The Post-Rockist

Boy oh boy, these lists just keep coming, don’t they, folks? The tireless writers and music lovers that make the Post-Rockist possible have been working night and day, through meals and showers, for the sole purpose of sharing with you, fellow music lover, in numerical order, the albums that meant the most to them in 2006. So, without further fanfare, more lists. You know the drill…

JOSHUA’S TOP 10 ALBUMS LISTED IN DESCENDING ORDER, PLUS NOTES, AS PROVIDED BY A ROUGH TRANSCRIPTION

10) Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury (buy)
“Ride Around Shining”

I’m not the type of guy who really likes hip-hop that much, but every now and then I hear an album that makes me go, “Yeah, I can get into this.” Hell Hath No Fury is filled with smart, clever lyrics, and it’s my favorite hip-hop album of the year.

9) The Blow - Paper Television (buy)
“Parentheses”

Khaela Maricich, the lead singer of the Blow, is as smart and sexy as Peaches, and one-millionth as repulsive.

8) Tapes ‘n Tapes - The Loon (buy)

I figured I needed to have at least one rock and roll album on my list, and The Loon is very crunchy rock and roll.

7) The Boy Least Likely To - The Best Party Ever (buy)
“Fur Soft As Fur”

I’m aware that I’m cheating by placing this on a “best of 2006″ list, but it was very hard to come by in the States and it’s just too good not to be placed in the Top 10 of any year it was discovered.

6) Lily Allen - Alright, Still (buy)
“LDN”

Man, I just love this record. Lily Allen’s like the female Streets - a smart, sassy white girl from London whose album is filled with more hooks than any other pop album this year. It’s hooktastic!

5) Frida Hyvönen - Until Death Comes (buy)
“You Never Got Me Right”

This is my Billy Bragg-esque choice. This is a very brave record - just Frida and her piano. I imagine she has a very tough persona.

4) Peter Bjorn and John - Writer’s Block (buy)
“Objects of my Affection”

“Objects of my Affection,” the first proper song on Writer’s Block, has the greatest chorus of the year: “And the question is, was I more alive then than I am now? And I happily have to disagree; I laugh more often now, I cry more often now, I am more me.”

3) Beirut - Gulag Orkestar (buy)
“Postcards from Italy”

I listened to “Postcards from Italy” 35 times after a bad break-up this year, and I still can’t believe that the voice behind it is that of a 20-year-old; Zach Condon simply has the most beautiful voice.

2) Joanna Newsom - Ys (buy)
“Sawdust & Diamonds”

This album is too smart and too interesting to fall any lower than #2.

1) The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine (buy)
“Here’s Your Future”

I knew this was going to be my album of the year before the end of the first track. That feeling hasn’t gone away.

Plus, there are two EPs deserving of mention:

*Ferraby Lionheart - Ferraby Lionheart (it’s piano-based singer/songwriter music where the piano reminds me of the opening credits of the American Office.)

*Professor Murder - Professor Murder Rides the Subway (this is propulsive running music)

BRYAN’S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2006

10) Thom Yorke - The Eraser (buy)
“Harrowdown Hill”

Everybody’s wondering when the new Radiohead album will come out. Somehow, a lot of these people overlooked the next best thing. The Eraser sounds like Kid A’s eletro cousin. Phil, Ed, and the brothers Greenwood aren’t there, but the clicks and cracks from Thom and producer Nigel Godrich’s keyboards give it an urgent feel. Hail to the Thief was angry, but here Thom is foaming at the mouth. His vocal isolation laments a bleak present and an even bleaker future. But it’s not a downer. It gets every socially conscious cell in your body ready for action.

9) The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (buy)
“The Crane Wife No. 3″

Yes, I do feel smarter for listening to Mr. Meloy sing of cormorants, parallax, and fontanel. Yes, it helps that I thirst for scary tales about old-world American hooligans. And yes, I like it when pop bands put a little more rock into their sound. But for all the quirkiness these Portland roustabouts dish out, this is their most accessible album to date. The lyrics are as literate as ever, but it evokes a less nautical theme than usual. It’s not their best, but a lot of band’s still can’t touch them.

