On Music

A collection of 51 posts

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2020: Part 3 (#20–#1)

[This post is dedicated to the Looking Closer Specialists — especially Laure Hittle, Timothy Grant, and Winston Chow — whose contributions make this website possible.] The word for this year was survive. The Holy Scriptures caution us that with increasing wisdom comes increasing pain, and that to love is to suffer. The

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2020: Part 2 (#35–#21)

The countdown continues! Having listed my Honorable Mentions, I move on to my list of 35 favorite recordings from 2020. This post counts down #35–#21.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2019

Here it is — a music festival, a playlist, a countdown of my favorite albums of 2019.

On Songs & Albums

Favorite Recordings of 2019: Honorable Mentions

A prelude to my countdown of 25 favorite records fro 2019, here's a long list of albums that probably deserve to be in that top 25 but... well... math is unforgiving. Explore. Listen. Discover some new favorites.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings of 2016 (Post 1 of 3)

I've been publishing lists of my favorite albums annually since I was eleven years old. In the early days, I published them in little magazines that I wrote for an audience of one. Today, I offer them to you as treasure maps. You're invited to explore.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2015 — Part Two

Sufjan Stevens, Kendrick Lamar, Torres, Courtney Barnett... and many, many more make up my Favorite Recordings of 2015 countdown. Listen to your favorites and make some new discoveries.

On Songs & Albums

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

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

Darren Aronofsky

Q&O: What I'd Change in My Memoir. My Favorite Moviegoing Companion. Top Albums of 2014 So Far. Why You Rarely See Me Smile. More "Noah" Bashing. And More!

Who do you take to the movies? Why are you such a snob? What's your favorite album of 2014 so far? Why do you rarely smile in pictures? Questions are coming in, so... time for another Q & O = Question and Overstreet!

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

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2012

I'd invite you all to a New Year's Eve Listening Party, but there are just too many of you. So allow me to deliver this party to your doorstep. Here is some music from my favorite recordings of 2012.

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: 2009

Here's a video that runs through my favorite albums of 2009. Before I made that video, I sketched out a rough list in order to encourage people to pick up good albums as Christmas gifts. The order was different then, but here's a glimpse of that

Looking Elsewhere

Browser: Melody. Cylons. Vampires. Favorite Albums. Migraines. Radiohead. David Bazan. U2.

Suzanne Vega answers the question, "What's a melody for?" And I rise to my feet to applaud. 2. The original Starbuck hates the new Battlestar Galactica, and has interesting reasons. But Jason Morehead is brave enough to stand up and fight him like a man. Or

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

On Songs & Albums

Ten Favorite Albums of 2005

Here are the records that I've put on and kept on, over and over, this last year.

On Songs & Albums

Generation-defining Albums: What's On the List?

A few posts ago, I asked what films could be characterized as "generation-defining" ... like Star Wars, The Matrix, and perhaps now, Napoleon Dynamite. After chatting with my longtime friend Gary Scott (church elder, moviegoer, frequent commentor) and new friend Luke Brodine (musician, ministry pioneer, U2 fan) at church,

On Movies & Media

My Favorite Albums of 2004

Here are my favorite albums of 2004.

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