{"id":402,"date":"2006-12-14T00:01:16","date_gmt":"2006-12-14T00:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/index.php\/2006\/12\/14\/music-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2008-11-02T16:29:32","modified_gmt":"2008-11-02T16:29:32","slug":"music-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/2006\/12\/14\/music-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Of The Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some years ago, back when that sort of thing mattered to me, I used to enjoy going through the albums of the years lists in the music press and congratulating myself on how many of the top 50 I owned. As my tastes have grown a little more, eh, rarefied<\/a>, I find that my own picks of the year correspond less and less with those of the press. So what I\u2019ll do here is mention some of my favourite albums and tracks of the year, while also casting an eye over what the critics<\/a> have been touting.<\/p>\n

Our main point of contention is that I\u2019m sick to the back teeth with guitar bands. Have you watched that daytime music show on Channel Four on the weekends? It\u2019s the most depressing thing in the world. One hack guitar band (Orson, anyone? The Feeling?) after another parades their wares and does a boring interview, each leaving less impact on your consciousness than the last. You\u2019ve forgotten their name even while they\u2019re still on the screen in front of you. The only breath of fresh air comes from the occasional pop act that the producers deign to allow on the show. Still, the world of guitars gave us a few decent moments, most notably the Arctic Monkeys\u2019 Whatever You Say I Am, That\u2019s What I\u2019m Not<\/a>. For song-writing, it\u2019s the best thing all year by some distance. They\u2019ve also been responsible for a critical renaissance of their forefathers, The Jam. The other big guitar album was the Raconteurs Broken Boy Soldiers<\/a> to which I can only respond with a resounding \u201cmeh???. I liked the singles (especially \u201cHands???) but I think I listened to the whole thing through about twice all year. Perhaps I was just put off by all the other crummy guitar bands.<\/p>\n

Ali Farka Toure\u2019s Savane<\/a> topped a lot of lists this year, and I have to confess that whatever\u2019s there that\u2019s exciting everyone, I\u2019m not hearing it. It\u2019s pleasant enough, but didn\u2019t grow on me the way last year\u2019s big African cross-over, the poppier Dimanche a Bamako<\/a> by Amadou & Mariam did. What I did hear out of Africa that excited me was Love\u2019s A Real Thing<\/a> a compilation from David Byrne\u2019s ace Luaka Bop label. It\u2019s basically the usual 1970\u2019s West African psychedelic funk that we all know so well. Free downloads of two of the best tracks here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another big critical hit was Ys<\/a> by the harp-strumming Joanna Newsom. So far, so quirky, but her incredibly annoying squeaky voice is a deal-breaker for me I\u2019m afraid. Another critical fave that left me unmoved was The Hold Steady\u2019s Boys and Girls In America<\/a>. A \u201cknowing??? contemporary attempt at Springsteen\u2019s Born to Run (big, big sound, lyrics about streetfighs, cars and girls called Mary, all that) it misses the point that if Bruce had tried to perform those songs with anything less than absolute sincerity, the whole affair would\u2019ve sounded absurd. Amusing the first time, if only because I really<\/em> didn\u2019t see an indie vogue for Born to Run coming, it grates very quickly. Also much touted were Scritti Politti<\/a> and Lindsay Buckinham<\/a>\u2019s albums. Both are refreshingly weird, but ultimately, not for me. And Thom Yorke<\/a>, as I\u2019ve been saying consistently ever since Pablo Honey, can go and shite.<\/p>\n

Pop-wise, I found much of Justin Timberlake<\/a>\u2019s new stuff a bit too harsh-sounding, probably because I\u2019m getting too old. (Though it is apparently<\/a> true that music today is more demanding on the ears than ever before). Christina Aguilera<\/a>\u2019s album was very disappointing too, but there were a few good singles in there. For all that Madonna seemed 12 months ago to have again triumphed, leaving in her wake platinum discs and gasps of \u201cShe\u2019s in such good shape, you\u2019d never think she was 78, would you????, I can\u2019t help but feel that she’s like, so totally over. Striding imperiously back onto the scene, the way Madonna used too, but possessed of perhaps even more star power was Beyonce. OK, so her new album<\/a>, like her last, has its share of gloopy ballads, but there\u2019s still enough awesomeness there to satisfy. Some day soon she\u2019ll make a classic soul album. In the meantime, here\u2019s a fab acoustic version of \u201cIrreplaceable<\/a>???.<\/p>\n

Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley made a near-perfect solo album<\/a> which mixed country, folk and soul in a Bobbie Gentry-esque manner, while displaying an indie-rock queen\u2019s ear for a hook. Her show in the Village was a highly enjoyable night, climaxing with a spirited version of gospel tune and Grateful Dead warhorse, Cold Jordan.<\/p>\n

