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What 30 of the Phoenix 's music critics liked this year

By PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | January 2, 2007

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PHOENIX FAVES I: Clipse

The most amazing thing about the Phoenix’s first annual music critics’ poll is that almost everyone – almost! – somehow kept their list to 10. Having done these for 12 years (whether anyone asked for ‘em or not), I’ve almost never to keep a top 10 list under a dozen. My poor editors will vouch for this. I’d pat myself for coloring inside the lines this year, but I’m cheating: my list-making compulsions have already been satiated by the list of 100 singles we’ve got waiting to be uploaded for a blog post in a few hours. And yes, that one’s a Top-100 list that as of now is hovering around, oh, 127 tracks. Sigh. Anyone wanna help me cut it?

What small, private lists like this remind us is that big, honking institutional lists are largely fictions, mirages of a consensus that no longer exists, if it ever really did in the first place. And even within their personal lists, you’ll generally find critics in Whitman mode -- contradicting themselves, containing multitudes. Feel free to post your own top 10 (or 100) in the comments section: beats waiting for someone to invite you to vote in Pazz and Jop.

-Carly Carioli

Jeff BREEZE
1. Various, THE STUFF THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF (Yazoo)
2. The Red Krayola, INTRODUCTION (Drag City)
3. Emily Haynes and the Soft Skeleton, KNIVES DON’T HAVE YOUR BACK (Last Gang)
4. Charles Mingus, MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MONTEREY, 1965 NOT HEARD . . . PLAYED IN ITS ENTIRETY, AT UCLA (Sunnyside/Sue Mingus Music)
5. Seekonk, PINKWOOD (North East Indie/Tongue Master)
6. Arnold Dreyblatt and the Orchestra of Excited Strings, LIVE AT FEDERAL HALL NATIONAL MEMORIAL 1981 (Table of the Elements)
7. MV and EE with the Bummer Road, MOTHER OF THOUSANDS (Time-Lag)
8. Helms, SECRET DOORS (Plants and Brains/History Major)
9. Sparks, HELLO YOUNG LOVERS (In the Red)
10. Tara Jane O’Neil, IN CIRCLES (1/4 Stick/Touch & Go)

Franklin BRUNO
1. Mecca Normal, THE OBSERVER (Kill Rock Stars)
2. Scritti Politti, WHITE BREAD BLACK BEER (Nonesuch)
3. Ornette Coleman, SOUND GRAMMAR (Sound Grammar)
4. Kelis, KELIS WAS HERE (La Face)
5. Mission of Burma, THE OBLITERATI (Matador)
6. Jason Moran, ARTIST IN RESIDENCE (Blue Note)
7. Erase Errata, NIGHTLIFE (Kill Rock Stars)
8. De La Soul, THE IMPOSSIBLE MISSION MIXTAPE (AOI)
9. Wussy, FUNERAL DRESS (Shake It)
10. Tom Verlaine, SONGS AND OTHER THINGS (Thrill Jockey)

Matthew M. BURKE
1. Todd Woodward, PARADISE (Independent)
2. Slaine, THE WHITE MAN IS THE DEVIL VOL. 2 (Leedz Edutainment)
3. Crazy L, THE MADHOUSE (Independent)
4. Daniel Laurent, THE SUPPRESSION (Self Made Entertainment)
5. The Foundation Movement, GREATEST HITS (Independent)
6. Termanology, HOOD POLITICS IV: SHOW AND PROVE (Brick/ST Records)
7. Mighty Mystic, WAKE UP THE WORLD, THE MIXTAPE VOL. 2 (Split2nd Entertainment)
8. J Dilla, THE SHINING (BBE)
9. Method Man, 4:21… THE DAY AFTER (Def Jam)|10. Ill Bill, ILL BILL IS THE FUTURE VOL. 2 (Uncle Howie Records)

