Reshuffling through the year that was, SIMON SWEETMAN and BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM playlist their ten best albums of 2006 – and remind us what didn’t make the cut.

Simon Sweetman

2006 has been a pretty average year for music. And hardly any decent local acts have stepped up to the plate. And there are not really any fresh voices around, locally or internationally. Ba hum bug! It’s been an average year – there have been some gems, but mostly few and far between. For every superb instant 5-star album, there have been masses of utter shite. I can think of only three New Zealand-made albums that I have loved – and still play now, some months down the track from their release. I’ll include them in my Top 10 list; because they really are quite brilliant – and managed to actually be fresh; in fact, two of the albums were debut long-players; making the end result all the more impressive.

There were some albums that came close – but at the end of the day don’t mean all that much. Second albums from The Scissor Sisters and The Magic Numbers were not bad, but not a patch on the brilliance – and brand new sound – that both bands presented with their respective debuts. And this was so often the case.

Relying on the old hands proved useful – Tom Petty, Neil Young, Paul Simon: they all delivered. Bob Dylan’s album was gushed over, because that’s what happens when his royal Bobness releases anything these days. I’m a huge Dylan fan – and I quite like Modern Times, but I wouldn’t put it on my end of year Top 10 list (so I’m not going to. That’s confirmed).

Jazz offered nothing new. Classical delivered a few nice surprises, particularly locally; John Psathas built on his name. And the work of Jonathan Besser is increasingly daring. I could easily offer a Worst of 2006: Paul Stanley, Rod Stewart, Cliff Richard – see, just as often as the old hands delivered, they cocked it up right royally. And who thought it was a good idea to let the Feelers release another album!?

When I think about it there were some great albums, the new Yo La Tengo is sublime. Hot Chip and TV On The Radio backed up their great efforts from a couple of years back, and Don McGlashan’s debut solo album, despite being un-earth-shattering, was really rather lovely. Heck, I even enjoyed Meatloaf’s Bat Out Of Hell III – at least it was what it was, and is what it is. Unapologetically.

Apart from that, I spent most of the year, when I wasn’t listening to utter shit that I had to review, checking out artists from the 1980s (Cyndi Lauper is so criminally underrated), getting in to some classical and soundtrack music and trying to forget just how horrid retro-rock really is. New bands need to actually try and come up with something... you know... new!

Right, enough of the preliminary rant, let’s make a list shall we? (in no real order)


1. Joanna Newsom: Ys
Here the elfin-like harpist follows up swiftly on her superb debut from last year (The Milk-Eyed Mender) and manages to deliver something even more bent; stretching the songs out – just 5 epic compositions make up the album Ys. The gossamer textures of her harp are carefully treated by some spidery Van Dyke Parks arrangements – allowing strings to cling to Newsom’s poetic images. Lines like “I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water/frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever…” suggest the early brilliance of Kate Bush. Yes, Ys is the sort of album music critics salivate over. I haven’t stopped.

2. Luke Buda: Special Surprise
The Phoenix Foundation guitarist/keyboardist was in a funk after the band’s superb second album. Feeling he’d lost his own songwriting muse, he gathered some mates (including several Phoenix-ers) and created this wonderful solo album. Think of the most upbeat moments from the band’s Pegasus album and add the varied influences of David Bow’s Low, SJD, Freur, Pink Floyd and Philip Glass. Playful and quirky, this is space-aged power-pop that deserves discovery by everyone. Gets my vote for best New Zealand album of 2006 – I think? Well, one of anyway. I like that Buda uses his mates when he needs to, but doesn’t rely on this alleged “Wellington Sound”.

3. Dimmer: There My Dear
Referencing Marvin Gaye’s bitter 1978 divorce album (Here, My Dear) Shayne Carter’s latest release under the Dimmer moniker (a flexible lineup with Carter always at the helm) is easily his finest work, recalling his guitar-grinding days in Straitjacket Fits, whilst still finding favour with fans of Dimmer’s work to date; particularly the still-stunning 2001 debut, I Believe You Are A Star. Here, noirish noise mixes with melodic grace, Carter’s honeyed voice is a delight as always – and it’s just great hearing him grate on that guitar once again. Like Gaye’s aforementioned riposte to marriage and Dylan’s similarly-themed Blood On The Tracks this is a grim, fraught masterpiece. Good to see a New Zealand act actually progress over three albums, rather than just press play/record/pause/repeat. God we release some shit music. Thank god Shayne Carter is still thinking outside the square. Back to his brooding self – this is a mini-masterpiece.

4. Tom Waits: Orphans – Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
For over three decades Tom Waits has lurked on the side of mainstream, teasing out twin acting and singing careers whilst flirting his bohemian caricatures of Bukowski-esque frankness. Here with a three-disc boxset of rarities, covers and b-sides, Waits showcases, on distinct, themed, discs the three sides of his musical personality: the scrap-yard percussion and industrial blues, the hipster jazz from broken hearts and the post-alternative rock howlers and spoken word oddities. Beautifully packaged with a poetry-book full of his inimitable lyrics this is a must-have for both the hardened fans and neophytes keen to delve in to this musical magician’s vaudevillian world. Very rarely has Tom put a foot wrong when it comes to recording, and this just shows how good he is, his outtakes and off-cuts are better than the finished product that most serve up.

