This week's Album you can't live without

In early 2000, unless you were like me and just couldn't get any rest, you didn't know who Lifehouse was or even familiar with the song Hanging By A Moment.  They aired their first single from their debut album No Name Face on VH1's Insomniac music videos.  If you were being played between the hours of 4am and 11am, you were probably not that well known.  But it was a way to get your music out there, for those college students like me who just happened to be awake.  For some good reason, their song struck a good note with me and I couldn't get enough.

Though starting as a Christian Rock band that frequently performed at Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Malibu, Lifehouse hit the mainstream in 2001 with Hanging By A Moment.  The single even beat out Alicia Keys & Janet Jackson on the Billboard Hot 100 that year for #1 hit.  It has sold over 4 million copies worldwide and still is one of their most stand-out albums since the band's creation.

No Name Face will be an album that I will never retire.  Besides their first hit, other songs that really resonate with me are Breathing, Simon and of course the power ballad Everything.  I remember hearing Everything for the first time, while sitting in my car at a campus retreat.  Maybe it was the hollowness of the first few verses, or the way Jason Wade poured his heart into the chorus, but it really hit home.  I remember sobbing uncontrollably and just letting myself go.  I had all of this pent up agression and self loathing and this song was just what I needed to get it out.  

I've been fortunate to see Lifehouse perform more than 5 times in my lifetime and I hope they continue to grow and mature as a band.  Not once have they let me down at a live show and every album has its own story to tell.  

No Name Face is that album that really shows one just how powerful music is and can be.  Whether you are spiritual or not, this album will go straight to your heart and into your soul.  I'm not being cheesy, I'm being real.  Seriously, just listen.

Lifehouse - Everything