A Life Painted With Minor Chords

Hey, guys. I know it's been awhile since I've posted, and I apologize, but I just haven't felt I had much of anything worth posting about. But, the past few weeks I've been seeing a trend on Facebook where people make a list of the albums that helped shape them into who they are. At first, the list was strictly for albums heard during your teenage years, then, as time went by, the restrictions became more and more loose, to the point where people were just posting the top however-many albums that they felt had made the biggest impact on their lives.

I started to make a post earlier today, sitting in my car during break, but I realized I wanted to say way too much about each one, so I put out a post as a feeler to gauge interest in doing this, and got enough nods that I feel like it's worth doing. So, before I get into it, there is one album in particular that I squeezed in here that's far more recent than the others. So, while I didn't inform my late teens/early twenties, it's had enough of an impact on me that I feel it's worth mentioning. Beyond that, I tried to limit every artist to one album, with the exception of 2 bands, both of which will come as a surprise to no one who knows me.

(Also, until the last couple, this list is in no certain order.)
(Oh, and I'm not spell-checking this before I post, so be warned.)

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Goo Goo Dolls: Something For the Rest of Us

 

I figured since this was the album I was listening to when I got the idea to make the post in the first place, it would be a good spot to start. I got this one as a Christmas present back in 2010, months after it had come out. I've always liked the Goo Goo Dolls, but nothing of theirs had ever hit me as hard as this one did. "As I Am" was the first track to really hook me, and from there "Not Broken" let a 20 year-old me know that, no matter hard the world wears you down, you're still worth something. "Still Your Song" talks about dealing with past regrets, but not in a melancholy or pessimistic way. Instead, it puts focus on moving forward and offering an apology to someone you've wronged:

"I don't pretend to understand
All the things I put you through
And I don't need forgiveness
But I owe one thing to you
And this is your song
This is your song"

 

So yeah, that's my nod to the brilliant John Rzeznik. (Here's hoping the next album won't be as disappointing as the one from last year.)

 

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 Sanctus Real: Fight The Tide

This one's kind of an oddball on the list. See, when I was growing up, the music I was allowed to listen to was very limited. I'm sure a lot of people who grew up in a strict, Christian home can relate to this. And while I'll be the first to tell you that 99.723% of Christian music is hot garbage, there are a few that, at some point or another, have fallen through the cracks and produced something worthwhile, and I feel Sanctus Real did that with their first two albums, but specifically the second. Fight The Tide isn't flawless by any means. There are a couple of tracks I hear now and wonder what the hell they were thinking, but then I hear songs like the title track and  I remember why I loved them so much as a teen. Deeds is an especially great tune, bemoaning the Benchwarming Christian archetype.

If you get a chance, give this one a quick listen. I think you might be surprised at what you find. 

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Relient K: Five Score and Seven Years Ago

 

Yes! Another band from a Christian label! And I'll defend this choice till the day I die, because Matt Thiessen is a really good lyricist, and easily the best on any Christian label. His wordplay can be either funny or piercing, depending on the need, and that kind of lyrical competence isn't something you come across very often. Anyone who makes a habit of writing songs will know exactly what I'm talking about here. 

The album kicks off simply enough, with the tongue-in-cheek humor of "Plead the Fifth" and jumps into "Come Right Out and Say It," where Matt delves into truth of what it's like knowing someone is holding back what they really think for no reason. There are also some goofy love songs here and there, as the band is know for, but then "Devastation and Reform" takes you on a journey through the self-destructive nature many of us can empathize with.

 

To date, I consider this the best album the band has ever put out. And no, it's not JUST because Jon Foreman sings on the last track....

 

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Ben Harper: Give Till It's Gone

 

If you've heard Ben Harper, you've heard one of the most soulful artists to ever exist. This album is like a roller coaster ride with the instrumentation, tempo and all around feeling. If you'd never heard these tracks before and had someone let you hear them in one siting, you'd probably never guess these all came from the same album. But don't take that to mean it has no sense of direction or that it's a creative mess, because it's anything but. Think of the album as controller chaos. The theme of the album is just being human, and that can be a chaotic and scary thing, dragging us from one place to the next. I've never heard anyone do this as well as Ben Harper.

