Don Yates, Music Director of KEXP

I’m fortunate enough to be able to hear a ton of music every year, but I wouldn’t pretend to have heard everything worthwhile — there’s way too much music released nowadays for anyone to listen to all of it. Still, I’m happy to share my favorites, even though ranking them this year seemed more arbitrary than usual. Not very many of them shared much in common, beyond me liking them a lot. So while I wouldn’t consider it all to be set in stone, what follows are some of my favorite albums of this year.

1. M.I.A. - Kala (Interscope)
M.I.A. took a huge leap forward on her second album, combining hip hop, club music and occasional rock references with a dizzying variety of other styles from around the world for a sound that evoked a lively street corner in a major international city, with her deadpan vocals cutting through the hustle and bustle with lyrics ranging from the playful to the politically provocative. Pop music that’s genuinely cutting-edge, even revolutionary.

2. Miranda Lambert - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Sony/BMG)
One of the biggest problems with modern country music is excessive timidity, which makes the artistic fearlessness of this fiery Texan all the more admirable. She’s also fast turning into a great country songwriter who’s equally convincing at playing the small-town rebel or a vulnerable dumped lover.

3. Bettye LaVette - The Scene of the Crime (Anti-)
The veteran soul singer continued her artistic renaissance with this masterful album that finds her taking songs from a variety of sources ranging from Willie Nelson to Elton John and transforming them into deeply personal tales of revenge, sorrow, affirmation and redemption. The Drive-By Truckers provide surprisingly supple accompaniment (aided by the great soul keyboardist Spooner Oldham), but the focal point is LaVette’s powerful singing.

4. The Whore Moans - Watch Out For This Thing (Wizard House)
In another great year for Northwest rock, this Seattle band rose to the top with a knockout combo of classic garage-rock riffs and screaming hardcore punk intensity. No other band provided more rock ‘n’ roll thrills for me this year than these guys, and I plan on ending the year how it began, with the Whore Moans tearing it up live at the Sunset.

5. Bruce Springsteen - Magic (Columbia)
With indie-rock bands like the Hold Steady, the National and Arcade Fire all embracing Springsteen’s influence, the man himself returns to his classic E Street Band sound on his best record in a couple decades, with poignant songs painting a bleak portrait of a country that’s lost its way due to an unnecessary war, a climate of fear and diminished opportunities.

6. Wu-Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams (SRC/Universal Motown)
The first album in six years from the legendary Staten Island crew is one of the year’s boldest and most adventurous hip hop records. While all of the group’s rappers are in fine form (and Method Man is much more than that), the RZA steals the show with some of his most cinematic production, creating trippy, almost psychedelic soundscapes that are as intricately crafted as they are borderline bizarre.

7. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (Merge)
This Montreal band’s debut album was rooted in personal concerns, particularly the deaths of loved ones. This time around they look outward under the influence of Springsteen, and like him, they cast a critical eye at a world gone wrong, though their often-rousing music provides some hope and perhaps even a call to action.

8. The Valley - The Valley (self-released)
Hearkening back prime Sub Pop bands like the Fluid, Seaweed and Mudhoney, this Seattle band follows up their debut album with a monster 6-song EP featuring a bone-crushing sound driven by noisy, scuzzy guitar and massive song hooks.

9. Roger Wallace - It’s About Time (Natchez Street)
The Austin honky tonker adopts a more stripped-down sound on his latest album, while also confidently exploring a wider variety of styles with his most consistently strong set of songs to date.

10. The White Stripes - Icky Thump (Warner Bros)
One of their most adventurous, hardest-rocking and just plain fun albums, with the focus on Jack’s squealing guitar riffs complemented by Meg’s primal thump.

11. Kanye West - Graduation (Roc-A-Fella)
While he’ll never be known as one of the world’s great rappers, Kanye continues to shine as a producer. On his third album, he masterfully blends his trademark warm soul grooves with European electro-house and techno synth textures and an even broader range of cleverly used samples ranging from Laura Nyro and Mountain to Can and Daft Punk.

12. pleasureboaters - gross (Don’t Stop Believin’)
This young Seattle band’s explosive debut combines postpunk-influenced dance-rock with aggressive garage-punk and angular Fugazi hardcore into an intricate sonic maelstrom that’s still catchy and danceable enough to move the crowd.

13. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black (Universal Republic)
Put aside this young British singer’s never-ending personal troubles, and you’ll find one of the year’s most distinctive soul albums, with a sound steeped in ’60s R&B but updated with bits of hip hop and reggae. She’s also a fearless songwriter and a remarkable singer with a brassy tone and confident phrasing that sound years beyond her young age.

14. Jay-Z - American Gangster (Roc-A-Fella)
Taking inspiration from the film of the same name, Jay-Z gets back to what he does best, though his drug-dealing tales are now more reflective than they were in his youth. Lyrically, he’s in peak form, delivering a variety of clever, tongue-twisting rhymes with peerless authority and an untouchable flow. He also takes time to answer rap’s critics with a savvy defense of artistic expression.

15. Les Savy Fav - Let’s Stay Friends (Frenchkiss)
While this Brooklyn band’s previous records contained plenty of brilliant moments, this is their most consistently strong recording and also their best-sounding, with the band adding a few new pop tricks to their bracing blend of angular post-punk and Fugazi hardcore.

16. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (Capitol)
Sound of Silver is not only a great dance club album filled with New Wave funk scorchers, it’s also a first-rate set of pop songs. James Murphy improves upon his fine debut with a broader, more fully realized sound, stronger vocals and a variety of emotionally resonant songs that strike deep.

17. Feral Children - Second to the Last Frontier (Buffalo Shoe)
With roots in the small town of Maple Valley, this Seattle band shares some similarities to the ramshackle sound and alienated lyrical sensibility of Modest Mouse, but combined with the communal vibe of tribal freak-folk and the explosive rage of punk.

18. Burial - Untrue (Hyperdub)
My favorite late-night album of the year, bringing together hazy production, tricky two-step beats, atmospheric synths, assorted mysterious sound effects and manipulated R&B vocals buried deep in the mix for a spectral sound that gets deep under the skin.

19. Eilen Jewell - Letters from Sinners & Strangers (Signature Sounds)
The debut from this Boise-raised, Boston-based singer was a pleasant outing of heartfelt country-folk, but she follows it up with an excellent album that’s more tough, raw, bluesy and soulful. The album’s barroom blend of western swing, rockabilly, honky tonk and Jimmie Rodgers blues ends up being a great fit for her airy, sultry vocals.

20. Black Eyes & Neckties - Apparition! (Clickpop)
This Bellingham band proudly carries on the dark garage-punk tradition of the Murder City Devils, with a fierce blend of loud, buzzing guitars, spooky organ lines, pummeling rhythms, gravelly, shouted vocals and horror-inspired lyrics.

21. Dyme Def - Space Music (Soul Gorilla)
This young Seattle trio gets back to basics on their high-energy debut of straight-up hip hop, with one of Seattle’s great beatmasters Bean One providing hard-hitting production for their brash, street-smart battle raps. The Seattle hip hop scene was red-hot in 2007 with a number of high-profile shows and other excellent albums from Blue Scholars, Grayskul, Cancer Rising, the Physics and
Gabriel Teodros, and it shows no signs of slowing down in 2008.

22. Parts & Labor - Mapmaker (Jagjaguwar)
While their adventurous, percussion-driven sound is still loaded with lots of electronic and guitar noise, these Brooklyn noisemakers tighten things up with stronger melodies, relatively more conventional song structures, anthemic choruses and massive song hooks for a powerful rock album that would make Husker Du proud.

23. Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab (Def Jam)
The latest from the Wu-Tang rapper isn’t as strong as last year’s classic album Fishscale (or Supreme Clientele, for that matter), but it’s still loaded with a variety of soul-flavored hip hop bangers that place GFK’s engrossing street stories and high-anxiety rapping front-and-center.

24. Grinderman - Grinderman (Anti-)
The debut album from this project featuring Nick Cave backed by a slimmed-down version of the Bad Seeds contains some of the rawest, most brutal recordings Cave has made since the Birthday Party. He also contributes some dark, unsettling ballads, but at the heart of the album is primitive, bluesy garage-rock laced with menace and seething lust, but also leavened with some knowing winks at the absurdity of playing a middle-aged rock ‘n’ roll animal.

