Military Music - Military Times

Music year in review: Dixie Chicks, Gnarls Barkley lead the way

The USA Today music staff looks back at the year’s best recordings, tours and other positive musical developments.

Album of the year

Dixie Chicks, “Taking the Long Way”

It was a calculated risk that paid off. Having alienated much of their country constituency with an ill-timed jibe at President Bush, the Chicks declined to beg for forgiveness, defiantly forging ahead with a forthright description of their situation and attitude, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” and releasing it as the album’s lead-off single. That alienated even more of the country base, but throngs of new fans - and the majority of USA TODAY’s critics - were enthralled by the stance and, more important, the rich, textured, genre-transcendent music the trio and producer Rick Rubin cooked up.

Live moment of the year

U2 and Green Day performing “The Saints Are Coming” at New Orleans’ Superdome before, of course, a Saints game.

Omnipresent producer of the year

Rick Rubin was the go-to producer, spurring artists as disparate as the Dixie Chicks, Tom Petty and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to artistic peaks. (And he produced Slayer, too.)

Tour of the year

The Rolling Stones’ Bigger Bang Tour wasn’t just about bigger bucks. (It raked in $437 million to become the most lucrative outing in history.) It also provided an enthralling, muscular rock spectacle that finally swept the geezer jokes offstage and into Rod Stewart’s camp, where they belong.

Mini-tour of the year

Brian Wilson played a few sold-out dates celebrating the 40th anniversary of “Pet Sounds,” delivering the full landmark album plus sparkling oldies with a 12-member band that included Beach Boy Al Jardine, who added sentimental sweetness to an evening of emotional warmth and musical goose bumps.

Queen of the Idols

While Taylor Hicks edged Katharine McPhee, Elliott Yamin and Chris Daughtry in a tight four-way battle on this year’s “American Idol,” last year’s winner, Carrie Underwood, quietly scored three No. 1 country hits on her way to selling 4.3 million albums, the most successful “Idol” debut yet.

Most prolific artist

This year’s Ryan Adams Award (Adams put out three albums in 2005) goes to Vince Gill, who finished four albums in 2006. But rather than space them out a la Adams, his record company (which is also Adams’) decided to box them up together in the acclaimed “These Days” four-CD package.

Song of the year

Gnarls Barkley, “Crazy”

In a hopelessly fragmented music scene, this seductive, slow-burning, hypnotic track by a rapper and a mash-up maestro thrilled fans of rock, hip-hop, R&B, top 40, adult contemporary and virtually every radio format this side of country and sports-talk.

Our critics’ top 5 albums:

Edna Gundersen

1. Bob Dylan, “Modern Times”

2. Arctic Monkeys, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not”

3. Tom Waits, “Orphans”

4. TV on the Radio, “Return to Cookie Mountain”

5. Joanna Newsom, “Ys”

Steve Jones

1. Gnarls Barkley, “St. Elsewhere”

2. Ghostface Killah, “Fishscale”

3. John Legend, “Once Again”

4. Lupe Fiasco, “Food & Liquor”

5. The Roots, “Game Theory”

Elysa Gardner

1. “Barbara Cook at the Met”

2. “Spring Awakening” original cast recording

3. “Corinne Bailey Rae”

4. Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, “The River in Reverse”

5. Diana Krall, “From This Moment On”

Ken Barnes

1. Dixie Chicks, “Taking the Long Way”

2. Joanna Newsom, “Ys”

3. Bob Dylan, “Modern Times”

4. Drive-By Truckers, “A Blessing and a Curse”

5. James Hunter, “People Gonna Talk”

The highest of the low notes

Here are our picks for some of the year’s oddest, most quizzical or least impressive achievements in the realm of music ... or something vaguely similar.

Worst song of the year

Gwen Stefani, “Wind It Up”

Stefani may have thought she was in a league of her own and could get away with anything, but she forgot one paramount rule: There’s no yodeling in pop music.

Sheep in wolf’s clothing award

Clay Aiken, whose tousled new look, unveiled on the “American Idol” finale, drew breathless comparisons to ... well, k.d. lang. He later tried to show Kelly Ripa who was boss by covering her mouth with his hand on “Regis and Kelly” so he could get a question in.

Musical afterlife award

Johnny Cash and 2Pac are strong contenders, but the winner is The Beatles, whose new “LOVE” mash-up has sold more than 800,000 copies. All you need is technology.

Least successful retirement

(tie) Jay-Z and Barbra Streisand. Jay returned to the rap ranks with “Kingdom Come,” selling a whopping 680,000 its first week. Babs ended her retreat from the road with a sold-out tour and is talking about going out again in 2007.

Most glorious flop

Outkast fails better than most artists succeed. Big Boi and Andre 3000’s hybrid swing/hip-hop soundtrack and film “Idlewild” were artistically adventurous mishmashes that had more folks scratching heads than nodding them.

Least effective use of celebrity as springboard to stardom

Paris Hilton came close with a monumental dud of an album, but in the end, no one could touch Kevin Federline, who after two years in the spotlight’s glare sold 6,500 copies of his first album its first week out.

Game-over award

Michael Jackson. Still waiting for that new album from his new label venture in Bahrain. Still waiting for that superstar Hurricane Katrina benefit record. Still waiting for that Sept. 11 benefit record, actually.