Help me shop for a 2006 release...

[nobody]

OK...haven't bought any 2006 releases yet...been mostly listenin' to older stuff really, but I have a bit left on a Borders gift card and wanna pick something up. I'm not really feeling the indie rock or singer-songwriter kinda stuff much these days and don't really want anything really thrashy, but am usually looking for just about any genre otherwise, rock, rap, r&b, electronic..whatever. If you could buy just one release from 2006 so far...what would it be?

And, please no multiple selections...just take a stand with a single choice...not like its a test or anything ya know.

[Davey]

Depends how anal you are about global release dates ;)

Can't go wrong around my block with the latest from Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3. Made the charts in Europe toward the end of last year, but didn't hit the stores here in the US until the end of January. Fits like an old friend.

http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=16473

And two reviews with a little more polish from the pros ...

Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CSUM5I/qid=1143164368/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-0396861-8315050?s=music&v=glance&n=5174)
A quarter-century or so after achieving his highest profile as frontman for L.A.'s Dream Syndicate, Steve Wynn continues to show that there's life beyond the Paisley Underground. His recent work represents the best music of his career, as he forges a vibrant fusion of hardcore punk (the opening "Wired" has the raw intensity of the Stooges) with the hard-boiled literary strains evoked by his lyrics. "Cindy, It Was Always You" even finds him collaborating with master crime novelist (and longtime Wynn fan) George Pelecanos, for a song with the sort of unreliable narrator that suggests Randy Newman fronting a garage band. Life's lessons and classic craftsmanship both inform "Turning of the Tide" and "Bruises," with the expansively majestic "The Deep End" providing the CD with a seven-minute centerpiece. Wynn's music has long owed a debt to the Velvet Underground and Neil Young's Crazy Horse, and with music this ambitious and assured, the debt has been well repaid. --Don McLeese

Harp Magazine (http://harpmagazine.com/reviews/cd_reviews/detail.cfm?article_id=3895)
Mindful of the risks of returning to a favorite well and hauling up an empty bucket, Steve Wynn refused to let his third Tucson-recorded album--preceded by 2001's Here Come the Miracles and 2003's Static Transmission--lapse into comfort-zone complacency. He says as much on his Web site: "I wanted to go back into the desert and battle the blinding heat with the dizzying neon glare that we would bring from New York." And right from the get-go on ...tick... tick... tick, Wynn and his band take no prisoners. Opening track "Wired" is a brutal, distorted punk thumper--the amphetamine psychosis flipside to the Flamin' Groovies' "Slow Death" heroin-induced cold turkey. Other tracks are equally uncompromising: "Killing Me" is "Born to Be Wild" recast as a Bo Diddley stomp; "Wild Mercury" re-envisions the Dream Syndicate as the 13th Floor Elevators; and "Turning of the Tide" reprises nastiness on the order of Neil Young's "Revolution Blues" and Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone." Sings Wynn in the latter, "Your hands are pulling in the grass/and your face is in the ground." How does it feel, indeed.

The band's Big Apple roots snake throughout the album--check the Television-styled licks in "Cindy, It Was Always You" (cowritten by hard-boiled novelist George Pelecanos) and the Velvet Underground-like choogle of "No Tomorrow." There's signifying sleeve art as well: A caliente red pepper updates the banana motif from the first Velvets LP. ...tick... tick... tick certainly fulfills Wynn's intention to conjure "the Arizona haze short-circuited by the frenzy of a New York minute." Yet ultimately ...tick... tick... tick is more than the sum of its geographical parts. It's a frenzied primal scream, a rock 'n' roll IED set to blow through today's postmillennial unease. --Fred Mills

[MindGoneHaywire]

Electric Six or Arctic Monkeys.

[Dusty Chalk]

I just picked up a couple new releases (Amorphis, Gary Numan), so let me listen to those before I give you a recommendation. Right now, this very instant, my #1 is James Blunt, but given what you just said (he's not quite a singer songwriter, but pretty much so, and I think may be a bit too poppy for you), I'll rule that out immediately.

[tentoze]

Willie Nile~ Streets of New York.

[Slosh]

Appleseed Cast just put out a new one this week. Haven't heard anything from it yet though.

[Dave918]

Deadstring Brothers ~ Starving Winter Report is a stand out early 2006 release, among others.

-dave

[Duds]

For the new Tool. If you can't wait that long, Queensryche Operation Mindcrime II comes out on 4/4.


OK...haven't bought any 2006 releases yet...been mostly listenin' to older stuff really, but I have a bit left on a Borders gift card and wanna pick something up. I'm not really feeling the indie rock or singer-songwriter kinda stuff much these days and don't really want anything really thrashy, but am usually looking for just about any genre otherwise, rock, rap, r&b, electronic..whatever. If you could buy just one release from 2006 so far...what would it be?

And, please no multiple selections...just take a stand with a single choice...not like its a test or anything ya know.

[Duds]

Hey Dusty, curious to hear your thoughts on the Amorphis. I liked it, although I like Tuonella a lot better.

