Mark Tiddy’s Blog & Website - Thoughts of a Christian Youth Worker & Musician

So as far as music goes 2007 has been a pretty good year…here are my top 5 albums that have come out in 2007 in no particular order!

Relient K - Five Score & Seven Years Ago (March)

It feels like I’ve had this album forever yet it never actually came out until march this year, but ‘Five score & seven years ago’ by Relient K is an amazing album, mixing catchy pop-punk with a more serious piano side of things. Every song on this album is awesome and I could listen to it over and over again!

Best Songs: The Best Thing, Must Have Done Something Right & Deathbed

Angels & Airwaves - I-Empire

Following their previous album I was pleasently surprised by the added punkiness of the angels and airwaves second album, listening to it left me with that warm fuzzy ‘Tom still has punk in him’ feeling. With some amazing lyrics and catchy, atmospheric and sometimes punky tunes this makes it into my 2007 top 5

Best Songs: Rite of spring, Everything’s Magic, Secret Crowds

Sum 41 - Underclass Hero

2007 also saw Sum 41 surface again with a new album, the Canadian punk rockers return as a three piece with the most surprising album I bought in 2007. I expected them to be as heavy as ‘Chuck’ which although was a good album was dissappointing however Underclass Hero is a cross between ‘All Killer’ and ‘Does this look infected?’ seeing Sum 41 return to their roots with what I think is their best album ever!

Best Songs: Underclass Hero, Walking Disaster

Serj Tankien - Elect The Dead

One of my favourite new albums in 2007 and now one of my favourite albums of all time came to me whilst watching Kerrang TV when Serj Tankien’s video for ‘Empty Walls’ appeared on screen…not knowing the SOAD singer had done a solo project I googled him, myspaced him and bought his album. Elect the dead is as heavy as early System yet at the same time relaxing and melodic. Tankien plays all the instruments except drums and has truly written a masterpiece.

Best Songs: Empty Walls, Unthinking Majority, Saving Us

Tim Hughes - Holding Nothing Back

2007 has also been a brilliant year for Christian music and the final album in my top 5 yet by no means least is Tim Hughes 3rd studio album ‘Holding Nothing Back’, unlike pretty much every other worship solo album out there is not a single rubbish track on this album, Tim Hughes has written what I think is the best Christian Worship leader studio album ever. So hats off to Tim Hughes!

Best Songs: Happy Day, The Highest & Greatest, Take my life

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I was just reading what I’d put alongside my top 5 good mornings and by Tammin Sursok I put ’songs suck’ however having had her album for a few months I’m going to disagree with myself and advise that you all listen to some Tammin Sursok, she’s kinda like a poppier yet still rocky Avril.

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I figured it was time for another Top 5 and this time it’s albums, so here we go! (This was so difficult to do)

5 - Boxcar Racer - [Self Titled]
Trying to find a least favourite top album was pretty difficult, there’s so many CD’s that could go here and like this entire list it could be completely different were I to do it in a weeks time. Boxcar Racer was a side project for Tom Delonge and Travis Barker after the Blink album ‘Take off your pants and jacket’, it shows us a first sign of Mr Delonge being serious and the experimental, heavy style of the album works. The whole album other than the weird instrumental is great!

4 - MxPx - Panic

This was one of those albums I was slightly hesitant about buying, the only song I’d heard was ok but nowhere near as good as anything from Before everything and after but it turns out the album was such a good buy. It shows MxPx taking a much heavier approach to music than the last few years and it’s an amazing album, feating songs with old band friend Mark Hoppus (Blink 182, Plus 44) and is an absolutely amazing album!

3 - Bowling for soup - a hangover you don’t deserve
The unofficial album of college, I remember several evenings driving back from Norwich with Ben, this on full blast and Ben singing along so hard his voice hurt, what an album and as Bowling for soup have proven with their new album very difficult to follow up, by far one of the best punk rock albums around!

2 - Jack’s Mannequin - Everything in transit
This is probably the only album I own which for the first few months of having it has actually travelled between car and house everyday because I couldn’t bare not to have it to listen. Jack’s Mannequin is a side project of Something Corporate and is very much piano based with some rock guitar, almost like a lighter something corporate or for you Christians out there like Relient K’s lighter stuff. The whole album is amazing!

1 - Blink 182 - [Self Titled]
I think this is the album that most real blink fans are almost meant to hate or at least dislike because it is so different from where they started and so experimental and of course no longer the immature side of Tom, Mark and Travis coming through but a serious meaningful side, and for fans looking back now they can see how the style influenced Tom’s new band Angels and Airwaves however I think musically this album is amazing, the lyrics are awesome and the drumming is unbelievable. So this has to be my top album!

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Things that annoy me about Christians!!!

It was so hard to narrow this down to five but here we go! (I’m joking)

1 -The way the tiniest pathetic thing bothers Christians about church i.e. ‘That piano is an inch away from where it used to be’, ‘There’s a drum stick on the floor, you’ll offend God’

2 - Pipe Organs - ‘Praise God on the pipe organ’ - PSalm 150? Nope it meantions everything but including clashing cymbals (’But we can’t have loud drums in our church, they’re devil’s music’), I don’t think I however, can biblically justify destroying all pipe organs in churchs, however they sound awful and play hymns out of date by about 100 years with lyrics no one understands!

3 - The ‘Let’s all be nice and tip-toe’ mentality - Why do Christians think they should tip toe around being nice and not really sticking up for what they believe? I wouldn’t say that Jesus was a nice guy who tip toed around, I’d say he let all hell break loose (excuse the pun), he trod on lot’s of Jewish toes etc etc.

4 - The ‘Can’t have that in case the church get’s damaged’ - For goodness sake, the church is not a building it’s a group of people, and if a window get’s broke because a youth group happens then so what, it’s better that it happens than it doesn’t!

5 - The overly apathetic and overly charasmatic ones - The ones who either don’t believe God will do anything ‘but the doctors will’ and the ones who insist something is healed when it’s not ‘You’re arm is healed, it just looks different to it used to, and God has decided to bless you by it not working properly’

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I continue my serious with another top 5, this time things you toast, however still not as yummy as my top 5 good mornings!

Number 5 - A Muffin

Number 4 - A Sandwich

Number 3 - Toasted Bread - AKA Toast - The Hovis Load

Number 2 - The Scotch Pancake

and at number 1….

The Crumpet

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At number 5….
Don’t know her name but the one on the bottom left, female vocalist from pop-punk girl band ‘Tuuli’ who released one album and split up

At number 4….
Amy Lee lead singer of Evanesance, only really entered this list after seeing the video for ‘Call me when your sober’

At number 3…
Kirsten Dunst, actress and all around ‘Good morning’, I still insist Spiderman is stupid for turning her down…

At number 2….
Tammin Sursok ex-’Home and Away’ actress, now model and singer, songs suck, but came very close to beating number 1!

And at number 1…
Jennifer Aniston, star of Friends and several films including ‘The break up’ which, although is crap confirms that she has a nice arse, she arrives in at number one and possibly the oldest in the list…slightly worrying but ‘Good morning’

So bloggers I leave you to ponder on that (yes ponder, nothing else)!!!

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1 - People who automatically assume that screamy music is satanic (usually Christians)
2 - Christians who call themselves Christians yet don’t believe they need to go to church and think it’s fine to go out get drunk and generally fit in with what everyone else does
3- Not being able to sleep when really tired
4- French Cars
5- The bit on guitars where you plug the lead in coming loose!

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