25. Tim Armstrong - A Poet’s Life (Hellcat)
The first solo album from the frontman for punk band Rancid is an endearingly loose and scruffy take on the classic Jamaican sounds of ska, rock steady and early reggae. Accompanied by the Aggrolites, Armstrong hearkens back to classic British two-tone acts like the Specials and the Selector for some of the most easily enjoyable songs of his career.

The shift is doubly surprising, considering the revamped band lineup includes sonic innovators like guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Glenn Kotche (who was also with the band for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born). Still, the songs are rarely completely straightforward and often shift in unexpected directions, while Cline contributes some knockout, psych-inspired solos.

With the musical adventurousness more subtle this time around, Wilco has made the most natural-sounding album of their career, containing some of the most soulful, plainly gorgeous songs in the Wilco catalog.

Wilco - “What Light”

The one on top is surprisingly the one whose guitar sound changed the least, considering the change in personnel. We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank is the remarkable new album from Modest Mouse. Yes, the band now includes former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, but while Marr’s light, atmospheric chime adds a sweet touch to a few new Modest Mouse songs, overall he seamlessly blends into his new band’s more ramshackle sound, dishing out a number of jagged riffs that would’ve fit right in on earlier Mouse albums.

There’s no question when listening to the new album that Modest Mouse is still Isaac Brock’s band. The production is a bit bigger this time, the hooks often brighter, but the songs are as solid a batch as he’s ever delivered, often indulging in nautical themes to express Isaac’s fatalism and frustration with the way things are. Many of the songs come off as deranged sea chanteys, with Isaac barking, ranting or even sweetly crooning. Sure, he’s technically a limited vocalist, but no one else could make his songs signify as well as he does, though Marr does occasionally add some nice frosting on the cake.

Chicago band the Ponys also reworked their guitar sound for their 3rd album Turn the Lights Out. While they’ve always experimented with guitar sounds, they do so with even more gusto this time around. The songs are their most expansive to date, and they’re fleshed out with a variety of atmospheric guitar tones and effects that often bring a prominent Sonic Youth influence to their noisy jangle, and those guitars are brought more to the forefront thanks to the album’s bolder production.

The most dramatic change in guitar sound comes from Nick Cave. Nick’s new Grinderman project is a slimmed-down version of his long-time band the Bad Seeds. Nick plays lead guitar for the first time, and his primitive, noisy leads combined with some vicious electric bouzouki and violin from Warren Ellis set fire to some of the most brutal recordings Cave has made since he was in the Birthday Party. His raw guitar squall evokes the Stooges’ Ron Asheton more than anyone else, and Grinderman’s self-titled debut album sounds at times like the best Stooges album of the year (sadly, the less said about the actual Stooges’ new album, the better).

Still, it’s not all raw power and unhinged cacophony – Nick also contributes some dark, unsettling ballads to the proceedings. And while at the album’s heart is primitive, bluesy rock ‘n’ roll laced with menace and seething lust, Cave also understands there’s something just a little bit absurd about being a demonic middle-aged rock beast, so he throws in some self-deprecating humor that brings a welcome self-awareness to it all. While not for the faint of heart, Grinderman is an often fascinating, highly entertaining thrill ride.

One quick footnote: Cave also has another noteworthy new release out. It’s a 2-CD/2-DVD set featuring concert recordings from Cave and the Bad Seeds’ 2002-2204 European tour surrounding the release of his excellent previous album, the 2-CD set Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. Most of the songs are from that album, but some older Cave favorites are also included. The sound is wonderful for a live recording, and many of the performances are well worth hearing and watching.

This week’s highlights include the 2nd solo album from underground Brooklyn rapper/producer/Definitive Jux label owner El-P. I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead combines his almost avant-garde, ultra-dense production with dark, unsparing lyrics depicting these dark times. El-P recruited an impressive variety of special guests to help out including Trent Reznor, Cat Power, Aesop Rock and members of the Mars Volta. It’s quite a guest list, but the focus of the album is definitely on El-P.

It was also great to hear Low getting back to their slower, more somber sound on their latest album Drums and Guns. While I enjoyed the relatively more upbeat and rock-oriented The Great Destroyer, they are masters at slow and spare, and that approach works well with their bleak new material, featuring a number of powerful songs about life during wartime.

