So much anticipate.
The first radio station that I ever truly listened to was a small-wave Christian rock station based in Columbus called "Radio U". They were (are) a listener supported station with a diverse playlist that was even more so in the late 90s. They have a nightly special called the Ten Most Wanted and used to have specialty hours including the Punk Rock Playpen, the Electric Circus, the Independent Hour, the Loud Show and Planet Hip-Hop. Needless to say, there was never a shortage of interesting things to listen to and it wasn't constant repeats like most of the other stations in the city. So I grew up listening to it, and long story short it shaped my listening tendencies for the rest of my life.
Anyways, here are the albums. I didn't stop at 10 this time.
Anberlin - Never Take Friendship Personal
I would say this was the highest anticipated album in my lifetime. I didn't even like Anberlin when I first heard them and their lead single Change the World, but for kicks I went and downloaded their first album and a legend was born in 2003. After hearing a snippet of what this album had in store, I as obsessed. Top to bottom, one of my all-time favorite discs. No skippable tracks. Each song has found a special place in my heart for special occasions. Don't ask me for my favorite; there's no way to choose. The album starts with a scream on the title track and ends with a flourish on Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen. I don't even know what more I can say, in spite of the album being one of my all-time most loved.
Brave Saint Saturn - The Light of Things Hoped For
Speaking of albums that absolutely changed my life, holy wow. This album actually got zero press from Radio U (who didn't even touch the final* Five Iron album released the next year) so I didn't even know it was released until my best friend brought it over a year after it dropped. I had loved their first album (especially the track Space Robot 5) but this one absolutely takes all the cakes. The disc explodes right off the bat with The Sun Also Rises, showing that the band has brought a "harder" sound as opposed to their first effort. The album tells the story of the USS Gloria and their mission around the planet survey. It hits emotional highs with such blasting tracks as Enamel and I Fell Away, and shows Reese Roper's ability to catch the heartstrings with songs like Estrella and the 6 minute outro, Daylight. Hope, happiness, and solitude, all wrapped in a shimmering astro-rock package. This disc also highlights Dennis Culp's singing and songwriting abilities (especially shown in Heart Still Beats).
Circle of Dust - Disengage
Who is "Klayton" (Scott Albert), though? Industrial christian alternative metal? It almost sounds like a contradiction these days, but in the mid-to-late 90s, bands like Circle of Dust, Klank and Argyle Park made quite a splash in the scene. Klay Scott is an incredibly dark and complex man who makes incredibly dark and complex music. If you haven't heard of Circle of Dust, you may have heard of Celldweller or Angeldust, featuring the infamous Criss Angel. While CoD never reached the heights that Celldweller has, it was still an incredible project and this album bears listening to if you want some serious pulsing dark industrial beats. On a technical sense, I would say this is a 9 track album with 3 sensational instrumental pieces (Babylon, Thulcandra, Perelandra; CS Lewis much?), then a stack of remixes and re-imaginations. In the end, you get 16 blistering soundbytes that will lay your eardrums to waste. This album, specifically, made me love dark music and the industrial stylings. I still use it as a litmus test for others in the genre.
dc Talk - Supernatural
dc Talk had already established themselves as a force with 1992's Free at Last and the super-smash Jesus Freak record in 1995. It's hard to believe that Tait, tobyMac and Kevin Max were initially 3 goofy rappers when listening to this disc. Every track hits a wonderful spiritual note, but the band has a way of making the message incredibly accessible, using the same rock elements from Jesus Freak but finding a softer side in tracks like Consume Me and Into Jesus. This album helped me mature as both a Christian and a music lover, and also helped me realize how much I wanted to be a singer (hello, Kevin Max). Best tracks - Consume Me, Supernatural, My Friend (So Long).
Evanescence - Origin
I suppose this could be considered a bit of a controversial one. This album had a song (Lies) that got a little bit of play on the Radio U Underground Hour, presumably because of it's lyrical content and the fact that it features Living Sacrifice frontman Bruce Fitzhugh. Needless to say, Amy Lee Amy Lee Amy Lee. Listen to her voice. Heck, listen to David Hodges voice. This album was essentially a 3 person effort between Amy, David and (of course) Ben Moody. It features different versions of the songs Whisper and Imaginary, and a slightly different orientation of the song My Immortal. It's a super raw disc, with intriguingly produced blips, scratches and noises. I fell in love with it the first time I heard it, and despite it's lack of production it still stands out as my favorite disc from the band, who are almost intolerable since Ben Moody left. There's a lot of emotion wrapped up in this piece, and I would challenge anyone who liked their first major release (Fallen) to give this one a spin.
