Do you like Huey Lewis and the News? I find talking about music has always been a very subjective experience, throwing about vague assertions while trying to claim it’s just an opinion, but kind of fact. Then there are those that use it as an excuse to stretch thin their English lit degree. I did it because I’m a narcissistic arsehole. Over a year ago I wrote up my Top Albums of 2005 with brief descriptions of each album, and then a few months ago, supplemented that with my leftover list. This time, it’s a bit more… extensive. I’m a huge geek like that. I’m also a music snob. So stop, collaborate, and listen because I was told that I could listen to the radio at a reasonable volume from nine to eleven.

I found 2006 to be a lackluster year in music, as when I was making my list, I kept wanting to push entries down in the rankings. So some of this may read as a queue of snarky criticism rather than a collection of praise. You know me and cynicism; two peas in a pod. A sexy pod, at that. So you’ll find plenty of maturation through melody and ascending tremolo. It’s all the rage, kids.

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  50. Covenant – Skyshaper

  I feel like this Swedish band’s creative well has really run dry. Sequencer and Europa are both essential releases in the EBM scene for its mix of synthpop and industrial. Skyshaper simply repeats past trends, such as the lead single “Ritual Noise” sounding the same as Sequencer‘s “Stalker” and “Sweet & Salty’s” hard beat coming straight out of United States of Mind’s “Dead Stars”. The piano-led second single, “Brave New World”, along with the general eradication of the trance-synth from their last two albums propel Skyshaper from being a disappointment to at least an entry in this list.

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  49. Front Line Assembly – Artificial Soldier

  2004′s Civilization was a reunion of Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber and now they’re back along with previous FLA member Chris Peterson and new blood Jeremy Inkel. Given the number of personalities involved, you would think diversity would come into play. Not so much. Much of the album sounds retrofied, with previous ideas used with new equipment and LOUD production. Last summer I used this album often when running and found many times I couldn’t discern what song was playing by the thirty second intro found on each track due to the bloody sameness. This is a common complaint about El Leebo’s side-projects, tending to follow the same formulas. Break beat drum programming, layered synths, unnerving background ambience, epic string pads, and the shouted rhyming verses, usually ending in “shun” (dissension! condemnation! redemption! liposuction! baby abduction!).

  For the first time (ignoring Everything Must Perish‘s B-side, “Providence”), FLA brings in guest singers; specifically Front 242′s Jean-Luc DeMeyer on “Future Fail” and “The Storm”, featuring Covenant’s Eskil Simonsson. Surprise, these two tracks end up sounding just like their respective bands. The last track, “World War III”, has a synth-line that’s directly from “This Faith” on 1994′s Millennium. On the plus side, the shuffle beat and circling bass line on Dopamine are pretty sweet. After the Delerium-tinted Civilization, I could see Front Line Assembly showing hints of heading in a more interesting direction, but this one just turns back the clock. It’s FLA-by-the-numbers, which I’ll listen to when in need of some driving synth tunes, but it was a bit of a let-down overall.

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  48. Incubus – Light Grenades

  I’m still waiting for S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Pt. 2 or at least a step away from the adult contemporary rock radio, but it just ain’t happenin’. During their ballads, Brandon Boyd’s emoting is much like a lady menstruating. See: “Love Hurts” or “Earth to Bella” in both parts. No, I’m not politically correct or inclusive. The title track is about the closest you’ll find to their prior funk metal-infused songs, where the whole band plays at a breakneck speed and scream at the top of their lungs. The rest teeters between the balladry and Foo Fighters’ alt-rock, with quality production to make it a decent headphone album. That guitar in “Dig” is catchy as fuck! “Anna Molly” uses the line, “I could care less”, which I hope is intentionally ironic in a non-Alanis way. I can accept Incubus are a pop band and are very unlikely to expand my mind at this point. But I can still cradle my copy of S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Also, honourable 2006 mention to bassist Ben Kenney’s sophomore album, Maduro.