I love hearing new young bands revitalize old musical traditions, and Pine Leaf Boys do just that on their new album Blues de Musicien. One of a handful of young Lafayette, Louisiana bands leading a revival of Cajun and Creole music, Pine Leaf Boys bring a more energetic, rocked-up approach to the music that’s getting young crowds all fired up down in Southwest Louisiana. Hopefully they’ll make it up to Seattle someday.

Another exciting new album is the latest from Tinariwen, a band from Mali who met while living in a rebel camp based in Libya. Members of the nomadic Touareg tribe who roam the Sahara desert, Tinariwen offer up an intriguing, bluesy blend of African and Middle Eastern styles. Their new album Aman Iman: Water is Life brings a stronger rock edge to their sound, spiking their droning desert blues with hypnotic electric guitar riffs.

Other new albums to keep an ear open for include the first album in 10 years from the California jazz-funk combo Greyboy Allstars, British band Klaxons’ debut of schizophrenic, beat-happy post-punk, Son Volt’s latest the Search, which finds them freshening up their roots-rock sound by using more keyboards, horns and guitar effects, and a cool new compilation of classic Indian film music titled Bollywood Gold. Now *that’s* musical variety!

This week’s new music highlights are led by a couple of excellent dance-rock releases. While LCD Soundsystem and !!! have both done fine work in the past, their latest albums are far and away their best yet. LCD’s James Murphy & co. bring a broader, more fully realized sound, stronger vocals and a variety of knockout songs with greater emotional resonance to their 2nd album Sound of Silver. The sound ranges from typical LCD punk-funk dance-floor scorchers to early ‘80s New Wave disco-pop a la Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and New Order before coming to a close with a surprisingly spare and pretty ballad. Highly recommended, as is the 3rd album from the Brooklyn-via-Sacramento band !!! (most often pronounced “chk chk chk”). While !!! have always delivered some wicked dance grooves, this time they do it with more confident vocal performances and better songs than they’ve managed up till now.

The station also received a couple of winning albums from Northwest bands this week. The new Seattle group North Twin has been getting some acclaim around town as the natural heirs to the late great alt-country rockers (and KEXP favorites) Radio Nationals. While drummer Rick Cranford is the only North Twin member who was in Radio Nationals, North Twin also has an anthemic roots-rock sound that’s rooted in both Uncle Tupelo alt-country and some classic southern rock, and they have their own distinctive lead singer and songwriter in Tony Fulgham. Their debut album Falling Apart (listen here) is a potent set of colorful Fulgham originals that show the band coming into their own as purveyors of soulful, blue-collar roots-rock.

Also on the gritty, no-frills tip, Bellingham band the DT’s are in peak form on their 3rd album Filthy Habits, a raw and sweaty set combining hard-driving garage-rock and high-energy soul with primal guitar riffs, a cooking rhythm section and Diana Young-Blanchard’s wailing vocals.

As for Merle, he’s simply one of the true legends of American music. While his popular image can sometimes veer into caricature, he’s a complex artist and a wily fellow that refuses to be pinned down. He’s a western swing bandleader, and also a folksinger. He’s an outlaw country rebel and a jazz balladeer. He’s a down-to-earth bluesman and a barroom honky tonker. He’s a guitarist, a fiddler and simply the finest singer-songwriter country music has ever known. Here’s a neat video of Merle performing “Sing Me Back Home” with Johnny Cash…

He showed all those sides and more at the Paramount with a set that ranged from Hag classics, some lesser-known gems and some newer songs to a variety of covers from Bob Wills and Jimmie Rodgers to the old pop chestnut “As Times Goes By.” He even debuted a playful new political song celebrating Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy while declining to play the long-time crowd favorite “Okie from Muskogee,” which goes to show how much Hag’s political views have evolved through the years…

Haggard’s voice has also changed through the years, developing a warm, burnished tone reminiscent of his idol Lefty Frizzell. Like Lefty, he’s a crafty, deeply soulful singer who relies less on power and more on subtlety to get a song across, shading and bending notes to evoke a wide range of emotions, and while he may be pushing 70, no country singer around nowadays can match his artistry. There’s still only one Hag – see him while you can.

Her bad-ass party-girl rep has threatened to overshadow her music, and she feeds the fire on her new album with some remarkable, refreshingly frank songs like “Rehab,” “You Know I’m No Good” and “Addicted.” Still, she’s truly one special singer that deserves all the attention she receives and more, with a brassy tone and confident phrasing that sound years beyond her 23 years of age. And if you’re reading this, Amy, John and I have volunteered to take you clubbing if and when you come to Seattle. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.