5. Alphabethead: Electricity
Local DJ Alphabethead is one clever cookie, I’ve seen him playing with jazz band and rock ensembles; and I don’t just mean hiding in the background and playing an innocuous backing track or adding some vague scratches – I mean actually playing with the band. He has dueled with Jeff Henderson’s impressive saxophone playing and improvised with a host of talented local free-jazzers. This guy is advancing the sound of modern DJing; he is in fact a turntablist – a musician who happens to use turntables and records as his instrument rather than just a DJ who plays records. This album, Electricity, brings to mind DJ Shadow’s mighty Endtroducing... though it’s less overtly a hip-hop album and more a post-modern slice of spliced prog-rock, jazz, and soft-70s radio-cheese all cut up and stitched together with by a musical surgeon. As influenced by Santana and Pink Floyd as it is by DJ Yoda and Cut Chemist, Electricity is a challenging release that deserves to be heard by a true pioneer within local music. The haunted flow of this album as one whole piece is a sustained glimpse of Alphabethead’s sonic brilliance – his multi-concept view of music as a whole. This guy needs to be taken seriously as one of Wellington’s most talented musicians. This one knocked me for six; the best new set of sounds I got to hear this year. A beguiling record that I have returned to and played over and over…

6. Smoosh: Free To Stay
Half a song in to Free To Stay the second album by Seattle sister duo, Smoosh, it is easy to see how the young group has scored support slots for the likes of Cat Power, Eels, Sufjan Stevens and a host of other “cool” groups. Their charming songs are filled with a wide-eyed innocence and simple pop yearning; wise beyond their years in terms of understanding the simple grace and obvious charms of a cute melodic line, Asya and Chloe (they don’t give out their surname) are responsible for all of the music (composition and performance) on Free To Stay, just as they were on 2004’s She Like Electric. Asya’s keyboards bounce along over Chloe’s determinedly brittle drumming; both sisters provide vocals with Asya taking the majority of the leads. If you like Tegan & Sara you’ll like this; if you like PJ Harvey you’ll like this; if you like good alternative-pop music in general then you’ll find much to like here – and though I’ve tried to avoid mentioning their ages, because the music really does stand up on its one, it is worth announcing that Asya is 13 and Chloe is 11. Oh and younger sister Maia (9) provided the album’s artwork. Like I said, not much was fresh to me this year, but this sure was. I still find it amazing to think that two girls this young got the formula right and made a great record by not trying too hard.

7. Joan As Policewoman: Real Life
Joan Wasser has been a member of Rufus Wainwright’s band and has worked with Scissor Sisters, Anthony & The Johnsons and Sparklehorse – among other cult artists. Listening to her perform material with just piano backing (and subtle rhythmic accompaniment from the trio that is the band Joan As Policewoman) is akin to Nick Cave’s post-Let Love In output. Real Life would sit nicely on the shelf alongside And No More Shall We Part and The Boatman’s Call; it would go well with The Twilight Singers’ She Loves You and it’s that version of downbeat American soul to compliment the almost upbeat Cat Power album The Greatest. Wasser has been compared to Dusty Springfield – and I don’t really get that, vocally. She’s far closer to Cat Power’s Chan Marshall. But in hearing the album play out several times there is something in the Springfield comparison; the fact that she’s making intentionally out-of-fashion soul music and is blatantly un-sexy in her approach. For that fact, she could be compared to Kiki Dee, Marianne Faithful or Elton John. And there’s just the slightest twinge of punk ethos (Patti Smith as a torch singer) bubbling beneath the surface. This was a cool record, still is. Still worth discovering.

8. C.W. Stoneking: King Hokum
To look at the cover of King Hokum suggests a contemporary of Dock Boggs or, if not that early, than at least someone like Earl Scruggs. Right? Wrong. Stoneking’s album is a brand new collection of songs written and recorded to sound like an old-time pastiche of country-blues and Alan Lomax-derived folk. Made to sound like it was recorded on a front porch of a shack just down the way from a devil-endorsed crossroads, King Hokum is full of humour and dusty blues authenticity. There are some songs (Down The Darktown Strutter’s Ball, She’s A Bread Baker) that wouldn’t sound out of place on anything that Tom Waits has offered post-Mule Variations. And yet Stoneking won’t scare any listeners off with a white man’s approximation of a Howlin’ Wolf vocal cadence. So evocative of late 1920s-1940s tumbleweed folk and chain-gang field hollers is this album that I’ve fooled more than one friend in to believing it is the real deal, restored to a digital format from library of congress tapes. The truth is Stoneking lives and works in the gruesome blues grovel that is Melbourne’s inner city. And he has created something truly remarkable here – better than John Lurie’s Marvin Pontiac persona. Probably the only other album (apart from Alphabethead) to really knock me for six this year, this guy is amazing. I wish he’d come and tour here. He only lives in Melbourne. It’s not far. Who’s up for starting a petition?

