Songs from 2006
The recent post about the albums of the Noughties (I hate that term, but how else do you sum up the last ten years in one word?) contained the following question: Which year had the best new music? At the time of writing, almost half of the vote was with 2006, so, which songs would you recommend from that year?
They don’t have to be singles, album tracks are fine.
My favourite albums from 2006, On an Island aside, were as follows, so I’ve cheated with a favourite song off each.
- The Blue Van, Dear Independence – ‘Goldmind’
- James Dean Bradfield, The Great Western – ‘To See a Friend in Tears’
- Ray Davies, Other People’s Lives – ‘Over My Head’
- Bob Dylan, Modern Times – ‘Nettie Moore’
- Gomez, How We Operate – ‘How We Operate’
- Neil Young, Living with War – ‘The Restless Consumer’
Here are 100 from Rolling Stone to help you, or, should their list have the same effect on you as it did me, make you feel old and out-of-touch… and perhaps just a little grateful for it?
Not knowing approximately 65% of the acts listed, I’d like to know which, if any, are worth listening to; the titles don’t exactly make me want to investigate (I know, books and covers and all that). Besides, if the grammar, or lack of it, causes me to grind my teeth, I daren’t think what listening to the song could do. In all honesty, to my shame, I don’t hold out much hope that listening to some of them would be anything other than a waste of time that I can never get back. ‘Baby Let’s Have a Baby Before Bush Do Somethin’ Crazy’? Where do you begin? I clearly must be old and out-of-touch. God knows I’d like to add a comma to that title.
Pitchfork’s list is here, very helpful in that you can hear 30-seconds from each song with ease. Just play the first one and the others will follow. If you hear something you like, the player will show both artist and song title. If you hear something you don’t like, you can skip to the next one and curse my suggestion.
Knowing that you have exquisite taste, I genuinely look forward to your recommendations and to hopefully discovering something new to listen to.
Six more before I hand over to you, seeing as I cheated earlier. Know any of them?
- Baby Woodrose, ‘Growing Younger’ (Love Comes Down)
- Band of Horses, ‘The Funeral’ (Everything All the Time)
- Burning Saviours, ‘Lilly Marion’ (Hundus)
- Califone, ‘The Orchids’ (Roots and Crowns)
- Five Horse Johnson, ‘Feed That Train’ (The Mystery Spot)
- Red Hot Chili Peppers, ‘Dani California’ (Stadium Arcadium)
I’m sure I read somewhere – or maybe saw on TV – someone referring to the last decade as the ‘nowts’ or ‘nawts’ (depending on the spelling/pronunciation), much better than the Noughties, which just sounds like a group of young boys caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
Anyways, favourites from 2006. I’ll try and restrict this to albums I have, it may be a short list…:
- Def. something from NY’s Living With War, probably Shock and Awe, highly charged emotionally.
- Belle & Sebastian, The Life Pursuit – Dress Up In You
- Bob, Modern Times – Working Man’s Blues/Nettie Moore (can’t decide, both awesome).
- Cat Power, The Greatest – The Greatest
- Muse, Black Holes & Revelations – Starlight
- Placebo, Meds – Follow The Cops Back Home
- Josh Ritter, Animal Years – Girl In The War
- RHCP, Stadium Arcadium – Snow (honestly, I think this album is utter self-indulgent crap. This song, however, is quite the opposite).
Looking at the above, 2006 wasn’t so bad, some of those are my favourite albums, or at least ones I listen to v. frequently (The Greatest, Meds, The Life Pursuit).
Hope all’s well
Dom
x x x
I agree with you on the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I have days of enjoying them, followed by days of finding them too loud and obnoxious to bear. Californication was much the same, I thought.
Good to see a mention for ‘Nettie Moore’. Don’t you just love the way it drags on and on and on? I could happily plod along to it all day long.
… I know Red Hot Chili Peppers, ‘Dani California’ (Stadium Arcadium). My daughter is a great fan of them and I learned to like them, too.
Here are my songs of 2006, again OAI excluded:
Rehab – Amy Winehouse
Fallen Leaves – Billy Talent
For The Greater Good Of God – Iron Maiden
Don’t Fall In Love – Danko Jones
Where Eagles Have Been – Wolfmother
Cheers
Taki
Love that Danko Jones number. Thanks, Taki.
I like Wolfmother, too. Another good Australian band.
Deliberately omitting ‘On An Island’.
- Muse, ‘Starlight’, ‘Knights Of Cydonia’ (Black Holes & Revelations)
- Tom Petty, ‘Saving Grace’ (Highway Companion)
- Richard Ashcroft, ‘Break The Night With Colour’ (Keys To The World)
- Rodrigo Y Gabriela, ‘Stairway To Heaven’ -LZep cover song- (Rodrigo Y Gabriela Album)
- Jean Michel Jarre + The Philarmonic Orchestra of Prague, ‘Equinoxe 4′ (The Symphonic)
- Renaud, ‘Les Bobos’ (Rouge Sang). It’s a fine satire about the so called ‘BOurgeois BOhemians’.
