Enik's Top 13 Songs of 2006 · Dec 25, 10:45 AM by Don
In compiling this list, I tried to not overthink it (an Enik weakness). As I drove home from work on Friday, a few clear choices came to mind: “Talk on Indolence” by the Avett Brothers, “Stop Thinking” by the Mysteries of Life, “You Blanks” by Portastatic. Some came to mind as I perused the 2006 playlist in my iTunes library: “Face of a Faith” by Nellie McKay, “Black Sweat” by Prince,” the remix of Wolfmother’s “Woman.” These are the songs that gave me sustained pleasure. I say this knowing I’ve listened to over 1400 different songs since just the end of August alone. A note on the play counts: I have most of the songs on the list below on CD. The songs below received plenty o’ action not reflected in the iTunes play counts.
The “Avalanches Millstream Remix” of Wolfmother’s “Woman” proved positively addictive for me last summer. Wolfmother’s retro swagger is engrossing as it is. To then be cut up and mixed up by the always inventive Avalanches? Click below to fall in love with a “Woman.”
mp3: Wolfmother – Woman [Avalanches Millstream Remix]
:: 25 plays ::
What band do I listen to when I have no idea what to listen to? The Mysteries of Life. This band formed after the breakups of Antenna and the Blake Babies. Jake Smith from Antenna and Freda Love from the Babies have been the core of this decidedly unprolific but charming pop/rock outfit. They released their fourth album, Beginning to Move, this year before moving to England so Smith could teach at a university. You can buy the new one at CDBaby. For a surfeit of free Mystery music, head over to the Indiana-centric Musical Family Tree site. TMOL also has a MySpace page.
mp3: The Mysteries of Life – Stop Thinking
:: 23 plays ::
Like the “Woman” remix, I could not stop listening to “Sukie in the Graveyard” off Belle & Sebastian’s well-received The Life Pursuit. The organ hook and funny lyrics make it a hit.
mp3: Belle & Sebastian – Sukie in the Graveyard
:: 22 plays ::
The Secret Machines always bring the big noise, yearning for epic breadth, depth, and sonic heft. Something tells me one or more members are fans of the Smashing Pumpkins and/or the Church. With “Lightning Blue Eyes,” off Ten Silver Drops, the Machines expertly pair their big sound with big hooks.
mp3: The Secret Machines – Lightning Blue Eyes
:: 20 plays ::
Speaking of the Church, the hazy, woozy “Day 5” is the highlight of the band’s latest full-length, Uninvited, Like the Clouds. The lazy spectral intro, Kilbey’s breathy narration of a mystical pilgrimage (“Eventually/We came to a chasm dark and wide/And drifted in silence through endless anemones” ), and the majestic swell of the choruses are all Church staples. You might expect the song to fade out the way it came in, like so many Church songs do. But it ends abruptly, like an unwelcome awakening from a pleasant dream.
mp3: The Church – Day 5
:: 19 plays ::
He doesn’t do it much, but I love it when Mac McCaughan sings the word, “Fucker.” With Superchunk, he dropped the effer-bomb right in the title of fan fave, “Slack Motherfucker.” On his latest Portastatic release, Be Still Please, he sings, “All my songs used to end the same way: ‘Everything’s gonna be okay.’ You fuckers made that impossible to say! You fuckers made that impossible to say!” I take the “fuckers” to be right wing warmongers steering the U.S.S. U.S. into rocky waters. Those guys always ruin everything.
mp3: Portastatic – You Blanks
:: 18 plays ::
When was the last time you liked a Prince song? And wanted to hear it over and over? Sure, “Black Sweat,” from 3121, is more than a little similar, musically speaking, to his stark, slinky “Kiss.” Am I complaining? No. Click below and work up a black sweat.
mp3: Prince – Black Sweat
:: 16 plays ::
Last January, lamenting the fact that Pretty Little Head was thrown into limbo after Nellie McKay split with her label, I was pleasantly surpised to come across the soundtrack EP, Rumor Has It, in the iTunes store. One song floored me, “Face of a Faith.” Everything I loved about McKay was missing: the attitude, the profanity, the rapping. Everything I loved about McKay was missing, and there was nothing wrong with that. “Face” is a brief, tender love song. And, it’s a love song that doesn’t have to be about romantic love, even though it might be.
mp3: Nellie McKay – Face of a Faith
:: 15 plays ::
Georgia Hubley’s voice will always slay me. “I Feel Like Going Home,” from Yo La Tengo’s latest, I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass, is no exception. This song is an utter downer, a downer in the best, most beautiful way.
mp3: Yo La Tengo – I Feel Like Going Home [snippet]
:: 14 plays ::
Looking for pop pleasure, easy, uplifting, and free? Look no further than the Ben Kweller song, “Penny on the Train Track,” from his new self-titled release. Kweller embraces the bad and celebrates the good with sincerity and joie de vivre. Soak up more Kweller charm by listening to his November appearance on NPR’s World Cafe with David Dye.
mp3: Ben Kweller – Penny on the Train Track
:: 13 plays ::
I’d never heard the Blood Brothers before this year. What got me interested was learning that John Goodmanson (of Sleater-Kinney production fame) and Guy Picciotto of the “on-hiatus” Fugazi were the production tag team for the band’s latest, Young Machetes. I slid the CD into my car stereo, heard the opener, “Set Fire to the Face on Fire,” and immediately ascended to rock hissyfit nirvana.
mp3: The Blood Brothers – Set Fire to the Face on Fire
:: 13 plays ::
Who knew the Pixies’ song, “Debaser,” could be so pretty? Zack Schwartz and co. transform Black Francis’ horror show into something more sinister by making the music arrestingly gentle, while retaining the original lyrics. My favorite moment is the faint sample of Black Francis screaming, “Girlie so groovy!” (The cover is from The O.C. Mix 6: Covering Our Tracks.)
mp3: Rogue Wave – Debaser [Pixies cover]
:: 12 plays ::
The first time I heard this song, courtesy of a Paste Magazine sampler, I was completely turned off. The second time I heard it, I got it. What sold me on this hyperkinetic folk stomp? The humor. I love the line: “I’m a little nervous about what you’ll think when you see me in my swimming trunks.” The song is on the album, Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions.
mp3: The Avett Brothers – Talk on Indolence
:: 11 plays ::
When making lists like this, I tend to lean heavily on things new to me. On this list, that would be Wolfmother, the Secret Machines, the Blood Brothers, and the Avett Brothers. Rogue Wave and Nellie McKay have been entertaining me since only 2005. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve listened to Yo La Tengo, the Church, and Prince for over 20 years. I was introduced to Belle & Sebastian and the Mysteries of Life in 1996 and I’ve been a Portastatic fan since the 1994 release of I Hope Your Heart Is Not Brittle (and a Superchunk fan since 1991).
Please let Timedoor know what songs shook you all year long.
“Best of 2006” pic found at Ritmono Presenta.
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