MP3 – [right-click/save-as] (18 MB)
1. “The Funeral” – Band of Horses
Two Seattle boys with a strong tune sense and lips that need kissing something fierce make a gloomy downer that sulks like Tonight’s the Night-era Neil Young, then gets epic like the Arcade Fire.
2. “Postcards From Italy” – Beirut
3. “Our Hell” – Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton
4. “Hospital Beds” – Cold War Kids
5. “Crazy” – Gnarls Barkley
In a perfect world, Al Green could still sing collard-green soul gems like this one, but Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse stepped up with an instant classic, winning this year’s “Hey Ya!” award for the song nobody even pretended not to like. Everybody tried to cover it, but nobody can hit the chorus like Cee-Lo, and nobody ever will.
6. “The Greatest” – Cat Power
The strings are breathtaking and the backing vocals are ethereal, but it’s Chan Marshall’s eerily aching voice that makes this soar.
7. “Your Eyes are Liars” – Sound Team
8. “Omaha” – Tapes ‘n Tapes
9. “Roscoe” – Midlake
10. “Nature of the Experiment” – Tokyo Police Club
They’re not from Tokyo, they’re not cops and the only club they could get into is probably the Strokes Fan Club — but these mods score with a gloriously dumb garage-punk thrash-terpiece.
i’m so proud of you!
I didn’t like “Crazy” when it came out last summer. It just didn’t do much for me. Then they started playing it on every station and suddenly everyone and their mom loved the song so that made me like it even less (I’m weird like that). A year later it finally grew on me. I’m not obsessed with it and I haven’t checked out Gnarles Barkley’s complete album but I think I’ll get around to it. From what I hear, I’m missing out.
I liked “Crazy” a lot when I first heard it. I think I posted about it the next day. Then, about a month or so later, it blew up. After hearing it everyday… everywhere…. all summer long, I got really sick of it. But, it is pretty good and it was an essential track of ’06, so it placed very high on the list.
“Smiley Faces” and “Gone Daddy Gone” (a Violent Femmes cover) are a couple others I like from the album.
Also, there are lots of “Crazy” covers floating around on the web worth checking out, especially by The Kooks and Ray LaMontagne.
Genuinely wondering how long it took you to narrow this one down. Is there a self-updating ordering system a la Netflix? If no, I feel like this would take at least a month on its own.
That said, I can’t wait for 07. If I keep going at this rate, you’re going to turn into an expensive habit:)