label: Domino
It was January, and the hype around four teenage lads from Sheffield was palpable. But when this caustic debut of hook-laden anthems – When The Sun Goes Down and I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor foremost of the bunch – finally landed, it flew out of shops faster than any album ever had, beginning an extraordinary journey for the band and their indie label, Domino.
Reviewing the album, John Murphy – himself a resident of Sheffield who’d watched the band break – said: “Don’t be surprised if, in 30 years’ time, there are still obsessive fans paying homage to The Grapes to see where it all started…”
label: Bella Union
Australian bands, aside from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, had never made much impression in the UK’s serious indie music scene. Then, in May, along came a brother-and-sister-led band with a noirish road trip lost soundtrack album. Hyperbole and cliches duly attached themselves to the self-titled debut by Howling Bells, and charismatic lynchpin Juanita Stein saw to it that the band had visual as well as sonic appeal.
A spate of singles – Low Happening, Blessed Night, Setting Sun – and a heavy touring schedule followed, culminating in a support tour with Placebo. Tiny indie Bella Union had never had it so good.
Reviewing the album, Michael Hubbard said: “This glorious, beautiful record of effortlessly starry noir makes one very clear statement. Howling Bells are fabulous, and this debut album is one of the strongest records of 2006 so far. Make them superstars.”
label: Warner
Even before this fifth studio album Muse were showing all the signs of bestriding the music scene this year. Black Holes and Revelations was revealed first by the insanely catchy lead single Supermassive Black Hole – epic themes and titles are no problem for the trio, evidently.
Starlight and the epic Knights Of Cydonia would follow sell-out shows at Wembley Arena and the announcement of two dates at Wembley Stadium next summer. These intergalactic boys have had their biggest year yet on the way to being one of the world’s biggest bands. And what other band boasts a virtuoso pianist who’s also a guitar hero?
Reviewing the album back in the summer, Michael Hubbard said: “Black Holes and Revelations is, lyrics aside, hugely energetic, inventive and entertaining, and a colossal candidate for one of the albums of the year.”
label: V2
Isobel Campbell, sometime fiddler with tweesters Belle & Sebastian, improbably got together with grunge stalwart and sometime Queens of the Stone Age screamer Mark Lanegan to release this quirky, Mercuty-nominated gem right at the start of the year.
Reviewing the album, Jamil Ahmad said: “Considering much of the album was made by Campbell posting tapes to Lanegan to add vocals to, it reflects on the implicit chemistry of the pair that they could produce such a consummate, passionate and unerring affair. One wonders what a long term relationship could produce.”
label: EMI
No matter that Over And Over was one of the tracks of the year wherever it was played – monkeys with miniature cymbals everywhere couldn’t get enough of it, and repetition really was in us – but Hot Chip’s second album, and first for a major, also offered an organic cuddliness rarely found in electronic music.
Add to that the appearance of loveable geekery and several more top-drawer singles – Boy From School in particular – and The Warning was inevitably going to end up a favourite of 2006.
Reviewing the album, Sam Shepherd said: “Not once does a song sound ripped off or unoriginal. What Hot Chip have done is to create a new landscape of electronica.”
label: Brille
Contentiously, The Knife’s third album received less than its required quota of stars when first reviewed on this site. Clearly, it was a grower to some, especially to those who witnessed The Knife live. By the end of the year though, enough writers had decided Silent Shout was their electronica album of the year, and its status was duly remedied.
Beaky siblings-in-masks Karin and Olof need not stare quite so icily at us in future, because we find it’s quite unnerving when they do. We’re sorry. We don’t want to share our mother’s health or become a forest family, but we do want to boogie about in the darkest denizens of our electrocuted souls after listening to Silent Shout constantly all year.
The album almost begged to be seen in one of The Knife’s spectacular shows. At the London Scala in April, Michael Hubbard said: “Less than an hour after they arrived, they departed to their shadowy, futuristic, freakishly delicious world without encore, leaving a bewildered, amazed, stunned audience desperate for more… (of)… this most beautiful of experiences.”
label: Polydor
Guillemots were one of our picks for 2006 this time last year, and Fyfe Dangerfield’s ragbag assortment of Londoners, augmented by sax, dustbinlids and a wooden throne wherever they went, came good and signed to Polydor.
Debut album Through The Windowpane was duly nominated for the Mercury prize and the band toured to just about every corner of the country on the back of it, charming audiences as they went.
