My Top 20 of 2005, #20: Checkpoint Charley-Songs One Through Twelve

Time for a new feature here at AP (or should that be APP? I'm still haunted by my decision to make "power pop" one word; maybe I should go with AbPow), my top 20 discs of 2005. I know it's late in the game for a best-of-2005 list, but I didn't have this blog a month ago. Nevertheless, my plan is to roll these out one day at a time in reverse order. For those who can't stand the suspense, a well-crafted search over at the Audities page on Yahoo will yield the list. Anyway, here we go:

The problem with writing about albums that have been out a while is that they've been reviewed several times, so it's hard to find something new to say that doesn't echo a dozen other reviews. In the case of Checkpoint Charley's Songs One Through Twelve, the Jellyfish/Queen comparisons are certainly earned (hell, there's even a track called "Bellyfish").

The way that I listen to music is not an album at a time, but rather in shuffle mode on my iPod. Typically, I have a playlist of the stuff I've added in the last month or six weeks (usually about 800-900 tracks, mostly consisting of full albums). In the case of Checkpoint Charley, my ears always perked up when one of their songs came on. And from me, that's high praise.

Download: eMusic | Sample: myspace| Buy: Not Lame