The end of year music lists

by RICK KANE

THE one record that could have been released in any year between 1987 and 2006 and while it probably wouldn't have made a Top 10 list in any year it was released it is still a great record
1. Tom Petty 'Highway Companion'

The two records that had they lost some weight like I did would feel a whole lot better than they do
1. Beck 'The Information'
2. Outkast 'Idlewild'

The three records from other years that I downloaded and they're fab
1. Warren Zevon 'The Wind'
2. Koop 'Waltz for Koop'
3. Johnny Cash 'Personal File'

The four country records that would have made My Country Top 10 (and let's face it, I may as well have just gone done that and have been done with it but anyway I didn't so I have these extra lists to reel off)
1. Guy Clark 'Workbench Songs'
2. James Hand 'The Truth Will Set You Free'
3. Solomon Burke 'Nashville'
4. The Bottle Rockets 'Zoysia'

The five records that I haven't given a good enough go yet
1. Lupe Fiasco 'Food & Liquor'
2. Vince Gill 'These Days'
3. Clipse Hell 'Hath No Fury'
4. Sway 'This Is My Demo'
5. Tropicalia 'A Brazilian Revolution in Sound'

The six records that missed making my Top 10
1. Beirut 'Gulag Orkestar'
2. The Hold Steady 'Boys and Girls in America'
3. TV on the Radio 'Return to Cookie Mountain'
4. Neko Case 'Fox Confessor Brings the Flood'
5. The Roots 'Game Theory'
6. Junior Boys 'So This Is Goodbye'

The seven Favourite Waste of Time Records of the Year
1. Jimmy Buffett 'Take the Weather With You'
2. Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris 'All the Roadrunning'
3. The Derailers 'Soldiers of Love'
4. Wolfmother
5. Primal Scream 'Riot City Blues'
6. Beautiful South 'Superbi'
7. The Kooks 'Inside in, Inside out'

The eight disappointments of the Year
1. Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint 'The River in Reverse'
2. Raul Malo 'You're Only Lonely'
3. The Drams 'Jubilee Dive'
4. Sleepy Jackson 'Personality'
5. Tom Russell 'Love and Fear'
6. The Raconteurs 'Broken Boy Soldiers'
7. Thom Yorke 'The Eraser'
8. Jay Bennett 'The Magnificent Defeat'

The nine Crap Records of the Year
1. Scott Walker 'The Drift'
2. The Fiery Furnaces 'Bitter Tea'
3. The Killers 'Sam's Town'
4. Current 93 'Black Ships Ate the Sky'
5. Crooked Jades 'World's on Fire'
6. Sia 'Colour The Small One'
7. Lily Allen 'Alright Still'
8. Dierks Bentley 'Long Trip Alone'
9. Serena 'Maneesh'

My 10 Best Records of the Year
In putting this list together I was struck by how simple and obvious the list seems. While I dare not ask the question - am I that boring? - for fear, not so much of the answer, but of how quickly the answer will come, I did reflect on why the list was as it is. I have listened to more varied music in the last two years than I have for a long time and that sweep includes records that are considered some of the best popular music being produced. Sometimes I like it and other times, no matter how many critics tell me it is a 41/2 star record Subtle is just another band pumping out their look at me tales of woe to me.

My Top 10 can be read as either a meat and potatoes set of records or as a return to classic sounds and themes and voices. That I acknowledge but I see something else. This last year or so has been fraught with pain and hardship, to say the least, both on a personal level and in terms of how I attempt to understand just what the fuck this world means and its worth. In these records, I hear essays and vignettes, narratives and epigrams, old truths and poetry, all trying to find light in the confusion. I can identify with that and seek comfort too. I find ideas, plentiful ideas, stimulating, witty and challenging. There isnt a record in this Top 10 that doesn't carry profundity in its content. Ultimately, I think that is what separates this group, for me, from the rest.

As I look over the list I can really see why these are the important records of the year for me, it is because they are the most meaningful. And I'm not merely talking about the lyrics. It is in the sound, the feel, the arrangements, and I guess the truth and clarity of the songs intent.

I don't think this year will be remembered as one of the most original and stimulating years of music creation. However, there is something to be said for going back to basics, back to your roots. My Top 10 is very much about that. eight of the 10 records look to the past to determine how to live in the present. Moving forward does not allow you as much insight as looking back. And this feels like a good year to look back, gather what you can from doing so, in preparation for what may come and what you want to make of what is coming. My Top 10 is reflective of that moment in time for me.

1. Bob Dylan 'Modern Times'

2. The Handsome Family 'Last Days of Wonder'

3. M. Ward 'Post-War'

4. Rosanne Cash 'Black Cadillac'

5. Slaid Cleaves 'Unsung'

6. Tom Waits 'Orphans: Brawlers, Brawlers, Bastards'

7. Chatham County Line 'Speed of the Whippoorwill'

8. Ali Farka 'Toure Savane'

9. Drive-By Truckers 'A Blessing and a Curse'

10. Bruce Springsteen 'We Shall Overcome -The Seeger Sessions: American Land edition'

7 December 2006

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Number one on Kane's list. But there's more...lots more.

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