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  47. …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – So Divided

  Where have they gone? Source Tags and Codes was a tight collection of noisy indie rock, finding that perfect balance between immediacy and thoughtful introspection. The Secret of Elena’s Tomb EP and World’s Apart moved in less desirable directions, making their sound more studio and less indie. Hint: If you’re singing about selling out, don’t do so yourself. So Divided is still similar to World’s Apart, with more of a focus on atmosphere and large production than attempting to channel direct punk energy. “Naked Sun” has a blues guitar lick culminating in a fury of organ and brass instruments merging together. “Eight Day Hell” sounds like a Beach Boys jingle. The closing song, “Sunken Dreams”, is a quiet meandering piano/guitar/bass/drum with a spoken word passage about remembering times past, shifting into a choir with loud guitar in reverb. If there’s one word to describe Trail of the Dead’s sound, it’s epic. They’re helluva lot better than your standard indie rock, but put within the context of their own catalogue, this release is still inferior to earlier material.

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  46. Seabound – Double-Crosser

  Another electro-synthpop album with heav(ier) beats from that so-called future pop movement. If you liked this German duo’s Beyond Flatline, this is much of the same, but with consistently themed lyrics surrounding soured relationships. You get those known elements: references to bondage, brooding spoken/whispered vocals in reverb, digitally distorted sound effects, and pads fading in/out. The catchy choruses found in the intro track “Scorch the Ground” (produced by Covenant’s Eskil Simonsson) and “Castaway” are a caliber most acts in the scene can’t attain. They’re improving with every album, although it would be cool to see them get a producer in the “Real” pop world to help diversify their songwriting.

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  45. Brian Byrne – Tuesdays Thursdays and If It Rains

  I Mother Earth singer, Brian Bryne, decided to go in another direction from his band’s prog-influenced studio sound, more into low-key indie country. It’s a stark contrast, but I really believed the Newfoundland boy could pull it off. The demos he put online in 2005, recorded with some members of Canadian rock band Moist, focused completely on his voice and acoustic guitar, with electric/slide guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums pushed to the background of the mix. Of course, the label had him go back to re-record, resulting in this album. Now it’s leaning toward adult contemporary radio, with up-front production and a loss of intimacy. It also excludes the acoustic song, “Arizona”, which I think is the best he has written from a melody and vocal-standpoint. He still has a strong voice, but why must all beautiful things be turned into the lowest-common denominator by marketing? Nerd rage, I must have.

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  44. OSI – Free

  I consider this baby 2006′s substitute for Porcupine Tree, which is fitting since Steven Wilson was a guest on their 2003 debut. You love Opeth’s Damnation? You’ll likely dig this developed fetus. It’s a super group of sorts, with members of Fates Warning, Chroma Key, and Dream Theater, with a nü-prog-rock sound of atmospheric synths for moody listening. There are hints of aggression thrown in and Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy finally stops wanking away behind the kit. It isn’t pop enough to be a transcendental hit and not prog enough to get the time-signature geeks all hot and bothered, but the mix finds a healthy balance. The lyrics are a bit dull, though.

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  43. Tool – 10,000 Days

  After their usual five year delay between albums, Tool has come out with more progressive rock-infused metal that is technically far beyond every other mainstream band. It’s sweet that the general public is smart enough to attend their concerts, allowing Tool the freedom to tell their record label to suck a fuck, not release a single, and take their time to record whatever they please. Sub-themes covered on 10,000 Days include reality television scheudenfreude (“Vicarious”), regret in relationships (“Jambi”), transitioning into the afterlife (“Wings For Marie (Part 1)”/”10,000 Days (Wings Pt. 2)”, hypocrisy (“The Pot”), drug-induced delusions (“Rosetta Stoned”), self-preservation (“Intension”), and blind dichotomization of beliefs (“Right in Two”). Overall, it is a concept album covering the death of singer Maynard James Keenan’s mother who passed away after spending 27 years in paralysis, a length of time referenced in the album title. Following that, he’s at his most confessional about how he sees the world around him as it related to his life around her passing.

  Now isn’t that the bridge of Lateralus’ “Schism” introducing the album? Tool has the best drummer in rock music and one of the most one-dimensional guitarists, in one man’s opinion. You’ll find plenty of tapped/hammered-on/pulled-off technical pieces with the rhythm section pounding away sudden time signature shifts and rushes. It’s what you expect from the group. “Wings For Marie (Part 1)” is a more ambient piece, a built-up Parabol/Parabola-esque transition into “10,000 Days (Wings Pt. 2)”. “The Pot” is the Angry Song ala Ænima’s “Hooker With a Penis” or Lateralus’ “Ticks and Leeches”. “Lipan Conjuring”/”Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)” are interludes similar to those found on Ænima, with the former containing Native American chanting and the latter, a conversation between a doctor and nurse about a patient not communicating. The closing track “Viginti Tres” ends the collection with industrial noise.

