Music Monday: United

The I Heart Revolution – United (B-)

I’ve never been a big fan of compilation albums that put together songs you have heard before from various artists original albums and provide very little new for the listener (read: Passion, WOW, et al). I’m not a fan of “best of” albums mostly because it is a sign the artist is on their way out. But for whatever reason, I bought this album and I like it. Maybe it is the encompassing international unity message or maybe because there are a ton of songs on here I rarely listen but love. Whatever it is, it got me. I guess record labels still know how to get the consumers money.

Music Monday: Tree63

Sunday – Tree63 (B+)

I’ve been a fan of Tree63 for sometime. They sound ridiculously full live as only a three-piece band and I love to lead worship with some of their songs. Their last couple of albums had a lot of repeats so I was excited to get this new studio album full of all new music (even though I’m picking it up it a little late). My thoughts? I like it a lot. There is a fair amount of predictability. Not as many songs that I can include in my Sunday sets than they previously provided, but – killer melodies, fun tunes, great message – I’m glad I got it. The title track, World Undone and Not As This World are my favorites.

As I’m writing this, I’m thinking how much people are going to rip my album apart. Criticism is an artist’s best friend.

Music Monday: Best of 2008 (so far)?

Last week some people over at All Music put together a list of all the great music of 2008 just to show that the big biz was not suffering as some have suggested. Now, there is a ton of great music on the list that I love, but then there is the other stuff. Am I so out of element that a) I’ve never even heard of some of these artists and b) I would have chosen a recording of a dying cat over several of these albums? What say you?

American Music Club – The Golden Age
Autechre – Quaristice
Autistic Daughters – Uneasy Flowers
Erykah Badu – New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War
Beach House – Devotion
The Black Crowes – Warpaint
Black Milk – Caltroit
Black Mountain – In the Future
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?
Cadence Weapon – Afterparty Babies
Los Campesinos – Hold on Now, Youngster…
Chessie – Manifest
Counting Crows – Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
Sheryl Crow – Detours
Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
Ray Davies – Working Man’s Cafe
Destroyer – Trouble in Dreams
Raheem DeVaughn – Love Behind the Melody
DeVotchKa – A Mad and Faithful Telling
Drive-By Truckers – Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
Earth – The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull
Liam Finn – I’ll Be Lightning
The Five Blind Boys of Alabama – Down in New Orleans
The Fleshtones – Take a Good Look
Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple
Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree
The Gutter Twins – Saturnalia
Hot Chip – Made in the Dark
Howlin Rain – Magnificent Fiend
Alan Jackson – Good Time
Junior Boys – Body Language, Vol. 6
Kelley Polar – I Need You to Hold on While the Sky Is Falling
The Kills – Midnight Boom
Justus Köhncke – Safe and Sound
Charles Lloyd – Rabo de Nube
Shelby Lynne – Just a Little Lovin’
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – Real Emotional Trash
The Mars Volta – The Bedlam in Goliath
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
Bob Mould – District Line
Nada Surf – Lucky
Neon Neon – Stainless Style
David “Fathead” Newman – Diamondhead
Panic at the Disco – Pretty. Odd
Connie Price & the Keystones – Tell Me Something
The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
The Raveonettes – Lust Lust Lust (US Bonus Tracks)
The Ruby Suns – Sea Lion
School of Language – Sea from Shore
Sons & Daughters – This Gift
Kelley Stoltz – Circular Sounds
Otis Taylor – Recapturing the Banjo
These New Puritans – Beat Pyramid
Times New Viking – Rip It Off
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Larry Willis – The Offering
Xiu Xiu – Women as Lovers
Yip-Yip – Two Kings of the Same Kingdom (CD/DVD)

Music Monday: R.E.M.

Are you an R.E.M. fan? I kind of lost interest after Monster. Their new album Accelerate is fun and exciting. I love it. It is modern enough to not sound dated and yet it rings true to what I remember loving about R.E.M. I used to listen to. The title track is killer. I’ll have to find a way to slip it into a song set this summer. If you don’t have it, go get it – though I won’t guarantee you’ll enjoy it as much as I have if you’ve never really liked Michael Stipe.

Music Monday: Me

That’s lame, I know. But I am just so excited about this album getting wrapped up that I can’t stand it. I want so bad to post some tunes and get your feedback. It won’t be long. Hang in there a little longer (that was directed toward me).

Truth is, these last couple of weeks I’ve been so consumed with my own CD stuff and the music for the Egg Drop and the 80s series that I just haven’t been listening to anything else. Plus, it is the end of the month and my wallet is not very thick at the moment if you know what I mean.

I have been catching myself singing that Miley Cyrus tune. Whose idea was it to play that song again?

