I had to put together year end lists for two different publications. In any other year, I might have needed two lists to compile all of my favorite releases. This year was different and now I think I should go on the record and say that, as a music fan, I am sorely disappointed. Even in the midst of the grungiest years of the 1990s, I was not so disgusted by the amount of truly miserable music. Let's put it this way, when I start giving points technical aptitude without mentioning the purely emotional response of the music itself, it's because there aren't enough synonyms for "repetitive emo bullshit" to put in use.
The first time I drafted a list of favorites, I realized that most of the records listed were actually released in 2005 (Ladytron, Editors, The Presets). Naturally, The Knife ended up in first place because The Knife actually has vision. Maybe every band this year has a vision of some sort, but 98% of those involve dreams of My Chemical Romancing the world. 2006 was the year I wretched at nearly every music magazine cover I saw (Panic! at the Disco has its moments, but not enough for a cover; If My Chemical Romance becomes the biggest band in the world, there is something wrong with the world; Don't even get me started on Fergie). 2006 was also the year that I figured I'm not really a hipster since I only think Cold War Kids and Tapes n' Tapes are alright.
It's not even that most of the Class of 2006 is technically awful. If they were (as in the case of Whitestarr and Mickey Avalon), I could at least enjoy the sadistic pleasure of cheap shots. No, this year's bands were, on the whole, just boring and that's a crime against music almost on par with a Whitestarr show.
This decade started out right. Primal Scream unleashed XTRMNTR, which was full ever bit of political rage embroiled within the L.A. DNC protests and Battle of Seattle in late 1999 and set to a bombastic dancefloor score. Later on that year, The Avalanches released should-be-classic Since I Left You, compiled solely of samples and featuring a title track with more soul than anything on the radio at that time. Ladytron released the singles that would go to form 604 the following year. White Stripes released De Stijl.
The following year, The Faint brought forth Danse Macabre and electroclash hit. As much as we complained about the copyrighted term bringing together artists in various parts of the world, most of whom were considered musical outcasts a few short years before, there was some quality work released during this time. Felix, Kittin and the rest made us dance in ways that we hadn't in years. ADULT. did more to truly embody the spirit of punk rock than most bands who claim to be punk rock. Bis released some of its best music before splitting. For those of us with a penchant for purching music, 2001 and 2002 were the years we went nuts in the shops, even as electroclash turned into dance rock and Miss Kittin and the Hacker gave way to DFA.
So what happened? Maybe it's because underground music was appropriated by the mainstream before the underground could get props by people other than hipsters. Maybe it was because, with few exceptions, the indie bands weren't breaking through, but for some reason a gang of unknowns became The Killers and then every rock band added a keyboard to say it was dance even though the drumbeats were off-kilter. Maybe the things that have been brewing for three years culminated in the shittiness of 2006.
This isn't to say that everything in 2006 was bad, but I'll leave the goodies for another post.