Selected by Senior Music Editor Bruce Imber

Can I be 100% honest? I was never really a big Collective Soul fan. I mean, I knew and liked hits Shine and The World I Know, but their albums don't quite make it into my rotation. "Disciplined Breakdown," on the other hand, is right at the top of the pile. On their third album, the aural paintbrushes into a number of musical palettes. The result? Color me converted.

From the first note, the quintet's wall of sound on "Disciplined Breakdown" grabbed me, and refused to let me go. The rocking verse of the album's opener, Precious Declaration, is driven by a crunchy Aerosmith style guitar-and-bass riff, but the song really takes off during the jangly chorus. Listen kicks off with some subtle melodic interplay between the two rhythm guitars, then shifts into overdrive when lead guitarist Ross Childress makes his roaring entrance. The hit title cut moves easily froma head-banging groove toa Bealteque interlude, all anchored by Will Turpin's slithering bass lines. And the celebratory Full Circle is given a shot of honest-to-goodness Southern soul from The Memphis Horns.

During the recording of "Disciplined Breakdown," frontman Ed Roland (who wrote and produced the entire album) was going through a personalcrisis. "Iwrite from how I feel," says Roland, "and at this time I was dealing with more emotional things than I'd ever dealt with in my life. It was painful o write these songs, but in the end, it felt like therapy." His depression turned out to be a boon to Collective Soul; the brutal honesty on tunes like Blame, Forgiveness, and Giving will reach through the speakers and touch your soul.

It feels good to rediscover a band I thought I knew. Thanks to "Disciplined Breakdown" I can't get enough of Collective Soul.