As my faithful readers will readily attest to, I love to talk about the music I have been listening to and enjoying. I don’t consider myself some sort of great music critic or elitist but I definitely have strong opinions that I’m not afraid to share with whoever will listen. I think this makes me more of a ‘blowhard’ than an ‘elitist.’ Oh well.

On that note, I have been taking a look at the music I have really enjoyed over the last couple of years and decided to blog about my findings in the ever-popular list format.

Specifically, a top ten list of my favorite albums released since Jan. 1, 2006.

An important caveat: This list is not meant to be read through the eyes of music criticism so much as personal opinion. I love these albums and they were my favorites for possibly completely subjective reasons,.. and I may or may not make any attempt to tell you why they should be objectively lauded.

Lastly, I would love to hear your list or alternate opinions/choices. Tell me why I’m full of it about Radiohead or why I totally missed the boat on Springsteen’s ‘Magic’ (yep, not on my list). The list will count down from number 10 with a new album each day.. Here we go!

10: Neon Bible (The Arcade Fire)
9: April (Sun Kil Moon)
8: Raising Sand (Robert Plant & Allison Kraus)
7: Modern Times (Bob Dylan)

6: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards (Tom Waits)

Two summers ago I traveled to Maryland’s eastern shore to work as a camp counselor with a good friend of mine. At this time in my life, I didn’t know too much about Tom Waits, his place in musical history or his vast influence. I had some of his music, but I certainly hadn’t given him an in-depth listen or anything remotely close. Owen and I took long drives together during the weekends and we would listen to different kinds of music as we drove through the Maryland countryside, crossed the Chesapeake Bay, commuted around Annapolis or headed to the beach. One of those albums was Tom Waits’ ‘Black Rider.’

This extended exposure to Tom Waits was both haunting and off-putting in some ways. ‘Black Rider’ is absolutely NOT the place to start off when you are unfamiliar with Tom Waits, but start there we did. As time passed the songs began to seep in and make me curious about the rest of Mr. Waits’ ample discography. A few months after camp I found the just released 3 disc ‘Orphans’ album and was immediately engrossed. The individually-themed discs each illuminated a specific area of Tom Waits’ musical prowess: Brawlers for his gun-ragin’, whiskey-swillin’ blues-rock, Bawlers for his sensitive ballads and Bastards for all the strange stuff (and I mean STRANGE) that doesn’t fit in anywhere else.

I think ‘Orphans’ is the best place to start if you are new to Tom Waits. It is a compendium of Tom Waits’ work,.. but yet the recordings and songs are mostly all new. It is a collection of all his various sounds into one place (with the notable exception of the ‘Blue Valentine’ era) and it is incredibly fresh and accessible to even the most casual listener. After digging in here, you’ll want to go back and discover all of his other stuff that directly influenced this record. Happy listening!