You mentioned James Dean Bradfield, ‘To See a Friend in Tears’. Isn’t it a cover version of ‘Voir Un Ami Pleurer’ by Jacques Brel from his last album ‘Les Marquises’? He wrote it in 1977, he knew he was about to die. What a poignant and moving song. We can feel the sadness in his voice. Beautiful lyrics too.
Michèle
It certainly is a Jacques Brel cover. Incredibly poignant and moving, I love the lines, ‘We thought that love could cure a toothache’ and ‘You think you’ll find the truth by frowning.’ How true.
Beautiful beyond words.
My favorite songs from 2006:
- David Gilmour, “On an Island,” “The Blue,” “Where We Start,” “Smile”;
- Thom Yorke: “The Eraser,” “Harrowdown Hill,” “The Clock,” “Analyse”
- Bob Dylan, “Thunder On the Mountain” & “Spirit On the Water”;
- The Knife: “Forest Families,” “Silent Shout” & “We Share Our Mother’s Milk”;
- The Flaming Lips: “My Cosmic Autumn” & “Vein of Stars”
- Boris & Sun O))): “The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)”
- Burial: “You Hurt Me”
Mike,
I really enjoy The Flaming Lips and all of the “At War with The Mystics” album. Glad to see it mentioned.
FEd,
Thanks for the heads-up on Burning Saviours and the free downloads you mentioned on Twitter. They sound like they came straight out of the 60s. Reminded me of Black Sabbath a little.
A good weekend to all.
Very glad that you like them, Mal. Sadly, they are no more, but their debut album, Hundus is a fine piece of work.
You might also enjoy Wolf People, as recommended in a tweet yesterday by the legend that is Mr ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris.
2006…
A live track recorded in London, that I was allowed to witness, that tells about the tragical event of the Tsunami;
Carpe Diem by Mostly Autumn, an intro with the great haunting Uillian Pipes of Troy Donockley, vocals by Heather Findlay that gives you shivers, a great theme, a flabbergasting guitar solo by Bryan Josh and the whole comes to an great climax… beautiful. Really amazing… I had some tears on my skin…
Factory Of Magnificent Souls by Iona (album Circuling Hour). Please check out the lyrics, i got emotional with those. It’s about Robben Island. And yes, Iona played this, Troy Donockley too.
A Pocketful Of Stones
“Sublimely meandering through dreamy melodies with a carefree smile while been slowly drowned by a collection of minor chords shifts that inevitably win over, sinister yet of incredible beauty, provocative and gentle in the same breath, a few passing thoughts in the form of a lullaby seamlessly married to music, every word carried with total musical description of it’s own meaning, the weight of the world swinging below and of course the apparent fool refusing to notice. Work of genius. ” – Mr B. Josh
I’m not sure that, apart from “On An Island”, 2006 actually had the best music of the Noughties.
If it was, I think I didn’t notice it, since these are the only tracks I know of the 100 listed by Rolling Stone:
Thunder On The Mountain – Bob Dylan
World Wide Suicide – Pearl Jam
Tell Me Baby – RHCP
The Saints Are Coming – Green Day and U2
And thinking about it, I don’t even consider them so good, in the end. They’re nice, but nothing more, in my opinion.
For example, speaking about RHCP, I much prefer the one you mentioned, “Dani California”, or “Snow”, as Dom said, to that one.
If I have to think about good music, Neil Young’s “Living With War” is a great album, but, probably, none of the songs is enough “easy” and commercial to feature in a Rolling Stone’s list.
I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t suggest anything new to listen. I feel proudly old and out-of-touch, too.
Collective Soul has a new CD out (self titled): also thier 2006 CD “Home” recorded from Hot lanta!
I’ve noticed in the past that you like Mark Knopfler, don’t you?
So, how about his collaboration with Emmylou Harris in 2006 (All The Roadrunning)?
Nothing really new or exciting, I think, but isn’t ‘If This Is Goodbye’ a quite beautiful and subtle tribute to the victims of 9/11? I love it.
Thank you for your advice.
Yes, I like Mark Knopfler, but I never listened to that album. “If This Is Goodbye” is a beautiful song, thanks for the link, Michèle.
On an Island aside, then my list will be short.
I was surprised that non of Dave’s songs made either list.
Knowing 35% FEd, you’re doing a lot better than me.
Cheers.
The Road to Escondido, J. J. Cale, Eric Clapton is a great album from 2006 also Derek Trucks’ Songlines DVD with a great version of “I Wish I Knew How It Felt To Be Free” (Film Theme Tune with Barry Norman)… great sounds!
Have a nice weekend all!!! I hear a bottle of Red calling my name.
Hi everyone,
A few years ago I started to put together, for my own edification you understand, end of year comps of my favourite tracks from albums that were either new or had been re-released in that particular year and called them ‘Another Good Year’ (musically speaking). I even produced album art but that’s just the saddo part of my personality coming out!
