10 Great Albums of 2006, Part I

Citrus by Asobi Seksu - I'm a sucker for that My Bloody Valentine and Jesus And Mary Chain sound and no one does it better than Asobi Seksu (well, maybe Sereena Maneesh). I liked their first album, but I love this one.



The Loon by Tapes N' Tapes - I love "Cowbell" off The Loon, but one song does not a great album make. Tapes N' Tapes deliver the goods on this excellent debut, spinning out numerous winners. They've nail indie music's prevailing sound (you know what I mean: Arcade Fire, Wolf Aprade, etc.). It's basically an evolution of what the Pixies, Talking Heads, and Pavement made when we crushing ass back in the day (those days are long gone). I'm surprised this album hasn't caused more of a stir among the music dorks of the world. What's wrong with you people?



Shut Up I Am Dreaming by Sunset Rubdown - Wolf Parade put out a great album last year and this is just as good. So many side project go awry but Shut Up succeeds with it's sweeping sounds and skillful sybmbolism (that's alliteration, bitches).



I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass by Yo La Tengo - See my earlier review.



Night Ripper by Girl Talk - It's hard for me to lavish praise on DJ's who do mash-ups. How hard is it to take something cool from one song and pair it with something cool from other songs? Not overly creative and not exactly rocket science. However, what Girl Talk does on this album is truly inventive. He isn't just mixing two songs, a la Danger Mouse and The Grey Album (we can debate the merits of that another time). He creatives whole new songs by splicing and mixing hundreds of samples. Such a patchwork approach would lead to a disjointed sound in the wrong hands. Girl Talk crafts an entire album of great songs that are incredibly fun. Music dorks can try and pick out the insane number of samples, while people with lives will appreciate the what's basically a fantastic dance album.

The Dust Brothers work on Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys was groundbreaking in it's use of samples. No album before that utilized samples in such creative ways. Night Ripper is equally groundbreaking and shows the true potential of this stealin' style of music making.

This may be my favorite album of the year.