Favorite Albums of 2000s: #1

At long last, we come to #1, my favorite album of the decade (so far).  I don’t really need the parenthetical thought, as i am confident that nothing in the next 20 months will top this one.

 

1.      A Collision or (3 + 4 = 7) – David Crowder Band

 

When our depravity meets His divinity, it’s a beautiful collision. – David Crowder

 

When this group of guys from Baylor University – my fellow Bears – hit the modern worship scene in the early 00s, i kept an eye on them & bought their debut album (Can You Hear Us?) out of collegiate solidarity, but didn’t really get into their music.  So when my good friend Shane from Atlanta started hyping this album, before it was even released, i was intrigued but unmoved.  Shane had heard several pre-released tracks and was convinced that this was the big one, the F5 CD.  He was right.

 

Read this review at CT.  I would be even more effusive.  I couldn’t believe my ears.  I had never heard anything like this record.  Like the F5, i was blown away (sorry for the strained metaphor).  I now consider this the finest album i’ve heard since 1987’s The Joshua Tree by U2.

 

I rate 3 tracks as 5-stars:  the perfectly CCM-sensible Wholly Yours, the title track, and the fun rocker We Win! (a song the kids & i blasted on the car stereo when i drove them to school).  And a whole bevy of other outstanding tracks, including Here Is Our King, Do Not Move, and Rescue is Coming.  The song Our Happy Home concludes with a marvelous bit of sonic trickery (read about itin the link).

 

But like any top-notch album, it works best as a whole, in sequence.  DCB starts off with a call to worship in Come & Listen, then segues into pure CCM territory, and then (after a detour into a section we’ll call “let’s show off all the musical styles we like and can play”) into modern rock worship.  All in all, it adds up to masterpiece.  Plain & simple.

 

Other links:

·       DCB on myspace

·       DCB page at Christianity Today

·       Interview about the album and the tragedy of Pastor Lake’s electrocution

·       DCB at wiki

·       David on New Song Café, doing Here Is Our King and Wholly Yours

·       I Saw the Light (yes, it’s on this album)

·       Everybody Wants to go to Heaven (this is for my dad, and yes, it too is on this album, briefly)

·       Foreverandever

·       BBC Orchestra plays The Lark Ascending (DCB covers this, fugues it into a modern worship tune, and adds lyrics, closing the album)

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #2

2.  Come On Feel the Illinoise! – Sufjan Stevens

 

I waffled a long time between this and the album i ultimately selected as #1 for the top spot.  I almost listed this one as 1b, but thought that was cheating.  Whatever the label, this is one incredible album.  If you’re not familiar with the music of Sufjan Stevens, you’re really missing out on a musical prodigy, a genius at interweaving odd and simple instruments and sounds into his multi-layered, beautiful songs.  He may be a bit of an acquired taste for some, but if you “get it”, you’ll love it.

 

Start with Illinoise, which is for me clearly his best work.  As one reviewer put it, the music is “strange and lush… excessive and challenging.”  The conceit of the album is a tribute to the state of Illinois, the 2nd installment in Sufjan’s hyperbolic quest to create an album for each of the 50 states.  The lyrics are sprinkled with obvious and obscure references to all-things Illinois, but you don’t need a connection to that state to understand it or enjoy it.

 

This is another album sequenced to listen through from start to finish, with a number of sub-one-minutes sonic intermissions, palette cleansers perhaps.  Of the 22 tracks, there are only 13 or so full songs, but oh what great songs they are.  My two favorites are “Casimir Pulaski Day” and “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” (a haunting song which will be off-putting for some – it’s not an ode to a serial killer, but Sufjan does draw parallels to our own sins, hidden beneath our metaphorical floorboards), probably the two barest (musically) tracks, but the two with the most story-like lyrics (eg, “Tuesday night at the Bible study we lift our hands and pray over your body but nothing ever happens”).

 

The title track, the one about Chicago, and the one about Superman are also stellar.  I love Jacksonville. 

And the Night Zombies with a cool funky groove.  Tallest Man, Broadest Shoulders.  I could listen to this album over and over again.  It’s one for the ages.

 

Other links

·       Decidedly odd-duck bio of Sufjan from his record label

·       Myspace – if you dig that sort of thing

·       Review of Illinoise at Pitchfork

·       The Predatory Wasp

·       Another version of the Zombies song (with strings)

 

Next up:  my favorite album of the decade.  Sic ‘em bears!

Up to #3

Recap of the Top 10 (so far)…

4.  Home – Dixie Chicks

5.  Glo – Delirious?

6.  All That You Can’t Leave Behind – U2

7.  All Right Here – Sara Groves

8.  The Beautiful Letdown – Switchfoot

9.  Remedy – David Crowder Band

10.  Divine Discontent – Sixpence None the Richer

 

 

3.  Ohio – Over the Rhine

 

This prolific band – the husband & wife duo of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist – crafted their magnum opus with this 2003 double-album named after their home state (the band name itself is taken from a neighborhood in their hometown of Cincinnati).

