Another list to argue about...

Not on the list...

For the past several months, I've been compiling a list of my ten favorite Christian Contemporary albums of the 1980's. I guess it's about time I published them, so they'll be following in regular installments in the weeks to come. Feel free to post your comments and suggestions.





First, the ground rules. Very simply:


• One album per artist makes the list. Thus, it's not only the ten best albums, but the best album from each artist.
• Release dates 1980-1989
• No greatest hits, compilation albums with multiple artists, live albums or soundtracks.





Second, the criteria (and perhaps a guide to understanding my descriptions to follow):


Consistency – In today’s MP3 society, listeners tend to take their favorite 2-3 songs from an album and forget about the rest. In fact, the entire concept of an "album" is rapidly becoming obsolete. I’ve got nothing against "Greatest Hits" albums, but a regular-issue album, including those that are somewhat uneven, still represent a snapshot of that artist at that particular time in the artist’s performing career. Undeniably, many albums contain more than their share of "filler," thus the evolution to the cherry-picking we see today. Thus, a key criterion in compiling this list was to have an even performance from the first track to the last, both in terms of musical quality and production effort.



Maturity – We were looking for albums that, where possible, captured the artist at the peak of its performance ability and musical style, reaching a sound with which the artist was clearly comfortable. Thus, few debut albums, however good they may have been, are included on this list as the artist may have needed to go through a few production cycles before reaching a point of musical maturity.



Influence – Both on other artists, and on the listener.





More to come...