  Overall, I think Maynard’s lyrics found a way to completely ruin the album, lacking the depth he’s shown before. The humour from “Rosetta Stoned” completely misses the mark, with gems like, “Did a slow-mo Matrix descent/Outta the butt end of the banana vessel” and the Trainspotting tribute: “goddamn shit the bed/typical”. Musically, I don’t think they’re as far-reaching as the band could be. Many passages are derivations of past work, with the only real experiments being quiet transitions between the so-called real songs that are long… and stuff.

  TO ANYONE WHO THINKS TOOL SUCKS: READ THIS POST ON A WEBSITE I FOUND, AND FIND OUT WHY THEY ARE INCREDIBLE. No.

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  42. The Blood Brothers – Young Machetes

  Some may say it’s selling out for a scream-o band to suddenly make its singing comprehensible, but I welcome that change. With dueling vocalists having the adolescent swagger to squeal your ears to deafness, The Blood Brothers have embraced the clear whisper to go along with their post-hardcore/”art punk” (!?) power-chord fueled songs. Some nerds like to think this album is a series of statements regarding death through the eyes of the war on terror. Personally, I’m still not paying attention to the lyrics. I take this collection as means to channel my still-born aggression through infectious hooks!

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  41. Pure Reason Revolution – The Dark Third

  Some kids go out and decide to go all out. This music is prog in the sense of being hella pretentious. When your band’s namesake references the Enlightenment, your album cover is a gray-scale image of a renaissance sculpture super-imposed on a Stanley Kubrick’s 2001-esque techni-colour background, and your tracklisting contains a song title in Latin, you know it’s time to step back and realize people aren’t going to take you too seriously. I imagine they know this. It’s nü-prog-rock!

  I’ve read many comparisons to Oceansize, however I don’t see the similarities, especially since Oceansize does not employ strings, aside from Effloresce’s finale, “Long Forgotten”. PRR’s main point of reference is Pink Floyd, for the spacey ambience found as a backing to most songs, with a rock edge. Another talking point is that the vocal harmonies calling for a name-check of the Beach Boys. …the hell? Whenever a band uses more than one singer to provide a simultaneous vocalization of a lyric, you don’t have to automatically say it’s the Beach Boys. Their vocals sound nothing like the Beach Boys. They’re male and female, which is different for prog leads, but in truth, I found the singing somewhat amateur, especially during “The Twycyn/Trembling Willows” (found only on the UK release) where each vocalist attempts to keep up to the tempo of a trash metal segment, but it ends up being a garbled mess that sounds like a failed American Idol audition.

  Note that there are three different releases of this album, with the American/Europe pressings holding the track sequence that the band originally intended. They do manage to present an interesting sound involving the usual rock setup, but with the guitars pushed to the back while adding samples, pianos, and strings to make the mix more dense. There are sections that I found incredibly catchy, but improved vocals could make this group go a long way.

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  40. The Album Leaf – Into the Blue Again

  In a time when post-everything music pushes each climax from the lowest valley to the heavens, TAL’s James LaValle tries something different – being boring. He is much like David Brent- basically being a chilled-out entertainer. Slow, melody-driven instrumentals flow from track to track, supplemented by programmed not-so-obtrusive glitch beats and acoustic instruments. After more than two years without a Telefon Tel Aviv album, it’s welcome to see TTA’s Josh Eutis help in the proceedings. Many portions are reminiscent of Telefon Tel Aviv, such as the beats found in “Red-Eye” and the failing tones during the intro of “Wherever I Go” that are almost lifted straight off Map of What is Effortless. The mood goes from mournful to pleasantly-content-and-looking-out-the-window-on-a-gray-day. Overall, the songs really don’t “go anywhere” in the sense that you look for in post-rock bands, but this is a cool album when you want to keep on the down-lo. You can also watch a short documentary of Into the Blue Again‘s making of, including an awkward fan encounter!

