The Factual Opinion

The Best of 2006: #17

The Hold Steady
Boys And Girls In America

The Hold Steady continue on their trek to be the best damn American band that America's spawned--although the Hold Steady aren't really from America (they're from Brooklyn, by way of Minnesota--and that's the Holy Land, as far as we're concerned.) No, the Hold Steady have, three albums in, thrown out the challenge, ordering young men and women back into the drunken fray--time to loosen ties and skirts and booze the night back into the clubs.  If Craig Finn ever heard people complaining about the benefits of vegetable oil or PETA, he doesn't let on--and even if he did, we wouldn't notice.  Boys and Girls In America is all about throwing up and screwing, in that order, the reverse or the same time: it's about being gross, sweaty and crazy as hell--and that's what makes them such a hellacious good time.  Although it's (regardless of what you might have heard) no Separation Sunday, it's got merit, it's got class, and it's made of strong stuff.  Ignoring the Hold Steady is becoming less and less an action that makes any sense: saying one doesn't like them is something that's hard to believe--a couple more albums like this and it'll be like saying one doesn't like one's mother--totally, resolutely Un-American.

Of course, by that point the Arctic Monkeys will have probably made another album.

-Tucker Stone, 2006

If you're digging on the Hold Steady, but you're ready to sack out for the night, The Evens mid-06 release is just the sort of thing to let the Corona settle: just remember to sleep on your side or you'll drown.

The Best of 2006: #18

Clipse
Hell Hath No Fury

As was made clear by Robert Pollard's inclusion yesterday, album art doesn't factor into the Factual Opinion's opinion of an album.  Still, the sheer-hideousness of Hell Hath No Fury, an album so long delayed that somebody, at some point, knew better, is something that can't go un-remarked upon.  Beyond the ugliness of the cash money wallpaper or the so-lame-they're-skip-past-funny-back-to-lame crowns, any self-respecting human above the age of 6 knows better than to sit on the door to the oven.  It's dangerous, and you will break it, and oven's are expensive.  Regardless of a rapper's skill at wordsmithery or beat selection, how is one supposed to trust their intelligence if they're this foolhardy with their mothers things?  This is not a question to be glossed over, but as we've received nothing but an (imagined) "No comment" from the Clipse camp, we won't be able to continue the discussion any longer.  We do after all, have some beats to talk about: some of the best hip-hop beats in a long time, courtesy of the Neptunes who, after the last N.E.R.D. album, were wrongly imagined to have lost complete control over their faculties in favor of basing their life around that Jay-Z video from Rush Hour.  While the lyrics, courtesy of Malice and Pusha-T aren't that far removed from what seemed so groundbreaking on the We Got It For Cheap series, Clipse still sound great; and there's a certain grudging "If it ain't broke..." attitude that's well-exemplified here.  Still, with this level of production, and tracks like "Keys Open Doors" jumping out (one of the few tracks where the duo match the Neptunes toe-to-toe on an experimental playing field); Clipse doesn't seem that willing to do much beyond the normal with the beats they've received.  Unlike We Got It For Cheap, where it was Pusha-T and Malice who built mountains out of cheap casio sounds, they're overwhelmed by the Neptunes minimalist dub-sound.  If this were XXL magazine (it's not, in case you're confused) than this would be the album of the year: but when it came down to it, Hell Hath No Fury didn't sound like the kind of album that hip-hop's been dying for right now, and in a field where ambition and arrogance aren't just commonplace, but required, Hell is just awesome--and awesome ain't enough. 

-Tucker Stone, 2006

After you get finished sputtering in a rage that Clipse didn't end up in the top five, relax and listen to Jay-Z's Kingdom Come and J Dilla's (Shining and Donuts)--another couple of items where the hype (and the hate) was totally out of proportion to the actual album.

