So far, I’ve been sharing common ground with a lot of other critics in my countdown of the best albums of the decade. I mean, everybody pretty much agrees that Radiohead is awesome and Is This It? set the bar quite high for rock records that work really hard to sound like they’re not even trying. But this is where I go oppo; after all, this is my list.

Derek Webb's 2005 release "Mockingbird"

At first listen, Mockingbird exudes an easy-going ’70s-era AM vibe, full of mellow acoustics and intimate melodies. But upon further inspection, you realize the whole thing is a ruse. Sure, Webb has always been adept at the singer-songwriter thing, dating back to his time with Caedmon’s Call. But Mockingbird‘s airy atmosphere belies the album’s challenging lyrics.

Simply put, Mockingbird is a discipleship record, an unabashed declaration of allegiance to Christ. “My first allegiance is to a king and a kingdom.” The album’s title comes from Webb’s conviction that just as the mockingbird has no song of his own, so too does the follower of Christ mimic the ethic and way of Christ. Webb minces no words as he confronts the sinister idols vying for our devotion: greed, lust, anger. But what sets this record apart is Webb’s insistence that the call to follow Christ extends beyond the realm of individualistic morality. This is a clarion call to social justice, to follow Jesus into the grit and grime of our world. “Poverty is so hard to see when it’s only on your TV and twenty miles across town,” Webb sings on “Rich Young Ruler”. But Webb continues to push, addressing hot-button issues like politics, war, and nationalism on “The New Law”, “In God We Trust” and “My Enemies Are Men Like Me”. The message is clear: discipleship requires a complete reorientation of every facet of one’s life. Love songs like “Please Before I Go” and “I Hate Everything (But You)” stand as grace notes amid the more confrontational material, adding another layer of beauty to the truth on display.

Mockingbird came to me at a time when I was taking a lot of personal and spiritual inventory. As a follower of Christ, it’s easy to give intellectual assent to the notion that Jesus comes first in my life. But Mockingbird, with its relentless unwillingness to accept my pat answers, held up a mirror and allowed me to see some areas that were beginning to threaten my allegiance to Jesus. This is what true art is supposed to do: elicit reflection. This is why I consider Mockingbird one of the landmark albums of the decade. It has impacted me in a way few recordings can or ever will.