The Free Christian Music Blog

James’ Top 10 Downloads Of 2008

So, it was hard, but I narrowed down my top 10 list. And I only included three of my own posts, unlike Matt, who listed ten of his. Nevermind the fact that I joined him late in the year and only posted one day a week for not even every week til the end of the year…

Anyway, I sorted through the 300+ posts and probably 1000+ songs and ended up with this list of favorites:

10: Tie Between Children 18:3, Children 18:3, and Children 18:3 – So, Matt had a tie at 10th, so I thought it was only fair that I do the same. Children 18:3 was a band I found near the beginning of the year and was the first band that year to show me that pop-punk could be something that I could enjoy if it was done right.

9: Sides of the North – This small band was one of Christian music’s best kept secrets, which is a shame because they were awesome. Six songs by them is definitely an awesome post and worthy of placing in the top 10.

8: Summer Slam Volume 2 – Indie Vision Music has been one of the top sources of free Christian music, and SSV2 is their biggest and best. It gave me free songs from Project 86, Stavesacre, Ocean is Theory, The Dark Romantics, and introduced me to a bunch of smaller bands, especially The Human Flight Committee, with their song “She’s A Car Destroyer.”

7: The Devil Wears Prada – I became a fan of TDWP when I saw them at Warped Tour (and crowdsurfed to them). So I was very excited when I found a free sampler containing “Hey John, What’s Your Name Again?”

6: The Awkward Romance – The Awkward Romance was already my favorite local band before they came out with this CD, This Song Is Writing Me, but this CD caught me by surprise by how well produced it was. And the fact that they gave it away for free was an even bigger surprise.

5: Capital Lights – What Children 18:3 started was reinforced by the introduction to my of Capital Lights. And what we have here with “Can I Get An Amen” is Capital Lights at their best.

4: Stavesacre – Stavesacre is a band that I’d heard of a for a while but never listened to for the longest time. However, once I saw on here that they had a song (“It’s Beautiful Once You’re Out There”) up for download, I decided to give them a listen. I was far from disappointed, and I must say that I have found one of my new favorite bands.

3: mewithoutYou – As I’ve mentioned before, mewithoutYou is my favorite band. The only reason that this isn’t listed higher is that I already had the song long before I found the download that I featured. Still, they are my favorite band.

2: Tooth & Nail Fuel Sampler – Any Tooth & Nail sampler is gonna have awesome songs on it, but this one caught me by surprise with the artists that I enjoyed the most on it. Now, I already had the great songs from Children 18:3 and Showbread, but this sampler introduced me to Capital Lights and Oh, Sleeper plus it gave me amazing songs from Sever Your Ties and my personal favorite on the whole sampler, “Abracadavers” by The Classic Crime, which was a band I had long ago written off.

1: House of Heroes – Sure, I found it before I found this site, but the three free songs, in combination with the ones they streamed on myspace, held me over until their new CD finally came out in September. “In The Valley Of The Dying Son” has been in my collection since March and has yet to ever at any point get old, and neither have any of the others, which is why this places as the number one download of the 2008.

Honorary Mentions:

Everyday Joe’s – This sampler was no longer available by the time that I found this site, but anything that includes Listener Project is awesome.

Christmas Day 12 – Matt put a ton of work into this post, listing something like 2 dozen artists with Christmas songs up for download.

Related Posts:

• Brand New Tooth and Nail / Solid State Sampler
• Fuel Returns (And Matt’s Head Explodes)
• "Under the Watchful Eyes Of T.J. Eckleburg" {And Other Weird Song Titles}
• One Dark Summer

Tags: Capital Lights, Children 18:3, House of Heroes, mewithoutYou, Ocean is Theory, Oh Sleeper, Project 86, Sever Your Ties, Showbread, Sides of the North, Stavesacre, The Awkward Romance, The Classic Crime, The Dark Romantics, The Devil Wears Prada, The Human Flight Committee

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5 Comments to James’ Top 10 Downloads Of 2008

1. 

   i also love ‘in the valley of the dying sun’! it’s a great song by HoH.
aylaeh on January 4th, 2009
2. 

   Any chance that you can post Capital Lights’ Can I Get An Amen?

   I found them this summer, but alas, that extra song is only on the Japanese released album, and currently unavailable in the states (except for streaming via Facebook).

   Also, HoH was simply brilliant with posting the three songs before the final release.

   And I was surprised by Children 18:3 as well.
Brian D. Goad on January 5th, 2009
3. 

   Hey, a little Google searching found the Capital Lights song once again. Check out this blog post about their name change from afterEIGHT to Capital Lights. The song download is on the bottom of the page.
Brian D. Goad on January 5th, 2009
4. 

   I did link one of yours, the TDWP/Before Their Eyes/Burden of a Day one, which you found fair and square. Stavesarce and Capital Lights were both really good too.
Matt
Twitter: matt_from_tfcmb
on January 5th, 2009
5. 

   I know, but the joke wouldn’t work if I mentioned that or anything else. And the tie is what made it 10 of yours.
James on January 5th, 2009

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