8) Brightblack Morning Light - Brightblack Morning Light (buy)
“Everybody Daylight”

Ninety-degree sunny day. So humid your fingernails sweat. You float on an innertube down some backwoods creek through a flower child commune. Every second of this debut will either calm you down or drive you mad. A deep Rhodes piano groove slowly pulls you through the dirtiest fucking hippie music this side of Trey Anastacio’s house. But there’s no jamming, no wah pedals, and few congas. Simplicity and repetition make it funky without reeking of patchouli.

7) The Rapture - Pieces of the People We Love (buy)
“Get Myself Into It”

Every year seems to have one great party album. This is 2006’s. Luke Jenner and Mattie Safer pull you onto the floor by singing about how people don’t dance no more, the Devil makes dancin’ shoes, and my my my m-m-Mustang Ford. What Pieces leaves out in emotional intimacy, it makes up for in butt-shaking bass lines and grooves you won’t be able to shake no matter how hard you try. And believe me, you will shake.

6) Beck - The Information (buy)
“Cellphone’s Dead”

Just a year after making what some called Odelay Jr., Beck made an album some might call Odelay III. But just as Guero was more than a rehash of his signature white man funk, The Information is Beck having fun with every blip, strum, and sample he hasn’t yet used. His once stream-of-consciousness lyrics are now direct and poignant. A line like, “I think I’m in love, but it makes me kind of nervous to say so,” is both simple and universal. The man has rarely been simple, but luckily his universality keeps growing.

5) Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (buy)
“To Be Myself Completely”
Stuart Murdoch and company drifted further away from the soft-spoken, bashful sound they helped popularize. Their new sound jumps from ’70s AM hits to Glam stomp to The Psychedelic Furs meets Motown. But they’ve never sounded more fun. After a decade of solid pop standards, B & S have started to explore their full potential as musicians. And so far, they’ve done it quite swimmingly.

4) Danielson - Ships (buy)
“Did I Step on Your Trumpet?”

Twenty musicians. Dozens of instruments. One high-pithced nasal voice. Every moment of Daniel Smith’s second solo album assaults your ears with layer upon layer upon layer. Using glockenspiels and marimbas do make Ships sound a bit carnival-like, but it rocks harder because of it. Despite all the noise, there’s an abundance of childlike innocence in songs like “Did I Step on Your Trumpet?” and “Five Stars and Two Thumbs Up.” Everyone from Sufjan Stevens to Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki make the whole more than the sum of its parts. And for 42 minutes, the parts never stop coming.

3) Joanna Newsom - Ys (buy)
“Sawdust & Diamonds”
In two albums, Ms. Newsom has become my favorite female musician. Her first solo album showed how sweet and smart the world’s most famous harpist could be. But on Ys, Newsom shows how confident she can be. Van Dyke Parks leads an orchestra that sweeps you away to medieval meadows, but never overshadows her dreamlike lyrics. Lines like, “Toddle and roll; teethe an impalpable bit of leather, while yarrow, heather, and hollyhock awkwardly molt along the shore,” are belted in a voice somewhere between Bjork and the Cocteau Twins. This is not passive music. You must give it your all, just like Joanna.

2) The Knife - Silent Shout (buy)
“We Share Our Mother’s Health”
If you took away the lyrics, it would be a great dance album. If you kept only the lyrics, you’d be in awe of the modulated voices spouting evocative descriptions of like near the Arctic Circle. Together, they create music that’s fresh and a little difficult to classify. For all the beeps and chirps, you can’t really call it house or electro. It may feel cold at first, but it will burrow under your skin and make your heart beat fast enough to move your feet.

1) Liars - Drum’s Not Dead (buy)
“Let’s Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack”

Both the most challenging and most rewarding album I heard this year. Few of the lyrics are intelligible, but my ears were drowned with emotion from the dark tribal percussion, meticulously crafted feedback, and Angus Andrew’s hypnotic falsetto. The two characters in the album are Drum and Mt. Heart Attack, and represent a sort of creative Yin and Yang. Drum is confident and assertive, and MHA is full of self-doubt. Their story journeys through loss and change, and eventually leads to acceptance and hope. The sound isn’t for everyone, but it’s worth the patience.