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  39. Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam

  Personally, I wasn’t too happy with Pearl Jam’s output post-No Code, but I don’t think I can specify exactly why other to say it was dull and going through the motions. For the eighth studio album, they returned back to where 1994′s Vitalogy left off. “Comatose” is just over two minute slice of music taking a page from “Spin the Black Circle”. Eddie Vedder’s voice has a lot more conviction and other than guitar/bass/drums, the only other instruments you’ll find are the piano on closer “Inside Job” and classic 70s rock organ on “Wasted Reprise” and “Come Back”. These guys are one of those refreshing bands that doesn’t use studio trickery to get a point across and still manages to stay diverse enough to keep my attention. The band sounds much tighter than on Riot Act, making this a return to form, except not. I’m surely not going to rank this above their first three CDs, but it’s an interesting listen that allows me to look past the fact they’re indirectly responsible for Default Theory of a Nicklecreed. For an anti-Bush album, it also gets bonus points for avoiding awkward lyrics.

• 
  38. The Rapture – Pieces of the People We Love

  2003′s Echoes put The Rapture on the board, but did anyone actually like the songs that weren’t 4/4 for the dancefloor? They were part of those disco-punk bands that combined noisy guitars with a simple dance beat to make those indie kids move their hips left to right, and sometimes even to the left again. For Pieces of the People We Love, they bring in outside producers, specifically DJs Paul Epworth, Ewan Pearson, and Danger Mouse. This allows for a sound much more consistent than the patchy selections on previous albums. Many of the songs are catchy, cocky, and tongue-in-cheek, such as the “Whoo! Alright Yeah… Uh Huh” refrain, “People don’t dance no more/They just stand there like this/They cross their arms and stare you down/And drink and moan and piss”. Other songs contain various name-checking and simple lyrical rhyming techniques. The high registers hit by vocalist Luke Jenner will make you think of 80s pop and the music is 90s indie rock mixed with 70s disco. Somehow it works, especially on stand-out song, “The Devil”.

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  37. Mono – You Are There

  Mono really loves Godspeed You! Black Emperor. That was already established with their last two albums. Voxless post rock: guitar feedback ascending with violins and crashing cymbals to a wall-of-noise shattered by a bullet of sound into a piano interlude. Is that imagery working for you? It’s the formula we’re all aware of and they do it well. This album is more of the same. I really don’t have to type anything else in this paragraph to change anyone’s opinion on that.

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  36. Beck – The Information

  By bringing in Radiohead’s producer Nigel Godrich (who also worked on 1998′s country-folk album Mutations), Beck focuses more on a studio-heavy montage sound when compared to its predecessor, Guero. Like Odelay, it’s all about the groove. You really won’t find his alt-pop radio songs from 1996 on this release, but I think this album is much better simply for their depth in production and songwriting. After more than a decade, he’s still finding a way to not repeat himself. Ok, so he really is. I wrote a longer review but WordPress and an errant keyboard made it disappear, kind of like how Dave Coulier cuts it out.

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  35. Mastodon – Blood Mountain

  Jumping from indie label Relapse to Warner Music subsidiary, Reprise, you would think Mastodon would somehow dilute their sound. That’s the cycle of every band, no? Well Blood Mountain is the exception. Their mix of thrash, hardcore, prog, and death metal have no peer in the modern music scene. The themes take on a Conan the Barbarian bent, exploring a journey with huge obstacles, but you can forget the corny lyrics and go straight for the metal. Complex dueling guitars with a jazz-influenced rhythm section override the vocals. Simply listening to the transition in “Capillarian Crest” as the shredding guitars warp their tempo with the drums soon following will sell you on everything Mastadon. You’ll also find guest appearances from members of Neurosis, Queens of the Stone Age, and The Mars Volta. They just rock the fuck out.

