Vanity Fair, or, The Year That Was, or, They Are All Equal Now

Well, for what it’s worth, and for the sake of my own vanity if nothing else, these are the records I liked a lot this year. This comes with all the usual qualifications & caveats – I don’t really cover the waterfront musically any more (if I ever did), there are plenty of interesting things I’m still digesting or haven’t gotten to at all, I’m often a year or two or three behind on lots of cool stuff, there might even be other records I loved that are plumb slipping my decaying mind, etc. etc. But there you go, and here they are, roughly in the order of my affection. Notes where the spirit moves me.

Albums (“these go to 11”)

• Glissandro 70, S/T (my #1 for sure, and I believe I’ve gone on about it enough and enough)
• V/A, Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound (a reissue of old stuff, which I know is a bit of a cheat, but the comp bears a 2006 time stamp & I enjoyed it more intensely & more often than almost anything else this year)
• Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (their best in a while, I think, and they are the band of all bands in my heart, at least of all bands still going)
• Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Ethiopia Song (Ethiopiques 21) (it’s all solo piano, and unlike most in the series this is a single-artist volume – I find her style fascinating, what with the flutters & the chords all rolling & swelling & such)
• Howe Gelb, ’Sno Angel Like You (this one was a late addition – I’ve been listening to the record all year & liking it well enough, but seeing Gelb live with the Voices of Praise gospel choir a few nights back really brought into focus how good all the songs are)
• Destroyer’s Rubies
• Final Fantasy, He Poos Clouds
• Feuermusik, Goodbye Lucille
• Sloan, Never Hear the End of It (as I wrote in a poll, I’m a sucker for overstocked White Album-style grab-bags)
• Belle & Sebastian, The Life Pursuit (feel mixed about this one – I find I don’t really care about it much, for some reason, but I can’t deny having listened to & enjoyed it lots)
• Kaki King, ....Until We Felt Red (I haven’t really wrapped my head around this one, so I’m not sure I know it well enough to justify including it here, but I find I want to keep getting to know it)

Songs/singles

• Glissandro 70, “Portugal Rua Rua” (in general I’ve avoided overlap between the two lists, but I had to make an exception for this double #1)
• Amerie, “Take Control” (man, I cannot stop listening to this, #2 for sure – I also like how her man is not just a stud who kisses her neck in public, but also, like, an empathetic communicator who takes the time to break it down when an argument comes around)
• Gwen Stefani, “Wind It Up” (impressively nuts, or should I say B-A-N-A-N-A-S, even if at one point the vocal stylings edge a little too close to that “My Humps” song for comfort)
• Hello Saferide, “The Quiz” (ah, new romance! love the words)
• Republic of Safety, “Vacation” (actually kind of inspiring, & I’m a pretty passive, hard-to-inspire guy)
• The Roots, “Don’t Feel Right” (that’s the human condition right there in three words, man)
• Lily Allen, “Smile”
• Amy Winehouse, “Rehab”
• Nelly Furtado, “Promiscuous” (shoot, baby, we can keep it on the low!)
• Cat Power, “Lived in Bars”
• Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, “Every Night I Die at Miyagi’s”
• Bonnie “Prince” Billy, “The Signifying Wolf”
• Cadence Weapon, “Black Hand”
• Ghostface Killah, “Shakey Dog”
• The Essex Green, “Don’t Know Why (You Stay)” (I find the lyrics, about how cities are soul-killing places, to be nigh-reprehensible, but I do love those power-pop chords)
• Danielson, “Did I Step on Your Trumpet”

(Update: Jeez, I keep remembering songs that really need to be on the singles list! The latest additions are the Lily Allen and the Amy Winehouse. We’ll see how long this goes on. Also, I’ve now gone crazy and added YouTube video links for all the singles, where available.)

And yes, I suppose you may want to just listen to some music while you’re here. Here’s the leadoff track from the Ethiopiques record.

• Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, “The Homeless Wanderer” (buy here)

And because this is a season for reflection, let’s shout it out for Arthur Lee and Syd Barrett and Billy Preston and Grant McLennan and Ali Farka Toure, and all the other lost souls of 2006. As Thackeray had his narrator write in Barry Lyndon: “It was in the reign of George II that the above-named personages lived and quarrelled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now.”

That’s some food for thought. Happy holidays!

Like the Thackeray bit, this song is only tangentially appropriate, but here goes.

• Jim Carroll Band, “People Who Died” (buy Catholic Boy here)

The Carroll song came up at work the other day (OK, I brought it up), and I learned that if you quote from it while talking to someone who doesn’t actually know it, you sound kinda callous.

Anyhoo, I doubt I’ll be posting much more in the tail-end of 2006; I reckon I’ll be back in January. Thanks for coming.