January 6, 200719 yr Author 25. John Mayer - Continuum 1600 points 6 votes highest ranks from babo (1) and maiu (3) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 67/100 PopMatters: 7/10 Stylus Magazine: C Quotes: Continuum is a gorgeously produced' date=' brilliantly stripped-to-basics album that incorporates blues, soft-funk, R&B, folk and pop in a sound that is totally owned by Mayer. It's no stretch when trying to describe the sound of Continuum to color it in the light of work by such legends as Sting, Eric Clapton, Sade, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Steve Winwood.[/quote'] While Continuum doesn’t necessarily contain a sure-thing pop hit' date=' it’s one of the few mainstream pop/rock albums that’s satisfying from the beginning to the end.[/quote'] He calmly circles the same career themes with the same warmed-over' date=' palatable guitar weavings: girls are scary, girls are sad, getting older is weird, home is nice.[/quote']
January 6, 200719 yr Author 24. Kasabian - Empire 1610 points 8 votes highest rank from RTButt18 (4) and stermot1978 (7) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 65/100 Q: 8/10 Rolling Stone: 1/5 PopMatters: 6/10 NME: 9/10 Playlouder: 0/5 Quotes: Empire arrives with the same frazzled mien as Oasis' What's The Story (Morning Glory); alive with paranoia' date=' delivered with an unshakeable self-belief. It's relentless stuff.[/quote'] The second album... is miles worse than their shallow but tasty first' date=' its big-budget production only making its shortcomings more apparent.[/quote'] Naysayers may write this off as a derivative mash up of early-'90s indie moves' date=' but on Empire Kasabian have become bigger than the sum of their record collections.[/quote'] What we're offered here is pretty much a second take on the discordant beeps' date=' Mani-ripped basslines and lazy hip hop breaks of their first album, with the addition of some hideously nipped and tucked string samples padding out their attempted lyrical bravado.[/quote']
January 6, 200719 yr Author 23. The Zutons - Tired Of Hanging Around 1705 points 7 votes highest rank from .sally. (1), Dave S (6) and staring elf (8) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 68/100 Pop Matters: 8/10 NME: 7/10 Playlouder: 3/5 Q: 4/10 Quotes: Experimental it ain't' date=' but this summer in a shiny flat box it is. [/quote'] You have to go back to Costello' date=' The Beat or Smiths to find a catalogue simultaneously as hummable and as disturbing as McCabe's.[/quote'] 'Tired Of Hanging Around' is one seriously pissed-off' date=' paranoid, twitchy record. [/quote'] There just aren't enough ideas or songs to make up for the overwhelmingly mean perspective.
January 6, 200719 yr Author 22. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere 1750 points 8 votes highest rank from anna111 (4), frostbitepanda (6) and maxie1p (6) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 81/100 Rolling Stone: 3.5/5 Stylus Magazine: B+ NME: 8/10 Pop Matters: 8/10 Pitchfork: 7.7/10 cokemachineglow: 84% Quotes: The collaboration between sound technician Danger Mouse and astral soul brother #1 Cee-Lo Green is scatterbrained and compulsive' date=' a collective of voices in varying degrees of twitchy, restless (in)sanity competing for one mind.[/quote'] As scattershot and weirdly limp as parts of this are-- two guys just knocking things together' date=' seeing what happens-- well, it feels better to hear someone trying.[/quote'] A strange and unique album that is more rock and pop than anything most rap fans are used to. It is often silly' date=' occasionally ridiculous, always catchy as hell, and as loose as an album with this kind of production credit can be. What more could we ask from a pop record?[/quote'] As we approach the halfway point of 2006' date=' it's unlikely that a more vivid or arresting debut will drop this year, marking St. Elsewhere as not only an audacious accomplishment, but one of the year's best.[/quote']