Bob Dylan\u2019s Modern Times<\/a> is really very good, if not actually a \u201cgreat??? album. Fellow old-timer Neil Young\u2019s Living With War<\/a> elicited another \u201cmeh???, this time from the world at large, and The Beatles corpse was once again dusted down and wheeled out in the form of Love<\/a>. Definitely worth listening to, it\u2019s not worth listening to twice, and asking people to pay actual money for it is taking the cheeky scouser thing too far.<\/p>\n

Significantly more dignified as acts of musical repurposing, two of the best things I\u2019ve heard all year were examples of a genre one might call the “folk makeover”. This is where old songs from a folk tradition are recorded by contemporary artists. The Everlys probably started it all in the 50\u2019s with Songs Our Daddy Taught Us<\/a>. Fabulous examples include the Billy Bragg\/Wilco collaborations Mermaid Avenue I & II<\/a>, and Eddie Reader\u2019s lovely Songs of Robert Burns<\/a>. Less fabulous is what I\u2019ve come to think of as \u201cSting and his fucking lute<\/a>???. This year\u2019s offerings in the genre were Wonder Wheel<\/a>, the Klezmatics\u2019 take on Woody Guthrie (Bernard tells<\/a> me there\u2019s a follow up out), and Bruce Springsteen\u2019s immersion in the American folk tradition, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions<\/a>. Both are raucous, full-blooded records, resisting any urge to mess with the timelessness of the songs with \u201cup-to-date??? studio messing, while avoiding an earnest, museum-piece approach. They share the much-coveted title of Fergal\u2019s Album of the Year. Unfortunately they can\u2019t be here tonight to accept the accolade, but you can be sure that wherever they are, they have absolutely no idea who I am.<\/p>\n

I saw Bruce and the Seeger Sessions Band perform most of the album in the Point not long ago, easily my musical event of the year, and another show that climaxed with a gospel number (what is<\/em> it with me and all the God-music?) A feast of virtuosity, passion, fun and fervour, it left me on a high that lasted several days, and the more I think of it, the more I\u2019m inclined to say it was the greatest gig I\u2019ve seen in my entire life. Auds<\/a> will know what I\u2019m talking about here.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s to another year. Not being the chief futurologist<\/a> around here, I\u2019ll not attempt predictions. But if in twelve months I\u2019m listening only to religious music, perhaps subtly re-purposed to suit my own church devoted to the worship of Beyonce and Bruce, I will not say I didn\u2019t see the signs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some years ago, back when that sort of thing mattered to me, I used to enjoy going through the albums of the years lists in the music press and congratulating myself on how many of the top 50 I owned. As my tastes have grown a little more, eh, rarefied, I find that my own picks of the year correspond less and less with those of the press. So what I\u2019ll do here is mention some of my favourite albums and tracks of the year, while also casting an eye over what the critics have been touting. Our main point of contention is that I\u2019m sick to the back teeth with guitar bands. Have you watched that daytime music show on Channel Four on the weekends? It\u2019s the most depressing thing in the world. One hack guitar band (Orson, anyone? The Feeling?) after another parades their wares and does a boring interview, each leaving less impact on your consciousness than the last. You\u2019ve forgotten their name even while they\u2019re still on the screen in front of you. The only breath of fresh air comes from the occasional pop act that the producers deign to allow on the show. Still, the world of guitars gave us a few decent moments, most notably the Arctic Monkeys\u2019 Whatever You Say I Am, That\u2019s What I\u2019m Not. For song-writing, it\u2019s the best thing all year by some distance. They\u2019ve also been responsible for a critical renaissance of their forefathers, The Jam. The other big guitar album was the Raconteurs Broken Boy Soldiers to which I can only respond with a resounding \u201cmeh???. I liked the singles (especially \u201cHands???) but I think I listened to the whole thing through about twice all year. Perhaps I was just put off by all the other crummy guitar bands. Ali Farka Toure\u2019s Savane topped a lot of lists this year, and I have to confess that whatever\u2019s there that\u2019s exciting everyone, I\u2019m not hearing it. It\u2019s pleasant enough, but didn\u2019t grow on me the way last year\u2019s big African cross-over, the poppier Dimanche a Bamako by Amadou & Mariam did. What I did hear out of Africa that excited me was Love\u2019s A Real Thing a compilation from David Byrne\u2019s ace Luaka Bop label. It\u2019s basically the usual 1970\u2019s West African psychedelic funk that we all know so well. Free downloads of two of the best tracks here. […]","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[662],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}