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Trollheart · 01-04-2023, 08:07 PM

1001 of Trollheart’s Favourite Albums

All right, let’s do this. First, this is NOT a list of the 1001 Best Albums Ever, nor 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It’s not even a list of the 1001 albums I think are the best. It’s simply 1001 albums I personally like, a lot of which I love, presented in no order and not ranked. I said RANKED! Jesus, you people!

I’m quite aware that most of you will think this list lame and unadventurous (hey, it’s me after all) and that the larger percentage will be albums few if any of you have any interest in, or even know. It will also be more than a little what I guess you lot would call mainstream, though I like to think there’s a decent mixture of genres in here. Let’s put it this way: don’t expect Swans or The Fall or anything like that. Oh, the air is absolutely filled with the absence of gasps!

Before I arrived here, I had a) little money and b) no access to the internet, so I bought what I liked and stuck to it, which means you’ll find a lot of albums by the same artists here. But thanks to you guys I’ve been bullied, cajoled, jeered, tricked and in some cases even encouraged into trying artists and albums I would never have thought of trying - many of which I didn’t even know of - and some of them have found success with me. So there are albums here that would never have been in my collection in, say, 1990 or even 2000. However I am not one of those people who looks back and says “What was I thinking, listening to that?” The artists I listened to when I was 18 are still in my collection; perhaps that’s an indication of a lack of growth, I don’t know. Nor do I care. I don’t dump old artists for new, and I can’t really think of any artist I used to listen to that I would not and do not listen to now.

I’m under no illusions anyone is going to try any of these albums, but if someone sees something and is tempted then that’s great. Mostlyyou can of course expect a lot of prog, a lot of AOR, straight rock, pop and a mixture of other genres. I’ll be trying to give my personal reasons why I like a particular album and telling you about it, and as many of the albums I’ll be talking about have been reviewed among my over 2,000 album reviews now, I’ll be providing links if anyone wants to read more about it and see what I had to say.

Note: I will be ranking either the top 100 or 50, haven't decided which yet, but the rest are in no order.

Note on note: No I won't. In one of my trademark changes of heart, I've decided against this. Just can't pick 100. It's like trying to choose which of your children to save. So I'll just go with no order for the entire thing.

Oh, and thanks to the returning Comus for giving me the kick to do this, which I've been meaning to do for more years now than I care to, or can, remember.

Right, that’s it. Off we go.

1001

Album title: Lead Me On
Artist: Amy Grant
Nationality: American
Year: 1988
Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (shut up)
Chronology: 8 of 19 (so far)
What this album means to me: I was pleasantly surprised, as I had never to my knowledge bought a CCM album before (had a CCR one, sure), in fact I didn’t even know what it was at the time.
Highlights: Lead Me On, Saved by Love, Faithless Heart, What About the Love, If These Walls Could Speak, Say Once More
Lowlights: Sure Enough, Wait for the Healing
Lyric of the album: “I looked into the mirror, proud as I could be/ And I saw my pointing finger pointing back at me/ Saying who made you accuser? Who gave you the scales?/ I hung my head in sorrow; I could almost feel the nails.” - “What About the Love” (Rhonda Fleming, Janis Ian)

To this day, I have no idea why I bought this record. I feel it may have been on one of those odysseys I used to make into the town centre in search of second-hand records, but even then, why I was attracted to this I have no clue. I’m glad I was though. To my surprise, today, I find that Amy Grant has sold over 30 MILLION albums, and is known as one of the biggest selling CCM artists, this album being in fact number one in the book The Top 100 Christian Albums.. Right. You don’t care. Neither do I. The point is, to stumble - apparently completely by chance - across an album of this quality by someone I did not even know, is rare to say the least. To find it’s a CCM album is even rarer.

