The Albums That I Listened to in 2006

 

2006 brought me two icon music artists and a re-introduction to someone I didn't expect to hear from. Scott Walker's "The Drift" is one of the great aural masterpieces of this century. Its intensity and insane humor are so jarring yet focused. I think of this album as songs, but they are also sound pieces with words. More like a mixture of sound poetry and reads like a great poem. What he did was so remarkable and original. I still get goosebumps listening to this album.

Sparks's "Hello Young Lovers" is just another example of perfection, as Ron and Russell Mael practiced. Songs like "Perfume" and "Metaphor" make me think that even as a writer, how do they come up with such incredible lyrics? Or the beauty of "As I Sit To Play The Organ At The Notre Dame Cathedral." Their mixture of humor and pathos is an amazing tightrope in a song or in art. Yet, Sparks does this.

Being a mega-Serge Gainsbourg fan, it's heartening to find both Jane Birkin and daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg make superb music. With the assistance of the band Air and Jarvis Cocker, she came up with something magical, "5.55." These three albums alone made 2006 OK.