My Favorite Band in Review

If you have gotten to know me at all closely over the past 10 years or so, you would know that I have a favorite band. When I say "favorite" I don't mean it like a favorite food or color which for most people just depends on your mood. When I say "favorite" I mean this band has been untouchable by any other rock band, ever, since I first heard a few of their songs back in the '90s when they were first starting to get big. Not one other band has motivated me to buy every album available and anxiously await the next one, watch for its release date, and do whatever I have to to get it on the day it is released because I am so thirsty for more. This band is incredibly underrated, and it is called Collective Soul.

Back in the 1990s front man Ed Roland (center), a guitar genius, was writing and performing small gigs with his locally popular band in Atlanta, but he couldn't get anywhere with the industry despite numerous contacts in the music business. Since music was the thing he loved most and he couldn't see himself doing anything with his life besides creating music, and being a deeply religious person (his father was a minister), he wrote the words to a prayer and put them to music. That song became their breakout hit, Shine. It hit the airwaves in Georgia first and spread across the country within weeks to become the #1 song on the radio, followed by a chain of mega-hits including songs like December, The World I Know, Run, and Heavy (I never get tired of watching that last video!). Since then, they have released 11 albums, including an acoustic collection, a live recording, and a premature "Greatest Hits" cd when it looked like Collective Soul might be finished after record label problems and relationships between some of the band members reached a boiling point. In fact, they disappeared for almost 5 years before crashing back onto the scene with Better Now, which fans of the band recognized as their "We're Back and Ready to Rock" message. The video is one of their best in my opinion, and the song, although it sounds a little bit different from their older material (the new stuff is a lot more refined due to guitarist Joel Koesche, who replaced the edgy Ross Childress), the band has a more energetic sound and, in my opinion, a more powerful stage presence. I saw them once back in 2000 and they put on an incredible show, the music was great and plenty of energy. I saw them again in 2008 and I got blown away by the power and the energy -- Ed Roland is an incredible entertainer and one of rock music's greatest vocalists.

Last week they released their 11th album, called self-titled but nicknamed "Rabbit". Its a great collection of smooth tunes, very guitar oriented. Ed Roland, like I said, is a guitar genius. He doesn't play anything that complicated, but the way he mixes guitars, he usually has four guitar parts to a single song, and it is beautiful. Check out the title track, Welcome All Again. Just feel the energy in that music! Can't wait to see this live! The new album has a few strange songs on it, Ed Roland experiments with a few sounds that seem kind of goofy at first but have really grown on me. I love how all of their albums have their own distinct sound, and this one is awesome. I will say that this is probably not the best Collective Soul starter album if you are not an avid listener already. Try 7even Year Itch, their Greatest Hits album, or Afterwords or Dosage. Those will get you hooked. This is good stuff though.