The Gospel and Guns

This post isn't my normal fare, but I need to write some things down on this subject.  Forgive me for posting so glaringly off-topic.

Since Newtown I've had guns on my mind and on my heart.  I've shaken my head in disgust at the NRA and followed the Brady Campaign on Twitter (@bradybuzz). I've started Facebook fights and prayed about it.  I genuinely think less of one of my former Facebook friends because of his opinion, as wrong as that is.  Nobody is going to change their mind, unfortunately, and that's sad.  

I'm not going to write anything about policy in this post.  I won't write about background checks or assault weapons bans or high capacity magazines.  That conversation is going on all around the country.  

I want to talk about the Gospel.

Top albums of 2012.

I did not post in 2012. I apologize. I had a lot on my plate, ok? I graduated. I started my career. I changed cities. I bought a flannel shirt. Get off me.  

Oddly enough, this year I had more blog-worthy material than ever, as I went to Coachella and Bonnaroo. And went to a bunch of shows. That just screams "Recap!!!", but it wasn't to be. Maybe I had better things to do. Maybe I forgot I had a blog. Who knows.

Anyway, this year I listened to more music than ever. Sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day combined with a subscription to Rdio (highly recommend!!) had a lot to do with that. Here are the 21 best albums of 2012.

Best Albums of 2011

It's that time of year again, folks. Time to objectively evaluate a completely subjective topic, music. I'm talkin' Albums of the Year lists. I'm sure that Dan, Daniel, Eric, Tyler, Mason, Blaine, Justin, and others will say they are making a Top Albums list, but rest assured they will all fail just like last year, leaving only mine, the originator, progenitor, OG, and granddaddy of all Top Album lists.

Smack talk aside, let's get down to the methodology. Simply put, there isn't one. Last year's track-by-track, whole album, sum, divide by tracks+1 nonsense was time consuming and ultimately fruitless. I still would have ordered the albums the same, except The Suburbs would have been higher. Sorry, Winny-pooh.

So this year I'm just going to give you my favorite albums, 20-1. Here we go.

SXSW Recap!

My whole body hurts. A week of little sleep, lots of walking, the occasional open bar, and most importantly GREAT MUSIC has culminated in SXSunday. Exhausted and still putting this International Trade paper off, here's a recap of my SXSW.

Top Albums of 2010

It's that time of year again. The Top Albums of 2010. I'll list of 20-11 then write a little something for 10-1.

First a little background. This year my roommate decided to join me in doing album lists, but this year we would have a rating system. It goes a little something like this:

∑(track 1+...+track N + (N*album)/(2*N).

Or more simply, rank each song and add them up. Rate the album as a whole, taking into account flow, theme, length, etc, then multiply by the number of songs. Add that to the song rankings then divide by twice the number of songs. That way the album rating counts for half of the total rating and individual songs account for half. It's been pretty accurate. Onto the list, with each albums rating next to it.

Playlist I can't get enough of

This playlist has been playing on repeat on the iPod for the past month. It's a genius playlist generated by iTunes based of "F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X." by The Fall of Troy. A few songs it put in I didn't like so I trimmed it down to 22 songs. Go.

What Eric Johnson has been waiting for

After a long hiatus filled with finals, skiing, and Christmas, I'm back like Jordan for some END OF 2009 Lists. Let's start with the Best Albums of 2009.