Album Lists - Jeffrey Overstreet

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2015 — Part One

How to compare them? They're apples and oranges — and pears, peaches, lemons, and pineapples, along with some nutritious helpings of vegetables. To try and rate them in a single list is pretty much pointless... ...unless you perceive this as a way of recommending them to you with different

On Songs & Albums

2015 So Far: What's your favorite music?

So far, 2015 has been an impressive non-stop parade of great albums. I could easily turn in a Top 10 of the year today if I was asked. But we're only halfway there. Dr. Jeff Keuss of Seattle Pacific University hosted this live podcast discussion of some of

On Songs & Albums

Join me for a talk about 2015's best records so far

What's your favorite record of 2015 so far? Let me know, and I'll try to make find time to mention it during the live podcast recording of the show.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2014 — Part Two [Updated Feb. 2015]

Albums I wanted to hear every week; albums I would be happy to own in a variety of formats; albums I would like to put in the trunk of my car so that I can give them away to everyone I know; albums that made a significant difference in my head and heart this year.

Music Reviews

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2014 — Part One

Overdoing it? Yes. As long as War & Peace? Yes. But here it comes anyway: The list of my favorite recordings of 2014. I look forward to this every year. I started making "Favorite Music of the Year" lists when I was about 12 years old. I never

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2013 — Part Two (#10-#1)

What music meant the most to you in 2013? Here are my personal favorite albums of the year— a top ten list for a year that was overflowing with great music.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2013 — Part One (#25-#11)

I've narrowed this year's list of my favorite records down to 25 titles that I would have happily included in a Top 5 list at the end of a typical year. I invite you to listen to standout tracks, counting down from #25 to #11.

On Songs & Albums

Looking Closer's Listening Journal: 2012

It's been a long time since I've written music reviews. I started out writing more music reviews than movie reviews online, but the interest in movie reviews proved to be much more intense, and I adjusted, desiring to go where the lively discussion was happening. But

Fan Dance

Overstreet's Favorite Albums: 2001 (10 years later)

Listening to music is, for me, a treasure hunt. The whole journey is worthwhile, with highs and lows, unforgettable discoveries and a whole lot of unremarkable scenery. What I love most is an album that just keeps opening up, like a house full of secret doors, so that ten years

Music Reviews

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2011

I didn't hear any records this year that filled me with a zeal to shout from the rooftops. (Last year's The Long Surrender by Over the Rhine did that, and it remains my favorite record of the last several years.) Nevertheless, 2011 was still a year

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2010

1. Over the Rhine - The Long Surrender They've been my favorite band for several years, and I love all of the albums they've released in a 21-year career. But they get better every year, and this is, in my opinion, the finest album they'

Looking Elsewhere

Browser: Of Billboards, Brando, and the Best of 2008 (Updated 10:25AM)

NPR has the story of Rev. Gloria White Hammond, who brings a "ministry of healing" to those who are suffering in Darfur. Today, as I read this story of faith, love, and compassion, I'm reminded that Washington State's Governor Gregoire has allowed the following

Music Reviews

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2005

I'll admit it. I did not keep up with the world of music the way I have in the past. On average, I listened to a new album every week, but the time I'd planned to spend writing about them was swallowed by film-writing assignments and

Music Reviews

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2006

About this list: Once again, I find myself looking forward to hearing a long list of albums that have come highly recommended... but I haven't had the time to give them proper attention. (That's what a full-time job, weekly review-and-column deadlines, and three book deadlines will

Music Reviews

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2007

1. I'm Not There - Original SoundtrackWhat a marvel: a two-disc marathon of Bob Dylan songs covered by excellent artists, and almost every single attempt is a knockout. There have been a lot of bad covers of Dylan songs. Too many. But in a year when Dylan was

Music Reviews

Overstreet’s Favorite Recordings: 2004

The wall has come down. By my lights, anyway, it appears that this was the year that brought it crumbling to the ground. When I was a teenager, I lived in a world where Christian music existed in a carefully protected city with high walls, where we whispered about the

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2003

1. Over the Rhine.....Ohio Over the Rhine celebrate their tenth album by making it a double. What we get is one of the most powerful discs they've ever recorded, the soulful gospel/folk/rock that they do best. That disc is followed by another, more adventurous and

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2002

1. Wilco.....Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Its like the sound of experienced explorers setting foot on a new musical continent. Wilco's restlessness has found them territory all their own. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the bravest and most creative record of the year. (You can learn all about how it