 

If you've never heard this album (or Ben Harper at all) I urge you to check this one out. And please hit me up after and tell me what you think.

 

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Bleach: Farewell Old Friends

 

I know, I know. I keep pelting you with Christian bands, but this is the last one, and probably my favorite of that bunch. Probably because they were among the forerunners of 90's Christian Alt-Rock, and this was back when I wasn't even allowed to listen to that "Rock Gospel" nonsense. Yes, that's what it was called when I was a kid, and yes, this attitude caused me to miss out on so much amazing music when I was young. BUT! Once my parents loosened up, I was able to jump into bands like Bleach, and what I heard was simple, but beautiful. This was also probably the earliest instance of hearing a lead singer and going "Wow! This guy doesn't have a gravelly voice like your typical rock star. He sounds kinda like me!"

Ironically, this album would be my first, and their last. This band I'd always been curious about and wanted to hear had ran their last tour a year or so prior and I never knew. 

 

I won't go into any more detail on these guys because, quite frankly, I don't think many people would enjoy them the way I do. I found them at a very magical time in my life when I was just learning to play guitar and experiment with different types of music I'd never heard before. They'll always hold a special place in my heart because of that.

 

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Jon Foreman: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

 

If I've talked to you for any length of time about music, I've probably mentioned this guy. The man who changed my life had the single biggest hand into shaping me into who I am today. I'd been listening to Switchfoot for awhile and they had quickly become my favorite band, which was great because, even though they didn't bill themselves as a Christian band (and even boycotted Christian venues for a few years) they got a lot of play on Christian radio, so my parents were cool with them. 

When Jon announced he was doing a set of solo EPs themed after the seasons, I'd already decided to start saving money to buy them. I waited what felt like a lifetime as he recorded them and checked his Myspace (yes, it was that long ago) every day to see if there was an update. When they finally dropped, I went straight to the store and bought them. Fall and Winter came in a combo pack together, and I'd still have to wait for the other two, but I finally had a piece of the puzzle I'd wanted for so long. 

And my jaw dropped. On track 1.

I listened to both of them as many times as I could cram into that night, then started again the next morning. When Spring and Summer dropped a few months later, I did the same thing. Not only does the instrumentation change from one to the other (Winter uses a lot of "empty" sounds for instance) but we go from songs about longing, to love, to confusion, to religious hypocrisy, to suicide. 

I never wanted to be someone else like I wanted to be Jon Foreman around that time, and every time I hear these songs, I remember why.

 

Do yourself a favor and give these a listen. You won't be sorry.

 

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 U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind

U2: The Unforgettable Fire

U2: Songs of Innocence

 

Alright, go ahead and get your pitchforks ready, because I'm about to slap some unpopular truth on you, and you might not like it. 

U2 is, to this day, among the greatest bands of our lives. Whether you like Bono or not, you can't deny his brilliant lyricism and expect me to take you seriously. Also, note that The Joshua Tree isn't on this list. The Holy Grail of U2 albums (and the only one many people have heard in its entirety) didn't make the cut. And to be honest, it barely breaks my top 5 U2 albums, but that's neither here nor there....

 

All That You Can't Leave Behind was the second U2 album I ever heard (right after the aforementioned Holy Grail) and I immediately fell in love with it. While U2 became big with Joshua Tree's heavy political themes, people tend to overlook the albums that are more personal, or the ones that just don't "sound like U2." Excuse me, sir? I think the band would tell you those albums sound a helluva lot like U2, because that's the way U2 WANTS to sound.

Anyway, the personal nature of the album, with songs like "Kite" and "Peace on Earth," remains one of their most poignant albums to date.