Other noteworthy releases that arrived at KEXP this week include the Harlem Shakes’ excellent, ultra-catchy debut EP of expansive garage-pop Burning Birthdays - Sickos (MP3), the new album from the Barcelona-based group Ojos de Brujo (titled Techari, it seamlessly blends flamenco with other styles ranging from hip hop and rock to salsa and bhangra), and the veteran stoner rockers Fu Manchu, who sound revitalized on their 10th album We Must Obey – crank this one up in the Camaro real loud. Another good one to blast is the debut album from the young Scottish band the View. While we’re getting flooded with retro-sounding bands from across the pond, the View’s brash garage-pop is pretty irresistible.

Rhode Island singer-songwriter Elvis Perkins has had to deal with a lot of tragedy in his life, including losing his father to AIDS and his mother to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and those losses cast a dark shadow over his poignant debut album of melancholy folk-rock Ash Wednesday. Calla is another band whose music is on the dark side, and their latest album Strength in Numbers adds a bit more rock aggression to their brooding sound.

On the local tip, Seattle band Siberian is now releasing their much-anticipated debut EP Hey Celestial! It’s a sparkling 6-song set of melodic indie-rock, combining some gorgeous guitar jangle with Finn Parnell’s emotive crooning.

Out and about in the clubs, I caught Seattle power poppers Shake Some Action! at the Comet last Thursday. They rocked up their sound a bit more than their excellent new debut album, and their harmonies sounded great live. Fronted by former Jeunes frontman James Hall, it shouldn’t be long before these guys start getting a lot of well-deserved attention.

I was able to catch the Whore Moans’ CD release show at the Sunset recently, and they’re even better live. The CD is pretty relentless and intense, but live they showed more range and depth. Who knew they could harmonize so sweetly, or throw in some nice falsetto? There were even a few impressive, almost prog-rock moments, along with some noticeable metal flourishes. And good lord, they’re one incredibly tight band. I was reduced to incoherent babbling by the end of their set, stunned and delirious with joy. If you love to rock (and who doesn’t?), you owe it to yourself to see these guys live.

Another Seattle artist to keep an eye on in 2007 is Gabriel Teodros. He’s one-half of the hip hop duo Abyssinian Creole, and his solo debut album Lovework will be out later this month, though you should be hearing it quite a bit on KEXP in the meantime. Teodros rolls with Seattle hip hoppers like Blue Scholars and Common Market, and his album is somewhat similar in combining smart, socially conscious lyrics and a smooth lyrical flow with warm, soulful grooves. No doubt we’ll be hearing plenty more from Seattle’s red-hot hip hop scene this year.

As for other new releases that arrived at KEXP this week, Scottish band Seafood sound a bit more polished on their latest album Paper Crown King, and while they’re not as lovably scruffy as they used to be, they still can kick out a variety of memorable songs. Like Seafood, Austin’s Grand Champeen have also opted to polish up their sound a bit, toning down some of their rawness while paying greater attention to song craft on their 4th album Dial T for This. Danish band Mew’s 2003 international breakthrough album Frengers is finally being released in the US, and fans of the more recent And the Glass Handed Kites should definitely dig the superior-sounding Frengers.

Other worthwhile new releases this week include The Airborne Toxic Event’s self-titled debut EP of New Wave-influenced indie-pop, Dr. Dog’s latest outing of ramshackle psych-pop We All Belong, and a cool CD compilation of the first four vinyl EPs from the up-and-coming New York label What’s Your Rupture?, including ones from Love Is All, Comet Gain and the Long Blondes.

This week’s reason for downloads: My Morning Jacket’s transcendent version of “It Makes No Difference” from Endless Highway, the new tribute album to the Band. Almost everything else on the album is pretty forgettable (excepting Rosanne Cash’s poignant take on “The Unfaithful Servant”), but My Morning Jacket’s contribution should definitely be searched out.

I spent the year as usual immersed in music, and loving it. While I host KEXP’s twang show Swingin’ Doors, I also enjoy listening to a ton of other music so my best-of list includes whatever music I liked the most this year, from country and rock to hip hop and R&B.

