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[theinevitable]

So, I have been looking around for "Top Album of the Year" lists. And I realized... I have only heard 5 or 6 albums released this year. What gives? Is it because I can't download music here (hint: yes)? Is it because new music sucks (I doubt it sucks more than any other music)? I -do- tend to mostly buy old stuff... since there are 50-odd years of rock music behind me, and 1 that is... this year. And 90-100 years of Jazz.
Anyway, what albums do you love that came out this year?

[robot_god]

My two notables would be

Muse - Black Holes and Revelations

Kenny Garrett - Beyond The Wall

[SMEAR]

I enjoyed American Analog Set - Set Free, Cat Power - The Greatest, and Beck - The Information. Hot sauce on the dub plate!

[CortJstr]

You can't download music? That makes no sense. If your school is anything like mine was you are paying like $50 for net access and should get the same service that $50 would get anywhere else.

As for the actual question I feel the same way. I found this list helpful but YMMV: http://www.last.fm/group/eMusic+Subscribers/forum/12142/_/90162

[side_show]

I got really in to Regina Spektor this year.  Her latest, Begin to Hope, came out sometime this year, but it was Soviet Kitsch that really got me hooked.  She's got her own channel on YouTube too.  You said you like Jazz, and she's heavily influenced by Ella Fitzgerald, but is also quite contemporary.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Agreed on the American Analog Set album.  I also like Jose Gonzalez's Verneer.

My year-end compiliation CD is coming, details will be posted.

[Limmo]

If I haven't already, I would suggest Pink, by everyone's new favorite Japanese stoner-rock trio BORIS.  Here's a clip of Boris in action to give you some idea of their ass-whompitude. 

Out of some dreary sense of obligation, I bought the new SPIN with the Best of 2006 lists, and then used the Hype Machine to find mp3s from likely contenders.  In descending order:

TV on the Radio:  I don't get it.

Gnarls Barkley: the band name was so stupid I dreaded downloading "Crazy."  Holy crap, that song just moved right on into my head and re-arranged the furniture.  Must investigate further.

Arctic Monkeys: To save time, I Liked It a Lot Better When It Was Called will be shortened to ILIALBWIWC.   ILIALBWIWC the Buzzcocks.  Though I'll keep that "dancefloor" song on my iPod anyway.

Queer Eye For Sgt. Pepper    My Chemical Romance: For about a minute, this band sounded like Queen, and I was hopeful that somebody had the balls to fuse A Night at the Opera and Operation Ivy.  Then it turned into cookie-cutter pop punk.  Sigh.

Joanna Newsom: No.  Just no. 

Cat Power: "The Greatest" was nice.  Might investigate further.

My Morning Jacket: I liked.  Must investigate further. 

Clipse:  Wow.  Find a beat, add a harp sample and someone going "Ugh!" once in a while, write lyrics about selling cocaine for a living, and every critic in America will line up to suck your dick.  Crap.

Beck: it's just another Beck album.

The Decemberists:  meh.

Hot Chip: weird but enjoyable.  I've already forgotten what they sound like.

The Raconteurs: Better than the White Stripes, which is like saying it's better than genital torture.

Sonic Youth: everything I've heard off Rather Ripped makes me want to buy it.   

Pernice Brothers: "Somerville" is a beautiful song, and I want to hear more.

The Roots: "Here I Come" is second only to "Crazy" for Earworm of the Year, but the other songs I listened to have failed to take, um, root after several months.

Tapes 'N Tapes: you can miss me with this shit.

The Fags: I thought I'd love these guys based on the description ( "mixes Paul Westerberg's down-in-the-basement alienation with Def Leppard's multiharmony ebullience" ), until I listened to them and remembered how much I hate Def Leppard.

Sparklehoss: pretty song, but I already have a Sparklehoss album I never listen to.

Wolfmother: ILIALBWIWC every other band from the last thirty years that put the riff "Dimension" is based on to better use. 

Mastodon: as with almost every heavy metal band of the past decade, love the music, hate the vocals.

The Killers: isn't it funny how when a band decides they need some cred and rip off Born To Run, they always choose the wrong things to rip off?  This is like Duran Duran on steroids, with glockenspiels and fake strings...and a lovelorn Jello Biafra on vocals. The only thing more embarassing to me about the ghastly tastelessness of "When You Were Young" is how much I love it, how completely this song has made me it's bitch and how I'm afraid to hear the rest of the album because then I'll have to admit to people that I like the Killers. 