 

The Unforgettable Fire, I was kind of late to the party with. I'd already heard Boy, October, War, Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum, Achtung Baby, the Hits albums, Can't Leave Behind and Atomic Bomb, but hadn't heard this gem. And I'm sorry I deprived myself for so long, because I saw instantly that this was the album where the band finally came into their own. Yeah, the first three were good, but Unforgettable Fire was such an even more drastic departure than War had been for the band. Bono was finally figuring out how to write songs about God without the preachiness of October, and embracing the more poetic nature of his writing. 

 

Songs of Innocence is the one everybody loves to hate, and I really don't get why. Yeah, having a album forced onto your phone isn't cool, but I had an iphone at the time, and I actually had to go download it myself. It never just popped up in my phone without warning. But beyond that, this album is dark and gritty and real and wonderful. Right now, I'd have to say it's taken the number 1 spot for me among their albums. "Raised By Wolves" is the first song that comes to mind when I think of the album, with a brutal honesty equal to the Psalms of David. But that's not all this album has to offer. Underneath the rough exterior, you find hope for a better tomorrow. And that's just one of the thing that makes this album great.

 

Now, without further ado, I give you guys the album(s) that have gut-punched me harder than anything else....

 

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    Switchfoot: Nothing Is Sound

Switchfoot: Oh! Gravity.

Switchfoot: Vice Verses

 

Again, a lot of you already knew this, but I'm gonna go into it again. I'm actually gonna start with my least favorite of the bunch and work up to my favorite so:

 

Oh! Gravity. is the first Switchfoot album I really had to wait for. Nothing Is Sound just happened to drop right after I got into the band in the first place, so there wasn't really any anticipation building to the release. But with this one, I'd had over a year to think about how awesome the next album would be, and I was right, it was pretty awesome. The title track talks about the chaos of living while "American Dream" deals with the wastefulness of excess. But "Awakening" was the song that pulled me in harder than any other song on the CD. Even cautionary tale of "Faust, Midas and Myself" paled in comparison to "Awakening." I won't even go into detail about the song, just check it out for yourself.

 

Vice Verses was one I had to wait YEARS for. Sometime after Gravity, the band announced they were working on over 4 albums of material and they were hard at work on the first set of songs. This was around 2007 and the first of those albums, "Hello Hurricane," wouldn't drop until 2009. Vice Verses came out in 2011, the same month of my 21st birthday, and it couldn't have been a more fitting anthem for my life at the time. Vice Verses went back to a more Rock sound, in contrast to the softer, Pop tunes found on Hurricane. I devoured this album, spit it out, and went back for seconds. This was it. Even though I loved every album, THIS was the one I'd been waiting for since Nothing Is Sound in 2005. 

"You got your babies, I got my hearses
Every blessing comes with a set of curses
I got my vices, I got my vice verses
I got my vice verses"

 

Now, the one I've been waiting to talk about....

 

Nothing Is Sound is the album that saved my life. The whole album was amazing, with "Lonely Nation" talking about how, even though we're a society connected to millions of other people 24/7, somehow we still grow more and more lonely every day. "Politicians" forces us to take a look at ourselves and realize that maybe we're really the problem that we project onto others. But "Golden" ... that song changed everything about me. As emotional as I am with music, there are very few songs where I burst into tears the first time I hear them. Few that make me feel like there's a physical force pulling my heart down into my stomach. But "Golden" did all of that and more. 

The first time I heard that song, it broke me. And I found a beauty in that brokenness. It was exactly what I needed to hear exactly when I needed to hear it. Other songs and albums have made crucial changes in my life, but nothing like the complete 180 this one put me through. 

At the tip-top of my Bucket List is the hope that I can actually meet Jon Foreman one day and, if I can keep my jaw off the floor long enough, tell him how his words saved me and made me into who I am. Maybe I'll get that chance one day.

 

To my musician friends: Without this album, this song ... I wouldn't be a musician today. I wouldn't be writing songs, and I can guarantee you I wouldn't be the kind of person you'd want to talk to. 

 

To everyone: Thanks for taking the time to read all of this. I know it's very long and not really necessary, but if you've made it this far, I hope you enjoyed the ride. If nothing else, maybe you've found some new music to check out, and that's awesome. 

Take care, everyone.