I believe that bands/artists, good ones anyway, put together albums in deliberate ways. Good ones know how to make a story out of their songs, how to tie them together. Those threads are easily missed when their songs cut apart and lost among the hundreds or thousands in a shuffled playlist. I’m not saying that the songs aren’t enjoyable, only that you can sometimes get a lot more out of them when you listen to them as part of their album.
It helps that my car, made in an awkward year between cassette tapes and iPods, has only a CD player. I have no way of playing my iPod through the speakers except through one of those radio things that thinks static is a tasteful addition to every single song. As a result, I have a collection of CDs stuffed in my center console and glove box that I rotate every so often.
After several years of rotating CDs, I have found that a few of them tend to stay permanently in my car. I rarely, if ever, grow tired of them. I’ve played them exponentially more than my other albums, during those frequent four-hour trips between college and home. So I thought, hey, why not share them with my lovely blog readers so they can also revel in the joy and pure artistic wonder of this music? You can thank me later.
I will be the first to admit that my taste in music is very narrow.* I’m not ashamed. Christian rock is my jam, yo. I’m sure there will be an eventual blog post as to why that is, but for now, you just need to know that if you don’t like that genre (which actually encompasses a wide range in my mind), this list will probably be completely useless to you. Unless you want to try something new. YOU WON’T REGRET IT.
So here you go.
1. MMHMM by Relient K
Favorites: Be My Escape, When I Go Down, Which To Bury(...)
2. Forget And Not Slow Down by Relient K
Favorites: Sahara, Over It, (If You Want It)
3. Cold Hard Want by House of Heroes
Favorites: Out My Way, Remember The Empire, I Am A Symbol
4. In The Making... by Nevertheless
Favorites: Sleeping In, Rest, Cross My Heart
5. Life Will Write The Words by The Rocket Summer
Favorites: 200,000, Circa ’46, Prove It