The Listening Project-Week 11

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few more CDs in my listening project.  I set a new weekly record by listening to 28 CDs this week.  I am still behind my 20 per week schedule but made up less ground than you would think since I visited1/2 Price Books and bought 11 move CDs (and a book for good measure).  You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
191	White Lion	Big Game	10/3/2011	Yes
192	Various Artists	Double Take	10/3/2011	Yes
193	Chris Taylor	Down Goes The Day	10/3/2011	Yes
194	Sometimes Sunday	Drain	10/3/2011	Yes
195	Project 86	Drawing Black Lines	10/3/2011	Yes
196	Mad at the World	The Dreamland Café	10/3/2011	Yes
197	Seventh Angel	The Dust of Years	10/4/2011	Yes
198	White Heart	The Early Years	10/4/2011	Yes
199	Curious Fools	Electric Soul	10/4/2011	Yes
200	Jars Of Clay	The Eleventh Hour	10/4/2011	Yes
201	Top	Emotion Lotion	10/4/2011	No
202	Mariah Carey	Emotions	10/4/2011	Yes
203	Tait	Empty	10/5/2011	Yes
204	Charlotte Church	Enchantment	10/5/2011	Yes
205	Holy Soldier	Encore	10/5/2011	Yes
206	Downhere	Ending Is Beginning	10/5/2011	Yes
207	R.E.M.	Eponymous	10/5/2011	Yes
208	EDL	Every Day Life	10/5/2011	No
209	Stellar Kart	Everything Is Different Now	10/5/2011	Yes
210	Charlie Peacock	Everything That's On My Mind	10/6/2011	Yes
211	Geoff Moore & The Distance	Evolution	10/6/2011	Yes
212	Stellar Kart	Expect The Impossible	10/6/2011	Yes
213	Jackson Finch	Experience	10/7/2011	Yes
214	Bette Midler	Experience The Divine	10/7/2011	Yes
215	Jonah 33	Extended Play	10/7/2011	Yes
216	Al Denson	The Extra Mile	10/7/2011	No
217	Extreme	Extreme II - Pornograffitti	10/7/2011	Yes
218	4 Him	Face The Nation	10/7/2011	No

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• White Lion “Big Game”: The only CD of the 11 that I bought this week that fell in front (alphabetically) of where I am in my project.
• Chris Taylor “Down Goes The Day”: I really like this artist.  I have his first (this one) and third CDs (which begins with a W).  I probably got them both on a clearance rack at the Christian bookstore in Kokomo a long time ago.  Every CD since after these was not on a regular label.
• Sometimes Sunday “Drain”: I think I paid close to full price for this one.  Tooth and Nail records (a Christian alternative label) had just started and I took a chance on a lot of their earlier releases.  Some were OK (like this one) and some where not (Joy Electric review is coming in the R’s).  A very “we want to sound like Nirvana but can’t quite pull it off” vibe is what I get from this release.
• Project 86 “Drawing Black Lines”: More angriness (started with Sometimes Sunday).  Screaming more than singing.  Still, when in the right mood, a nice CD.
• Mad At The World “The Dreamland Café”: I am not sure what happened to this group.  They started off all synthesizers and computers and then (CD by CD) morphed into whatever this CD is (alternative folk?).  Anyway, I kept buying their CDs hoping for a reproduction of their 2nd CD (Flowers In The Rain which I should get to soon).
• White Heart “The Early Years”: In my 70 CD haul at an Indiana Goodwill store, I grabbed 5 or 6 White Heart CDs not realizing that 2 or 3 of them were tireless “Best Of” releases where the record labels were just trying to squeeze one more dollar out of this band who changed labels often enough to allow this sort of thing.
• Top “Emotion Lotion: I think this is another one of my CDs that we accidently bought.  The daughter had a school project that used CDs for wheels on a little car that they were making.  Rather than wasting blank CDs, I sent the wife to the pawn shop and she grabbed 4 CDs randomly from the 50 cent rack.  When we dismantled the car I kept the CDs.  Now I am paying for this decision and this CD gets the first of the 4 NOs this week.
• Tait “Empty”: Formerly with DC Talk, Tait (now lead singer for the Newsboys) released a few solo CDs.  I remember thinking (when DC Talk broke up) that we who were fans of the band might get lucky and have 3x the CDs (if they all released solo stuff).  I did not quite get the level of release that I was hoping for but this is still pretty good.
• Charlotte Church “Enchantment”: I bought this for the daughter.  You have to be in the right mood to listen to it (or have it come up in some sort of crazy project).
• Holy Soldier “Encore”: Fans of this band know that they released 2 awesome hair band CDs and then changed lead singers and drastically changed their sound.  So, it makes total sense to release a 4th CD that contains a concert with BOTH lead signers.  As they trade duties and go back and forth on genres it gets a little dizzying.  Oh, and the final song (and I am NOT making this up) is Pat Boone covering on of their songs off their first CD.  Still, there is one new song and that makes the CD worth owing.
• Stellar Kart “Everything is Different Now” & “Expect The Impossible”: This is one of my son’s favorite bands.  We drove to Illinois once to see them in concert and he still talks about it.
• Charlie Peacock “Everything That’s On My Mind”: Love Charlie Peacock (and have mentioned that before in this project).  This CD features the most guitars of any of his releases to my knowledge.  The song “Monkeys At The Zoo” has some penetrating lyrics.
• Jonah 33 “Extended Play”: A 5 song EP that I picked up a a festival that they were performing at a few years ago.
• Al Denson “The Extra Mile”: All my Al Denson CDs were picked up in a 70 CD haul at a Goodwill store that I mentioned above in the White Heart notes.  If I could undo one thing…
• 4 Him “Face The Nation”: …I would go back and not buy the Al Denson and 4 Him CDs that I got that day.

Well, I am almost back on track for my 20 per week pace.  That puts me on target to be done by May of next year (assuming I don’t buy any more new CDs).  I do have one more coming in the mail that I know of at this time.

Jon