9. The Album Leaf: Into The Blue Again
This was one of the few times I was happy to hear a band repeat themselves. The Album Leaf rate up there for me with the likes of Wilco and Calexico as new-ish bands actually mining their own path, carving their own sound out – but, before I get ahead of myself I should say that The Album Leaf don’t sound anything like Wilco or Calexico – they’re closer to Sigur Ros really. And Brian Eno. And on the vocal tracks there’s a touch of the subdued version of The Smashing Pumpkins (circa Adore, when Corgan was at his best). Reviewers claim to hate words like ‘lush’ – but use them anyway. Here is seems super appropriate. This spiraling, textural work reminds me of Decoder Ring’s lovely soundtrack to that shite, overrated Aussie indie flick, Somersault – and there are traces of other Subpop bands, from The Postal Service through on to The Shins. Get this album as an introduction to the genius of this guy Jimmy LaValle.

10. Mates Of State: Bring It Back
Kori Gardner (organ, vocals) and Jason Hammel (drums, vocals) had both, previously, been part-time guitar players. In 2001 they got married and quit their day jobs (teacher and cancer researcher) and hit the road as Mates Of State. Bring It Back is their fourth full-lengther, with various EPs and singles in tow. This is not a fad-duo, the sound is very sophisticated and fleshed-out, more so on this album – with guitars adding emotional weight to the melodic grace. The harmonies are a delight, with Gardner and Hammel both possessing great voices and there’s some great mischief within the lyrics; “I’m tired of singing”, Gardner croons on a warped, ironic, loop to fade out the closer, ‘Running Out’. From My Bloody Valentine to Yo La Tengo, from Joy Division and The Cure, through to The Velvet Underground and The Shaggs – time has clearly been spent listening to outsider-status rock, as well as the obvious influences. There are moments (‘Fraud In The 80s’) that recall the minimalist zeitgeist the captured and uplifted the fabled “Dunedin Sound” – there are shades of Sonic Youth (perhaps that’s the husband/wife relationship within a way-cool band that I’m thinking of specifically?) not so much in overall sound, more a case of the overall lo-fi mood. But, importantly, Mates Of State have remembered to do the one thing that most bands with a dream dynamic and snazzy set of influences often forget: they’ve written some fucking great songs!

Brannavan Gnanalingam

1. Joanna Newsom: Ys
One of the weirdest mainstream releases of the year, it’s also the best. Beautiful lyrics combined with Newsom’s gorgeous harp playing, this is baffling, wilfully artistic stuff. Brilliant.

2. The Decemberists: The Crane Wife
The Decemberists sign to a major, yet maintain their distinctive method of music and storytelling. Admittedly there are no more sea shanties, but they deliver a fantastic prog-epic. ‘The Crane Wife Part One’ has been on repeat.

3. J Dilla: Donuts
An exceptional piece of sampling, with off-melodies from a producer who’s worked with the likes of Common, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. Forget the fact he died this year, this isn’t simply good because it’s a posthumous document.

4. The Fiery Furnaces: Bitter Tea
One of the most exciting albums of the year, constantly surprising and quite thrilling in its scope. It’s also more focused than their acclaimed Blueberry Boat, yet just as interesting.

5. Cat Power: The Greatest
Cat Power heads down to the South of America and finds a backing band too. And while it’s not as emotionally spare as previous work, The Greatest is lush and beautiful.

6. TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain
David Bowie is recruited to croon behind this New York soul/indie collective. Single ‘Wolf Like Me’ is an absolute classic, and the standout track in this dense, sinister album.

7. Final Fantasy: He Poos Clouds
Ignore the terrible title, this is a wonderful piece of chamber pop from Arcade Fire’s arranger. Quirky melodies and rhythms, please don’t think this is the soundtrack to the computer game.

8. Danielson: Ships
The recruiting of the likes of Deerhoof and Sufjan Stevens doesn’t overpower the musical ideas explored by Daniel Smith in this album. It’s messy and enjoyable, an album that sounds like a whole bunch of people having fun.

9. Islands: Return to the Sea
Ex-Unicorns decide to explore some music ideas. While it’s not as gleefully lo-fi or as crazy as the Unicorns at their best, this is a very good piece of indieness.

10. Belle and Sebastian: The Life Pursuit
A friend described this as the most Belle and Sebastian of Belle and Sebastian’s albums, so that’s good enough for me.



New Zealand album of the year: There My Dear – Dimmer. Shayne Carter continues the old tradition of relationships break-ups being good for art. This completes a triumvirate of excellent albums for the national treasure that is Carter.

Gig of the year: Deerhoof with So So Modern – no-one went, but it was a brilliant night out. So So Modern are the best live band playing in New Zealand at the moment, so see them before they get sucked up overseas. Also, if Deerhoof come again, go see them – if you think their loud/soft dynamic sounds good on an album, it's nothing compared to seeing them live.