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  34. Secret Machines – Ten Silver Drops

  This album opens with “Alone, Jealous, & Stoned”, a song with laid-back, scratching vocals containing the lyric, “idle kids with idle hearts”. Not off to a good start. It does pick up nearing the end of the track, leading into the guitar feedback of “All at Once”, which is almost the same tone as Nine Inch Nails’ With Teeth B-side, “Home”. I do enjoy how singer Brandon Curtis pronounces the word “impordent”. The album is full of pop hooks in the form of rhyming lyrics, that are a bit too simple in some places. The driving rhythm section and melodies are offset by the psychedelic/spacey Kraut-rock atmospheric keyboards and noisy electric guitar strumming in the background. Lyrics range from relationship bitterness to drugged-out paranoia. As a whole, this album seems best suited for traveling on a clear sky Sunday afternoon, mellowed out on mild-narcotics, although with only 46 minutes of music in eight tracks, you may also want to throw some Spiritualized into that mix.

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  33. Junior Boys – So This is Goodbye

  Hamilton, Ontario is kind of known as the asshole of Canada. Never go there. Luckily some talent was able to rise out of the stank in the form of Junior Boys. Their debut album Last Exit was 80s synthpop mixed with intelligent dance music where beats stutter, hiccup, glitch-out, and cut-up over the distant hypnotic vocal mantras. So This is Goodbye shortens songs and goes for more straight-forward beat programming. Their compositions are minimal yet complex at the same time, with basic beats synchronized with digitally clipped samples and slow, washing synths. Most of the songs are laid back, highlighted by “First Time”, “FM”, and the title track. My personal favourite tracks are the faster, more dance-oriented “Double Shadow” and “In the Morning” (with has a liquidy video clip). This album is simply a perfect late night album.

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  32. Deftones – Saturday Night Wrist

  Guitarist Stephen Carpenter admits he wants a harder sound, but Deftones are now more about atmosphere and groove than thrashing. He does have his way on tracks like “Rats! Rats! Rats!”, but overall this album leans more toward Chino Moreno’s other band, Team Sleep. This is a definite improvement on their 2003 self-titled album, which meandered around dullery. There’s more of an indie rock vibe in much of the guitars, best exemplified on Konami-ish song title “U,U,D,D,L,R,L,R,A,B,Select,Start” which is an instrumental with plucked electric guitar and echoing drums. The “Pink Cellphone” ad-lib spoken word is ill-advised, ending in a foul-mouthed barrage that’s embarrassing to listen to. Poopdick, indeed. System of a Down’s Serj Tankian makes an appearance on “Mein” to provide backup vocals. Overall, thumbs up.

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  31. BT – This Binary Universe

  Since the early 90s, Brian Transeau’s music went from the dance-floor to a more pop-oriented sound, culminating in 2003′s Emotional Technology where a member of N*Sync guested. With his latest affair, he takes his sound into left-field. There is not a vocal to be found aside from his daughter’s baby cooing found on the the second track, “Dynamic Symmetry”. At many points the hypnotic melodies are lullaby in quality. You will still find his signature electronic stutter-beats, but much of the album is composed of cut-up acoustic sounds leaning toward ambient, jazz-fusion, and movement-oriented classical. The sound is artificial enough to avoid comparisons to the more organic approach taken by The Books. With not a single song coming under eight minutes in length, this is definitely a headphone album is stick on in the background while you work on a task.

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  30. Sparta – Threes

  The cover art contains a configuration of knives on a barren floor. Obviously someone didn’t get the memo that this symbolization is a tired emo cliché. After the At the Drive-In split, it is obvious how The Mars Volta and Sparta went it separate directions. On this release, they managed to enlarge the pop angle, with the anthemed guitars and soaring choruses channeling U2′s vulnerable power, except they don’t have a shitty rhythm section. Yes, I had to throw in a dig of those no-talent assclowns. Sparta also manage to get all Pink Floyd on us with the Dark Side female operatic soul backup singers on “Atlas” and “Translations”. The simplicity of some of the songwriting may also get some Coldplay comparisons, but tread lightly, for there are a few solid moments found on this album. I still choose the path of the Volta though…

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  29. Snog vs. The Faecal Juggernaut of Mass Culture: Synthetic Melodies of Resistance

  For more than a decade, David Thrussell has used music, spoken word, and interweb rantings to attack consumerism, anti-intellectualism, hypocrisy, and about every other topic supported by the Western establishment. Snog has been his most successful act, pushing the envelope by using electronics to explore a plethora of other genres, creating tunes to dance and rebel to. However, 2003′s Beyond the Valley of the Proles, while still challenging, started to show the project’s stagnated status, demonstrated by acoustic spaghetti western with weird samples pushed to the background, a sound that was already found on 1997′s, Buy Me… I’ll Change Your Life. Knowing the act’s capability of changing styles on the dime, Synthetic Melodies of Resistance does just that, focusing on a purely electronic sound.

