January '06 Recap
Feb 07, 2006, 11:47 AM by The ARTISTdirect Editors
Spent last month watching the NFL playoffs and racking up hours on the new PSP you got for Christmas, didn't ya? Fear not; we're here to get you up to speed. Here's what you missed in January:
Best-Selling Album: Jamie Foxx, Unpredictable
A lot of you must have spent last month snuggled up at home makin' babies, because January's top albums were all about those "adult urban contemporary" smooooove grooves. Jamie Foxx's all-too-predictable Unpredictable just barely edged out Mary J. Blige's The Breakthrough, selling about 432,000 copies at press time to Mary J's 430,000. Honorable mention in this category must also go to The Arctic Monkeys, who sold 360,000 copies of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not in a single week in their native Britain, making them the proud parents of the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history and proving once again that the Brits have better taste in music than us cheeseball Americans.
Hottest Single: Beyonce feat. Slim Thug, "Check On It"
Funny story: Slim Thug, the rapper featured on this track, is dating one Letoya Luckett, who was kicked out of Destiny's Child by the group's manager, Beyonce's father Mathew Knowles, back in 2000. That Slim's all about mendin' fences, y'all.
Best News Story: Shatner Sells Kidney Stone For Charity
Only the man who played Captain Kirk and T.J. Hooker would have the chutzpah to sell off his kidney stone for $25,000 -- after talking the purchaser up from an initial offer of $15,000. Rock on, Shatner (no pun intended).
Our Favorite Album: Cat Power, The Greatest
Cat Power's Chan Marshall has always been a great singer, but her delivery and music were always a little too quirky for our taste. What a revelation, then, to hear her belting out this traditionally arranged set of rock 'n' soul backed by a team of ace Memphis sidemen. The quirkiness is still there, but in this context it sounds less self-conscious and more like the work of a mature, confident artist who's not afraid to tackle any style of music. Plus, she gets bonus points for naming an album of new material as if it were a greatest hits collection.
Honorable mention for best album of January 2006 goes to Sia's Colour the Small One, which finally got a U.S. release two years after it first debuted in the UK. We shouldn't have had to wait so damn long (and if it weren't for "Breathe Me" being featured on HBO's Six Feet Under, we might still be waiting), but it was worth it.
Our Favorite Debut: We Are Scientists, With Love and Squalor
We really can't say it enough: Disco punk sucks. Bands like The Bravery and She Wants Revenge are a blight upon the landscape of modern rock. The '80s are over, people! Drop the fake British accent and move on! Having said that, the debut album from We Are Scientists manages to echo some of the conceits of disco punk -- the affected mopeyness, the danceable rhythms, the chattering, spiky guitar hooks -- without succumbing to its pretensions. Instead, With Love and Squalor has a whiff of something like originality and musicality about it, and that one quality most disco punk so vividly lacks -- a sense of humor.
Our Favorite Song: Ne-Yo, "So Sick"
Yeah, we started this monthly recap dissing smooth R&B, but every once in awhile, the genre manages to cough up a decent song amidst all the programmed beats and over-emoted singing. This month, that song came courtesy of a 22-year-old newcomer from, of all places, Arkansas (by way of Las Vegas, which barely makes any more sense). It's catchy, it's smart, and Ne-Yo does it proud, never losing track of the melody as he weaves his buttery tenor around the chorus.
Our Least Favorite Song: She Wants Revenge, "These Things"
Remember how we mentioned that disco punk sucks? Technically, we suppose She Wants Revenge is more disco goth, but whatever you want to call it, it's dour, pretentious dreck set to unimaginative beat programming and secondhand Depeche Mode riffs. And to top it all off, it's sung by a guy from LA using a fake British accent.
Our Least Favorite Album: Train, For Me It's You
We can't really say anything about this band and their insufferably generic brand of rock music that hasn't already been said by this guy.
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