FIRST of FIVE (pt.1)

My Top 5 Albums of 2011:

1) Shane & Shane~ The One You Need

 Barnard and Everett start out the outstanding album with Liberty, an epic, lyrically uplifting, musically inspiring mound of sound that is one of the best album-openers I've ever laid ears on. In addition to its exciting, rhythmic and contagious melodic chorus, its crescendoing bridge which leads to the brief pause prior to the climax is absolutely incredible, exclaiming 'I am free!' Top 50 worthy track, for sure. As is Your Love...

Replete with full, gorgeous instrumentation and breathtaking vocals, Your Love is a phenomenal standalone song; when placed right next to Liberty, it's almost too much to take (in a very good way). I have often put this track on repeat for hours at a time, and am taken to such a sweet spot of settling into the presence of Holy Spirit, allowing His abundant love to wash over me.

The flow of the entire album is so smooth, so unassuming in its approach to the listener's tastes, blending uptempo with ballad seamlessly. Without You and Future Version are two more very well produced songs, the former containing a passionate, pleading chorus that'll get stuck in your head and heart for days; the latter containing a fantastic back and forth between a man and God about his futile attempts at self-righteousness and the Lord's supremely gracious response about His love that is never taken away.

Because He's God has some of the best conversational verses of the album, obviously very topical in this all-roads-lead-to-the-same-place kind of prevalent paradigm people are foolishly clinging to. And of course, the bridge... My gosh, what an incredibly moving bridge... Particularly the 'It's the pathway to Zion...' Ah, gives me chills :) Jesus is the way!

Don't tell anyone, but the title track is actually, unbelievably, my least favorite song on the whole album. However, if you ask me what my favorite song is, in about 5 years, it'll probably be this one... That of course is assuming my wife and I will have a little baby girl by then. ;-) The song is a very good one, very sweet, quite touching. I don't know though, there are just so many phenomenal songs on this album. It's actually very impressive that there are ZERO bad or even mediocre songs on The One You Need. S&S have compiled a complete work of art.

Transitions are very well done (which was touched on above) and those which connect Miracle, Victory, and Running to You to their preceding and succeeding songs--as well as each other, of course--are no exception. While in the stages of reluctant acceptance of the ending of one track, we're introduced subtly, nudged if you will, to the welcome sounds of something new and exciting and intriguing. An 'Ooo, what's next? This sounds good!' kind of thought often interrupts an 'Ah bummer, I wish they could've kept going with that one.' This kind of quality writing and production is even exhibited with a song that features the vocals within the first second of play-- the beautiful musical swell and captivating lyric of, 'It's a cold night in December, and I can barely stand.' Brilliant.

Ending such an excellent album strongly is no easy feat, but S&S definitely shine, putting an exclamation mark on their 7th studio album. The hypothetical storytelling of Grace is Sufficient is very effective, and leads well into the potent truth sung from God's perspective in the chorus. Such a wonderful track! And then come the enchanting guitars and strings in Lift Up Your Light, which never fails to draw me right into the uplifting prayer in the verses and the glorious declaration in the chorus. Awesome song. And of course, the perfect capper to it all is Praise Him, a calm, deeply resonant track that exudes worship out of every note. This I could sing over and over and over again... thus the meaning of the lyrics. Beautiful, powerful song.

As much as I was rocked by Clean, and as much as I was blown away by what they did with Pages, I'd be extremely hard pressed to tell you that The One You Need is not my favorite Shane & Shane album. But that's not what I'm doing here... Comparing their albums comes later. Much later. ;-) For now, it's compiling my list of Top 5 albums of 2011, and this one definitely deserves one of the top spots. There's no denying the sheer talent of Barnard and Everett in musicianship and crazy amazing vocals (see: perfect harmonies); but what I really love about these guys are their hearts. They truly seek hard after God in musical praise and worship, using their God-given abilities to give back to Him in song, as well as edifying the Body with relentless passion in their writing and bringing the Kingdom to Earth with their magnificent singing.

(One more thing: Another reason this album instantly catapulted to the top of my list was that S&S also put together a complete acoustic remix album of The One You Need. They redid and recorded every single song on the album with more of an unplugged, stripped sound. It's really, really good, as you could imagine.)

Do yourself a favor-- buy this album: Here's their website


Next up... Josh Garrels.