1. Lo-Fi FNk - Boylife
It was a close run thing between this and 'Ys' and if asked to select the better album then it would go to 'Ys' but more about that in a moment.
This album didn't grab me at first. It was too full on. Too overt. But it worked its way under my skin, it's a pick me up album, a summer album to be sure. I listened to "The End" over and over, and it was as if summer would never end. But it did, and then there was...
2. Joanna Newsom - Ys
I have vivid memories of the inception of this album. It was late august, the summer was thinning out, and I was about to move again. It wasn't just the end of summer though. It was the end of being in green. End of friendships. No more practise runs.
This album captured me. I was a hostage for those last weeks of summer. The long songs drew me in, like dusk, wanting it to never set. Each sunset was closer to the end. And each ending of each song was closer to silence. The textures enveloped whatever I was doing at the time - mostly driving to band practise - and carried me on the crest of its wave. If everything ends at least you still have the song. And then there's the voice. The shimmering saxophonic yelping voice. How had I missed this first time around? I fell completely for that voice and this record was the hand ushering me into the theatre. It ended, but it's not over. It's never over.
3. Cadence Weapon - Breaking Kayfabe
This was my boasting album. I could put this on in the car and rap along to every single great line. And there were great lines at every twist and cold unforgiving beats. Just the way I like it. And then I had him rap on my song.
4. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
5. Nicolas Makelberge - Dying In Africa
6. Metronomy - Pip Paine (Pay The £5000 You Owe)
7. The Roots - Game Theory
8. The Blow - Paper Television
9. Tom Waits - Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards
10. Miwon - Pale Glitter
This album didn't hit me. It still hasn't really hit me. It's just teasing. For most of the year this has been my go to album for when I need something vaguely atmospheric; something familiar but strange. You've probably heard it before. One of those electronic "textures" albums. One of those Warp type records. The guy at the indie record shop has it on a lot. He might have written about it on a post-it note. This was the grower of the year for me. I liked it a hell of a lot better than The Knife, which really freaked me out.
11. Converge - No Heroes
12. Justin Timberlake - Futuresex/Lovesounds
I'm not sure, ok. This is just hard to hate. Hard to love too. There's a strange connection with a world that seems further and further from reality the older you are. The world of hennessey in clubs with fifty people, exchanging numbers, populating the dreams of Vice magazine afficionados (Yeah, those idiots).
But it bangs and it halts and starts over again. Pulsates and flashes its million dollar beats. Inbetween Prince aping and hilarious declarations of being the rescuer of 'Sexy', which had began to slip into some mysterious netherworld, Timberlake swoons on some quite fantastic interludes. The rules of the three minute pop song thrown out. Great. Where's Britney?
13. Chad Van Galen - Skelliconnection
14. Jason Molina - Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go
15. Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
16. Sondre Lerche and the Faces Down Quartet - Duper Sessions
17. Hidden Cameras - Awoo
18. Ghostface - Fishscale
19. Neko Case- Fox Confesser Brings The Flood
20. Nina Nastasia- On Leaving
* Left out Marit Laursen - under the surface by accident. It feels wrong to just insert this album into the list. I made the list some two weeks ago and only just realised this missing artifact. The list is done, and missing out perhaps the best female pop album of the year seems cruel, but it's in the past. People talk about how good a year has been for music. Well, this year has been good. Every year is good, and we keep coming back because of the suprise, the sting in the tail. Or we stick around for the growers. The ones that leave late into the night, beyond the countdown, with the flickering street lights, speeding taxis. And just like that it's over.
Happy New Year. To suprises.
- Hari Ashurst - 2006.
It was a close run thing between this and 'Ys' and if asked to select the better album then it would go to 'Ys' but more about that in a moment.
This album didn't grab me at first. It was too full on. Too overt. But it worked its way under my skin, it's a pick me up album, a summer album to be sure. I listened to "The End" over and over, and it was as if summer would never end. But it did, and then there was...
2. Joanna Newsom - Ys
I have vivid memories of the inception of this album. It was late august, the summer was thinning out, and I was about to move again. It wasn't just the end of summer though. It was the end of being in green. End of friendships. No more practise runs.
This album captured me. I was a hostage for those last weeks of summer. The long songs drew me in, like dusk, wanting it to never set. Each sunset was closer to the end. And each ending of each song was closer to silence. The textures enveloped whatever I was doing at the time - mostly driving to band practise - and carried me on the crest of its wave. If everything ends at least you still have the song. And then there's the voice. The shimmering saxophonic yelping voice. How had I missed this first time around? I fell completely for that voice and this record was the hand ushering me into the theatre. It ended, but it's not over. It's never over.
3. Cadence Weapon - Breaking Kayfabe
This was my boasting album. I could put this on in the car and rap along to every single great line. And there were great lines at every twist and cold unforgiving beats. Just the way I like it. And then I had him rap on my song.
4. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
5. Nicolas Makelberge - Dying In Africa
6. Metronomy - Pip Paine (Pay The £5000 You Owe)
7. The Roots - Game Theory
8. The Blow - Paper Television
9. Tom Waits - Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards
10. Miwon - Pale Glitter
This album didn't hit me. It still hasn't really hit me. It's just teasing. For most of the year this has been my go to album for when I need something vaguely atmospheric; something familiar but strange. You've probably heard it before. One of those electronic "textures" albums. One of those Warp type records. The guy at the indie record shop has it on a lot. He might have written about it on a post-it note. This was the grower of the year for me. I liked it a hell of a lot better than The Knife, which really freaked me out.
11. Converge - No Heroes
12. Justin Timberlake - Futuresex/Lovesounds
I'm not sure, ok. This is just hard to hate. Hard to love too. There's a strange connection with a world that seems further and further from reality the older you are. The world of hennessey in clubs with fifty people, exchanging numbers, populating the dreams of Vice magazine afficionados (Yeah, those idiots).
But it bangs and it halts and starts over again. Pulsates and flashes its million dollar beats. Inbetween Prince aping and hilarious declarations of being the rescuer of 'Sexy', which had began to slip into some mysterious netherworld, Timberlake swoons on some quite fantastic interludes. The rules of the three minute pop song thrown out. Great. Where's Britney?
13. Chad Van Galen - Skelliconnection
14. Jason Molina - Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go
15. Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
16. Sondre Lerche and the Faces Down Quartet - Duper Sessions
17. Hidden Cameras - Awoo
18. Ghostface - Fishscale
19. Neko Case- Fox Confesser Brings The Flood
20. Nina Nastasia- On Leaving
* Left out Marit Laursen - under the surface by accident. It feels wrong to just insert this album into the list. I made the list some two weeks ago and only just realised this missing artifact. The list is done, and missing out perhaps the best female pop album of the year seems cruel, but it's in the past. People talk about how good a year has been for music. Well, this year has been good. Every year is good, and we keep coming back because of the suprise, the sting in the tail. Or we stick around for the growers. The ones that leave late into the night, beyond the countdown, with the flickering street lights, speeding taxis. And just like that it's over.
Happy New Year. To suprises.
- Hari Ashurst - 2006.
