The Choir Best Of CD (In My Head)

Sometimes I daydream about the Choir knocking on the door to my palatial Southern California estate and saying, “Thom, we want to put out an awesome retrospective collection of our finest songs.  And we know only you can help us achieve this!”  So, we retire to my specially made listening room, where we can go through each song in digital HD.  I have a similar daydream involving the Altar Boys, but that is neither here nor there.

The three CD collection ends up looking something like this (With Some Commentary):

Disc 1:

1.Kissers & Killers: You should always begin with a Rockin’ tune.

2.Consider:  I love the opening of this song…it is seriously cool.

3.Render Love:  Damn hippies…

4.Tip of My Tongue:  The Choir really made this Heard song their own.

5.Happy Fool

6.The Warbler

7.Enough to Love

8.Legend of Old Man Byrd

9.Hey Gene
10.A Friend So Kind: These are no brainer choices.  The Choir wrote two tributes to close friends that passed away far two soon.  What is fascinating about these two tracks is that they are such different approaches.  Hey Gene is an upbeat and celebratory number, almost whimsical in it’s memories of Gene Eugene.  The other, in memory of Tom Howard, is a somber and reflective song.  The juxtaposition of these tracks is just perfect, and they are great tributes to friends gone.

11.I Love Your Mind: The Choir excels at love songs that explore romance and tension.  This song is no exception.

12.Tear for Tear/About Love

13.I Don’t Mean Any Harm

14.Gripped:  I love the sensuality of the song.

15.Between Bare Trees

16.The Ocean:  This is one of those tracks that just works…a ballad using the turbulence of the ocean as a metaphore for the Church, the lyrics showcase Hindalong’s poetic skill.

17.Circle Slide:  Come on let’s ride!

Disc 2:

1.Fade Into You:  I just like the sound of this one.

2.Fear Only You: How this did not become a P&W standard is beyond me.  I remember hearing the Choir perform it with the line “From mansion in West Virginia” instead of “From the terrace of his Mansion”.  I always wished the Choir had done a studio recording with that line.

3.Tears Don’t Fall: A good lamenting personal apathy towards the hurting of others.

4.Why Are All the Children Crying?:  Just a really good song, trying to make sense of the misery people face in the day to day world…kind of a “How can you sit back and just watch”???

5.Sad Face:  Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad face is good for the heart.  A song written when Steve & Nancy Hindalong had suffered through a miscarriage, this is a touching song that creates a sense of unity in heartache.

6.Love Falls Down:  I always dug this track from Diamonds and Rain.

7.The Word Inside the Word:  How to fix the love falling down thing.

8.Terrible Mystery

9.Away With The Swine

10.Flowing Over Me

11.Grace

12.Someone To Hold On To:   Someone higher than the moon.

13.Let the Sky Fall

14.O How the Mighty Have Fallen

15.Yellow Skies:  The Speckled Bird version.  Before you kill me…

16.Children of Time

17.Wilderness(Acoustic)

18.When the Morning Comes

Disc 3:

1.Kangaroo

2.Nobody Gets a Smooth Ride

3.Weather Girl

4.To Bid Farewell

5.So Far Away

6.Beautiful Scandalous Night

7.Sentimental Song

8.Butterfly

9.Wide Eyed Wonder

10.It Should have been Obvious

11.Mercy Lives Here

12.Mercy Will Prevail

13.Sled Dog

14.Midnight Sun

15.We Give We Take

16.Dreams:  This is a good song, in spite of the digital drums.  Lyrically, it is a great expression of growing up and realizing life is not so simple and innocence impossible to reclaim.

17.Say Goodbye to Neverland:  26 years later, and it’s still hard to  let Dreams go

18.Restore My Soul:  Because…what better way to end a CD?!