Year-End Analysis, Part I: “Time” And “Newsweek” Are Still Pretty Much On The Same Page

The “Best Of 2006” parade o’ opinions continues, and today, the country’s two biggest newsweeklies release their lists (sadly, neither publication used their foreign-news connections to solicit contributions from well-known international music critics):

THE GOOD: Even though Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor was a sales-register stiff, it wound up on both lists; hopefully the year-end critical push will convince Atlantic to keep him around for a while. And Time‘s inclusion of TV On The Radio and Joanna Newsom alongside the Dixie Chicks and Bob Dylan will no doubt prompt our parents to make some jarring spontaneous-shopping choices. THE BAD:: We understand the need to acknowledge every genre, but Newsweek selecting Kingdom Come (easily the weakest album of Jay’s career) and Time including the Vince Gill four-disc set felt like demo-appeasing throw-away entries. THE WHAAA?: Time‘s No. 1 choice is the “dangerously smart” (not to mention “ceaselessly overrated”) Arctic Monkeys; Newsweek praises that last Flaming Lips record, which even the nerdiest Lips fans we know tend to shrug off dismissively.

Review: The Best Albums of 2006 [Newsweek] 10 Best Albums [Time]