QUOTE=Dusty Chalk]I just picked up a couple new releases (Amorphis, Gary Numan), so let me listen to those before I give you a recommendation. Right now, this very instant, my #1 is James Blunt, but given what you just said (he's not quite a singer songwriter, but pretty much so, and I think may be a bit too poppy for you), I'll rule that out immediately.[/QUOTE]

[Jim Clark]

My record store overlooked the Gary Numan album, so I'm still waiting.

Nobody- I have that Electric Six album, if that means anything to you... it didn't really thrill me but of course you should and shall hear it.

I haven't found a single thing to go ape over this year but the Black Angels are coming!!! Seriously though, I'm sure there's something out there, it's just been eluding me thus far. I'll be following this thread looking for the gems.

jc

[Mike]

What about....

Beth Orton - Comfort of Strangers
Kepler - Attic Salt
Ian Love - Ian Love
Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
or Arctic Monkeys, Josh Ritter, Teddy Thompson

Oh wait a minute you only wanted one, in that case I'd go for Electric President - Electric President who have a Notwist/Postal Service/Go Find sort of sound. Pitchfork only gave them a 6.7, but what do they know.

ps Just heard Easy Star Records are about to release an all-reggae covers version of OK Computer, entitled...wait for it...Radiodread. These are the guys who did Dub Side of the Moon, which I thought was a naff idea but it worked ok on hearing.

Cheers
Mike

[Slosh]

How about Loose Fur - Born Again In The USA? What I've heard so far sounds like straight up rock ala Wilco's "I'm The Man Who Loves You" and such. Pretty nice. I'll probably pick this up myself next time I hit the record store.

[Davey]

Deadstring Brothers ~ Starving Winter Report is a stand out early 2006 release, among others.

-dave

Yeah, that one's still at the top of my list. Gotta pull the trigger one of these days ;)

Few others I've got my eye on including that new Willard Grant that me and toze were yakkin about ...

Built To Spill - You in Reverse (04.11)
Josh Ritter - The Animal Years (04.11)
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Ballads Of The Broken Seas (04.04)
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Ray Davies - Other People's Lives
Beth Orton - Comfort of Strangers
Cat Power - The Greatest
Walkabouts - Acetylene

That new Josh Ritter sounds like it'll be a nice one. He worked with Brian Deck on it, whom I love from his work with early Califone and Modest Mouse/Ugly Casanova and many others. The new Chicago sound. But surprisingly, from what I've read, Deck led him in a less countrified and less eclectic direction. Be fun to hear the results. Love the cover. Nice review at http://www.americana-uk.com/auk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=1691

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000EOTV7U.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_V57067535_.jpg

[Snowbunny]

Isn't there supposed to be a new Outkast coming soon?

Wait and get that one!

Snowie

[Dave918]

Yeah, that one's still at the top of my list. Gotta pull the trigger one of these days ;)

Few others I've got my eye on including that new Willard Grant that me and toze were yakkin about ...

Built To Spill - You in Reverse (04.11)
Josh Ritter - The Animal Years (04.11)
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Ballads Of The Broken Seas (04.04)
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Ray Davies - Other People's Lives
Beth Orton - Comfort of Strangers
Cat Power - The Greatest
Walkabouts - Acetylene

Eagerly awaiting the new Josh Ritter and Isobel Campbell disks, I'll be first in line. Just picked up the new Neko Case disk this morning. Saving it for tonight...late tonight.

-dave

[Dusty Chalk]

Hey Dusty, curious to hear your thoughts on the Amorphis. I liked it, although I like Tuonella a lot better.It's awesome. I like both Tuonela and Am Universum better, but those are tough albums to beat. I did, however, like it better than I remember liking Far From the Sun.

I definitely see myself coming back to this one a lot. The new singer sings with more balls than the previous guy did, so that's a plus, but they just don't capture that Blue Oyster Cult sound that I loved so much, and the whole record is recorded way too loud -- I really liked the mix of clean and distorted guitars on Tuonela and Am Universum. They sound overall harder without becoming complately black meetal or death metal hard, so that's another plus.

JC -- the Gary Numan is pretty much par for the course -- he doesn't break any new ground, so don't rush out and get it unless you have to have everything he's done.

nobody -- speaking of waiting, you could just wait for the new Calexico.

[progfan]

David Gilmour-On an Island. A gorgeous album.

[Jim Clark]

I

JC -- the Gary Numan is pretty much par for the course -- he doesn't break any new ground, so don't rush out and get it unless you have to have everything he's done.

nobody -- speaking of waiting, you could just wait for the new Calexico.

My promo email from A Different Drum says it returns, at least in part to "soaring synths". Listening to the clips on Allmusic it sounds pretty much like the last 2 studio albums. I like those quite a bit though.

jc

[audiobill]

Willie Nile~ Streets of New York.

I'll second tentoze's choice, hands-down!! It wears like a very cool leather jacket that only improves as you wear it more and more.

You can always wait for the new, yet-to-be-released TV on the Radio album.


Cheers,

audiobill

(thanks 'toze for putting me on to the Willie Nile)

[nobody]

Thanks guys...a lot will depend on what they have at Borders. I think there's probably at least a few of those suggestions that don't make their shelves.