Carly CARIOLI
1. Justin Timberlake, FUTURESEX/LOVESOUNDS (Jive)
2. Xasthur, SUBLIMINAL GENOCIDE (Hydrahead)
3. Various, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK (Disney)
4. Clipse, HELL HATH NO FURY (Startrak)
5. Gnarls Barkley, ST. ELSEWHERE (Downtown)
6. Diplo, MAD DECENT RADIO VOL. 1 (Money Studies)
7. Certified Bananas, SPRANG (internets)
8. Converge, NO HEROES (Epitaph)
9. Spank Rock, YOYOYOYOYO (Big Dada)
10. Mastodon, BLOOD MOUNTAIN (Reprise)

Jef CZEKAJ
1. Big Digits, “WHY DID YOU REJECT MY STEVE PERRY FAN FICTION?” (self-released)
2. “Weird” Al Yankovic, “WHITE AND NERDY” (Volcano)
3. DAT Politics, “WHAT’S DAT?”
4. Muffstache, “THE RUNS” (myspace.com/muffstachewins)
5. Eject, “CLEMENTINE” (myspace.com/pusheject)
6.Pitbull, “AY CHICO” (Diaz Brothers/TVT)
7. PaperRad, “TRASH TALKING” (Load)
8. Justin Timberlake, “MY LOVE (LOW B PAWRTY MIX)” (internet)
9. Crystal Understanding, "EYES" (self-released)
10. Young@Heart Chorus, “SCHIZOPHRENIA” (youtube)

David DAY
1. BURIAL (Hyperdub). Album of the decade.
2. Spank Rock, YOYOYOYOYO (Big Dada)
3. The Knife, SILENT SHOUT (Mute)
4. Ellen Allien & Apparat, ORCHESTRA OF BUBBLES (BPitch Control)
5. Hot Chip, THE WARNING (Astralwerks)
6. In Flagranti, WRONGER THAN EVERYONE ELSE (Codek Europe)
7. Crowdpleaser & St. Plomb, 2006 (Mental Groove Ltd.)
8. Charlotte Gainsbourg, 5:55
9. Trentemoller, THE LAST RESORT (Poker Flat)
10. Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, MELODY MOUNTAIN (Rune Grammofon)

PHOENIX FAVE II: Joanna Newsom

Elisabeth DONNELLY
1. TV on the Radio, RETURN TO COOKIE MOUNTAIN (Interscope)
2. Man Man, SIX DEMON BAG (Ace Fu)
3. The Blow, PAPER TELEVISION (K Records)
4. Grizzly Bear, YELLOW HOUSE (Warp)
5. The Hold Steady, BOYS AND GIRLS IN AMERICA (Vagrant)
6. Shearwater, PALO SANTO (Misra)
7. Thao Nguyen, LIKE THE LINEN (Trust Me Corporation)
8. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, RABBIT FUR COAT (Team Love)
9. Joanna Newsom, YS (Drag City)
10. Casey Dienel, THE WIND-UP CANARY (Hush)

Michael FREEDBERG
1. Pascal Obispo, LES FLEURS DU BIEN (Sony/BMG France)
2. Roger Sanchez, RELEASE YOURSELF VOL 5 (Stealth/Release)
3. Francis Cabrel, LES BEAUX DEGATS (Columbia/Chandelle, France)
4. Martin Solveig, IN THE HOUSE (Defected, UK)
5. Prince, 3121 (UMVD)
6. Indochine, ALICE & JUNE (Sony/BMG, France)
7. Peter Rauhofer, I LOVE MIAMI! (Star 69)
8. DJ HEATHER & COLETTE (House of Om)
9. Stéphane Pompougnac, HOTEL COSTES 8 (Pschent, France)
10. Stephanie Lapointe, SUR LE FIL (Musicor/Select, Quebec)

