Got back home to Washington last night just before an insane storm hit which has knocked out power for all of Whidbey Island, likely to last several days. Yikes. Fortunately, we’ve got a generator and (at least temporarily) an internet connection, and I wrote up a few days of posts before getting here, so I won’t be too much MIA.
Anyways, it’s getting to be that time of year when everyone and their kid brother is making a “Best of the year” list. You may have noticed mine isn’t ready yet, but don’t worry, it’s on its way.
Part of the reason for the delay is that I’m enjoying the chance to go through all the other lists out there to see what I might have missed during the year. Because of this, I’ve listened to more new records recently than any other time of the year. A few have become late additions to my own list, and a few more won’t quite make it but I still wanted to talk about.
This left two options: either a) expand the list or b) take a week or so to talk about the ones that won’t quite make it. I was tempted to go with option A because I love obsessing over lists, but eventually decided that it might get a little ridiculous trying to differentiate between my 40th and 41st favorite record.
So here’s the first of a few short album reviews of the (not quite) best of 2006:
Math and Physics Club – self-titled LP
I liked their EPs, so I was delighted to see that Seattle-based twee-pop favorites Math and Physics Club finally came with a full-length. They don’t disappoint, providing ten very enjoyable Belle and Sebastian sound-alike songs. If that’s not your thing, you probably won’t care for them much, but (as might be apparent from my recent posting) “Belle and Sebastian sound-alikes” borders on being my favorite musical genre, so I’m happy. It misses out on the top 25 because, while all the songs are good, only one (“Cold as Minnesota”) really knocks my socks off. It’s a great record to put on while I’m doing something else, but it’s missing variation between songs which could help really keep the attention.
Cold as Minnesota
Darling, Please Come Home
And while I’m speaking of end-of-the-year lists, let me strongly recommend you check out Yeti Don’t Dance to find out what albums you have to put on yours if you want any indie-cred.