Although Bob Dylan's remarkable new album may not have garnered him a Grammy nomination, it was his first to hit #1 on Billboard since Desire. Modern Times was also Dylan’s best reviewed album since Blood On The Tracks (including being named album of the year in Billboard Magazine’s annual critics poll).
Modern Times is also my choice for the best album of 2006. Set against an apocalyptic backdrop of broken levees, broken dreams, and a "world that has gone black before my eyes," according to one of the album's brilliant new songs, this album contains some of the darkest, most overtly religious imagery Dylan has used since the Slow Train Coming days.
But most often, what we find here is a broken down traveler who's made all of the usual mistakes such men make and is seeking redemption pretty much wherever he can find it.
On songs like "Thunder On The Mountain," Dylan’s band rocks with a swagger that recalls "Highway 61" or that great forgotten Shot Of Love B-side "The Grooms Still Waiting At the Altar." On modern uptakes of the blues standards "Rollin And Tumblin," and "The Levees Gonna Break," Dylan’s bluesy croak recalls the spirit of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.
At this late stage of the game, Modern Times is proof Dylan’s best work may still lie ahead of him.
Vague rumors about a Sinatra “Live Box Set” coming out on Reprise Records have been circulating for so many years that I eventually gave up all hope that any such thing would ever appear. And then, a couple months ago, there it was!
After enduring scores of unnecessary posthumous Frank Sinatra "best of" compilations, reissues, repackagings and "," Sinatra: Vegas finally gives both the casual fan and the die-hard collector something we actually want: four CDs and a DVD of previously unreleased (officially, anyway) live material spanning the years 1961 to 1987, all recorded in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada.
The DVD is the Holy Grail of Sinatra: Vegas — the fabled May 5, 1978 Caesar's Palace concert for an audience of liquor salesmen, celebrities, and a Catholic priest, recorded by CBS but never broadcast in its entirety. It's a truly awe-inspiring performance to behold, even though a few of Frank’s more outrageous comments were edited out of the monologues (including his raunchy riff on Elizabeth Taylor.)
![Orphans [Fold-out Digipak with 24-page booklet]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F78WSPECL._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
hey, great job and almost happy new year everybody.
2 - handyguy
Deserving of some kind of mention:
Love, by The Beatles
and
The Avalanche, by Sufjan Stevens, as well as Sufjan's Songs for Christmas boxed set
3 - Glen Boyd
Looks like a pretty decent list from here. Yeah, I think we all did okay with this. Round of drinks for the house I say. I'll also join Sir Mark in wishing all a happy new year.
-Glen
4 - zingzing
oi. you guys missed it on this one. taste is taste, i suppose, but you people sound ooooollllddd.
in the year of the hold steady, wolf eyes, scott walker (old, i know), the knife, clipse, junior boys, joanna newsom, grizzly bear, liars, excepter, destroyer, current 93, coil, ekkhard ehlers, swan lake, ooioo, herbert, subtle...
meh. it was a long year. things happened.
5 - manny hernandez
Dear Blogcritics colleagues:
Here's my list of Top 10 albums for 2006.
Happy New Year, everybody!
6 - Tom Johnson
No, not old (I'm 33,) zingzing, it was just a good year for old musicians. The problem with a lot of the newer musicians' albums this year is that I didn't find that a lot of them had that ring of "classic" to them that I've found in previous years. I've seen a lot of lists already this year that are putting a lot of names on your list there, zingzing, and for a certain subset of people I'm sure those are great albums, but I've also heard a number of those and I don't see those being albums that have the mark of being classics - that's what it takes to be a best of the year.
I chose Tom Waits' box because it will be something that I will and people in general will return to in 5, 10, 15 years and it will continue to be as fresh and relevant as it is today. The best should be timeless. Maybe some of your list qualifies as timeless because they are so unique - I think maybe Grizzly Bear is close, maybe Liars, and while I don't particularly like him, Scott Walker has certainly earned his keep. But I have my doubts that most of the other names on your list will be considered classics worthy of being named albums of the year many years down the line. At least that's how I look at this - maybe I take this a lot more seriously than most listeners.
7 - El Bicho
If it had been which album rocked my socks off, it would have been Wolfmother; however, I'll stand by my pick and somehow find a way to live with myself.
8 - Triniman
From Vancouver, "Destroyer's Rubies" by Destroyer stands as one of my favorite albums of the year. It's always tough to pick just one, but I will stop at Destroyer. The songs, vocals and the guitar playing are distinctive and appealing.
Destroyer is essentially Dan Bejar, one of the members of The New Pornographers, one of Canada's top indie-pop groups. Canada's new national anthem? A Letter To An Occupant.
9 - DJRadiohead
I gotta say, I think we got a nice cross section of musical genres and styles. I also think it says at least as much about the state of music as it does the writers that so many of these selections come from "classic" artists as opposed to contemporary artists.
I can't wait to do my Top 10. I am surprised Thom Yorke's great solo album got no mentions.
10 - Glen Boyd
DJR --
Thom Yorke's album would probably make a personal top ten, possibly even a top five. However, I admit it took me quite awhile to warm to it. In my original review, I didn't quite dismiss it, but I did bemoan it's general lack (at least on the first few listens) lack of melody (in the traditional sense) or memorable songs.
I've since come around to it. I think it was about the time I realized I couldn't get "this is fucked up...fucked up" outta my head that I realized hooks can indeed come in many different shades.
-Glen
11 - Mark Saleski
old? how dare you! ok, i'm old.
but still, i enjoyed both Joanna Newsome's Ys and the record by The Decemberists. the thing is, if i'd have picked one of them, somebody would have accused me of leaning too far towards the Pitchfork crowd.
besides, tom johnson drove down the average age both by being young and by picking John Ma.....
12 - Matthew T. Sussman
What's music?
Anywho, it just needs to be said once more that I was using "big bowl of wrong" long before Mr. Head was using it -- months before, really -- although I never used it as religiously as he.
13 - Steve C.
Work having swallowed me up, I don't think I'll be posting a Top 10 for music this year. Best album of the year? In my more contemplative moods, it's Destroyer's Rubies; at all other times, it's Young Machetes by the Blood Brothers.
However, when we get around to the top films of the year, somebody give me a holler.
14 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
No offense to Mr. Beaumont, because I usually like his reviews,But his pick for the best of '06 in the metal catagory just shows that the watered down sing alongs of Hardcore along with the dull & drudging drop-D of Nu-Metal are still the favorite taste of the oh-so boring Metal scene here in the US!! Unfortunately, Killswitch Engage sounds like a poor rip from an old God Forbid album though their lastest effort is rather catchy. BUT,catchiness is not the criteria for a brilliant Metal album...
As for my pick, it would come to us all the way from France. Gorod Leading Vision was a breath of fresh air pumped into a genre that hasn't seen much since Opeth's latest release which wasn't their best effort. Though, Arsis United in Regret is a close second and deserves a listen by anyone claiming to be a metal fan!!
Happy New Year BC...
Peace!
15 - A.L. Harper
Knowing that DJRadiohead lives in the arse of Guster I decided to write my own Guster free list and dedicate it to the memory of you DJRadiohead. But I know you won't approve!
16 - Brian
Sparks' "Hello Young Lovers" and Man Man's "Six Demon Bag" were both tragically overlooked!