Beginning at the top, my album of the year was Neko Case’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. Neko has been one of my favorite singers and songwriters for quite some time now, and she just keeps getting better, with her music becoming increasingly more personal and distinctive. Fox Confessor takes in elements of rock, folk, pop, country and more while not being easily pinned down. She’s created her own dark and mysterious world influenced by growing up in the often overcast Northwest, and nearly every song here strikes deep.

Tony Starks (aka Ghostface Killah) is another great storyteller, and Ghostface Killah’s Fishscale is my runner-up album of the year. Fishscale has a cinematic flavor to it, with Ghostface’s gritty street tales and high-anxiety delivery keeping you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. It takes a few spins to absorb the dense, soul-flavored production, but eventually Fishscale reveals itself as a classic soundtrack to a yet-to-be-made Scorsese mob film. Hell, it has enough richness and detail to be a film in its own right.

A lot of great rock records came out this year, but the one I loved most of all was made by a bunch of young Nashville punks. Be Your Own Pet’s self-titled debut album crackled with an energy and vitality that nobody else matched, with Jemina Pearl spitting out provocative lyrics over an impressive, at times even arty, racket that didn’t neglect the tunes.

Up next is a grand statement about growing up in a land of sex, drugs and rock & roll that manages to sound not the least bit trite or overblown. The Hold Steady’s Boys and Girls in America successfully steered their timeworn subject matter away from cliché thanks to Craig Finn’s strong songwriting and big, empathetic heart. It didn’t hurt that the music sounded as big as the band’s vision, with the record’s muscular production powered by killer guitar riffs and piano melodies.

Seattle also put out more than its share of great rock records this year, with the Blakes’ self-titled album at the top of the heap. This local trio is more versatile than most, and their album ranges from raw, garage-rock stomps to a drop-dead gorgeous ballad. Most impressive, the song quality remained strong from start to finish.

Heading back into the world of hip hop, Virginia duo Clipse didn’t disappoint with their long-delayed second album Hell Hath No Fury. Produced by the Neptunes, the album features some of this year’s most wicked hip hop production, with edgy, minimalist soundscapes combining head-turning creative ideas with ruthlessly hard, cold beats.

Pop music is often the music of youth, but senior citizen Bob Dylan continues his latter-day creative renaissance with Modern Times. Like 2001’s Love & Theft, Modern Times traffics in traditional blues, vintage Tin Pan Alley, cowboy ballads and other antique sources. Lyrically, he’s as enigmatic as always, but also poignant, funny and even a bit lewd.

Rock ruled in the Northwest this year, but our neck of the woods also produced some mighty fine country albums, headed by West Valley Highway’s debut album Marysville. Combining lean Yoakam/Owens Bakersfield honky tonk with some Everlys/Holly roots-pop and a bit of bluegrass, West Valley Highway made creating great, timeless songs sound easy.

From Be Your Own Pet to Arctic Monkeys, it was good to see so many young bands this year releasing exciting rock albums. Up here in the Northwest, Stanwood, Washington’s Skullbot rose to prominence as this area’s most promising teenage band. Their self-titled debut album featured a bad-ass hard-rock sound in the tradition of Sabbath, Nebula and Mudhoney. Even better, the band brings plenty of fine songs and stellar musicianship to their riff-heavy stoner rock.

Rounding out my top 10 for the year is another local rock band, The Hands. Their debut release So Sweet contained just seven songs, but every one of them is memorable. Musically, they carry on the long, proud tradition of Northwest garage-rock, and So Sweet rocks hard enough to make the legendary Sonics proud.

I’d like to bring up a few other things I enjoyed this year, beginning with the resurgence of Seattle rock (I’ll get to some more country later, I promise). While 2005 was the year Seattle hip hop made itself known as a creative force, rock came back big time in Seattle in 2006. Along with the Blakes, Skullbot and the Hands, there were plenty others who made fine albums and put on great shows this year, including the Earaches (whose album Time on Fire rivaled the Hands for best local garage-rock release), Thee Emergency (who combined garage-rock with soul on their promising debut album Can You Dig It? while also putting on some of the most exciting rock shows this city has seen in ages) and New Fangs (whose Bayonets album was more Drive Like Jehu/Fugazi punk than garage-rock, though their live shows were equally as scintillating as those from Seattle’s new breed of garage rockers).

