How Joe Sees It: When the Pawn...

Jonathan and Tash got me hooked to her music in the spring of 2000. Though, if I'm being accurate, I have to admit that my sister, the arbiter of all style, did try to get me to listen to Fiona early on. But 'When the Pawn...' was too good to be true. Get over yourself and go pick this thing up. It's probably available on Amazon for a little over 55 cents. The sound is mesmerizing and the production and the execution of beats, lyric and the meaning behind the songs will throw you headlong into a trance of cathartic thought, tumbling toward the warm euphoric sense that this music is more than just music, it's a panacea for the ills that your soul endures on a daily basis.

That's right, I said all of that. And seriously, get over yourself, and get on this album. And while your at it, get on these too...

Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morrisette

The sad thing is that despite the fact that this album is one, if not the best selling album of all-time, not enough of the Brothers have it. I still remember my first year at Morehouse, when we had video machines in the cafeteria, how a song from this album was picked over and over again, 'Head Over Feet.' But I remember more vividly how the Brothers were definitely singing along to it...word for word.

U2 - The Joshua Tree

A whimsical retreat to the days when they were just a bunch of kids from Ireland looking to rock your damn world. Now, they are extremely wealthy older men looking to change the world. Either way, I still haven't found what I'm looking for, and it's been 18 years since I first heard those piercing words leave Bono's lips, go through the channel then known as Video Hits One and come out of my television in the family room, where those words wafted to my ears.

Frank Sinatra - Only the Lonely