Sharing the love



You know I try not read reviews anymore, the negative comments stay with me when I'm writing, perched like little gargoyles on my shoulder offering scathing criticism. I'll admit I'm sensitive, but I don't mind accurate criticism - I still feel like I've never achieved what I hear in my head and want the music to be so much better, bigger and crazier. Anyways, it only hurts when reviewers don't understand what we tried to do or just don't like our genre of music. Sometimes the criticism is an inadvertent compliment: "the same sort of crap that Good Charlotte, No Doubt and the Black Eyed Peas put out." loathed one college paper (I think I got that mostly right, it's how I remember it anyways). In fact the college paper reviews were so universally bad that I asked the label not to submit the CD for review anymore to college papers - "the only reason I can think of for this CD is that inpop had an excess of blank CDs." wrote one witty girl. I think we've actually gotten off easy though, I flinched when I read the review of a friends record that said "the best thing you can say about this band is that there's room for improvement.". Ouch. I dunno how you write music after that. I think sometimes people forget that the people in bands are human beings. That's the price we pay though for being a public figure, we volunteered to line up on stage and get shot, so it goes with the territory. The things that mean the most to me though are fan chosen awards and sales.. which is the fans voting. Next week I think 130,000 fans will have voted for our album so far if record sales keep going the way they're going. That's amazing.

Anyways, every now and then you find a reviewer who understands what you're trying to do and it's very meaningful and helps balance the ones that drag you down. Here's the link:

http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/The_20_Best_Albums_Of_2005/18229/p1/

thanks guys, that one made my day. I'm honored. Thanks to all the people out there who have supported us, especially the people I've become privileged to count as friends over the years, you know who you are. Yes you.



UPDATE: Apparently we made more than one best of 05 list. Here's what I've been sent so far, not including at least one major print publication that isn't on newstands yet and I'm not allowed to say.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnmusic/features/bestof2005.asp
http://www.cmcentral.com/special/4181.html - still voting
http://www.newreleasetuesday.com/features/bestof2005.shtml
http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0,1703,A%253D161583%2526M%253D50012,00.html
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/living/13505541.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
I had no idea we had fans in kentucky. I was once almost beat up in paducah but that's another story. In fact I was the originator of the joke that starts with: an asian guy, a black guy and a middle eastern guy walk into a bar in paducah kentucky.......and we didn't walk in by choice either... note to self: do not get into car accidents in paducah kentucky outside klan meetings.
http://jesusfreakhideout.com/features/staffpicks2005.asp
http://worldofcm.com/victoryawards/more.php?id=833_0_8_0_M
(that one opens voting in feb)

so since everyone has a website now, I'm going to do my own list.
Best of 2005.
Best Albums produced or partially produced by me in 05

Superchick Beauty from Pain
Toby Mac: Diversecity
Toby Mac: Renovating Diverse City
David Crowder: Sunsets and Sushi - but alas, we were cut and the mix never saw the light of day... I did like it though
DC Talk: Jesus Freak remixes - word is that this project was killed, but I did love the mix we turned in
VeggieTales: Veggie Rocks.

alright that's actually everything I worked on last year... well almost everything.. there was some other stuff I'm not allowed to talk about...


Posted: Thu - January 19, 2006 at 02:41 AM          

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