Collective Soul

  1. Where the River Flows (1)
  2. The World I Know (2)
  3. Bleed (7)
  4. December (11)
  5. [Untitled Track] (21)
  6. Simple (22)
  7. Gel (27)
  8. Smashing Young Man (36)
  9. Reunion (60)
  10. She Gathers Rain (67)
  11. When the Water Falls (79)
  12. Collection of Goods (104)
Any CS fan knows that their lyrics frequently contain references to water, drinking, rivers, pools, etc.  This self-titled masterpiece has three songs that even have references to water in their title.  Even the album cover looks like water.  

I guess the point is you can't get much more pure than water, and you can't get much more awesome than this piece of art.  This is the first CS album I ever owned, and I was obsessed with it.  I knew December and Shine from the radio, and possibly The World I Know too (not 100% on that one).  But this was 10 years later, and they were out of site and out of mind at that point.  But then I heard Where the River Flows on the radio and I was completely captivated.

I remember distinctly that fateful day.  I was with some friends and I heard that opening riff.  I immediately turned the radio up, and kept asking, "Who sings this song?"  It seemed like everyone was ignoring me (in reality I was probably ignoring them, to enamored with the song) before one of them finally said, "Tool."  Obviously not the correct answer, but at that point it didn't matter.  The rest of the night I would just randomly say, "WHERE THE RIVER FLOWS!"  

To say I was obsessed would be somewhat of an understatement.  So the next day I started to research.  I figured out it wasn't Tool, but Collective Soul, and thought (like anyone else who hears their name) Who the hell is that?  Well you can't stop there, and I searched out some more songs.  I found the aforementioned Shine, December and The World I Know, and also some gems like Run, Satellite and others.  Holy shit this band is awesome, was something along the lines of what I was thinking at that point.  

It's really ironic that Where the River Flows is the song that hooked me.  While the song does get radio play on rock radio, it doesn't get much.  I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've heard it on the radio since that night over 11 years ago.  If that's not fate, I don't know what is. There's been a few bands that have changed my musical fandom, and CS is one of them.  And it all started because of Where the River Flows.  

Okay enough of the sentimental stuff.  "River" is my favorite because of the riff like I previously mentioned.  It's my favorite riff in the history of riffs.  It just does something to me that I couldn't possibly explain.  I may not be named "Mojo," but I'm hyped when I hear it, and anyone who knows me knows that I don't get hyped for much.  

The World I Know at number two is the opposite side of the equation from the number one song.  It's a beautiful ballad, that gets stuck in my head.  I can't say that for many ballads.  Usually it's the more uptempo stuff that gets stuck on repeat in the old noggin.  Also the video is quite powerful.  Something worth checking out.  

This is probably the only album of any of my favorite bands, that the number one and two song both come from the same album.  For that reason alone, it would make it number one in my heart, even if the math didn't work in it's favor.  Fortunately for the purposes of this blog, the rest of the album is dope and had a decent-sized advantage for the number one CS album.  

In fact four songs made the top 20 with Simple and the cleverly titled, [Untitled Track] just missing the cut at 21 and 22.  (Probably the most questionable of my picks is the song Bleed and number seven.  That's a really deep cut, that made the top 10!  I make no apologies for it.  It's an excellent song.)  Eight of the 12 songs actually are in top half of the rankings, with only one in the bottom 20.  Unfortunately that bottom 20 song, A Collection of Goods, is so bad it's bottom three!  I said Scream from the last album was horrible and it was at six.  That makes it twice as good as this one!   

My point here is that from the otherwise total brilliance of the album, there is one song that is unlistenable.  But as I mentioned, with the numbers one and two songs overall on here, it more than makes up for it.  This album is a top five all timer for me of any band.  Where the River Flows is arguably my favorite song, (that list would be much harder to make) and The World I Know isn't much behind it.  If you don't own this album, shame on you!  

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