Now, I have nothing particular against CCM or any Christian music. I’m not a believer, though I was brought up as a Roman Catholic, but then I am Irish. I’ve listened to Christian metal, and thought it was damn fine. I’ve listened to Neil Morse witter on about God on plenty of his albums, and even listened to some Casting Crowns. Hell, I’ll listen to anything if it’s good and I enjoy it. Doesn’t mean the message they try to send (if they do, which they don’t always) in the lyric gets to me. But even at that, this is different. Amy Grant does mention God a few times (and “Saved by Love” is surely a cover for “Saved by God”) but not so much that you feel battered over the head with a statue of Jesus or whatever. In essence, this is basically a pop/rock album that mostly ticks all the right boxes.

There are duff tracks on it, but man are there some good ones. The soft, almost reverent (not in that way, I hasten to add) ballad “If These Walls Could Speak” is the song of a woman telling her lover how much he means to her, “Saved by Love” is in fact a soppy love song but rides on a really nice guitar line and manages to stay this side of slushy, while the standout, for me, “What About the Love” is a powerful indictment of do-gooders and the state of the world today, that manages very deftly to avoid (sorry) preaching and has a real tinge of bitter anger in it. Look, a woman who apparently made her career on two chart singles, one called “Baby Baby” and one with Chicago’s Peter Cetera is not the kind of artist I would expect to be putting out an album of this maturity, and Wiki does say it was a less poppy album than her previous, so maybe I just got lucky in getting this one. I did buy Heart in Motion, the next one, and was heartily disappointed.

This is not a perfect album by any means. There are tracks I skip. You can see some above, and while they’re not bad tracks per se, they do lower the overall quality of the album, though the others make up for the bad ones. But when you buy an album (for whatever reason) by someone you don’t know - without even a single for guidance, unlike Jane Wiedlin’s Fur, bought on the strength of the single “Rush Hour”, a decision I regretted - and you end up with a great album you can play occasionally, it’s a win for me. It also shows that not every CCM album has to be Holy Joes or Janes praising God (though it often is, I’m sure): sometimes it’s just a really good pop, rock or even metal album. And whether you believe or not, music is a religion at whose altar we all worship, regardless of personal creed, or the absence of one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6uh...cheqObfckPmqnL

For further reading:

