Images and words
I'm surprised to see Talk in your top 10, being that I've never listened to the album and knowing that it's not really regarded as one of their classics. I'll listen to it someday, that's for sure - I might be pleasantly surprised the way I was with The Ladder, that one turned out to be amazing.
I've never listened to The Ladder. I should do that!
2. Jars of Clay - Jars of Clay (1995)This one shouldn't really be much of a shocker. By now you guys should know that I love Jars of Clay and this is one is their best. Make no mistake about it, Jars of Clay is not just your regular contemporary Christan band. They are talented, creative and of high musicianship. They just keep cranking out the hits year after year and winning Grammy awards and all kinds of other awards. However, this first, platinum, self titled album was without question a masterpiece. After winning a song writing competition in Nashville, Jars of Clay started working on this Album with Adrian Belew of King Crimson. Most of the tracks have a very mysterious chamber music feel coupled with a catchy percussive acoustic guitar feel that produced a very new and unique sound. Of course most people listening to rock radio stations just knew of them as a "one hit wonder" with the song "Flood". But "Flood", despite being a good song paled in comparison to some of the other atmospheric brilliance of songs like "Worlds Apart", "Liquid", and "Blind". I own many of their albums and they're all very good but this one is great!
I've seen them in concert 3 times with the most recent one being in a small auditorium at a Christian college in Lancaster, PA. Their equipment truck had broken down on the interstate in Tennessee and all they had was some guitars and some borrowed equipment from local musicians and music stores. It was Jars of Clay unplugged. They decided to perform all the songs from this first album in a raw acoustic mix just like they did when they were just getting started and opening for Michael W Smith 16 years ago (I saw them then in Charlotte, NC and the mix was really bad). But that night. Man oh man the mix was perfect. The acoustics of the room was perfect. Their vocals were spot on perfect and they were funny and relaxed and just having a good time without the big production. A few of the songs were so old for them that the singer had to have the words near to make sure he didn't forget them. But the song "Worlds Apart" was really the most beautiful song I've ever heard in a concert and I couldn't believe that I never really noticed it just listening to the song on the CD. It's mainly because of this concert that this album moved ahead of Images & Words.
One other interesting note about this album for those of you that are not familiar with it, is the last track. It starts off as just any other track with the song "Blind", which is a beautiful song by the way. Then after a few minutes of dead space another half song plays and sort of fades away to what sounds like a recording of the practice/arranging session with the orchestra when they are working on the accompaniment for "Blind". I'm not sure how long it goes on, maybe 10 minutes, but I love listening to it and it's so weird that they lumped it in with that last track. Check it out sometime if your board.
Favorite Songs: At this ranking it should be all of them.