For those who stay up late at night wondering what my all-time favorite album is (yes, both of you), here is my answer.

It’s the self-titled (or eponymous) debut of a group called eastmountainsouth.

I discovered this album 10 years ago when I was entranced by one of their songs, You Dance, and knew I immediately had to rush off to amazon.com to buy the CD. No digital downloads for me on this one. I had to have a physical copy in my hands.

Honestly, in the opinion of this humble yet musically-astute blogger (said in jest), this is the perfect album. The vocals are flawless, the production is immaculate, the arrangements are just right, no more and no less. Even the sequencing of songs is perfect.

To this day, I compare all albums to this one. In my mind, a really good album is one that makes me feel the way this one did the first time I heard it. An album that reminds me why I love music so much.

As far as I know, this is the only album from eastmountainsouth. I can’t imagine why they didn’t have a massive breakout like The Civil Wars. I guess the timing wasn’t right and the world wasn’t ready.

It almost feels like my own little secret that I’m finally sharing with the world. I know that I’m not the only one who loves this album and wishes there could have been more. But then again, maybe the idea of more albums would take away from the uniqueness of this one.

I doubt you’ll find it at Best Buy or Barnes and Noble. To my knowledge, the only place where you can buy it is still amazon.com. And yes, that is a shameless plug and an order. You will thank me later.