01-04-2023, 08:07 PM	#1 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	1001 of Trollheart's Favourite Albums 1001 of Trollheart’s Favourite Albums All right, let’s do this. First, this is NOT a list of the 1001 Best Albums Ever, nor 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It’s not even a list of the 1001 albums I think are the best. It’s simply 1001 albums I personally like, a lot of which I love, presented in no order and not ranked. I said RANKED! Jesus, you people! I’m quite aware that most of you will think this list lame and unadventurous (hey, it’s me after all) and that the larger percentage will be albums few if any of you have any interest in, or even know. It will also be more than a little what I guess you lot would call mainstream, though I like to think there’s a decent mixture of genres in here. Let’s put it this way: don’t expect Swans or The Fall or anything like that. Oh, the air is absolutely filled with the absence of gasps! Before I arrived here, I had a) little money and b) no access to the internet, so I bought what I liked and stuck to it, which means you’ll find a lot of albums by the same artists here. But thanks to you guys I’ve been bullied, cajoled, jeered, tricked and in some cases even encouraged into trying artists and albums I would never have thought of trying - many of which I didn’t even know of - and some of them have found success with me. So there are albums here that would never have been in my collection in, say, 1990 or even 2000. However I am not one of those people who looks back and says “What was I thinking, listening to that?” The artists I listened to when I was 18 are still in my collection; perhaps that’s an indication of a lack of growth, I don’t know. Nor do I care. I don’t dump old artists for new, and I can’t really think of any artist I used to listen to that I would not and do not listen to now. I’m under no illusions anyone is going to try any of these albums, but if someone sees something and is tempted then that’s great. Mostlyyou can of course expect a lot of prog, a lot of AOR, straight rock, pop and a mixture of other genres. I’ll be trying to give my personal reasons why I like a particular album and telling you about it, and as many of the albums I’ll be talking about have been reviewed among my over 2,000 album reviews now, I’ll be providing links if anyone wants to read more about it and see what I had to say. Note: I will be ranking either the top 100 or 50, haven't decided which yet, but the rest are in no order. Note on note: No I won't. In one of my trademark changes of heart, I've decided against this. Just can't pick 100. It's like trying to choose which of your children to save. So I'll just go with no order for the entire thing. Oh, and thanks to the returning Comus for giving me the kick to do this, which I've been meaning to do for more years now than I care to, or can, remember. Right, that’s it. Off we go. 1001 Album title: Lead Me On Artist: Amy Grant Nationality: American Year: 1988 Genre: Contemporary Christian Music (shut up) Chronology: 8 of 19 (so far) What this album means to me: I was pleasantly surprised, as I had never to my knowledge bought a CCM album before (had a CCR one, sure), in fact I didn’t even know what it was at the time. Highlights: Lead Me On, Saved by Love, Faithless Heart, What About the Love, If These Walls Could Speak, Say Once More Lowlights: Sure Enough, Wait for the Healing Lyric of the album: “I looked into the mirror, proud as I could be/ And I saw my pointing finger pointing back at me/ Saying who made you accuser? Who gave you the scales?/ I hung my head in sorrow; I could almost feel the nails.” - “What About the Love” (Rhonda Fleming, Janis Ian) To this day, I have no idea why I bought this record. I feel it may have been on one of those odysseys I used to make into the town centre in search of second-hand records, but even then, why I was attracted to this I have no clue. I’m glad I was though. To my surprise, today, I find that Amy Grant has sold over 30 MILLION albums, and is known as one of the biggest selling CCM artists, this album being in fact number one in the book The Top 100 Christian Albums.. Right. You don’t care. Neither do I. The point is, to stumble - apparently completely by chance - across an album of this quality by someone I did not even know, is rare to say the least. To find it’s a CCM album is even rarer. Now, I have nothing particular against CCM or any Christian music. I’m not a believer, though I was brought up as a Roman Catholic, but then I am Irish. I’ve listened to Christian metal, and thought it was damn fine. I’ve listened to Neil Morse witter on about God on plenty of his albums, and even listened to some Casting Crowns. Hell, I’ll listen to anything if it’s good and I enjoy it. Doesn’t mean the message they try to send (if they do, which they don’t always) in the lyric gets to me. But even at that, this is different. Amy Grant does mention God a few times (and “Saved by Love” is surely a cover for “Saved by God”) but not so much that you feel battered over the head with a statue of Jesus or whatever. In essence, this is basically a pop/rock album that mostly ticks all the right boxes. There are duff tracks on it, but man are there some good ones. The soft, almost reverent (not in that way, I hasten to add) ballad “If These Walls Could Speak” is the song of a woman telling her lover how much he means to her, “Saved by Love” is in fact a soppy love song but rides on a really nice guitar line and manages to stay this side of slushy, while the standout, for me, “What About the Love” is a powerful indictment of do-gooders and the state of the world today, that manages very deftly to avoid (sorry) preaching and has a real tinge of bitter anger in it. Look, a woman who apparently made her career on two chart singles, one called “Baby Baby” and one with Chicago’s Peter Cetera is not the kind of artist I would expect to be putting out an album of this maturity, and Wiki does say it was a less poppy album than her previous, so maybe I just got lucky in getting this one. I did buy Heart in Motion, the next one, and was heartily disappointed. This is not a perfect album by any means. There are tracks I skip. You can see some above, and while they’re not bad tracks per se, they do lower the overall quality of the album, though the others make up for the bad ones. But when you buy an album (for whatever reason) by someone you don’t know - without even a single for guidance, unlike Jane Wiedlin’s Fur, bought on the strength of the single “Rush Hour”, a decision I regretted - and you end up with a great album you can play occasionally, it’s a win for me. It also shows that not every CCM album has to be Holy Joes or Janes praising God (though it often is, I’m sure): sometimes it’s just a really good pop, rock or even metal album. And whether you believe or not, music is a religion at whose altar we all worship, regardless of personal creed, or the absence of one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6uh...cheqObfckPmqnL For further reading: __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 01-06-2023 at 05:13 AM.