Top of the Half-year

Alternately Titled: Half-way Through Another Year of the Dog Report


I have been repeatedly contemplating this post since after a few seconds of this music blog's being started. I thought of it being a lot more formal, and posting my favorite song for each album. I decided to be more complex, and much simpler at the same time (the twain converged). As to not bore you, I won't explain the system until the bottom of the post. So listed from top (favorite) to bottom (relatively least favorite, but still respectable).

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat (download there)
Daniel Johnston - Welcome To My World (buy there)
Neil Young - Living With War (listen there)
Tilly & the Wall - Bottoms of Barrels (download full album)
Kimya Dawson - Remember That I Love You (buy there) (download 12/26 here)

David Bazan - Fewer Moving Parts
Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
Pretty Girls Make Graves - Élan Vital (listen to a video of the album there) (The Nocturnal House mp3)
The Dresden Dolls - Yes, Virginia (Dirty Business mp3)
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere (listen to two songs there)
The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics (click on "Audio" to stream)
The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers (click, then "M", then "A", then 1 or 2)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
Calexico - Garden Ruin
Alexi Murdoch - Time Without Consequence
The Streets - The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living
Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Charles Manson - Sings (Album/Manson review here)
The Sounds - Dying To Say This To You
Grandaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat


Other 2006 albums that I need to listen to much more of: The Dagons, The Elected (just bought), Keane, Mates of State, and Snow Patrol
Other 2006 albums that I am looking forward to (sometimes wary of, though): Eric Machmann, Bright Eyes, Cursive, Bob Dylan, The Kiwis, The Polyphonic Spree, Sufjan Stevens, and others.

If you want to recommend any unlisted albums, feel free to comment.

So, as I said, the system would be posted at the bottom. Basically I would rank how well I liked the vocals on a scale of 1 to 5 and multiply that by 2.7. I would then multiply the ingenuity of the vocals (1 to 5 scale) with 1.8. I would add those two. I would then multiply their overall vocals by 3, and add that number. I would then add how well I liked their instruments (1 to 5) multiplied by 1.5, on top of the ingenuity of their instrumentation (1 to 5) multiplied by 1. The maximum for this half was 50. I would then give the album an overall ranking from 1 to 50 (usually the two numbers were pretty close). Adding the two numbers (leaving the highest possible score at 100, but the highest attained score at 92.3) would give me the total. I only put albums into the equation that I felt I had listened to enough to do so.

Example: ([Overall lyrics x 2.7 + ingenuity of lyrics x 1.8]+ [overall vocals x 3] + [overall instrumentation x 1.5+ ingenuity of instrumentation x 1]) + (Overall Opinion) = Total.
Specific Example - Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere:
([3 x 2.7 + 3 x 1.8] + [3 x 3] + [4 x 1.5 + 3 x 1]) + (36) =
([8.1 + 5.4] + 9 + [6 + 3] + 36 =
(13.5 + 9 + 9) + 36 =
31.5 + 36 = 67.5

Pardon any mistakes in the formatting of the equation. If I can get a scanner to work, I will post to what a messy degree those sheets in my notebook are.

2006 Artist's whose CD's I need to get ahold of: David Bazan, Calexico, Kimya Dawson, a few more tracks from Ganrls Barkley, Keane, Mates of State, Alexi Murdoch, Snow Patrol, A few more tracks from The Streets.


Also, it would be great if you commented if you listened to any of the streams, or downloaded any mp3's listed here. Also, those are not the only albums that Team-Love lets you download from their site. Go to www.team-love.com for more.