January 6, 200719 yr Author 21. Beck - The Information 1810 points 7 votes highest rank from tams (2), Lera (4), i heart chris martin (7) and Zeoir (7) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 73/100 NME: 8/10 PopMatters: 8/10 Pitchfork: 6.9/10 cokemachineglow: 56% Playlouder: 3/5 Rolling Stone: 4/5 Stylus Magazine: B- Quotes: One of the best albums Beck has ever made. There's nothing here that Beck hasn't done before' date=' but it sounds unexpected once again. [/quote'] Although The Information contains some of his most aware' date=' intriguing lyrical head-scratchers yet, the familiar musical settings are something of a letdown from an artist famous for complete reinvention.[/quote'] Information ultimately suffers from the same hollowness that weakened Guero' date=' but it's bolder at its best and less derivative of previous victories.[/quote'] Overall' date=' this collision of dirty loops and polished pop is Information you need. [/quote']
January 6, 200719 yr Author 20. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics 1930 points 6 votes highest rank from tams (1), frostbitepanda (3) and whiteshadows (3) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 76/100 Playlouder: 4.5/5 Pitchfork: 6.7/10 NME: 8/10 Rolling Stone: 3/5 Q: 8/10 cokemachineglow: 51% Quotes: While the band has always played around with a variety of sounds' date=' when you get down to the nuts and bolts of songwriting, most of Mystics doesn't measure up.[/quote'] The wondrous beauty of Yoshimi hasn't been abandoned entirely... but the fighting spirit throughout At War With The Mystics is what truly sustains it. While Wayne Coyne has been carving out and presenting to the world the manifestations of his crazy mind for an age now' date=' the possibilities have so often been superior to the finished article. That is certainly not the case here.[/quote'] This is a band that' date=' rightfully, just sounds tired. [/quote'] The way that Mystics bounces back and forth between its ethereal and zany moments gives it a disjointed' date=' uneven feel that makes the album a shade less satisfying than either Yoshimi or Soft Bulletin.[/quote']
January 6, 200719 yr Author 19. Guillemots - Through The Windowpane 2105 points 6 votes highest rank from Black Shadows (2), Dave S (2), linnea (2), Erin (4) and Ondes Martenot (4) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 81/100 Stylus Magazine: A Pitchfork: 8.3/10 NME: 8/10 Drowned In Sound: 9/10 cokemachineglow: 67% Quotes: There isn't a duff track to be seen' date=' and you get the feeling the whole thing's been meticulously planned and orchestrated, with a mindset of giving us a record to cherish, something to put on when the chips are down, and that rare thing, one that will almost certainly be loved in equal measure many years down the line.[/quote'] Guillemots are constructing their own universe and inviting interested parties to join them within it. I can’t remember the last time a band did that so effectively and so invitingly. Through the Windowpane is at times a last-dance hallelujah' date=' at other times an open wound, but it's never meager, and hardly ever mundane.[/quote'] There's still a kind of inconsistency in the development of Through the Windowpane' date=' an inconsistency that can't quite work itself out in sweeping strings and vaguely dissonant chords, and unfortunately, this diminishes the power of what the album really could be.[/quote']
January 6, 200719 yr wow great work Nik........I didn't take part in it....but it is interesting to read anyways.....:thumbsup:
January 6, 200719 yr Author 18. David Gilmour - On An Island 2150 points 7 votes highest rank from VERVE (1), Cirrus Minor (2), linnea (3) and maiu (5) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 67/100 Q: 8/10 Rolling Stone: 2/5 PopMatters: 6/10 MusicOMH: 7/10 Quotes: The set ends on a gentle note in "Where We Start" -- so much so that it may make some scratch their heads and wonder where the cranky' date=' diffident Gilmour has wandered off to, but others will be drawn into this seductive, romantic new place where musical subtlety, spacious textures, and quietly lyrical optimism hold sway.[/quote'] Enhanced with pretentious orchestration and filled with aimlessly pleasant acoustic ruminations' date=' it attempts, and roundly fails, to replicate the magic of the Floyd in "Comfortably Numb" mode.[/quote'] It's probably the most personal project of Gilmour's career. Could be the soundtrack to a blissed-out tropical holiday.