The Best of 2006: #19

Beirut
Gulag Orkestar

The picture, stashed away in a SPIN Magazine article on “Gypsy Rock,” features Beirut mastermind Zach Condon playing the trumpet in the thick of a group of ramshackle musicians. There’s an accordion player, a French horn, a violinist, and a dude playing a snare drum that hangs from his neck. They’re assembled in front of an industrial building on a New York sidewalk, possibly near the sea. And the question the picture raises is the exact question that Beirut’s debut album, Gulag Orkestar, asks; it’s the question that brims from the best places of 2006, and it’s this: Isn’t this exactly where we want music to be? Zach Condon crafted an album in his basement so specific and universal that his “little Balkan project” became one of the breakthrough albums of 2006. If you don’t think “Postcards From Italy” is one of the most devastating songs of the year, you haven’t heard it. With its cascading trumpets and marching drums, Condon’s voice swallowing itself in a fit of nostalgia—this is a wedding song, a transcender. Elsewhere, Beirut sneaks rolling synths and a new wave sensibility into “Scenic World.” Even the Balkan-est of the songs feel honest and earned. Not bad for a kid from New Mexico. But most importantly, Gulag Orkestar proves we’re living in a world where you can truly make the music that you want to make, and it will find its audience. My grandfather’s one man band, Clyde’s Combo, has heard the news, and is gearing up for a takeover.

-Marty Brown, 2006

There's not much more quality Balkan rock out there, but for another band pushing to make the regional sound universal, look to Band of Horses' debut album, Everything All The Time. 

The Best of 2006: #20

Bruce Springsteen
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

Toward the end of April, the sun may have returned, but we wouldn’t have noticed. We had spent three months touring the Midwest in a couple of ancient vans, and generally felt beat to shit physically, mentally and emotionally; homesick for New York. We’d driven from Chicago to Indiana the day before, only to turn around and drive back to Madison, Wisconsin this afternoon. We ate at a strip mall. After lunch, I got behind the wheel, threw on The Seeger Sessions, which I’d snatched up with low expectations at a Best Buy for less than ten dollars. “Old Dan Tucker” kicked in, and Springsteen sounded like he was throwing the party of the year—I pictured fiddles, banjo, a stand-up bass (homemade), even a washboard player, all in a room the size of our little passenger van. Every cliché you ever heard or imagined about the highways of Middle America rolled by, as Springsteen and his merry band stomped though Pete Seeger’s song book. He transformed “Jacob’s Ladder” into a burner and “Shenandoah” into the loveliest dirge. We listened in stunned silence, even as we got lost three or four times. After the final moments of “Froggie Went a Courtin’”—the perfect closer after “We Shall Overcome”—those of us in the van agreed that the album had been amazing, and I’d experienced one of the most profound music-listening experiences of my life. Those were, I think, the perfect circumstances to hear The Seeger Sessions under, but I doubt that I’m alone in my experience with the album. The magnitude of good will that Springsteen’s new album puts out into the world reminds you of the joy that wells up in Jersey-ites when they hear “Born to Run.” 30 years later, he’s gunning for the heart of America.

-Marty Brown, 2006

Check out Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins' Rabbit Fur Coat, another album of stunners--original ones this time--in the form of 60's-era country and folk.

The Best of 2006: #21

Robert Pollard
From A Compound Eye

To all music nerds who didn't get started with Guided by Voices during the Propeller era, and therefore haven't gotten on board due to the desire to remain chronological, here's your access point.  While it's a solo album in name only--Guided By Voices fans always knew what the deal was from the start--Pollard is really only accompanied by a band of one here, with multi-instrumentalist Todd Tobias finishing out unreleased and new tracks courtesy of Mr. Pollard.  While this may not be better than Bee Thousand, it's the best rock-pop album by a male solo artist this year, and it's one of the strongest arguments for Pollard as deserving of the rock-god status afforded him by his legion of rabid fans.  There's 26 tracks here, and while some, like "I'm A Widow" and "Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft," are stand-outs, none are weak sisters--a claim that not every Guided By Voices release could honestly make.  Pollard makes old school pop rock, and he makes it sound smarter and more fun than it has so far this decade.  While Pollard will never be that cool of a guy (as the hideous album art attests,) he'll always be fun to jock around with, especially if you're finishing off a sausage party at the lamest pub in Chicago.  That, after all, is what this sort of music is for.

-Tucker Stone, 2006

While Pollard's 2nd 2006 release, Normal Happiness, isn't anywhere near as strong as Compound Eye, it's still pretty damn good stuff. 

