Best of 2006: Maybe "Best" is the Wrong Word

Pitchfork's "Worst Album Covers of 2006": Yeah, what was up with that Built to Spill art?

The Passion of the Weiss' "Ten Most Disappointing Albums of 2006": I'm not sure how one can be disappointed with Morningwood. With a name like that, what do you really expect?

For those wondering how Silent Alarm will fare in ten years, The Onion's AV Club looks back at "11 Ghosts Of Best-Of Music Lists Past (1989–2000)." Were people really excited about Living Colour's Time's Up? (Apparently yes... J from Heart-on-a-Stick certainly was. Still, not my thing.) Elsewhere, the editors explain why The Raconteurs, Beck, Clipse, Joanna Newsom and other common end-of-year contenders didn't make their list.

The Golden Globe noms are in... the picks are unsurprisingly milquetoast. Dreamgirls, Blood Diamond, Seal for best song...zzzz.

Comments

[J]

Not only were people excited for Time's Up, they were excited by it. And it still totally holds up for me. Vivid was the mish-mash -- "Glamour Boys?" Wha?

That second CD is a fantastic listen from start to finish. Lots of 'tude, Vernon Reid's always amazing guitar work, Little Richard rapping on "Elvis is Dead," the band's best song ("Love Rears Up its Ugly Head").

Not to slam the usually astute Onion folks but comparing them to Bad Brains or Fishbone just because those were other groups with African-Americans is just plain dumb. There's no reggae or ska in Living Colour, and one of Vivid's producers was Mick Jagger.

I doubt anything on your Best-Of list, this year, will hold up as well as Time's Up.

[Bill P]

You know, I think it's just a matter of what you were into at the time.

I was Music Director of my college station (WWVU-FM) when Time's Up came out. It was in heavy rotation, but it seems to me most of us were more interested in Stone Roses/The Chills/Pixies... or Tribe Called Quest and that whole scene. Living Colour were not my thing. Reid is indeed an amazing guitarist... but I have never been into that style of playing. Mostly I remember those awful dayglo outfits.

But I agree, Living Colour had very little to do with Fishbone or Bad Brains other than the color of their skin.