January 6, 200719 yr Author 17. Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche 2205 points 9 votes highest rank from TLo (3), Flying Sparks (5) and Lera (5) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 76/100 Pitchfork: 7.2/10 PopMatters: 8/10 Rolling Stone: 3/5 Stylus Magazine: B- cokemachineglow: 69% Quotes: Anyone expecting a pared down' date=' contented Sufjan can bugger off. If anything, The Avalanche chases his caprice and whimsy further down the rabbit hole.[/quote'] There's a difference between a damn fine song and the brilliance that made up Stevens's previous two releases' date=' Illinois and Seven Swans. Unfortunately, The Avalanche clunks through track after track of damn fine songs while only rarely hitting these moments that make your body tingle in euphoria.[/quote'] The Avalanche is a great record' date=' but one that may have benefited from its creator learning to be a little more detached from his compositions.[/quote'] Although not as flat-out amazing as its parent album' date=' this new record shows us that even Stevens’s warmed-up leftovers are more creative, engaging, sophisticated, beautiful, and simply better than what most other musical acts have to offer with their A-list material.[/quote'] It's hard not to compare the two albums and find this one wanting; even the best songs' date=' which are quite good, wouldn't bump anything off of Illinois.[/quote']
January 6, 200719 yr Author 16. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers 2480 points 11 votes highest rank from markos (3), fudge (3), maiu (7) and Rev (7) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 75/100 Pitchfork: 7.3/10 Stylus Magazine: C- Playlouder: 4/5 NME: 6/10 Drowned In Sound: 8/10 Paste Magazine: 9/10 PopMatters: 6/10 Quotes: Within its own little garage' date=' the album succeeds completely, but in the big picture, Broken Boy Soldiers never feels especially important.[/quote'] An album that sounds effortless' date=' but at times almost dissyingly diverse--imagine The White Album, but made by happy people. [/quote'] Tie on the celebrity blindfold' date=' and Broken Boy Soldiers no longer seems like that much of an achievement-- just another case of men recreating their favorite vinyl deep cuts, if a bit more skillfully than most FM scrapbookers.[/quote'] Just like with White Stripes albums' date=' the music rattles your brain like no other and gets better with age. [/quote'] Instead of consolidating their respective strengths' date=' Broken Boy Soldiers is White and Benson compromising them in favor of finding an agreeable but ultimately dull and colorless middle ground.[/quote']
January 6, 200719 yr Nik...Tv is 27th , huh? oh well... can't belive Take That and some other ppl entered this list.
January 6, 200719 yr Author 15. Placebo - Meds 2595 points 9 votes highest rank from Cr7Ish (3), Ergf (3), Cirrus Minor (4), linnea (4) and whiteshadows (4) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 65/100 NME: 8/10 Pitchfork: 5.1/10 Rolling Stone: 3/5 PopMatters: 4/10 Drowned In Sound: 7/10 Quotes: A version of Coldplay's X&Y for the Hot Topic set' date=' Meds finds a successful band doing just a little to tinker with their proven formula--in this case, bombastic melodic hooks supporting straightforward, repetitive lyrical turns-of-phrase--and attempting to pass off a few too many soundalike tracks as thematic coherence.[/quote'] Meds isn't a terrible album' date=' but there's very little to get excited about on it either, and Placebo's calculated naughtiness is no more convincing than it's ever been.[/quote'] Darker than its predecessors' date=' the harrowing Meds is as close Placebo have come to that perfect album. [/quote'] Secure' date=' self-aware and even funny, this could well be the masterpiece they've always promised to make.[/quote'] If you are able to ignore the lyrics' date=' you'll be rewarded: the choruses on Meds are catchy. [/quote']
January 6, 200719 yr Author Nik...Tv is 27th , huh? oh well... can't belive Take That and some other ppl entered this list. the worst is yet to come, though...