  Amongst the areas covered are the digital crunch of “Crash, Crash” (Lyrics: “Sucking black blood/Under the hood), a night car-chase bassline of “Planet of Shit” (“See the slaves/See the proles/See the TV slaves/Down on their knees/Waiting to be saved…”), and “The De-evolutionaries’” Las Vegas lounge music. Thrussell’s signature deep voice, comparable to fellow Aussie Nick Cave, gives the vocals a tone of seriousness, but given the almost parody-level of the lyrics (“I’m the king of hate/At that I’m great/I’m the king of hate/And I hate, hate hate”), it places a level of sarcasm and irony on the whole CD.

  Unfortunately, Chris Woods’ mock corporate advisement paintings are not to be found in this packaging. Instead, computer generated cover art is used, with faceless soldiers and war machines lit up by the starlight of a Snog logo bright enough that you can tell it’s working toward not meeting Kyoto Protocol promises. While at times the hamfistedness seems condescending to the listening, the album as a whole provides all the elements of a quality Snog release: musical experimentation, Leftist-leanings, and a sense of humour.

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  28. Mogwai – Mr. Beast/Zidane: A 21st Century Portait

  With Mr. Beast, Mogwai turned a bit away from the digital sounds of Rock Action and Happy Songs For Happy People, turning to the electric guitar rock started with their hit album, Young Team. You may have heard “Auto-Rock” or “We’re No Here” on the film soundtrack of Michael Mann’s 2006 Miami Vice remake. Nah, you probably just remember Colin Farrell’s terrible fucking accent. Envy’s singer Tetsuya Fukagawa guests on “I Chose Horses” with a spoken word backed by piano and slow tones washing across each other. Many songs have the piano at centre-stage, but the wall-of-noise guitars are found in “Glasgow Mega-Snake”, “Travel is Dangerous”, “Folk Death 95″, and “We’re No Here”. Some new sounds are also adding to the mix, such as the country-tinged steel guitar closing “Acid Food”. The band simply finds a way to find a healthy balance between the slower, introspective songs and loud/immediate, introspective songs.

  For Zidane, they slow the tempo down, playing around with clean tones and guitar feedback to land at no destination in particular. The music is more akin to ambient music of Brian Eno combined with Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music, where the passage of time is represented but finality is never really found. It’s a decent background listen, but nothing to really impress your friends with. Isn’t that what music is about?

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  27. TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain

  I don’t even know how to explain this one. It’s catchy without being hooky. Paradoxical! Layers of sound with a heavy low-end and lush front mixed with some out-of-tune vocals and anthemic choruses. It’s kind of indie pop music with a Brian Eno and David Bowie aesthetic. The Thin White Duke himself guests as a backup vocalist on the third track, “Province”. The dense variety of looped samples and live instruments create a sound unlike any band out there, to the point where it’s a bit alienating at times.

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  26. Peeping Tom – Peeping Tom

  Six years in the making, this is Mike Patton’s so-called pop album. I suppose I can approve of any artist that involves Amon Tobin, Massive Attack, and Kid Koala, yet calls the work their mainstream effort. Some of the tracks are reminiscent of Lovage, apt since Dan the Automator is involved in production of two tracks (“Mojo” and the Norah Jones duet, “Sucker”). The lyrics are really tongue-in-cheek, such as “Don’t Even Trip’s”, “I know that assholes grow on trees/But I’m here to trim the leaves”. Sound sways between hip-hop to rock, then jazz and downtempo, making it Patton’s most accessible material, aside from Faith No More’s singles, however I don’t see it getting any radio airplay.

  Aside from the music, we also must note the fact a blond bimbo on the American soap opera All My Children name-dropped Mike Patton’s name along with the bands he was in, in one of the most awkward scenes ever aired on national television. It also involved a rock star saying, “…you must’ve been reading my blog”. I would link to the YouTube clip but those DMCA-wielding assholes from network TV had it removed. Mr. Patton, you’ve come a long way!