful of gangstas.
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 7.
PJ Harvey: Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (Island)
Lyrical fusions of love, longing and
apocalypse, combined with sharp, concise songwriting and arrangements. A
consistent and accessible high-water mark.
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 8.
John Hiatt: Crossing Muddy Waters (Vanguard)
The singer-songwriter
goes back to his folksy roots and delivers on his often-untapped
potential. A thinking, drinking man's backyard hoedown.
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 9. Ryan Adams:
Heartbreaker (Bloodshot)
The wrenching soundtrack of your worst heartbreak, with
Adams seconds away from cracking. Put away the booze, the pills and the
gun before putting this on.
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 10.
Ween: White Pepper (Elektra)
This duo of
genre-crossing merry pranksters puts gross-out humor on the backburner,
sliding in and out of musical archetypes with a finesse even Beck can't
muster.
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| Notable near misses: |
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- Johnny Cash: American III: Solitary Man (American)
- Galactic: Late for the Future (Capricorn)
- OutKast: Stankonia (LaFace/Arista)
- Radiohead: Kid A (Capitol)
- Royal Fingerbowl: Greyhound Afternoons (TVT)
- Sigur Rós: Ágćtis Byrjun (Fat Cat/Bubble Core)
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