Musicians Like To Sing About Sex and Drugs…

…that is, according to a new study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. As obvious as that sounds, what they uncovered might be quite enlightening to the average church leader. Basically, the study set out to find out how often popular music mentioned drugs and the use thereof. The researcher took Billboard’s top 279 songs of 2005 and here is a summation of the results:

• Rap carries the gold with 77% discussing substance abuse
• Country’s second with 36%
• R&B/Hip-Hop came in with 20%
• Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-roll is only partially right with 14% of Rock coming through on the study
• Pop songs had a measly 9%
• 1 in 3 songs all together mention it in some form or another (33%)
• 1 in 25 had an anti-use method (4%)
• Almost 50% of all these references were tied to sex and 29% to some sort of violence

So what does that have to do with us in the church? Think about it this way, an average youth (which this study was targeting) or an adult trying to keep up with modern culture and/or the culture of their children will here an estimated 588 references a week to drugs, sex, violence, or all of the above compared to the handful presented in the hour they spend at church. Which one do you think has a better chance of making an impact?

Music Monday: Lee McDerment

Lee is the main worship leader at New Spring Church in Anderson, SC (if you don’t keep up with New Spring, you probably should) I had the privilege to meet and chat a bit with Lee a while back and was excited to here they (as in Lee and some of their other worship leaders) were beginning to write original songs for their church (you can read some of my first posts on worship to see why that is so important to me). I’ve been a fan of Justin Land, one of the worship leaders who helped co-write some of the tunes on this project, since he was in the band Honestly (Mary’s Eyes) back here in Atlanta.  Ever since I heard the news of the project, I’ve waiting to hear the songs so am glad Lee put some samples on his site. If the 30-second blurbs are any indication, this should be an exciting worship album.

NOTE: I know, I shouldn’t be writing about albums you can’t buy or listen to in their entirety, but I got sidetracked when I heard Lee had posted samples and never finished the album I planned to write about this week. It just gives you something to look forward to.

Music Monday – Passion: God of This City

New Passion album out today and I’m not sure I’m going to buy. I’m as much a fan of the music of Passion as the next guy, but I have to admit, I miss the good old days of CDs filled with songs you’d never heard before. Sure, that was back before Crowder, Tomlin, Hall, Redman, and the scattered one hit wonders had become staple names associated with modern worship. But it was a great feeling buying a CD filled with music you heard for the first time at an amazing worship conference and tried so hard to remember exactly how it went so you could teach it to your congregation and just when they had fallen in love with the song just like you had a few months before, you get the “real” version along with all the other songs you had completely forgotten about and start teaching the rest as fast as you could.

Now, it is more of a “greatest hits” album featuring the collective works of the Six Steps Records team. Not that I’m saying that’s bad or I don’t like the songs – its just I’m having a hard time convincing myself to buy an album where I already own most of the songs from the featured artists solo albums and the new songs are just previews to albums coming out soon that I’d rather buy for the other songs not on the Passion disc. So what’s the point? So I can like everybody else who is going to run out today and claim this as the best album yet? I’ll just listen to the 30 second clips on iTunes over and over again until the artists new albums come out.

NOTE: Is it just me or does the artwork closely resemble the older albums from Desperation Band and Hillsongs United?

Music Monday: Brooke Fraser

Ever wonder who was behind the female voice on the Hillsong United albums? Well, here she is – Brooke Fraser. She is an award winning singer songwriter who got her start in New Zealand with a debut album that cast out four #1 hits and sold 7,000,000 copies. She has since moved to Australia, joined up with Hillsongs United, and is wowing worshipers everywhere with her angelic chops. This album is killer and you need to get it. You can anticipate hearing some of her stuff in future services. Not to slam any of our fabulous female vocalists, but I sure wish I could find a voice like this in Catersville to put on our stage.

Music Monday: The Silver Seas (formerly The Bees U.S.)

Well, my music reviews died quicker than I can down a 20oz Mt. Dew. But I still think it is valuable for me to write about music so I am going to change up the format a bit and see if I can’t be a little more consistent. Here is how it will work: instead of buying the latest and greatest (and/or not so greatest) albums, I’m just going to write about what ever I’m listening to or whatever artist I think is worth mentioning at the time. I’ll post it on Monday and it will be called Music Monday. This is the first installment.

My good friend Bert is always trying to get me to like the music he listens to. 9 times out of 10 the stuff he recommends I don’t like too much. This is one of the rare exceptions. He told me they were called The Bees U.S because there is a band in the U.K. that already had the name The Bees. As you might have already figured out, they have now changed their name to The Silver Seas which just happens to rhyme with “bees” but I’m not sure that was intentional.

They’ve apparently been around for quite sometime, but I’m just now hopping on the boat to sail this sea (bad pun, sorry). The whole album is not much more than 30 minutes. Many of the songs are just over 2 minutes long. It is a quick read for the ears and a breath of fresh air for the musical mundane. Even though I’m convinced almost every track sounds like some other song I just can’t seem to put my finger on, the throw back harmonies and catchy melodies make this album a blast to listen too. I highly recommend you check them out.