Top 5 of 2008 | #1 for 2009

The end of one year and the start of another naturally generates different kinds of countdowns and Top lists. I’ve been going back and forth on what i deem to be my Top 5 albums of 2008.  A lot of music and many factors to consider, how does one decide? In the end, I made my list below including my choice song and lyric.  My comments are further down.

#5 | This is Our God – Hillsong
Choice Song: Stronger

“It is written, Christ is risen…”

#4 | Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt – Augustana
Choice Song: Hey Now

“It’s quiet in the streets now, but it’s screaming in your head.”

#3 | Leavingtaking – Peter Bradley Adams
Choice Song: The Longer I Run

“If I wander ’til I die, may I know whose hand I’m in.”

#2 | Viva La Vida – Coldplay
Choice Song: Strawberry Swing

“People moving all the time in a perfect straight line. Don’t you want to curve away?”

#1 | Three Flights From Alto Nido – Greg Laswell
Choice Song: I’d Be Lying

“Won’t you let me give you a hand? I have an extra I’m not using.”

More Than an Honorable Mention
Fall, Winter – Jon Foreman
Choice Song: The Cure for the Pain

“It would be a lie to run away.”

Okay, some comments for each album.  #5, Hillsong continues an incredible streak of live albums.  Even in the midst of the unfortuneate news of guest artist, Mike Guglielmucci, Hillsong produces not only another album but another great resource for the Church to connect with God.  Their excellence in musicianship commands respect and Brooke Fraser delivers the strongest lyrics in “Desert Song.”

#4, I listened to this Augustana album so much that i made the CD cover my Facebook profile picture for a while.

#3, I discovered Peter Bradley Adams on accident in 2008 and good thing at that!  The lyrics meld so well with the melodies on this album.  Adams sang me to sleep a lot last year.

#2, This album converted me to a Coldplay fan.  I was browsing through HMV a week before the release of Viva La Vida and i hear this ultra rhythmic song on the speakers.  I literally stop mid-step and stand in the middle of the store trying to figure out what song it is.  The voice sounds a lot like Chris Martin?  I ask the HMV employee what is playing and she says it’s the new Coldplay album that comes out the next week.  Then and there i decide i would buy the new album.  Mucho tres good.  Btw, the song that was playing was “Lovers in Japan.”

#1, I love Greg Laswell.  And this album through and through.  He has this magic about him as illogical as that sounds.  Maybe it’s his calm voice that sounds so unique and yet totally isn’t't at the same time (unique voices in my book are the likes of Robbie Seay and Caleb Followill).  Maybe it’s his look, which i take as confident but laid back (as a true west-coaster would be).  Or, it’s his success without needing to be in the limelight.  Or, maybe it’s none of the above but simply because he’s pleasantly easy on the eyes. *Wink =p

Honorable Mention. Jon Foreman is brilliant and the only reason why he didn’t make the Top 5 was because I didn’t listen to this EP as much as I did the others to warrant any of the 5 to get bumped down.  Where does Jon Foreman come up with his lyrics? I’d like to be in his brain for a day.

So, I look forward to new music in 2009.  And even though we’re barely one week in, i’m pretty sure i already know what will be Album #1 for 2009…

U2′s new album comes out on March 3rd!!!!!!!!! It’s called No Line on the Horizon and it was supposed to be released for late 2008.  But can you believe that U2 said they weren’t done writing for the album even though they already had 50-60 songs for it?!  These boys never stop.  I mean, what other band out there can tour the same album for 2 years?  March 3rd, come sooner!

Prospekt’s March: Kind of Disappointing but with Redeeming Lyrical Content

I like Coldplay.  But part of me thinks their Prospekt’s March EP is a bit disappointing.  It cost me $6.99 but if the label behind this add-on release pulled a Radiohead effort to “Pay what you think the record is worth,” i wouldn’t pay more than 4 bucks for it.  That’s cos out of the 8 tracks on this EP, four of them are, in a sense, throw-aways for me.  Given, these are studio session extras or B-sides so i suppose it’s understandable.  Now which 4 and why, you ask?

1) “Postcards from Far Away” -  I like it but it’s 48 seconds too short.

2) “Lost+” – Throwing in a little Jay-Z is fine but “Lost+” isn’t anything new when i’ve already downloaded Viva La Hova for free.. where there are 2 more versions of Lost feat. Jay-Z made available.  [Viva La Hova is a free downloadable collection of Coldplay and Jay-Z remixes]

(EDIT: Apparently the link on the Viva La Hova site doesn’t work so try to download the album here instead.)

3) “Lovers in Japan (Osaka Sun Remix)” – Is it just me or does it sound the same as the original?  The “remixing” to me is negligible.

4) “Now My Feet Won’t Touch the Ground” – Five seconds into it, i thought, “Why does this sound so familiar?”  I soon clued in, it sounds a lot like “Til Kingdom Come” from Coldplay’s last album, X&Y.  Consolation is that “Til Kingdom Come” is one of my fave tracks from that album.

Not to say that i don’t enjoy this EP, i just had different expectations. The redeeming track is definitely “Life in Technicolor II.”  I watched a Coldplay interview when Viva La Vida first came out and they were saying that the “Life in Technicolor” instrumental is actually a full song but had to be cut cos there wasn’t enough room to put the whole track on the album.  Since that interview, i’ve been curious to hear what the full song would sound like.  Now i know and i like it a lot.

“Glass of Water” is slowly getting my attention the more i listen to it.  “Rainy Day” and “Prospekt’s March/ Poppyfields” are trailing a bit behind.  I’ve listened through the EP about 5 times and will keep going.  I think my appreciation will increase.

[Enter my English Lit background.]  Now what i really love about this collection of songs are the lyrics.  There’s definitely lyrical thematic implications consistently throughout.  It’s hopeful and i would even say victorious, rooted in spirituality but vague in narrowing it down to specifics.  As a sidenote, there are so many religious overtones in Viva La Vida and Prospekt’s March, i wonder if Chris Martin is turning into a closet traditional Catholic.

If you look up the lyrics to the tracks on Prospekt’s March, you’ll see that the EP is bookended with the idea of feet not touching the ground.  It’s explicit on the first and last track.  I’m betting this lyric/visual is a biblical reference to Psalm 91 and Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4:

“He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

Hope and victory.

From, “Life in Technicolor II” (first track)

There’s a cold war coming,
On the radio I heard
Baby it’s a violent world

Oh love don’t let me go
Won’t you take me where the streetlights glow
I could hear it coming
I could hear the sirens sound
Now my feet won’t touch the ground

From, “Now My Feet Won’t Touch the Ground” (last track)

if rocks are waiting boys
if rocks are waiting
swoop down from the sky and catch me like a bird of prey

now my feet wont touch the ground
now my head wont stop
you wait a lifetime to be found
now my feet wont touch the ground

Death and All His Friends

Coldplay’s new album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends released in North America today so I hopped over to Future Shop and grabbed myself a copy.

I LOVE IT.

I listened through it 5 times already and am still going. I haven’t previously been a “huge” Coldplay fan through and through but this album is winning me over, easily. The music is strong and very layered. Several tracks are heavy on the strings, which I love. History, spirituality, ambition, conquest, struggle, reminiscence, revolution… all elements found here. It’s beautiful, really, and pleasantly worldly – very thorough and rich in experience and thought

No I don’t want a battle from beginning to end
I don’t want a cycle of recycled revenge
I don’t want to follow death and all of his friends