Matthew GASTEIER
1. Herbert, SCALE (!K7)
2. Kode9 and the Spaceape, MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE (Hyperdub)
3. Clipse, HELL HATH NO FURY (Jive)
4. TV on the Radio, RETURN TO COOKIE MOUNTAIN (Interscope)
5. The Game, DOCTOR’S ADVOCATE (Geffen)
6. Basement Jaxx, CRAZY ITCH RADIO (XL)
7. Justin Timberlake, FUTURESEX/LOVESOUNDS (Jive)
8. Z-RO, I’M STILL LIVIN’ (Rap-A-Lot)
9. RODRIGO Y GABRIELA (Rubyworks)
10. Sway, THIS IS MY DEMO (All City)

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Related: Neo-new-what?, 2008 Listravaganza!, Big business, More

Neo-new-what?
The real album of the year is a disc that probably didn’t cross many people’s paths in 2006, a Rhino comp titled Future Retro that pairs various DJs/electronicists (Richard X, Tiga, the Crystal Method) with classic new-wave tracks by the Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, and New Order.
2008 Listravaganza!
We are not at all sick of bands with animal names yet and seem to have a soft spot for Erykah Badu that we kept very hush about all year.
Big business
Now that the music biz has licked its wounds from a nasty 2005, things are finally starting to heat up, and an indie-heavy winter is giving way to a more major spring.
Chairmen of the boards
Not unlike Swedish, Tagalog, and Esperanto, music is a language, with its own conjugations and (lewdly) dangling participles.
Forward into the past!
Could it be just a coincidence that as I sit here writing this, a grizzled Bob Seger is gearing up for the release of Face the Promise , the Detroit rocker’s first proper studio album in, oh, forever and a day? The Lemonheads, "No Backbone" (mp3)
Post-punk pantheon
They were, by definition, misfits.
Diversified incoming
It’s a testament to the strength of hip-hop, as the medium enters its third decade, that 2006 would see such a wide range of sounds so well represented, from commercial anthems to abstract beat tapes.
Afterglow
When Justin Timberlake says he’s in love with you, what is there to do but believe him? Slideshow: Justin Timberlake with special guest Pink at TD BankNorth Garden, February 6, 2007
Hard act to follow
Shortly after Dirty Projectors completed their mind-blowing set opening up for TV on the Radio at the House of Blues, vocalists and multi-instrumentalists Angel Deradoorian and Amber Coffman came back on stage.
Photos: TV on the Radio at House of Blues
TV on the Radio at House of Blues
Larger than life
Although predictions that Jay-Z, in his comeback, would pull in the biggest sales numbers of the year were proved wrong (at 680,000, his Def Jam release Kingdom Come ranks third behind Rascal Flatts and Justin Timberlake in 2006), that’s hardly the story worth telling.
Less

Topics: Music Features , Timbaland, Celebrity News, Entertainment, More

Comments

Guest lists

With the excpetion of Franklin & Elisabeth, your year-end reviewers are rubbish - just of bunch of pedantic twats who are more concerned with impressing each other with their "eclecticism" than they are trying to foist good music on the readers.

By Brett Howser on 12/27/2006 at 10:11:39

Guest lists

Doogie, if I post my top ten, will you cure me of my bad taste, too? Oh and please do give me the right answers for the next time I have to vote.

By Ian Sands on 12/28/2006 at 8:10:36

Guest lists

Yep, send your list. Mirth would be a good start to 2007.

By Brett Howser on 01/02/2007 at 8:36:58

Guest lists

I'm too tired to come with an appropriately eclectic batch right now. What's yours? Curious.

By Ian Sands on 01/03/2007 at 10:00:57

Guest lists

Yeah, those Pearl Jam, Black Crowes and Sonic Youth picks by Kielty are pretty deep underground. If anything I applaud him risking his "cool" credibility with those choices.

By Marty Brody on 01/11/2007 at 11:26:06

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GUEST LISTS | January 02, 2007
What small, private lists like this remind us is that big, honking institutional lists are largely fictions, mirages of a consensus that no longer exists, if it ever really did in the first place.