For some strange reason, I had an inkling I was going to regret having posted my Best Albums of 2006 list.
Why? Because I just listened to another 2006 release that would have made the list. And not just the Honorable Mentions. This one would've been in the top 10. Heck, it would've been in the top 5, it's that good.
It is Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing by everybody's favorite Nicole Kidman-loving, rehab-junkie* Keith Urban. This is one that I never considered buying nor even really listening to. But, I picked it up from the library for whatever reason and it's fantastic.
But what scares me about this discovery is that I now have three country albums on my top 20 -- The Dixie Chicks, The Wreckers, and Keith Urban. Well, technically, you can argue that the Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris album is also country, so it's now up to four. That's 20% of my list populated with country. I haven't listened to this much country music since I was trying to impress a girl in college. It worked for about a week.
I'm not quite sure what to make of this new-found appreciation of country. Do I embrace it and listen to more? Do I just accept it and go on with life? Do I nab a ten-gallon hat, some Levis, and boots and start signing off e-mails with "Yee haw, buckaroo"?
No, it's me you're talking to. I'm fighting it tooth and nail. I went to the library during my lunch break yesterday and picked up the new albums from Three Days Grace, Hoobastank, Jurassic-5, Disturbed, and Ghostface Killah. YEAH!
* Would the words "rehab" and "junkie" used in tandem effectively cancel each other out? They seem rather diametrically opposed, don't they?
