Year End Special, Vol 1: Top Ten

Now that I've terminated both my day job and my internship, I have a couple days to spare before packing up and moving back to Michigan to begin my masters of journalism program. In the meantime, I'll try and crank out the biggest and best musical summary of 2006 that I can. This is the first year that I've had such extensive exposure to new music, and I've realized how absurd the idea of a top ten list really is. However, I've been keeping a running one all year, and now I'm going to share it with you. But it won't stop there! I'll also include Honorable Mentions, Best of Chicago, Best of Michigan, Biggest Disappointments, Hipster Bands I Hate the Most, Best Songs of 2006, and Best Live Performances of 2006 (also with honorable mentions). This is also a sort of one year anniversary of this blog. So keep tuned 'cuz this is gonna get exciting!

HEAD DRESS TATTOO 2006 TOP TEN:

10. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country : Sweet, summery, nostalgic indie pop from Scotland. This is the stuff that Saturday Looks Good to Me has been trying to create for years, but without the same payoff.
9. Hot Chip - The Warning : This is the electronica band comprised of four keyboards and a drum machine (they claim to have no computers or pre-recorded material for live shows). The result is catchy, stimulating electronic pop.
8. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood : I thought I didn't like country, but oh that strumming! That slide guitar! Her painful, haunting voice! Case makes me want to cuddle up in front of a fireplace with my sweetheart in a small Colorado cabin, as it snows and snows outside. Sounds nice? So does this album.
7. The Roots - Game Theory : ?uestlove and the gang give a realistic and gritty account of the modern world, while still creating something beautiful. The MC work is impressive, the productions are diverse, and there's not a wasted moment on the album.
6. Mew - And The Glass Handed Kites : These Danish fellows got picked on a lot for having long hair and writing songs of childhood fantasy and fear, but this blend of dream pop and progressive rock is nothing if it's not powerful. Anyone who calls them "uncool" can eat a heaping pile of hipster shit and die.
5. Girl Talk - Night Ripper : Gregg Gillis is winning over the masses with his mash-ups that combine various genres, decades, and styles to produce the best pre-drinking album of all time. He claims it's original music - not a DJ mix - and I'm starting to believe him. Do you?
4. Evangelicals - So Gone : This is not Flaming Lips progeny, even if they do share the same love for vivid, bombastic sounds. This is not a religious album, even if you will worship them after one listen. This is amazing indie rock, full of synth washes, time changes, and flailing vocals. Get ready for a new kind of freak out.
3. Aloha - Some Echoes : Pretty much the only band that fulfilled my expectations this year, Aloha creates intricate indie rock with an integrity level unheard of in modern music. I hope, hope, HOPE that they get their due sometime soon. They should own the world by now.
2. Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That : Finally captalizing on the melancholic yet celebratory fervor inherent in "If I Ever Feel Better" (from their debut United) and "Everything is Everything" (from their sophomore Alphabetical), every song on this album is a special entity. Somehow these Frenchies manage to tap into the very essence of life on these short, simple little bits of heaven.
1. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies : This album has been firmly planted in my #1 spot since I discovered it around June. Destroyer sounds like a classic rock band playing in some Western saloon in the abyss of your mind. The mix is so fragile that it really only works on record (they're good live, but not quite as good), as Dan Bejar's voice barely hits notes and the instruments hang onto each other by a thread. Call it a resurgence of my boyhood devotion to Cat Stevens (perhaps due to the assocation with my father, who would sing the songs to me when not playing them repeatedly on our Chrysler mini-van stereo). This record has the ability to make me miss a time during which I was miserable. Not because I want to be miserable again, but because it felt so incredible to discover this treasure even though I hated the state of my life earlier this year. That, my friends, is the power of music.