Anyhow, tracks that made AGY3 (2006) were:
CD1: Muse – Take a Bow, King Biscuit Time – All Over You, Circulus – To The Fields, Tortoise and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Thunder Road, Massive Attack – False Flags, Sparklehorse – Shade and Honey, Gotan Project – Diferente, Rodrigo Y Gabriela – Tamacun, Breaks Co-Op – Duet, Grandaddy – Summer…It’s Gone, Cat Power – The Greatest, Isobel Campbell and Mark Laegan – The False Husband, Isobel Campbell – Willow’s Song, David Gilmour – A Pocketful Of Stones, Janis Ian – Joy.
CD2: Tool – Vicarious, Tuung – The Wind Up Bird, Calexico – Cruel, Espers – Children of Stone, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Cursed Sleep, AFX – Crying in Your Face, James Yorkston – Summer Song, DJ Shadow featuring Christina Carter – What Have I Done, David Gilmour – The Blue, Howe Gelb – Love Knows (No Borders), Bert Jansch – The Black Swan, Madelaine Peyroux – Blue Alert, James Dean Bradfield – An English Gentleman, The Flaming Lips – Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung, Grandaddy – Shangri-La (Outro).
If you have these tracks, try out the playing order yourselves, I think they work well together.
Kevan.
Almost all of the songs from Snow Patrol’s ‘Eyes Open’ album. I saw them supporting U2 last year and a large part of their set consisted of tracks from this album.
i love snow patrol. i also love the gomez album fed mentioned.
Off topic: If this hasn’t already been mentioned, Guitar Player Magazine is doing their annual Reader’s Choice poll for best guitarist.
I put in my vote for David in several categories.
Thanks for that.
Interesting categories. Worthy of a post of its own, I say, just to see who you all might choose to nominate.
Please hold any thoughts until early next week.
But… hasn’t the voting closed already? Or, if it hasn’t, shouldn’t it be closing very soon?
Hi FEd,
I received an email alerting me to the poll and, as is usual with me, I ran in to vote and didn’t look at dates. It may be closed, but my vote was not rejected, so I’m hoping it counts.
I agree there are some very interesting categories. I fried the machine by nominating David for best steel player. I bet they weren’t expecting that, LOL.
Finally got a chance to check out the blog. Love the new look to the site FEd. Been extremely busy with work (which is hard to come by here in Michigan with an unemployment rate of 15%) and have not gotten a chance to blog.
Anyway my favorite albums from 2006 are On An Island and Face The Promise by Bob Seger.
Hope to make the chat next week and hope all is well with my fellow bloggers.
Hoss
I’m happy to see our old emoticons are back. They’re so nice and peaceful.
On the contrary, “trackback” messages seem quite restless again.
To be honest, the trackbacks are more hassle than they’re worth.
DENISE
Off topic but not really: I haven’t seen it mentioned here (correct me if I am wrong on that), but Live at Gdansk has been playing on the cable station Palladia lately. Last showing on the schedule is Wednesday.
If you happen to get that station on HD it’s well worth it (I’m getting it in 720p and in 5.1 Dolby). Not commercial free but it’s bearable.
Thanks for that, Michael.
I just remembered that Ben Harper’s album “Both Sides of the Gun” was released in 2006.
I think it’s a good album. This is a song I like very much.
The photo used for the video is disturbing, isn’t it?
The beggar: “Keep your coins, I want change.”
Yes, it’s disturbing, but I believe that’s exactly what most of the beggars think when we, lucky people, give them some coins and go away on our own ways, as it was enough to clean our conscience.
Dear F.Ed. and all, hi.
Top singles by official Italian hit parade of 2006, that I really remember and quite appreciated that time (original list counts 100 songs miscellaneous of Italian and international ones) are:
I Belong to You (Il ritmo della passione) – Eros Ramazzotti & Anastacia
The Saints are Coming – U2 & Green Day
Martyr – Depeche Mode
Dani California – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Supermassive Black Hole – Muse
By 2007
Patience – Take That
Window in the Skies U2
Wonderful Life – Zucchero
Shine – Take That
Arnold Layne – David Gilmour (!)
Snow (hey oh) – Red Hot Chili Peppers
2008: a year with more Italian songs than international ones, and many of the list owned by Madonna, Beyoncè, Coldplay… as
Violet Hill – Coldplay
Very funny in this list I found this one: Baby Let’s Play House [spankox re:version] – Elvis Presley
…and a couple of the Cure.
So did you stop the snow/effect? Many congratulation for the new re-styling of the home page and the very suitable colours.
Have a nice week end
bye/ciao
Elisabetta
David Gilmour – On an Island
Wolfmother – Woman
Iron Maiden – Different World
The Who – Mike Post Theme
Rush – The Weapon (Live)
I do like Wolfmother and Airbourne but not many new artists move me. I detest The Flaming Lips.
Danni California was the best song of 2006 for me. And so are other Red Hot Chilli Peppers songs throughout the decade.
The immortal Bob Dylan’s song is also good.