In the next three months dozens of potentially great albums are hitting the stores. To help you sort it out, I’m going to post two pieces. Today’s is a look at what’s been in my head since the last music post I did, and the next will be a brief preview of more than 30 albums that have the potential to be great this fall.

Part One

I put together a playlist of what I've been listening to lately. If you have iTunes and you click on this link, it will ask you to open iTunes. From there, it will take you to the music store and directly to my playlist where you can listen to 30 second samples. With the exception of “Destination Vertical”, I simply chose one song that I thought reflected the album. I almost exclusively listen to full albums, so if you like one track, I highly recommend grabbing the full album.

I attempted to make this a coherent mix, which was next to impossible given the source material. Also, four of these songs are not yet available on iTunes. I’ll update the playlist as they become available. Beck is out on October 3, TV on the Radio and the new Black Keys album are out this week, and the Lily Allen album is available in the U.K. currently, but is inexplicably not coming to the States until late January 2007. If you like your pop music with a hint of irony and a whole lot of sass, Lily is a fine alternative to Paris, Christina and Jessica and worth seeking out if you have the means.

Here's the mix as it was originally outlined. For whatever reason, iTunes is displaying the list alphabetically according to the author.

1 - Cracker - "Something You Ain't Got" from Greenland (2006)
2 - Feist - "Mushaboo" from Let It Die (2005)
3 - Regina Spektor - "On the Radio" from Begin to Hope (2006)
4 - Beck - "Nausea" from The Information (2006)
5 - Camille - "Ta Doleur" from Le Fil (2006)
6 - Masha Qrella - "Destination Vertical" (2005) I haven't heard the album this comes from, but the song is one of my favorite finds so far this year.

7 - The Arcade Fire - "Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)" from Funeral (2004) I first heard this last year, but as music does from time to time, this album has really clicked for me in the past two months. As many of my friends were turned off by the hype of the Arcade Fire when the album first came out, I'm putting here to implore you to give this album some real dedicated listening.

8 - The Black Keys - "Have Mercy on Me" from the Chulahoma EP (2006) Still the best music I've heard this year. If this 6-song set of Junior Kimbrough covers ends up being my favorite release of 2006, I won't be disappointed.

9 - The Black Keys - "Strange Desire" from Magic Potion (2006)
10 - Constantines - "Young Offenders" from The Constantines (2001) I've been digging both this album and their album Shine a Light from 2003. I think the latter is a better album, but "Young Offenders" is one of the coolest songs I've heard in years. They do more with one note than most bands do with far too many, and even make "Can I get a witness?" not cheesy. I hope to dive into their third album (released last year) sometime soon.

11 - The Roots - "Don't Feel Right" from Game Theory (2006)
12 - Ghostface Killah - "Kilo" from Fishscale (2006) Two hip hop albums that blow me away.

13 - TV on the Radio - "Hours" from Return to Cookie Mountain (2006) Their albums are worth the dedication it may take for this to get under your skin. TV on the Radio is at times more impressive than good, but once it clicks, this and Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes is right up there with anything else released in the last five years.

14 - Thom Yorke - "Harrowdown Hill" from The Eraser (2006) This album took awhile to grow on me, but it has and I'm convinced that Thom needs Radiohead and Radiohead needs Thom. I don't think that's profound or anything, but this was a nice diversion and now I'm ready for next year's Radiohead disc.

15 - Aimee Mann - "Red Vines" from Bachelor #2 (2000) My favorite album I've heard for the first time this year that wasn't released this year. Stunning music.

16 - The Ark - "This Piece of Poetry is Meant to Do Harm" from State of the Ark(2006)
17 - Lily Allen - "Everything's Just Wonderful" from Alright Still (2006)
18 - Basement Jaxx - "Lights Go Down" from Crazy Itch Radio (2006)
19 - Pearl Jam - "Army Reserve" from Pearl Jam (2006) I have an abandoned post started somewhere that went on for pages about how Vitalogy is probably the most important album in the soundtrack of my life, and how this album rivals even that masterpiece. Anyway, this will be in my top 5 for the year and I won't be alone.

And just for the record, if I were to put together a top ten list for the year that ended today it would include, in no particular order:

Labels: music