January 6, 200719 yr the worst is yet to come' date=' though...[/quote'] :stunned: Keane' date=' huh? :lol:[/quote'] Hey I voted that 1st! :D
January 6, 200719 yr Author 14. Richard Ashcroft - Keys to the World 2880 points 12 votes highest rank from Chris015 (4), coldplay_97 (4) and VERVE (5) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 52/100 (one of the worst reviewed albums of 2006) MusicOMH: 7/10 Rolling Stone: 2/5 NME: 6/10 PopMatters: 5/10 Pitchfork: 2.0/10 Playlouder: 2/5 Quotes: Swept up in maudlin strings and chintzy brass' date=' Ashcroft blurs his anguished syllables like Tom Petty doing Bob Dylan, embraces U2-jerkoff bombast, and follows his idiosyncratically generic muse into uncharted depths. Keys to the World is as hilariously indulgent as "Trapped in the Closet", if vastly less self-aware; it's also a more laughable satire of contemporary music than Bang Bang Rock 'n' Roll, though less durable and totally accidental.[/quote'] The qualities that once made The Verve the nation's top anthemists are recognisably intact on this new effort' date=' from its stately pace to its burnished sense of grandeur.[/quote'] In trying to wrest profundity from simplicity' date=' Keys to the World is only profoundly disappointing. [/quote'] Not terribly different [from 'Human Conditions']' date=' though certainly more pastoral and perhaps more middle of the road. [/quote'] Keys to the World does have a few great moments' date=' but it's not the definitive solo record he's been promising. [/quote']
January 6, 200719 yr Author :stunned: apart from no.12 what was a very pleasant surprise for me, the top 15 looks very predictable and at least in 80% quite dreadful for my taste :disappointed:
January 6, 200719 yr Author 13. Dirty Pretty Things - From Waterloo to Anywhere 2980 points 11 votes highest rank from coldplay_steph (1), anniep_93 (3), fudge (5), julimp92 (5), Loretin (5) and __therese (5) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 72/100 NME: 8/10 Rolling Stone: 3.5/5 Pitchfork: 7.0/10 Playlouder: 3.5/5 Drowned In Sound: 6/10 Quotes: Punchy' date=' ragged, and frenetic, Waterloo To Anywhere surges forward, not-so-subtly aping The Strokes, The Clash, and The Ramones as well as delivering that precise buzz that can only be felt by the young, drunk, and excited.[/quote'] Barat's music doesn't have the baggage associated with Doherty's brooding' date=' poetic aspirations, but it doesn't quite have the same impact, either.[/quote'] Essentially' date=' Dirty Pretty Things sound like a sober and well-rested version of The Libertines… which honestly takes somea little of the fun away.[/quote'] Although it's a top-heavy record' date=' Waterloo to Anywhere gets stronger with each listen; the melodies come through and the energy that at first seems restrained starts to break free.[/quote'] It doesn't sound like a masterpiece; then again' date=' it does nothing to damage its maker's reputation, which is more than you can say for Doherty's post-Libertines efforts.[/quote']
January 6, 200719 yr Author 12. Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit 3150 points 11 votes highest rank from Jenjie (2), Rev (2), whiteshadows (2), __therese (4) and anniep_93 (5) Reviews: Metacritic overall: 78/100 Pitchfork: 8.5/10 cokemachineglow: 83% Rolling Stone: 3/5 PopMatters: 7/10 The Guardian: 3/5 Stylus Magaazine: B+ NME: 8/10 Quotes: The band's latest extends their newfound confidence to content as well as delivery' date=' and stands as the finest full-length by Stuart Murdoch and his shifting collaborators since [if You're Feeling Sinister']. But while 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress' delivered an aural punch above B&S's usual weight' date=' it wasn't quite the return to form many claimed. That return is delivered here, on 'The Life Pursuit', Belle And Sebastian's seventh album and their best since '...Sinister'.[/quote'] The Life Pursuit is unquestionably even more upbeat than its predecessor' date=' but contains newfound degrees of confidence and swagger that elevate it over DCW in nearly every respect, resulting in the finest Belle and Sebastian record top to bottom since Sinister.[/quote'] Literate' date=' droll, moving and often very beautiful, The Life Pursuit certainly isn't a bad album, but it's a disappointment after Dear Catastrophe Waitress.[/quote'] It's not a radical departure for Belle & Sebastian -- there are several intimate' date=' folky numbers that would comfortably fit on their previous records. But having these tunes surrounded by songs that successfully stretch the group's sound gives The Life Pursuit an unexpected, wholly welcome vitality.[/quote']
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