So, to conclude: Sonic Youth, Gnarls Barkley, My Morning Jacket, Pernice Brothers might wind up getting some of my money.


Yes, I realize that I have become Pat.  Whatever. I couldn't cash a check for a shit and two peanuts with what I think of you.

[theinevitable]

jesus, you only paid 50$ for net access? I hate you. We have hell of blocking software which stops p2ps and bittorrent, so.... I'm restricted in terms of that.

but now I am home, with a big ol' cable internet connection. Yay.

[CortJstr]

jesus, you only paid 50$ for net access? I hate you. We have hell of blocking software which stops p2ps and bittorrent, so.... I'm restricted in terms of that.

but now I am home, with a big ol' cable internet connection. Yay.

Wait, so you're saying the school charges you more than a private company would and actually gives you worse service? That boggles the mind. And not just because I can't fathom sub-comcast service.

That's completely outrageous. There is no reason for the school to be blocking p2p or games in dorm rooms if they are charging you an access fee. You people need to start writing some letters and sitting on some sidewalks stat. I know at my school the ban would've lasted about 3 days.

That said I find this kind of filtering in the libraries and computer labs to be completely reasonable.

edit: I'm guessing they tricked you into signing something that says you're fine with the blocking. But still that kind of bullshit cannot be allowed to stand.

[KeithHernandez]

Yea, I didn't really know what came out this year until Limmo's list.  Gnarls Barkley had a great album.  TV on the Radio had a good album and Rather Ripped is okay.

The Beck album is not anyother Beck album, it is any Beck album that is not Mellow Gold or Odelay (in other words: it is trash).

[jough]

Paul Simon's "Surprise" was a pleasant surprise.

Neil Young's "Living With War" is an album to live with for a while.

Morrissey's "Ringleader of the Tormentors" was utterly disappointing.

Beck's latest was meh.

The Killers' second album was a big disappointment.

Ditto Thom Yorke's first solo effort.

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs's album of cover songs was well-covered.

The Flaming Lips "At War with the Mystics" was uneven but mostly good.

Bob Dylan's "Modern Times" is as good as his previous two albums, since it sounded just like them.  That's either good or bad for you.

Belle & Sebastian's "The Life Pursuit" was okay.  I don't think I can name a song on it.

But my favourite album of the year: Corinne Bailey Rae.  Soulful, jazzy, sexy, and holds up to constant repetition.

[theinevitable]

um, the reason they get away with blocking music-downloading-type stuff is that some Uni got sued, I believe. Also, it completely destroys the bandwidth for everyone else. Also, they do not block games. For some reason, they have no blocking software in the library-- so the trick is to go sit in the little coffee shop there, hook up to the wireless network, and bit-torrent away!

and yeah, i seem to remember a fee which was significantly more than 50$. But... now that I am not incredibly tired and thinking about this, do you mean 50$ a month? I pay by the year. Also, a petition for the university to let us do something illegal seems... like it wouldn't have much of a chance.

[KeithHernandez]

Your signature is a damn dirty lie.  Also, I remember liking the Life Pursuit, but I haven't listened to it in ages, but I have listened to other B&S.

[slink]

(Mars Volta) Amputechture, (The Cat Empire) Cities, and (Crooked Still) Shaken by a Low Sound all spring to mind, though there are some others I could dig up.

[CortJstr]

um, the reason they get away with blocking music-downloading-type stuff is that some Uni got sued, I believe. Also, it completely destroys the bandwidth for everyone else. Also, they do not block games. For some reason, they have no blocking software in the library-- so the trick is to go sit in the little coffee shop there, hook up to the wireless network, and bit-torrent away!

and yeah, i seem to remember a fee which was significantly more than 50$. But... now that I am not incredibly tired and thinking about this, do you mean 50$ a month? I pay by the year. Also, a petition for the university to let us do something illegal seems... like it wouldn't have much of a chance.

Back in my day it was $50/month as part of the housing fee. Which is on par with private ISPs so we demanded the same level of service as private ISPs. If you're paying less then you have shakier ground to stand on. Although I find it hard to believe that it would really affect the overall bandwidth of the school that much. Most universities have such fat pipes that it's no worry. They could even cap each user down to 3-4Mb/s and nobody would even notice.

And P2P is not inherently illegal. BitTorrent just signed a deal with the BBC to distribute vault content over the network. Legal Red Dwarf torrents are about to be all up in the network.