A bird's eye view of 2006

As always, the dawn of a new year goes hand in hand with nostalgic reflections of the old. After a few days of head-scratching, checking with my old notes to see what I've enjoyed the most, I've compiled a list of my Top 20 favorite albums of 2006, rated in a 1-10 scoring system (with 10/10 being the top score). Only albums with a score of 8 or higher made it onto this list.


Albums with score 10/10

1. Tom Waits: Orphans
2. TV On The Radio: Return to cookie mountain
3. Beirut: Gulag orkestar
4. Thom Yorke: The eraser

Albums with score 9/10

6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Show your bones
7. The Low Frequency In Stereo: The last temptation of ...
8. Gotan Project: Lunatico
9. Rockettothesky: To sing you apple trees
10. Muse: Black holes and revelations
11. Quasi: When the going gets dark

Albums with score 8/10

12. 120 Days: 120 Days
13. The Raconteurs: Broken boy soldiers
14. Marit Larsen: Under the surface
15. Das Bierbeben: Alles fällt
16. Calexico: Garden ruin
17. The Knife: Silent shout
18. Liars: Drum's not dead
19. Grand Island: Say no to sin
20. Sonic Youth: Rather ripped

In addition to the Top 20 list a number of non-2006 releases, basically late discoveries, also appeared frequently on my CD-player. Here are the most popular non-2006:

• Art Brut: Bang bang rock & roll
• Singapore Sling: Life is killing my rock'n'roll
  
• Daniel Boyacioglu: Visa 2007 - show me the money
• Mew: Frengers
• Audrey Horne: No Hay Banda
  

Finally, here are the Top 20 songs that mostly infected my mind during 2006:

1. "Postcards from Italy" - Beirut
2. "Wolf like me" - TV on the Radio
3. "The last temptation of..." - The Low Frequency in Stereo
4. "Silent shout" - The Knife
5. "Come out, come down, fade out, be gone" - 120 Days
6. "Knights of Cydonia" - Muse
7. "Formed a band" - Art Brut
8. "Sea of love" - Tom Waits
   
9. "God's gonna cut you down" - Johnny Cash
   
10. "The clock" - Thom Yorke
11. "Barrie For Billy Mackenzie" - Rockettothesky
    
12. "Pass the hatchet, I think I'm Goodkind" - Yo La Tengo
13. "Golden Lion" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
14. "Rhineland (Heartland)" - Beirut
15. "Steady as she goes" - The Raconteurs
16. "LDN" - Lily Allen
17. "Hours" - TV on the Radio
18. "A cute lovesong, please" - Rockettothesky
19. "Us annexed" - Grand Island
20. "In cod we trust" - Ghostigital feat Mark E. Smith

And that's all I had to say about the music of 2006. Now I'm looking forward in great anticipation for what 2007 has in store for us. A number of interesting albums are supposed to come out the first few months, such as "Days of rage" by Salvatore (Jan 1), "Some loud thunder" by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Jan 27) and not to forget "Myth takes" by !!! (Mar 5). I can hardly wait ;-)

The shattered soul
following close but nearly twice as slow.
In my good times
there were always golden rocks to throw,
at those who admit defeat too late.
Those were our times, those were our times.
['Postcards from Italy' - Beirut]

The lost son returns

Over the years Tom Waits have written and discarded a number of songs as he didn't see them fit for inclusion on albums he worked on at the time. Until this year, that is.

With his triple-CD release, "Orphans: Brawlers, bawlers and bastards", Waits have taken the concept of rarities-albums to a new level. This isn't merely a collection of rare or unreleased material but actually one of his strongest albums to date where each of the CDs have their own musical theme.

1. Brawlers: Mostly rock'n'roll.
   
2. Bawlers: Ballads and more quiet songs.
   
3. Bastards: His impossible-to-classify material.
   

The first CD, "Brawlers", is probably the most accessible for new listeners. It displays Waits in a fine rock form, with energetic drumming and guitar playing on tracks such as "Lie to me", "2:19" and "Fish in the Jailhouse". One of the best reflections of the year on the Crisis in the Middle East is given by Waits on the track "Road to peace", while on "The return of Jackie and Judie" he gives new life to the 30 year old Ramones song. A personal favorite on this disc is the wonderful version of Phil Phillips "Sea of love" from 1959, possibly the best cover on the entire album!

Once Kissinger said "we have no friends, America only has interests"
Now our president wants to be seen as a hero and he's hungry for re-election
But Bush is reluctant to risk his future in the fear of his political failures
So he plays chess at his desk and poses for the press 10,000 miles from the road to peace.

The fundamentalist killing on both sides is standing in the path of peace
But tell me why are we arming the Israeli army with guns and tanks and bullets?
And if God is great and God is good why can't he change the hearts of men?

Well maybe God himself is lost and needs help
Maybe God himself he needs all of our help
And he's lost upon the road to peace
And he's lost upon the road to peace
Out upon the road to peace.

On the second CD, "Bawlers", we find Waits in a calmer mood, mixing traditional country and nightclub jazz on what can best be called ballads. His own composition "Long Way Home" may very well end up as a hit among country-fans in both Norway and the US, it's one of the smoother and more pop oriented pieces I've ever heard by Waits. "Widow's grove" could very well have been the movie score for "How the west was won", here Waits dives into the heart of American folk music treating us to real fiddle and accordion music. But on "Little drop of poison" he's back were we're used to have him, in the dirty bar of a saloon with a piano and that distinct Whisky-voice. A great tune with wonderful lyrics. Other interesting tracks include "Goodnight Irene", where Waits have made a modern lullaby of Leadbelly's old blues song, and the timeless "Young at heart" - covered by a multitude of artists earlier, from Bing Crosby to Bananarama, but noone quite like this.

On the last CD Waits have collected the songs that didn't fit in on the first two but he felt were too good to leave out of this compilation. Thus the name "Bastards". The CD opens with a wonderful version of Kurt Weill and Berthold Brechts grand finale from "The Treepenny Opera" (1928), "What keeps mankind alive". Then follows a roundtrip in Waits' Wonderful World, with a mixture of spoken word - such as on "The pontiac" where Waits sounds a bit like Denis Leary and on "Nirvana" where he recites Charles Bukowski - and jazzy soundscapes that would have fit perfectly into a David Lynch movie. One of the hilights from this CD is the track "Dog Door", which sounds like Butthole Surfers trying to do a Ween-cover. Gorgeous!

All in all a very varied collection of new and old material where most of it is of the highest quality. This album already belongs to the rich Waits canon. A treat and a masterpiece!