 

The Phantom Tollbooth review in that first link above captures it all pretty well.  This is one to just put on and let it run through, with one great song after another.  Just absolutely beautiful music.  A work of art.

 

My favorite tracks are: 

·       Ohio (title track)

·       Lifelong Fling

·       B.F.D

·       How Long Have You Been Stoned?

 

Other links:

·       OtR on myspace

·       Jesus in New Orleans

 

Next up:  what do you get when you mix banjos, musical genius, a serial killer, Superman, and a million other odds and ends?

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #4

4.  Home – Dixie Chicks

 

Some of you may stop reading right there, and i guess i would understand that.  But let’s take a time machine, back to before all the controversy, back to February 2003.  The Dixie Chicks had just sung the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.  This album had just hit #1 on the Billboard charts (not just the country charts) for the 2nd time (after 3 weeks at #1 back in the fall 2002).  The album had garnered 4 Grammy Awards, including Best Country Album, and had charted two singles at #7 in the Billboard Hot 100 (Landslide and Long Time Gone).  Another single (Travelin’ Soldier) had hit #1 on the country chart.  And me, i was listening to this incredible gem over and over again.

 

My history with the Dixie Chicks goes way back, back to their beginning in 1989 in Dallas.  I remember catching them live in the West End at some music festival, along with my best bud Mike B.  Natalie wasn’t around back then, of course, at least not with the band (she was 14 at the time).  Marti and Emily were still teenagers themselves, but they had obvious talent as musicians.  They were little more than a novelty act, though.  A cowgirl band, complete with a cactus-shaped standup bass.  I tracked them over those early years through their newsletter, as they played every little county fair and honky tonk around Texas. 

 

So my roots with the Chicks run deep, and are not easily cast aside.  And even their detractors, if they can be honest about it, would have to admit that the Home album is top-notch stuff.  On a per-track basis, this might be the best album of the decade.

 

My favorite tracks are:  Travelin’ Soldier, Godspeed, and Top of the World.  I even like White Trash Wedding.

 

More links:

·       A Home – with James Taylor

·       Truth #2 – Julie and the kids & i used to dance around to this one

·       More Love

·       I Believe in Love

 

Next up:  a transcendent double album from a band from Ohio

Devilish Apostasy

I'm a big fan of Tyler Hansbrough.  There, i said it.  May my fellow Blue Devils forgive my apostasy, but i can't help but admire the guy.  He is a great representative of what is good about college athletics, in the same way that Bobby Hurley and Shane Battier were for Duke.  Tyler's the sort of player that you would love to have on your team; even a Duke guy can see and admit that.

This does NOT mean i am rooting for UNC to win another national title in this year's Final Four.  I don't really need a reason for that, beyond the obvious.

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #5

Continuing the countdown of my favorite albums of the decade, we’re up to...

 

5.  Glo – Delirious?

 

Like the previous U2 selection, this modern worship masterpiece was released in October 2000.  I always thought that if U2 – the 90s version of U2 – ever made a praise & worship album, it would sound something like Glo.  Or perhaps the sort of sound you might hope to hear from a heavenly rock band.  It’s that good.

 

Its premier track for me is “My Glorious”, a bombastic guitar-driven worship anthem.  Crank it up to 11 on this one.  But there are also excellent “quiet” songs, such as “What Would I Have Done?” and “Investigate”.

 

Glo is a case of an album being greater than the sum of its parts.  It has a cohesiveness to it that begs to be listened through in order, a rare happening in our ipod world.

 

Other links:

·       Video for Everything

·       Amazon reviews

 

Next up: the most controversial pick

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #6

Recap so far...

7.  All Right Here – Sara Groves

8.  The Beautiful Letdown – Switchfoot

9.  Remedy – David Crowder Band

10.  Divine Discontent – Sixpence None the Richer

11.  This Mystery – Nichole Nordeman

12.  Learning to Breathe – Switchfoot

13.  The Chess Hotel – The Elms

14.  Add to the Beauty – Sara Groves

15.  Get Behind Me Satan – The White Stripes

16.  She Must and Shall Go Free – Derek Webb

17.  Arriving – Chris Tomlin

 

This brings us to…

 

6.  All That You Can’t Leave Behind – U2

 

I recently decided to move U2 up to the position of the 2nd best band in history, behind only the Beatles.  And while i never thought it possible for the Beatles to be dethroned, i’m this close to doing it.

 

This release from October 2000 is U2’s best work since 1987’s The Joshua Tree.  It garnered the band a whopping 7 Grammy Awards, either for the album or its singles.  The song “Beautiful Day” alone snagged the band 3 of those Grammys.

 

There’s not a bad track on this album.  My favorite is Elevation.  Kite is overlooked. 

