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The Institute of Idle Time and the 2006 Year-in-Review



Forgive the obvious nod to our second-favorite record of the year and the following references to a CD mixtape you or may or may not have (and, if not, email me!) as the introduction below graced the case booklet of this year's compilation.



When it comes to music, there are poor albums, lousy songs, ridiculous media-driven sales pushes for criminally untalented hotel heiresses, but, ultimately, there really is no such thing as a bad year. Not unlike a Chateau Lafite Bordeaux, pop the cork on an Idle Time year-end compilation, and you are guaranteed a lively, fragrant bouquet of pure ecstasy. That's an Institute guarantee. These twenty songs will serve as a musical time capsule, and when you listen and hearken back, years from now, on 2006, it won't be thoughts of Flaming Letdowns, mumblings of mediocrity, or an ever-widening expanse of real estate in the rock dinosaur tar pit clouding your memory. You'll hear everything that was good, fun, innovative, and inspirational from the '06 musical arena, and you'll thank us. Again.

This isn't to say that each year doesn't have its own unique quality, a signature flair that sets a disc apart from musical mlanges of prior seasons. Two things stick out in my mind for 2006, the first being a pop revival from a seemingly unlikely place, a land once recognized more for subjecting the world to ABBA, boxy cars, and sister-biting moose than anything else. It was late in '05, amidst a flurry of seminal recordings by the likes of The Shout Out Louds, The Concretes, and Suburban Kids With Biblical Names that all the lights in all the attics of all the Idle Time philosophers clicked on with the realization that we are, indeed, experiencing the Swedepop Renaissance. Swedish bands are certainly no strangers to American culture, but what sets the music of recent years apart from efforts of the past is a marked distinction between canned and frosted Europop, and a real, honest rebirth of the sensibilities that powered American soul music of the 60s, rock and roll of the 70s, and dance clubs of the 80s. We're remembering what makes music fun, and Sweden is reminding us. So between winning the hockey gold in Torino and the overall gold at the first ever Idle Time Games in Natomas (albeit through honorary Swedes), this Nordic Temple of Pop Magic contributed more than a dozen albums for Idle Time consideration with an impressive three making the final cut, including our Album of the Year. It won't be long before the far-reaching effects of this Renaissance will be felt throughout popular culture. A newsbyte from a recent issue of Harper's Bazaar (which I read exclusively for the naked pictures): "The catchy whistle tune that we couldn't get out of our heads during Fashion Week (it played at nearly every show, from Anne Klein to Zac Posen) revealed: "Young Folks" by Swedish pop band Peter Bjorn and John." Musically adept and fashion forward. And here you thought we were just four jackasses with little more to do than bitch about how decrepit Bob Dylan is.

The second defining element of '06 is the wake-up call experienced by so many fuzzy-faced and fuzzed-out American bands. The mantra of "less dream, more pop" invigorated the melodies and rhythms of shoegazing bands on both coasts, elevating the eyes-on-the-floor mope to an ass-on-the-floor shake, another much-needed reminder that good music celebrates some emotions more prominently than others, and when you're happy and you know it you know, stomp the reverb. Thirteen American bands grace the list this year, a good half of which have been winced at in the past for turning musical layers into droning noise. What changed? A gentle reminder that less is more; that it is the song, not always the singer; or maybe an influential album or three from Stockholm found their way into hipster rotation. Whatever the reason, the result is that these bands have given new hope to the American music scene, particularly important during a time when far too many still-walking ghosts of rock and roll past are slumbering through tired attempts at paying mortgages on Malibu beach homes at the expense of deluded fans too devoted to see the forest fire for the Damn Torpedoes.

Of course, maybe you don't really care to know what tremors went into shaping the topography of this year's musical landscape. Maybe countries of origin, prior influences, or enological analogies don't mean a thing to you and you're really just looking for something that sounds good to throw in your CD player. Howsabout twenty fingers-off-the-skip key, begging-to-repeat-me tracks you'll be keeping in rotation until your dying day. In that case, get ready to thank us. Again.

And now, without further ado (and without liner notes that I, personally, did not write)... our Top 20 records of the year...

1. Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
2. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
3. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Colin Meloy and the gang made the major-label leap in '06 with their best album to date. A rousing prog-rock opus with sly hooks and slyer lyrics (nobody gets away from a Decemberists blurb without mentioning Meloy's creative writing degree), The Crane Wife may have turned these college radio mainstays into Stephen Colbert sketches and Starbucks background music, but it didn't turn them away from their devoted indie rock fanbase, every member of which applauds their success and agrees that it's about damn time.
4. Asobi Seksu - Citrus
This sophomore outing from Brooklyn's Asobi Seksu ("Play Sex," loosely translated) is another gorgeous cavalcade of crashing guitars, melodic keyboards, and rhythmic basslines that has helped redefine a new generation of shoegazing dreampop. And, yeah, I'll be honest, it helps that the lead singer sometimes sings in Japanese. We all dream in Japanese sometimes. Now, try singing along. Full-immersion rock 'n roll: language learnin', Idle Time-style.
5. I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
Emanuel Lundrgen and his twenty-eight Swedish pals (one of whom, apparently, hails from Spain), are this year's answer to the frolicking sunshine pop heralded in by last year's Suburban Kids album. From a golden land bathed in catchy melodies and earnest rhythms, free of pretentious indie isolationism, Let Me Introduce My Friends is a warm, welcoming handshake backed by that most treasured of Idle Time virtues: unbridled enthusiasm. We're from Sweden. Nice to meet you. Sing along.
6. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
7. Figurines - Skeleton
8. Portastatic - Be Still Please
9. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
10. Neko Case - The Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
11. Maritime - We, The Vehicles
Milwaukee's Maritime makes a repeat visit to the Idle Time board thanks to this pop gem: an enthusiastic thirtysomething's meditation on our modern "directionless hair" scene and where we all fit in. Davey von Bohlen, Eric Axelson, and Dan Dider (formerly of The Promise Ring and The Dismemberment Plan) slow down, look around, and share their optimistic views on love, life, and making music in the frenetic post-everything world of over-hyped and overwrought indie rock. Crafted by modern cocktail drinkers with thinning (or missing) hair, We, The Vehicles is validation for all of us who are growing older and loving it.
12. Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
13. Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
14. Dirty on Purpose - Hallelujah Sirens
15. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
16. The Brother Kite - Waiting for the Time To Be Right
Providence, Rhode Island, does indeed have a heartbeat, and it's not the frenzied anger of a Portman-stalking Jewish rapper either. Sunshine-y surf rock hooks with an Atlantic Ocean backbone snuggled up with Midwest jangle make the Kite fraternity the best thing to come out of our smallest state since Peter Griffin. Sweeten your French roast feedback with some sugary hooks and you've got another member of the all-new, all-pop shoegaze cafe.
17. M. Ward - Post-War
18. Oh No! Oh My! - s/t
19. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
20. Love Is All - Nine Times the Same Song