Album of the Year
I was thinking about this today as I tried to pick what I was going to listen to (through my PDA connected to the car stereo) on the way to work. What were my 'albums of the year'?
My criteria for evaluating these requires:
- that I owned the CD (or in the case of Jesus Freak, cassette!)
- that I played it lots during that year and loved it
| Year | Artist | Album | Reason I thought it was cool |
| 1996 | Corazon | Crave | Mostly because Adrian Rowse was in the band |
| 1997 | dcTalk | Jesus Freak | The church kids' anthem of the late 90s. Not crap. |
| 1998 | Skillet | Hey, You I Love Your Soul | I just couldn't get enough of this CD at the time. I still know it backwards from excessive playing. |
| 1999 | Skillet | Skillet | Soak my heart in gasoline, light a match and consume me. |
| 2000 | Lifehouse | No Name Face | I heard 'Hanging By A Moment' on the radio and found that the rest of the album was a welcome suprise with a good variety and fantastic lyrics that I could really relate to. |
| 2001 | Third Day | Come Together | After seeing them live for the first time at Sonfest 2001, I couldn't go past Third Day. This CD is still arguably their best. |
| 2002 | By The Tree | Invade My Soul | Discovered this one at Keswick in the city. A fantastic driven, yet contemplative acoustic-rock album. The style continues to influence my musical taste today. |
| 2003 | Paul Colman Trio | New Map of the World | Maybe it was just my age but I always preferred seeing Paul Colman live than listening to his albums before this CD. I think he's much more entertaining in person - and I'd suggest that he'd be happy about that. Growing up in a Youth Group that attended more Paul Colman gigs that I can count, this album is a collection of his best songs. I'm still doing cheap covers of some of them on kids camps. |
| 2004 | MercyMe | Undone | MercyMe went from ordinary to awesome with this CD. It's just one great song after another. The musicianship is top quality. The band are meticulously in sync. It rivals almost anything else I've ever heard in production quality. |
| 2005 | Shawn McDonald | Simply Nothing | Simplistic, raw, honest, reflective. A good example for what real musicians can do with an acoustic guitar. |
| 2006 | Third Day | Wherever You Are | Their best work since 'Come Together', I've already memorised the words to songs that I can't find guitar chords for on the net yet. The lyrics serve as a constant reminder of a God who wants to know everyone wherever they are - not where someone is telling me that I should be, even if that someone is me. |
Honourable mentions:
Relient K (self-titled):
I bought this CD at Keswick in the Port Phillip Arcade long before anyone else thought that they were cool. I'm very proud of myself.
Relient K (The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek):
Just plain good listening.
Relient K (Two Lefts Don't Make a Right... But Three Do):
Best album title of all time.
Matchbox Twenty (Mad Season):
Great vocals. Rob Thomas has a really distinctive voice.
Apologies for the poor formatting of this post.
3 Comments:
Your first two baffle me. I could've sworn Crave was hottest in 97. And Jesus Freak, ur 97 selection, was released in 1995, and all the rage in 96! I think you got them the wrong way around!
Paul, i cant believe that you can remember that far back! I struggle to remember what was "hot" in 2003. Hmm... Maybe thats my fast paced action packed generation for you.
Nah I got them right.
Corazon was one of the first CDs I ever got. I know it was 1996
I was given "Jesus Freak" on cassette at some point but I never really got into it until after the Corazon CD had been well played.
In any event, they were my first two during year 7 and 8... which, seeing it was actually a decade ago, probably doesn't really matter that much.
Feel free to do your own list. I'm happy with mine!
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