Michael Carpenter – Baby (1999)

Sometimes an album comes along, seemingly out of nowhere, and hits you straight in the heart. This is one of those albums. Filled with a warmth and depth unexplored in the current music scene, Aussie musician Michael Carpenter writes from the soul and expertly translates his feelings into songs. This isn't just an album to listen to, it's an album to experience. "Thinking About You" is probably one of the greatest songs to emerge in the last two decades and sounds exactly like what you'd expect Neil Finn to come up with had he been a member of the Beach Boys during the "Surfs Up" sessions. And that is what makes Carpenter so great: he's able to take such different influences and combine them, then infuse them with a knowing innocence, creating a sound that is pure and warm. Being the expert producer and multi-instrumentalist that he is, Carpenter takes his very personal musical vision and allows the listener to step inside. Acoustic guitars bounce off of electric guitars, harmonies dance around your head, and melodies hang-glide through your mind. There's a joy that jumps out of this album, be it on the touching "She Dreams" or the joyous "Love Is Like...." There are echos of the Beatles, Beach Boys, and the Finn Brothers within the laser grooves here, but it belongs entirely to Carpenter himself. To paraphrase Carpenter, this is most certainly "the real thing."