in october 1995, the entire world was going crazy for a little british band’s breakthrough smash, wonderwall.

well, everyone except me.

why? my older brother liked it. and at that time in my life, if he liked it, i was out. that went for the smashing pumpkins, sheryl crow, garbage and a long list of other bands.

bands that i would eventually love.

once i decided it was actually ok to like my brother’s music, i became a huge fan of the aforementioned bands and none so much as oasis.

well, mutemath has done it again. not only have they released the lead track from their upcoming album, odd soul, but they’ve released a video (of sorts) that has—in a matter of hours—generated a substantial internet buzz.

several years ago, their video for typical—which was filmed in reverse and as one, continuous shot—garnered widespread accolades and propelled mutemath into late night talk show gigs and internet viral status.

today’s release of odd soul will do much the same. in this case, though, rather than simply releasing a video (which they have done), they’ve released an innovative youtube-reliant interactive audio/visual remix board.

quite a few years ago, i attended a seminar led by tony jones in which he discussed the blurred lines between what we label as sacred and secular. at that point in my faith journey, i had a particularly difficult time buying in to his fundamental thesis. my way of thinking about and engaging god was far too dichotomous. either/or was much more appealing than both/and. even more than that, i feared a worldview where decision-making couldn’t necessarily be eased by the label “christian”.

i like a lot of shows. i like to have conversations about a handful of those shows. and, weekly, i anticipate new episodes of some of said shows. but none of those shows have had such a drug-like effect on me—no pun intended—as amc’s award-winning breaking bad.

it’s a sickness.

you likely don’t know the name mickey maudlin. i certainly didn’t until recently when he spoke out about the reaction to rob bell’s controversial bestseller love wins. so why is he speaking out? because he’s the executive editor at HarperOne—the publisher of the book—who worked alongside bell throughout the writing process.

throughout 2010, i blogged about derek webb’s latest innovative project called democracy vol. 1. fans were able to cast votes for up to 12 songs that they wanted webb to cover. then, the 12 songs receiving the most votes would be covered by webb for the album. the album was recorded over the span of 2010, with 1 track being recorded and released each month. from january to december, webb released 1 track each month.

at about this time last year, i posted a list of my favorite albums of 2010 up to that point. at the end of 2010, it was fun to look back and see if i still had similar feelings. the black keys’ brothers was able to hold onto the top spot whereas albums by jennifer knapp, janelle monae & fair (among others) didn’t make the year-end list at all.

so i thought i’d do the same this year. there’s been a lot of good music, but admittedly, in looking at this list, it’s not necessarily been a great year for music so far. i’m anticipating quite a few albums (kanye/jay-z, u2, coldplay, amy winehouse (maybe?), dr. dre, fiona apple (possibly?) and a list of others) by year’s end that will almost certainly bump quite a few of these from the list. we’ll see.