 

I would call this U2’s most accessible album.  It’s the one i would offer to the average non-fan to get introduced to the band.  It’s one i could see playing with my parents in the room, and not being on edge that it’s bothering them.  I don’t see these as negative things at all.

 

On a final note, this is an album that took on added resonance after the 9/11 attacks.  It’s almost eerie to listen to this album in that context, almost as if it were written in and for the aftermath.  Almost every track seems to connect, from the obvious “New York” and “Peace on Earth” to “Walk On” and others.

 

Other links:

·       Elevation live at Slane Castle

·       Special 9/11 themed video for Walk On

·       9/11 tribute performance

·       Super Bowl 2002 halftime show (Beautiful Day)

·       Kite live

·       Moving Grace video.  I’ll take it.

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #7

7.  All Right Here – Sara Groves

 

You’ll notice in these lists that i’m a lyrics guy.  I like music that has something meaningful, perhaps even important, to say, and i prefer these things to be said in non-obvious ways that are an admixture of elegance, cleverness, poetry, passion and timelessness.  Sara Groves is a premier songwriter, and she shines nowhere better than in this 2002 release.

 

My favorite track, and sure to be part of a future slideshow, is You Cannot Lose My Love.  This is a song that will be with us for a long, long time.  Another 5-star tune is “Maybe There’s a Loving God”.  The only track i could do without is Tornado.  But there are so many excellent songs here that i completely overlooked a gem like “Fly” until just recently.

 

Snippets of the lyrics (full listing)…

·       And in your hands the pain and hurt look less like scars and more like character

·       Every heart has so much history.  It’s my favorite place to start.  Sit down awhile and share your narrative with me.  I’m not afraid of who you are.

·       Pause in your busy day, look extra long my way, wink at me across the room.  Kiss me longer.  Touch my arm when i am by your side.  So i can fly.

·       And love to me is when you put down that “one more thing” and say nothing will come between you and me.  Not even one more thing.

·       They have a chart & graph of my despondency.  They want to chart a path for self-recovery.  They want to know what i’m thinking, what motivates my mood, to spend all night in the backyard, staring up at the stars and moon… Maybe this was made for me, for lying on my back in the middle of a field.  Maybe that’s a selfish thought, or maybe there’s a loving God.  Maybe i was made this way, to think and to reason and to question and to pray.

·       Man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief, drug down to the city dump, spread eagle on a cross beam, propped up like a scarecrow, nailed like a thief, there for all the world to see.

·       ‘Cause if you sit at home “you’re a loser”, “couldn’t you find anything better to do?”  Well, no, i couldn’t think of one thing i would rather waste my time on than sitting here with you.

·       You will lose your confidence, in times of trial your common sense.  You may lose your innocence, but you cannot lose my love.

 

Other links

·       Video for Less Like Scars

·       Interview from 2003

 

Next up: a wonderful album from the band that gave us the best album of the 1980s (and perhaps of all-time)

Fave Albums of 2000s: #8

8.  The Beautiful Letdown – switchfoot

 

The review in Christianity Today covers my thoughts pretty well on this one, the pinnacle (so far) for switchfoot.  I still think these guys have a Joshua Tree in them.  Or maybe they’ve already released it, but just over a series of albums rather than encased into a single CD.  I own all their CDs, and enjoy them all, but Beautiful Letdown is my favorite.

 

From the driving modern rock of Meant to Live and This is your Life to the elegiac 24 and On Fire, switchfoot delivers.  Musically and lyrically.

 

Snippets of the lyrics (full listing)…

·        We were meant to live for so much more

·        We want more than this world’s got to offer, we want more than the wars of our fathers

·        I don't know what they're gonna think of next, genetic engineers of the most high tech.  A couple new ways to fall into debt.  I'm a nervous wreck but I'll bet that that T.V. set tells us what we've wanted to hear

·        It was a beautiful letdown the day i knew that all the riches this world has to offer me would never do.  In a world full of bitter pain and bitter doubt, i was trying so hard to fit in, until i found out…

·        I don’t belong here

·        Easy living, you’re not much like the name

·        We are a beautiful letdown, painfully uncool, the church of the drop-outs, the losers, the sinners, the failures, and the fools

·        The tension is here, between who you are and who you could be, between how it is and how it could be

·        Today will soon be gone, like yesterday is gone

·        We’ve got information in the information age, but do we know what life is outside of our convenient Lexus cages?

·        Yesterday is a wrinkle onyour forehead… This is your life.  Are you who you want to be?  This is your life.  Is it everything you dreamed that it would be when the world was younger and you had everything to lose?

 

It just hit me… this is Ecclesiastes and Solomon.  And it’s funny, whenever i finish one of these write-ups, i wonder… how could this album not be ranked higher?  I may have missed the boat on this one.

 

Other links

The band talks about the album

Meant to Live video

This is Your Life

Ton of switchfoot videos

 

Next up: the highest ranking album by a solo female artist