Other favorite local releases include Band of Horses’ great country-fried pop-rock debut album Everything All the Time, the Trucks’ delightfully sassy, self-titled electro-pop debut and Four Easy Pieces’ raw slab of garage-rock Birth of the Uncool. I haven’t even begun to list all the Seattle bands whose music I enjoyed this year, but I can’t forget to mention Iceage Cobra, who are true monsters of rock whenever they hit the stage – they embody the resurgence of Seattle rock as well as anyone.

Taking a look at rock albums from elsewhere, I also loved the razor-sharp post-punk of Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, the irreverent arty punk of Art Brut’s Bang Bang Rock & Roll, the blistering psychedelic-rock jams of Comets on Fire’s Avatar, the retro hard rock riffs on Wolfmother’s self-titled debut, the potent blend of hard rock and glam-pop on Earl Greyhound’s Soft Targets, the dark, droning psych-rock of the Black Angels’ Passover, and the high-energy garage-punk of the Heartaches’ Too Cool for School.

I should also give props to Dirtnap Records for putting out Shattered, a compilation of rare and unissued recordings from Portland’s late, great pop-punkers the Exploding Hearts. These kinds of odds ‘n’ ends collections are usually mediocre mish-mashes, but damned if Shattered isn’t nearly as strong as the Hearts’ one and only official album, the instant-classic Guitar Romantic.

In addition to Ghostface Killah and Clipse, other rap records I enjoyed this year include Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor (a socially conscious album brimming over with humanity from one of the most talented new rappers around), The Game’s Doctor’s Advocate (a shameless – and dead-on – evocation of classic Dre/Snoop g-funk gangsta rap), The Coup’s Pick a Bigger Weapon (no one combines militant politics and having a good time better than Boots Riley), The Roots’ dark and brooding Game Theory, Lady Sovereign’s spunky US debut Public Warning and Spank Rock’s playful and ultra-raunchy YoYoYoYoYo.

While not really hip hop, Gnarls Barkley’s genre-blending St. Elsewhere turned lots of heads including mine, and Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds was as adventurous as mainstream pop/R&B got: Timbaland & co’s production was often mind-blowing and “Sexy Back” rivaled Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” as the coolest pop single of the year.

OK, time to head back to the country, beginning with the more hard-core traditional stuff. Apparently Texas ruled the roost for traditional country albums this year – all of the following five are from the Lone Star state. Austin singer Sunny Sweeney’s debut album Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame showcased a fine voice reminiscent of Kasey Chambers and a multi-faceted country sound that ranged from rockabilly rave-ups to honky tonk shuffles and hard-country ballads.

While Willie Nelson’s recent collaboration with Ryan Adams was mostly a dud, Willie’s tribute to the great country songwriter Cindy Walker (You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker) was honky tonk and western swing heaven. Dale Watson put out another fine honky tonkin’ record with Whiskey or God, James Hand released his third album of unvarnished honky tonk with The Truth Will Set You Free, and Wayne Hancock sounded as good as ever on Tulsa, his latest album of old-school western swing and honky tonk.

I also should mention the Northwest’s own Knut Bell. While he didn’t release an album this year, I’ve played his upcoming CD of proudly blue collar honky tonk Wicked, Ornry, Mean and Nasty a ton of times on Swingin’ Doors, and no doubt it will end up high on my list next year. When it comes to barroom hard country music, Knut rules the roost in the Northwest.

I didn’t hear a lot of great bluegrass releases this year, but fiddler Michael Cleveland’s Let ‘er Go, Boys was something special, combining a hardcore traditional bluegrass sound and first-rate song selection with white-hot musicianship and some ace guest vocals. And while more acoustic country than bluegrass, Bradley Walker’s debut album Highway of Dreams was an excellent showcase for one of the most promising country singers around, with a resonant, note-bending hard-country style reminiscent of Keith Whitley.

Other excellent country albums included Johnny Cash staring death in the face and refusing to blink on American V: A Hundred Highways, Chris Knight’s latest album of gritty roots-rock Enough Rope, Paul Burch demonstrating mastery of many country and roots styles on East to West, Rosanne Cash ruminating on the recent deaths of her mom, dad and stepmom on Black Cadillac, Slaid Cleaves paying tribute to a bunch of underacknowledged singer-songwriters on Unsung, and soul singer Solomon Burke’s wonderful, Buddy Miller-produced country album Nashville.

