David Emery Online

Top Twenty Albums of the Year

4 December 2006

Welcome one and all to the first annual David Emery Online Top Twenty Albums of the Year. This year it’s been a bit of a bumper year for all things musical, so a lot of very good albums haven’t even made it – of particular note the excellent Rogers Sisters album, The Invisible Deck. The Rogers Sisters have been consistently brilliant every time I’ve seen them live, but they still haven’t quite managed to transfer this successfully to record yet.

Here’s how this is all going to work – today will be the countdown from 20 to 11. Then, over the following 2 weeks will be a day by day trek through the top 10. Hopefully that should work out ok, but it wouldn’t surprise me too much if there were some interruptions along the way. So, onto the countdown:

20: Peaches – Impeach My Bush

Peaches came back this year with an absolute corker of an album, although one that didn’t quite live up to the political nature implied by the title. Instead we got something that’s just plain and simple dirty, and all the better for it.

19: Ratatat – Classics

An odd one, for me – the Ratatat album is the first instrumental album that I’ve ever truly liked. In all honesty I do still miss the vocals, but the songs on Classics are simply so good that they make do without them quite nicely.

However, if Ratatat ever get a vocalist, they may well be the best band in the world.

18: The Black Keys – Magic Potion

The Black Keys are almost the polar opposite of the electro-pop of Ratatat – all pounding blues and soulful lyrics, and all the better for it. The album itself is maybe slightly lacking in amazing individual songs, but as a whole it works very, very well.

17: Mstrkrft – The looks

... and straight back to electro-pop. We all cried when the news of DFA 1979’s brake up broke, and make no mistake – Mstrkrft are not in the same league. That, however, speaks more of DFA 1979’s brilliance then anything else, as the Mstrkrft album is a very promising debut.

16: The Flaming Lips – At War With The Mystics

In my humble opinion, this is the best Flaming Lips album. I am, however, one of the few people that didn’t like Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots – it’s a really quite boring album. This one, though; this one’s got the funk.

15: Beck – The Information

The Information is Beck by the numbers, plain and simple. Beck by the numbers, however, is still amazing – sure, it sounds quite Odélay-ish but that’s one of the best albums of all time, so it’s no bad thing.

He certainly knows his grove, but it’d be really nice for him to break out and do something more left-field again (like he did with Midnight Vultures).

14: Placebo – Meds

Ok, so I know some people really don’t like Placebo. I’m not one of them, however. They just do what they do, very well indeed, and Meds is a superb album – especially for a band that’s been around so long.

If you haven’t heard any Placebo recently, it’s worth checking out the title track, which features VV from The Kills – it’s a stunning slice of teenage angst.

13: Arctic Monkeys – Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not

No-one can really deny the impact that the Arctic Monkeys have had this year, and for once the hype is justified – it really is a stunning album. The Arctic Monkeys are one of the few modern bands that know the simple skill of writing a truly good song, with truly good lyrics.

The main reason they aren’t further up this list also because of the hype; while justified, it really has got a little too much, and they’re are seriously in danger of being over exposed, and over played.

12: The Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers

I am a huge White Stripes fan, and like most (all?) Stripes fans I’m not there for Meg’s drumming. The idea of a Jack White super group was always going to be an interesting one, and they’re almost pulled it off. The vast majority of this album is absolutely amazing, and they may well be the best live act of 2006, but – quite simply – Brendan Benson’s influence just stops it short from being perfect.

I am no huge fan of Mr Benson – I find his music lacking “edge”, and being very slightly boring, and his brand of slightly-to-sunny pop is made itself known on a couple of tracks on Broken Boy Soldiers (Hands and Yellow Sun most notably) much to the album’s detriment.

On the other hand, some songs – Broken Boy Soldier for example – are absolutely stunning.

11: be your own PET – be your own PET

Rounding off the countdown from 20 to 11 comes practically the first release of the year. And what a release – the kids in byop (and they really are kids) take no prisoners, and show everybody else how pop-punk is down.

An album packed full of short, sharp, spikey songs that manages to sound just as good on record as it does live.