40. JOEY McINTYRE - "Meet Joe Mac"(Atlantic, 2001)
Joey was always my favorite New Kid, so I guess I can't help but love this album. "Rain" is a fine power ballad, "With a Girl Like You" a great upbeat track, and "Easier" probably his most beautiful slow song ever ... and then there's my guilty pleasure, "National Anthem of Love", complete with the B-52s' Fred Schneider on backing vocals! Goodness knows there were a few duds here, but I forgave them long ago.
39. A1 - "Make It Good"(Columbia/UK, 2002)
Call it their "coming-of-age" album. Forgoing the synth-centric dance beats, the British boyband A1 turned to a more grown-up guitar-based pop-rock sound, and the results were surprisingly good. They do try their hand at dirty '70s-style rock on one track, but they've mostly mellowed out with strong, well-written mid-tempo delights like "This Ain't What Love Is About", the whistley bounce of "Do You Remember", and the stellar title track.
38. AMY GRANT - "Greatest Hits 1986-2004"(A&M, 2004)
I love Amy Grant's voice, but I really don't like Christian music, so you can imagine how happy I was when I stumbled upon this, her secular-based hits collection. It's inevitable that it would include a bunch of tracks from "Heart In Motion" and "House of Love", but it's also justifiable, since those were the two multi-platinum crossover albums that practically turned her into a household name in the early '90s.
37. GRÉGORY LEMARCHAL - "Je Deviens Moi"(Mercury/France, 2006)
This angel-faced lad with the soaring voice captured his country's heart by winning the fourth season of France's "Star Academy" performing arts competition series. His debut album is nothing short of stirring, with the delicate "Je T'Écris", the Queen-ish rock-aria "Je Suis En Vie", and the anthemic "Le Feu Sur Les Planches". Tragically, his death the following year at age 23 from cystic fibrosis made this album all the more precious.
36. V - "You Stood Up"(Universal/UK, 2004)
This 5-member UK boyband packed their debut with fantastic upbeat tunes ("Blood Sweat & Tears", "Hip To Hip" and the Jackson 5 cover "Can You Feel It") and lush ballads ("Stop The Tears" and the title track), and even got an assist from popular labelmates McFly, but despite their best efforts, the album failed to make a splash. Maybe 2004 was too early for an attempt at a boyband "renaissance".
I feel like we may have discussed him before and so gone over this territory in the past, but you just named my three favorites off that (very good) album by Grégory. Sigh. The V and a1 albums both have tracks that get frequent play by me and, though I don't own that particular Amy Grant collection, I did (like many people my age, I'd guess) grow up with several of her albums around the house and consequently a lot of fondness for some of her songs.
ReplyDelete