The country mainstream had seemed revitalized the past few years, but this year brought just a handful of quality releases. Rock-sturdy traditionalist Alan Jackson took a surprising left turn with help from Alison Krauss, who produced Jackson’s Like Red On A Rose. The album combined the folksy warmth and intimacy of Don Williams and the elegance of Ray Price with the weary road warrior of Merle Haggard’s “Footlights” to stunning effect.

Fellow country veteran Vince Gill was the king of musical ambition this year, releasing a 4-CD set of all-new songs titled These Days. The set included a CD of barroom honky tonk, a bluegrass/acoustic country record, a soulful rock record in the mold of prime Delbert McClinton and a varied album of ballads. Amazingly, nearly all of it was wonderful. The ever-dependable George Strait put out yet another rock-solid album of traditional country with It Just Comes Natural, newcomer Eric Church came off a bit blustery on his debut album Sinners Like Me, but not enough to hide some strong story-based songwriting in the vein of Steve Earle, and bluesy singer Julie Roberts updated Tammy Wynette heartache balladry on Men & Mascara.

On the more rockin’ side of alt-country, Drive-By Truckers broadened their Southern rock sound with some strong echoes of the Replacements, Stones, the Faces and even some southern soul on A Blessing And A Curse. Bobby Bare Jr. whipped out another batch of brilliantly quirky songs on The Longest Meow, and speaking of quirky, the Gourds returned with one of their finest albums yet, the freewheeling Heavy Ornamentals. Rising from the ashes of Slobberbone, the Drams brought a little more pop to Slobberbone’s aggressive roots-rock sound on Jubilee Dive.

Some promising roots-rockers also emerged from Seattle this year, including the high-energy rockabilly-soul band the Harborrats and North Twin, who admirably upheld the Radio Nationals tradition of raw and rowdy alt-country rock.

Last but far from least, Tom Waits offered up a 3-CD set of rarities titled Orphans that rivaled his best work. The man’s one of this country’s greatest musical treasures, and an inspiration to all of those seeking to create music that truly matters. I could mention plenty more, from the dark electro-pop of Various to the cool, noirish roots-rock of Seattle’s Mark Pickerel & his Praying Hands, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten plenty others, but that will have to do it for me ‘cuz it’s time for a beer!

Don Slack’s favorite albums of 2006:

1. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Anti-)
2. Ghostface Killah – Fishscale (Def Jam)
3. Be Your Own Pet – Be Your Own Pet (Ecstatic Peace!)
4. The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America (Vagrant) (Hot Soft Light - MP3)
5. The Blakes – The Blakes (self-released)
6. Clipse – Hell Hath No Fury (Re-Up Gang)
7. Bob Dylan – Modern Times (Columbia)
8. West Valley Highway – Marysville (self-released)
9. Skullbot – Skullbot (self-released)
10. The Hands – So Sweet (self-released)

Favorite Swingin’ Doors albums:

1. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Anti-)
2. West Valley Highway – Marysville (self-released)
3. Johnny Cash – American Recordings V: A Hundred Highways (American)
4. Michael Cleveland – Let ‘er Go, Boys! (Rounder)
5. Sunny Sweeney – Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame (self-released)
6. Chris Knight – Enough Rope (Drifter’s Church)
7. Bradley Walker – Highway of Dreams (Rounder)
8. Drive-By Truckers – A Blessing And A Curse (New West)
9. Bobby Bare Jr. – The Longest Meow (Bloodshot)
10. Paul Burch – East to West (Bloodshot)

This former drummer for Seattle’s Carissa’s Wierd also happens to be a mighty fine songwriter, as evidenced by her self-titled solo debut album. It’s a gorgeous, low-key outing of atmospheric country-folk featuring a healthy amount of rootsy instrumentation and her own haunting vocals. Sera’s appeared on our podcasts and you can stream a few of her songs from her website and MySpace page.

She’s also played at a number of our events, including the most recent Audioasis live broadcast from High Dive on May 6. Have a listen to her in-studio performance from 12/21/05 - (WMA, Real)

You can catch Sera Cahoone at the Capitol Hill Block Party on July 29.