Reviewing the album, Jeremy Lloyd said: “There isn’t a duff track to be seen, and you get the feeling the whole thing’s been meticulously planned and orchestrated, with a mindset of giving us a record to cherish, something to put on when the chips are down, and that rare thing, one that will almost certainly be loved in equal measure many years down the line.”
label: Drag City
A curious mix of Kristin Hersh, Kate Bush and Tori Amos, but even more out there than such a combination sounds, Newsom’s second album Ys was released at the tail end of 2006 and immediately set tongues wagging, becoming Newsnight Review’s featured album of the week necessitating another five-star review for us.
Still a low-key number, it should stand the test of time for anyone who likes their women with brainpower, personality and talent to spare.
Reviewing the album, Joe Crofton said: “This beautiful album represents Joanna Newsom’s willingness to evolve and grow as a musician and composer. Defiantly flying in the face of the ‘normal’ popular music scene, Joanna is the kind of artist who restores your faith, not just in the business, but in life as well.”
label: Reprise
One of 2006′s most hyped bands, Gerard Way’s emo warriors marched in from across the pond and gave Muse a run for their money as the year’s best rock act with second album The Black Parade.
No end of bizarre stories about emo – especially from the Daily Mail, who warned parents about its effects on their children – proved there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
Reviewing the album, Jenni Cole said: “This is an album which references music hall theatricality, marching band propaganda, religious pomp, punk energy and, perhaps more surprising than anything, an overarching sense of fun. This is a band who not only have a sense of humour but who revel in it.”
label: Bella Union
The only label to score two hits on our top 10 of the year, Bella Union released Midlake’s second record just a few of weeks after Howling Bells’ debut to prove there was something in the waterpipes serving the label.
Occupying a yawning space between Radiohead and Fleetwood Mac but with the delicate musicianship of Devendra Banhart, the Texans proved that where there was Roscoe, we really should Head Home.
Reviewing the album, Michael Hubbard said: “The Trials Of Van Occupanther reveals more of itself with each listen, quietly rooting itself into the subconscious. And that’s just fine – this is a record to be savoured.”
| Honourable mentions to go to this lot, who would surely have made the top 10 if only it was bigger: Jarvis Cocker – Jarvis Several writers put the Pulp man’s solo debut at the top of their poll, but too many others seemingly hadn’t heard it and couldn’t vote for it, hence a rather lowly placing. No, we don’t know where they’ve been either, but they’re self-flagellating as we speak. Ali Farka Toure – Savane The desert blues man left this world in 2006, and Savane was as good an indication as any as to what we’ll be missing. Beirut – Gulag Orkestar Zach Condon is a 20-year-old with the maturity of someone twice his age to pull off this Balkan stew of funeral marches, love songs and musings that we played time and again. Scott Walker – The Drift Surely the year’s most terrifying album, Walker made sure we’ll never feel quite the same about donkeys again. The Pipettes – We Are The Pipettes Anyone with a passion for polkadot had their hopes answered by the Brighton-based three-piece who had just about as much fun with a debut album as it’s possible to enjoy as they exhaustively toured the country. Lily Allen – Alright, Still She blotted her copybook slightly by promising to write for us and then disappearing off to become an international pop sensation (we forgave her soon enough), but debut album Alright, Still was chock full of hooky tunes, biting lyrics and, by the year’s end, she’d come from nowhere to be a household name. Get Cape! Wear Cape! Fly! – Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager While we’re on about assured debuts, laptop kid Sam Duckworth was no slouch either… Cansei De Ser Sexy – CSS …And neither were this lot. We loved Lovefoxx and her Brazilian minstrels of anarcho-electronic good times. Now signed to Warner, maybe they’ll get more attention in 2007. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black The well-lubricated tonsils of this lady were only part of her second album’s success – Mark Ronson was at the desk controls. Much better than her first – and that wasn’t half bad either. Morrissey – Ringleader Of The Tormentors The Moz was back, with “powderkegs between my legs” and Tony Visconti on orchestral duties. We listened, we swooned. Thom Yorke – The Eraser Another Mercury nominee, this solo debut for the Radiohead lynchpin included the deeply personal Harrowdown Hill, about the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly. Bleak, but brilliant. Bat For Lashes – Fur And Gold Natasha Khan’s elaborate headdresses and glitter were just part of the gameplan; Bat For Lashes had the songs as well as the look to find a place in our hearts and snuggle down to purr there. Archie Bronson Outfit – Derdang Derdang Bluesy garage rock from a bunch of beardy Englishmen with infectious knack for big, ballsy tunes and dark lyrics. Should have done much better, but was released by Domino just after Arctic Monkeys had gone stratospheric. Still ace though. Akala – It’s Not A Rumour Surely the brightest rap talent these shores have yet produced, an idiosyncratic approach to gaining success included guest slots with unlikely collaborators – chief among them Gotan Project… And just in case that doesn’t persuade you that music in 2006 was healthier than ever, a word for these fine records too, in no particular order: Cat Power – The Greatest Tilly And The Wall- Bottoms Of Barrels Herbert – Scale Zao – The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here You & The Atom Bomb – Shake Shake Hello! Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Kick Your Ass Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones Workhouse – Flyover Wolfmother – Wolfmother Mastodon – Blood Mountain Dirty Pretty Things – Waterloo To Anywhere TV On The Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain The Zutons – Tired Of Hanging Around The Violet Burning – Drop Dead The Twilight Singers – Powder Burns The Strokes – First Impressions Of Earth The Rapture – Pieces Of The People That We Love The Mountain Goats – Get Lonely The Letting Go – Bonnie Prince Billy The Futureheads – News + Tributes Larrikin Love – The Freedom Spark The Decemberists – The Crane Wife The Citizens – Post Cro-Magnon Drift The Bronx – The Bronx The Blood Arm – Lie Lover Lie The Beatles – Love The Alarm – Under Attack Sway – This Is My Demo Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium Skream – Skream! The Charlatans – Simpatico Serena-Maneesh – Serena-Maneesh Secret Machines – Ten Silver Drops Plan B – Who Needs Actions When You’ve Got Words P.O.D. – Testify P Diddy – Press Play Ooberman- Carried Away Nina Nastasia- On Leaving Mstrkrft – The Looks Mogwai – Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait OST Dr John – Mercernary Melvins – The Senile Animal M Ward – Post War Lupe Fiasco – Food And Liqor Love Is All – 9 Times That Same Song The Long Blondes – Someone To Drive You Home Neil Young – Living With War Liars – Drums Not Dead Larrikin Love – The Freedom Spark Lanterna – Deserts Oceans Justin Timberlake – Futuresex / Lovesounds Junior Boys – So This Is Goodbye Jimmy Edgar – Color Strip Jerry Lee Lewis – Last Man Standing Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins Jay Z – Kingdom Come Tim Finn – Imaginary Kingdom Iliketrains – Progress Reform iforward, Russia! – Give Me A Wall Hope Of The States – Left Gnarls Barkley – St Elsewhere Giant Drag – Hearts And Unicorns Flipron- Biscuits For Cerberus Flaming Lips – At War With The Mystics The Lilys – Everything Wrong Is Imaginary Espers – Espers II Elton John – The Captain And The Kid Ellen Allien + Apparat – Orchestra Of Bubbles Dustin O’Halloran – Piano Solos Vol 2 Duels – Bright Lights And Things We Should Have Learned Declan O’Rourke – Beyond Kyrabram Dave Seaman – Renaissance Masters Vol 7 Coldcut – Sound Mirrors Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Paul Weller – Catch – Flame! Cassius – 15 Again Broken Social Scene – Broken Social Scene Be Your Own Pet – Be Your Own Pet …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – So Divided Afi – Decemberunderground Absentee – Schmotime Islands – Return To The Sea Tapes N’ Tapes – The Loon The Organ- Grab That Gun Scissor Sisters – Ta-Dah Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones Yea Big- The Wind That Blows The Robot’s Arms Wolf Eyes – Human Animal Vetiver – To Find Me Gone The Thermals – The Body, The Blood, The Machine Sunn O))) And Boris – Altar Sparklehorse – Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain Spank Rock – Yoyoyoyoyo Primal Scream – Riot City Blues Peeping Tom – Peeping Tom Outkast – Idlewild Nouvelle Vague – Bande A Part Nathan Fake – Drowning In A Sea Of Love Modern Times – Bob Dylan Mars Volta – Amputechture London Is The Place For Me Vol 4 Johnny Cash – V Handsome Family – Last Days Of Wonder Grizzly Bear – Yellow House Garden Ruin – Calexico Fink – Biscuits For Breakfast Film School – Film School Fightstar – Grand Unification Clinic – Visitations Carla Bozulich – Evangelista Brigade – Lights Bob Dylan – Modern Times Asobi Seksu – Citrus Amp Fiddler – Afro Strut |