Five Iron Frenzy - Our Newest Album Ever!
Ska? Lol. The title of this album is greatly amusing, as it is their second full-length release, but needless to say, Five Iron showed that third-wave ska was here to stay. One of the Christian "Big 3" (with the OC Supertones and the Insyderz), the production on this album was miles ahead of any of their contemporaries, easily referenced in songs like Handbook for the Sellout and Blue Comb '78. The album goes everywhere, from calling out fakers, to the afterlife, to the lulls of being a touring band, to singing about, well, Canada. It reaches an incredible high on the final track, Every New Day, which makes me see how amazing God is every time I hear it. I'm man enough to admit that I cried big-time tears when I finally got to hear the song live. I feel as though everything came together for the band in this album. They experimented with other sounds later in their career, but this album is just a straight-forward, fun album with a spiritual tinge.
Zeta - Unfinished
Yeah, you've never heard of this band. You won't find them on Wikipedia. We'll call it... ambient synth-pop. You could release this album today and people wouldn't know it was pieced together in 1997. This album is dark, yet uplifting. The synths are ultra smooth and the vocals are beautiful. There were two songs that got heavy airplay in '97 - Clear and Transcend. My favorite tracks are Bind and Slip, which almost has a trance-y feel to it. By the end of the disc, I realized that this was my introduction to electronica, and as I said before, still stands out amongst it's competition. Sometimes I wish that there were more dark, melodic synth-pop records like this one (see Assemblage 23, VNV Nation), but then I realize that would cheapen the awesomeness of this disc. My only issue is that the band was supposedly working on a new album and then absolutely fell off the map. I've recently learned that Devin Fleenor is making music these days under the name Mr Meeble, which seems to be a more mature sounding electronic outfit. Anyways, if you can find this album anywhere, I'd give it a few spins.
Pillar - Where Do We Go from Here
Needless to say, Pillar were already a force to be reckoned with by the time they released WDWGFH in 2004. Their previous effort, Fireproof, was a great commercial success, and with this released they abandoned the rap-core sound they had in favor of a harder, more driven sound. Guitarist Noah Henson showed himself as a talented songwriter, but I always found Lester Estelle's drumming on this disc to be the highlight. I was lucky enough to get this album as their acoustic release show (in Columbus Ohio, of all places) and got to see them perform the songs Bring Me Down, Simply, Frontline and Rewind. The guys were super cool and I've loved them since. This album was a powerful rock disc that distanced the band from their more commercially successful contemporaries such as P.O.D. and Thousand Foot Krutch. This album (and Fireproof) were the apex of rap-rock and hard rock for me at the end of my high school days. As far as musical talent goes, you can put this quarter next to Disturbed of Staind of this era and they hold their own. This album made giving people a Christian whooping cool, as lame as that sounds. Hahaha...
Rackets and Drapes - Trick or Treat
Another genre-bender, Rackets and Drapes have been called everything from industrial to goth to shock-rock. Lead singer Kandy Kane pulls no punches and leaves no doubt that he's here to get inside your head. A reviewer on Amazon calls it "Industrial gothic carnival metal". Amusing, but seriously, Kandy will haunt your dreams with this album. I am happy to say I have all of their released, but sad to say that Kandy has recently disappeared from the Facebook midst. He's always seemed like a really cool guy who isn't afraid to let you know what's up. Before this album was released, they put out an EP called The Sick and the Beautiful which involves a hilarious 16 minute interview with the band. Anyways, this album reaches it's height with the tracks Scary-Go-Round and Rotten Apples, plus it has a great cover of Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus. The band sadly only had one more release after this disc, which had a more electronic vibe to it, but this one is a great disc to reach inside and rip out your heart. And eat it. Repent!!
Relient K - The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek
Relient K hail from Canton Ohio, which was always cool for us Ohio kids. This album intriguingly went Gold in 2006 and features just as much fun punk rock and pop culture references (I'm Lion O, Maybe it's Maybeline) as their self-titled debut, but also showcases their softer and more spiritual side on the tracks For the Moments I Feel Faint and Less is More. Although the band essentially sold out and abandoned their punk attitude two albums later, they still put out 3 straight great discs, and this one captured them before they started experimenting with a more poppy sound. It also features an amusing hidden track about Matt T's love of Skittles and Combos. The band also put out a music video for Pressing On that parodies Matchbox Twenty's Mad Season in that the band is walking in slow motion through a crowded group of fans. The question that comes to mind is: would I have loved RK as much as a teenager if they weren't from Ohio?