The Best of 2006: #23

Islands
Return To The Sea

When desperadoes abscond with the world’s Unicorns, a band of merry pirates rises up to rescue them! Armed with only a batch of minor chords and a horn section, pirate captains Nicholas “The Hook” Thorburn and J’aime “Pegleg” Tambeur set sail! Braving relentless waves, killer birds and lilting Caribbean rhythms, these fearsome rogues chase after both villains and good times! The world is their party! Oh no! The desperadoes have begun to taunt them with accusations of cuddliness! “You should play Sesame Street,” they scream, “with their dancing puppets. That’s where you belong!” But wait! These pirates could vanquish the villains with a single Casio keyboard doodle! “Bones, bones, brittle little bones,” they sing, in their merry, piratey way, taunting the desperadoes in return with jamborees and puns! “If you aren’t sweet to me,” Thorburn sings, “I’ll salt you and make you savory.” Then they kick out the jams! Will they find the secret volcano where the mystical power pop secrets lie? Will they combust in an orgy of kick drums and frenetic trumpeting? Will the awkward rapper who climbed on board amidst the madness drown in his own ridiculousness? Stay tuned.

-Marty Brown, 2006

If there were ever a year for quirky, form-pushing indie rock, this was it.  After checking out Return to the Sea, give a listen to Annuals' Be He Me and Sunset Rubdown's Shut Up I Am Dreaming.

The Best of 2006: #24

Deftones
Saturday Night Wrist

It's becoming less and less likely that there will ever be a right time for the Deftones.  Every few years, they show up with another difficult to classify album that gets ignored by just about everybody.  2006 might have been different, one hoped: after all, for all those white shoe wearing bicycle liberals who read the New Yorker cover to cover had to deal with two pages on Saturday Night Wrist by their resident music critic Sasha Frere-Jones.  New Yorker readers do, after all, only trust the New Yorker, so it can't be condemned that the Factual hired reporters across the East Coast, doing exit polls in the parking lots of Borders and Best Buys across the states: after all, we'd be looking at a whole new crop of Deftones fans, and we wanted to be sure they also picked up a copy of 2000's seminal masterwork (the one that wasn't Kid A,) the Deftones White Pony.

Sadly, another Tuesday came and went, we owe a lot of wanna-be reporters a twenty or two, and the fanbase of the Deftones continues to be confused Staind fans and skinny white guys with big headphones.  At this point in being a Deftones fan, it's about time to stop talking about how incredibly fucking hard "Hole in the Earth" will kick anybodies ass into gear, how raw, disgusting and hilarious "Pink Cellophane" is, and it certainly isn't time to try to re-educate anyone utilizing "Cherry Waves," which just might be the best Deftones song in existence.  No, no, no. Not the time.

At this point, one just needs to say, "Hey.  Asshole.  The Deftones don't sound like what you think they sound like, and they sound a lot better than you might even be willing to imagine.  Give 'em a chance, peckerwood."

-Tucker Stone, 2006

For those interested in checking out other albums that got ignored in sales, yet also rocked hard enough to pull off faces, check out Young Machetes by The Blood Brothers and City By The Light Divided by Thursday.

The Best of 2006: #25

The Decemberists
The Crane Wife

When The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy challenged Stephen Colbert to “Put down the pen and pick up the axe,” it was a watershed moment for the band. Known mostly for Meloy’s storytelling and use of archaic language, The Decemberists may have just pledged allegiance to the world of face-melting guitar solos. Also, maybe not. Although the riff on “When the War Came” does its best to shred, The Crane Wife mostly sticks to (as Colbert puts it) “hyper-literate prog rock.” Fortunately for them and us, The Decemberists’ prog rock is more fun than a barrel of Yngwie Malmsteens. Meloy anchors the album with stories of homecoming, transformation, and loss. The title songs retell a Japanese fairy tail about a poor man who rescues an injured crane, marries her, and leads her to death by way of his own greed. Elsewhere, wars are fought. Soldiers die. Banks are robbed. Mysterious islands are plundered. Love. Yearning. Remorse. You know, the usual. The album has a Revolutionary War vibe undercut by modern references to bombs and plastique. It’s practically science fiction—dense, otherworldly, and, yes, literate—but the music soars mostly when the melody and the music soar. If Meloy had challenged Colbert to a fourteen-letter word sing-off, well, that would be a competition worth watching.

Marty Brown, 2006

Elsewhere, Joanna Newsom's Ys rocks some hyper-literacy--this time in the form of epic, Renaissance short stories/songs.  If you're into that kind of thing.