autumnshades.com
album reviews

Pitchfork 2006 Albums Ballot

01 | Mastodon: Blood Mountain (Reprise)
02 | The Decemberists: The Crane Wife (Capitol)
03 | Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped (Geffen)
04 | The Mountain Goats: Get Lonely (4AD)
05 | Bardo Pond: Ticket Crystals (ATP Recordings)
06 | Rivulets: You Are My Home (Important Records)
07 | Isis & Aereogramme: In the Fishtank 14 (Konkurrent)
08 | Liars: Drum's Not Dead (Mute)
09 | Alan Sparhawk: Solo Guitar (Silber)
10 | Mission of Burma: The Obliterati (Matador)
11 | Mogwai: Mr. Beast (Matador)
12 | Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Anti-)
13 | Band of Horses: Everything All the Time (Sub Pop)
14 | Bonnie "Prince" Billy: The Letting Go (Drag City)
15 | Measles Mumps Rubella: Fantastic Success (Doubling Cube Records)
16 | Excepter: Sunbomber EP (5RC)
17 | Califone: Roots and Crowns (Thrill Jockey)
18 | Danielson: Ships (Secretly Canadian)
19 | Beach House: Beach House (Carpark)
20 | Calexico: Garden Ruin (Quarterstick)
21 | Nina Nastasia: On Leaving (Fat Cat)
22 | Phoenix: It's Never Been Like That (Astralwerks)
23 | Yo La Tengo: I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (Matador)
24 | Grizzly Bear: Yellow House (Warp)
25 | The Pipettes: We Are the Pipettes (Memphis Industries)
26 | TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain (Interscope)
27 | Oxford Collapse: Remember the Night Parties (Sub Pop)
28 | Brightblack Morning Light: Brightblack Morning Light (Matador)
29 | Magnolia Electric Co.: Fading Trails (Secretly Canadian)
30 | Be Your Own Pet: Be Your Own Pet (Ecstatic Peace)
31 | Gob Iron: Death Songs for the Living (Transmit Sound/Legacy)
32 | Jeremy Enigk: World Waits (Lewis Hollow Recordings)
33 | Amy Millan: Honey From the Tombs (Arts & Crafts)
34 | Frida Hyvönen: Until Death Comes (Secretly Canadian)
35 | Matmos: The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast (Matador)
36 | Hem: Funnel Cloud (Nettwerk)
37 | Joanna Newsom: Ys (Drag City)
38 | Wolf Eyes: Human Animal (Sub Pop)
39 | Malajube: Trompe-L'oeil (Ninja Tune)
40 | White Whale: WWI (Merge Records)
41 | Islands: Return to the Sea (Equator)
42 | Josh Ritter: The Animal Years (V2)
43 | Regina Spektor: Begin to Hope (Sire)
44 | Sugarplum Fairies: Country International Records (Starfish Records)
45 | Built to Spill: You in Reverse (Warner Bros.)
46 | Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Show Your Bones (Interscope)
47 | Old Crow Medicine Show: Big Iron World (Nettwerk)
48 | Tapes 'n Tapes: The Loon (XL Recordings)
49 | Wreckers: Stand Still, Look Pretty (Maverick)
50 | Ocrilim: Anoint (I and Ear)

The Washington Post's The Best of 2006: Music
Originally published: Friday, December 29, 2006; Page WE26

01 | Mastodon, "Blood Mountain." Heavy and aggressive, this album finds the Atlanta metal quartet at its finest: dizzying, chaotic and pummeling through some of the year's most frenzied melodies.
02 | Low and Death Vessel at the Black Cat, Feb. 4. Low's performance of Neil Young's "Down by the River" was breathtaking, but the Minnesota trio was almost upstaged by opener Death Vessel's captivating croon of "Break in the Empress Crown."
03 | Josh Ritter, "Girl in the War." No one really needs another opinion about the war, but Ritter finds a way to make his chilling take relevant in this song, framed as a conversation between Peter and Paul.
04 | Billy Bragg reissues. There's much to rediscover among these eight albums, reissued with bonus tracks and live footage. Bragg's feisty political rants and working-class struggles still seem fresh after two decades, and it's easy to get lost in his exuberant bellow, "There is power in a union!"
05 | Colin Meloy at the Birchmere, Jan. 28. Meloy has such a knack for stripping down the Decemberists' lush orchestrations into heartbreaking solo numbers. The great relief of 2006: The Decemberists' move to a major label wasn't the sellout it could have been.
06 | The Mountain Goats, "Woke Up New." "Get Lonely" is a whole collection of devastating breakup songs, but nowhere does John Darnielle sound more vulnerable than on this track. His voice quivers perpetually on the verge of tears, and his loneliness intensifies on his closing, chilling "What do I do / Without you?"
07 | Old-school rockers. With Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma and Yo La Tengo each releasing solid albums this year, it's easy to see that some things really do get better with age.
08 | Isis & Aereogramme, "In the Fishtank 14." Konkurrent's "Fishtank" series is full of surprises, and this edition is no different: Boston metal band Isis and Scottish indie rockers Aereogramme make strange bedfellows, but their collaboration is stunning, particularly the hypnotic 10-minute "Low Tide."
09 | Tower Records, R.I.P. We all scored a lot of great deals during its going-out-of-business sales, but this overpriced, overbearing chain was long overdue for its play date with the dodo.
10 | Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago, July 29-30. This festival had it all: a killer lineup, affordable tickets and reasonably priced food and water. I'm surely a bit biased (my name's on the masthead), but it's great that music's indiest webzine still lives by the DIY spirit.

- Catherine P. Lewis

Pazz & Jop 2006 Albums Ballot

01 | Mastodon: Blood Mountain (Reprise)
02 | The Decemberists: The Crane Wife (Capitol)
03 | Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped (Geffen)
04 | The Mountain Goats: Get Lonely (4AD)
05 | Bardo Pond: Ticket Crystals (ATP Recordings)
06 | Rivulets: You Are My Home (Important Records)
07 | Isis & Aereogramme: In the Fishtank 14 (Konkurrent)
08 | Liars: Drum's Not Dead (Mute)
09 | Alan Sparhawk: Solo Guitar (Silber)
10 | Mission of Burma: The Obliterati (Matador)

Pazz & Jop 2006 Singles Ballot

01 | Pipettes - "Pull Shapes" from We Are the Pipettes (Memphis Industries)
02 | The Wreckers - "Tennessee" from Stand Still, Look Pretty (Maverick)
03 | Nina Nastasia - "Settling Song" from On Leaving (Fat Cat)
04 | The Mountain Goats - "Woke Up New" from Get Lonely (4AD)
05 | Josh Ritter - "Girl in the War" from The Animal Years (V2)
06 | The Pernice Brothers - "Automaton" from Live a Little (Ashmont)
07 | Sonic Youth - "Incinerate" from Rather Ripped (Geffen)
08 | Old Crow Medicine Show - "Union Maid" from Big Iron World (Nettwerk)
09 | The Elected - "Would You Come With Me" from Sun, Sun, Sun (Sub Pop)
10 | Amy Millan - "Losin You" from Honey From the Tombs (Arts & Crafts)

.: Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2006
.: The Washington Post: The Best of 2006: Music (and, bonus! a reaction on newsbusters.org)
.: Pazz & Jop 2006