Talkdemonic - Beat Romantic Mono - You Are There TRS-80 - Mystery Crash Going by the same simple tack as I have the rest - which three albums am I most likely to listen to. The subjectiveness of this is in the last few years I'm on a big instrumental kick and listen to less music with vocals than without. As such, some of the records that might have been bigger for me around the time either end up in honourable mentions, or if I don't really listen to them now, nowhere. Still, I can't think of a better way to do it. Beat Romantic is a folktronica record that seems to fit so many moods, and I can play it pretty much any time of the day. The songs are short (the album's 38 minutes long, 17 tracks) and as such never outstay their welcome - indeed, they barely get past the welcome. Each track feels like a short scene in a film, partially coloured in, creating the space for the listener themselves to fill in the rest, and in a way there lies the beauty of the record. I listened to this Mono album probably thirteen or fourteen years ago and was pretty blown away by it at a time that I hadn't really heard much post rock. Now I've heard plenty, I'm still a big fan of it. Some early embrace of orchestral elements before they went all in on it in the following years. The first few minutes of The Flames Beyond The Cold Mountain get me every time, and Yearning is the quiet-loud dynamic done perfectly. The TRS-80 album; it's probably a cliche to say this style of synth layering and reverb sounds futuristic but there is something 'other' about this record. The Lights Are On would be the background song to travelling through space and time, and the more ambient tracks are pretty escapist but still kind of reflective. I love the beats on this thing too. Honourable Mentions: TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble Dale Cooper Quartet - Parole De Navarre Fightstar - Grand Unification Thom Yorke - The Eraser Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
1. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade 2. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not 3. The Killers - Sam’s Town ——————— 4. The Format - Dog Problems 5. The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth 6. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds 7. Thom Yorke - The Eraser 8. Muse - Black Holes & Revelations 9. Portugal. The Man - Waiter: You Vultures 10. +44 - When Your Heart Stops Beating
My Top 3 1. +44 – When Your Heart Stops Beating 2. John Mayer – Continuum 3. Cobra Starship – While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets 4. The Damnwells - Air Stereo - Can't believe I forgot about this one! And the rest....in no particular order: Artic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I am, That’s what I’m not MCR – The Black Parade Amy Winehouse – Back to Black Taylor Swift – S/T Justin Timberlake – FutureSex/LoveSounds The Killers – Sam’s Town Lupe Fiasco – Food & Liquor Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium Lily Allen – Alright, Still Nelly Furtado – Loose The Decemberists – The Crane Wife Band of Horses – Everything All the time The Kooks – Inside In/Inside Out Gwen Stefani – The Sweet Escape Jack Johnson and Friends - Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George Matisyahu – Youth Teddy Geiger – Underage Thinking Hit The Lights – This is a Stick up… Don’t make it a murder Mat Kearney – Nothing left to lose Goo Goo Dolls – Let Love in Snow Patrol – Eyes Open Angels & Airwaves - We Don't Need to Whisper Damone – Out here all night AFI – Decemberunderground Keane – Under the Iron City Gym Class Heroes – As Cruel as School Children Hellogoodbye - Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! Boys Like Girls – S/T Danity Kane – S/T Papa Roach - The Paramour Sessions JoJo – The High Road
Bahahaha I have Continuum at #8! Depending on my mood I'd choose to listen to that over many others. Definitely aged much better than the Chili Peps album too, but that one was my #1 IN '06 when I made my list, so ya know. I actually just added Cobra Starship to my playlist, I remember knowing a song or two from it, but can't say I have ever heard the whole thing. Also need to revisit +44 for sure - I was distinctly let down by both that AND Angels and Airwaves in 2006 - and thinking .... what the fuck why couldn't they just stay together as Blink and make another GOOD album? lol.
For me, they don't really lose it until Boxes. They're definitely on the slide toward increasingly generic territory in 2006, but I still that's a really well-crafted pop album with some great singles.
This was the year contemporary R&B died and it hasn’t fully recovered. The Ne-Yo album was a last hurrah.
Lol since we fighting - the single from that Men, Women, and Children album that I referenced a few posts back still slaps way harder than anything on this Cobra Starship record.
I don't listen to a ton of pop radio anymore but yeah it does seem like I don't remember hearing much of that R&B that used to be all over the radio in the 90s and early 2000s in recent years
Remember when Hawthorne Height's team sent an email out for their fans to storm stores to buy their sophomore album in order to not have Ne-Yo have a #1 "in the name of ROCK"?
hey guys don't worry, my list is finally here 1. The Format - Dog Problems 2. The Early November - The Mother, The Mechanic and The Path 3. Brand New - The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me 4. Set Your Goals - Mutiny! 5. Gatsby's American Dream - Gatsby's American Dream 6. Portugal. The Man - Waiter: "You Vultures!" 7. Anathallo - Floating World 8. Mute Math - Mute Math 9. The Mars Volta - Amputechture 10. Copeland - Eat, Sleep, Repeat 11. Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now 12. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade 13. The Hush Sound - Like Vines 14. Gym Class Heroes - As Cruel As School Children 15. Sugarcult - Lights Out 16. Saves The Day - Sound The Alarm 17. Incubus - Light Grenades 18. Cobra Starship - While The City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets 19. Girl Talk - Night Ripper 20. Rise Against - The Sufferer & The Witness
There’s really not a song I skip from start to finish. I can see some people not liking I’ll Let You Live, but I think it’s pretty good. I like the simple loud guitar sound going to the slow rhythm. My favorite song has to be My Blue Heaven though. Definitely my favorite TBS song.
Half of Louder Now is really fun, and half of it I’m always skipping, but there’s an absolutely relentlessly great EP there.
The snob in me looks at this year as the year that the classic early 2000 pop punk/emo bands all started their declines. The Format's Dog Problems is really the only release this year that feels like one of those bands (ie: popular when ap.net first went beyond blink) still ascending. I don't intend or want this to start a BN discussion but I do include them in that even if I'm thinking more about the TBSs of the world.
Other stuff on my list worth shouting out. Rainer Maria- Catastrophe Keeps Us Together I Would Set Myself on Fire for You- Believes in Patterns Girl Talk- Night Ripper Malajube- Trompe-l'œil Lupe Fiasco- Food & Liquor Tilly and the Wall- Bottoms of Barrels Subtle- For Hero: For Fool Boris- Pink Trophy Scars- Alphabet. Alphabets. Mutemath- s/t
Has no one mentioned Moneen's The Red Tree? That would have 100% won this in 2006. It was insane how much love that album got on AP.