Top 2006 albums

Well, not the top 2006 albums by any objective standards. Be warned, this is a personal list of my top 4 albums released in 2006. Why top 4? I just have four albums from 2006 I believe they should make it to a list. As far as I am concerned this could be a top 16, top 34, top whatever list. There is nothing magical about number 5, 10, or 20 (mathematicians are kindly invited to debunk this).

In order of appearance (to my various cassette, vinyl, CD and most obviously mp3 players) first comes Josh Rouse's Subtitulo (I am sure the title takes has some Spanish accent somewhere but I am not sure how to do this in blogger). Now I confess I had no idea about who Rouse was until I came across this album of his. An American folk singer-songwriter, who recently moved to Spain (cherchez la femme here) of whom I must definitely check the prior recordings. The album is primarily acoustic and definitely laid back, as if Rouse is taking his time with siestas and aimless wanderings (which I am quite sure he must did if we are to consider the lyrics of songs such as 'Quiet town'). Nice lyrics all around, quite catchy tunes, high production values, ehm, what else? This is the perfect album to play on your car stereo during a (hot) summer evening when there is no reason to rush. At least that's what I did.

Another American entry here. The Essex Green's Cannibal sea is filled with some neo/quasi psychedelic pop gems (or whatever you want to call them, I have the impression you already know what I mean). It offers a nice combination of slow and uplifting songs but nevertheless, this album is definitely a 'grower'. You have to listen to it quite a few times in order to appreciate it, but still, a few songs such as 'Rue de lis' and 'Slope song' got me from the first listening.

Next comes Cold War Kids' debut album Robbers & cowards (a few EP's having been previously released). Cold War Kids looks like one of the most promising (to hit the mainstream) American indie bands, although, judging from their debut, they do whatever possible to avoid that. Songs like 'Tell me in the morning' and 'Hang me up to dry' have some of the simplest (see catchiest) riffs I heard recently, but the boys load them with some notoriously dissonant pianos and percussion that can easily scare the easy-listening audiences away. Likewise, 'God make up your mind' is based around some cool melody of falsetto singing that Chris Martin (from Coldplay) would love to have written, only if the song didn't brake into some cacophonous piano tramping up. And then we have the lyrics. Although I appreciate the vivid imagery of some songs ('Passing the hat', 'Hospital beds') what's up with all those references to religion? Surely they do not look like they have graduated from some respectable Sunday school. Their music gets me confused and I have an intuition that something special is going to happen.

Last, but not least, I have a British entry. Badly Drawn Boy's Born in the U.K. (now that really sounds British!). Unlike the previous three entries, I have been well acquainted with Damon Gough's skills as a singer and songwriter since 2002 with his soundtrack for About a boy. I will not go into detail here about what Badly Drawn Boy sounds like. The sound should be familiar and Born in the U.K. makes no major departures from the Badly Drawn Boy we all loved. Well crafted pop songs, with this special touch of spice that renders them special compared to the middle of the road ones.

With Born in the U.K. it seems to me that Gough managed to come very close to the recipe of the perfect pop song. You can hear this at 'A journey from A to B' where he delivers a song with practically no chorus, but still with some of the most addictive melodies. You know, the ones that put a stupid grin on your face. 'Nothing's gonna change your mind', the album's lead single, is a great ballad too (with a surprisingly very well polished production). The album has some great songs all around, although there are a couple of let-downs as well ('Walk you home tonight' sounds like bad Style Council), and, of course, as it is always the case with Badly Drawn Boy albums, there are a few songs that sound incomplete or filler, but again they sound to good to be dismissed as filler and let you wonder whether it was a deliberate attempt to... or... Think of The Beatles eponymous (white) album: would you dismiss some of the white album's songs as filler? Exactly!