In the lead up to my top 20 albums of the year (and all the rest of the fun countdown stuff) I've decided that for the next two weeks I'm going to take a look back. It was ten years ago (I'm totally going to show my youth here) that I first got into music. So, for the next ten weekdays I'll be posting tracks from the past decade that were benchmarks of my musical progression. I hope you guys enjoy it.

1997: The Discovery Year



I was just heading into High School and we had moved over the summer to a new, bigger house. At the tale end of my eighth grade year we had to do these stupid lip synch performances (the educational goals behind that I'll never know... yet we were graded on them) and I got stuck doing a lame version of Surfing USA with my friend. It was to be the last time I ignorantly listened to crappy music just because I didn't know that there was better stuff out there. Over the summer I discovered No Doubt and Savage Garden (still two of my favorite albums ever) and then in the fall I was introduced to Janet Jackson, my ultimate favorite for many years afterward. The Velvet Rope was such a landmark album for me... I must have listened to it hundreds of times. As for the Forest For The Trees song? I was just obsessed with the trippy video. The rest of the album pretty much sucked, but this song was stuck in my head for ages.

Janet Jackson - You
Savage Garden - Break Me, Shake Me
No Doubt - Sunday Morning (probably the best ND song ever... certainly the best video)
Forest For The Trees - Dream