Skillet - Hey You, I Love Your Soul
It boggles the mind that Skillet is this gigantically popular hard rock band nowadays. Their first disc was a grungy little number and their second disc (Hey You) showed them experimenting with an electronic sound that they kept for two released going forward before heading to the hard rock forum. Hey You essentially captures the sound of Skillet that the OG Skillet fans fell in love with. I always laugh at people who have never heard this album, or Alien Youth or Invincible. Listening to this album these days is hilarious. At the time, Your Love Keeps Me Alive and Locked in a Cage were mega CCM hits but they are so lame in my adult years. I just feel like if you're going to be a Skillet fan, you HAVE to hear this record first. The band died to me when they escaped their "industrial" (if you can call it that) sound, but I'll still always (hilariously) have their first four discs.
Staple - Staple
Another sentimental Ohio inclusion, Staple hail from the tiny town of Mechanicsburg. Unfortunately, their first indie release, major EP and major LP were all titled "Staple", so it could be confusing finding their early releases. Their indie debut featured the singles Good Grief and Leaving, and sounded like it was recorded in a garage. It probably was recorded in a garage. Fortunately, the Flicker debut has a more polished metalcore sound to it. It features the #1 CCM hit Dictatorship vs Democracy and tackles issues that teens and young adults face in the maturation of their faith in the face of a secular world. It's a strong album and it's a shame they broke up after releasing their second major lable release Of Truth and Reconciliation, although they had more of a post-hardcore sound in that release. This one pulses and pummels your eardrums while reaching into your heart.
Starflyer 59 - The Fashion Focus
I went through my exhausting collection of Starflyer 59 albums trying to find the "right" one for this countdown. There really isn't one. I love them all. I will gaze at my shoes all day. But Jason Martin was on top of his game in 1998-1999 when he released The Fashion Focus and Everybody Makes Mistakes, respectively. The guitars were less distorted and the songs were less droney, but the keyboards shined and slithered through you the way dream-pop should. I Drive a Lot, Fell in Love at 22, and of course A Holiday Song are the best tracks off this disc, which is a heavy 12 tracks long (the most of any SF59 release). At the same time that I was headbanging around with bands like Circle of Dust, I was chilling out with Starflyer 59. Jason has slowed down the distortion these days, but still makes beautiful music.
Switchfoot - New Way To Be Human
I have a hard time differentiating between New Way To Be Human and Learning to Breathe. LtB has a more mature sound to it while NWTBH keeps with their fun-sounding debut. Both albums are brilliant conceptually, but this one has always been my favorite between the two. The title track paints a brilliant landscape on where humanity is and where they should going, and they touch on many other social issues on songs like Something More and Company Car. Only Hope and Let That Be Enough of very pretty tracks showcasing the band's ability to keep it close to the heart. Jon Foreman is a brilliant songwriter and continues to shine on into the 2010s. Anyways, 4 years after New Way was released the band reaches major commercial success thanks to the film A Walk To Remember and being noticed by the folks over at Columbia Records. But their first 3 records will always hold a special place with me and are often re-examined in times of spiritual crisis.
The Newsboys - Take Me To Your Leader
This album is a veritable who's who of the Newsboys biggest hits. Breakfast, Reality, Take Me To Your Leader, Breathe, God is Not A Secret. Add Shine and Entertaining Angels and you've got it. I was amused to hear the band referred to as "bubblegum pop", but I'm struggling to find a better defining genre for them other than "Christian Pop". They're as poppy as it gets, and even with the success of Shine, I think the band might have crashed if not for the major success of the song Breakfast. Anyways, it's a good album but it kind of dies after track 7. Still, if you need a good introduction to the Newsboys sound pre-Peter Furler singing, then Take Me To Your Leader is your disc. Although Furler and Steve Taylor (the legend) wrote most of the lyrics, John James helmed most of the songs. James left after this album, and Peter Furler led the band to their current juggernaut status before handing the reins to dc Talk's Michael Tait.
That was exhausting. Hah. Part 5 will be about the more recent albums that I've loved.
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