If you haven't gotten into the vintage 80's sound of M83, you should. It's great stuff. Their new album, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, releases tomorrow (pick it up) and is streaming today. Their previous album, Saturdays = Youth, was outstanding. Here's the new video for "Midnight City"...
Some good albums streaming free before their release. Enjoy!
Great four song Tiny Desk Concert from Wilco. Love their album, The Whole Love. You should pick it up if you haven't already.
Tim Casteel asked me a great question in a comment on a recent post: "I'd be interested to know: what else is on your potential 'best albums of 2011' list?"
There are a bunch that will get my consideration and I can't list them all, nor recall all of them. I expect some to pop up high on the list that just haven't come to mind as I post this. I give each album a good, fresh listen as I work on my list. So don't quote me when my list comes out in December and there are some new names high on the list and listed albums not on the list. :) Here are some I expect to compete for the top albums, in alphabetical order.
What isn't on my list that should be?
If you aren't a fan of Bifrost Arts (and brainchild, Isaac Wardell), I hope you will remedy that. Come O Spirit! is amazing, and their Christmas album, Salvation is Created, is maybe my favorite Christmas album. I gave it high marks in my review. They are making great, historically based worship music, and I want them to make more! Here's how we all can help them make more through their Kickstarter campaign...
Bifrost Arts has had a very full year!
Between a conference, a new curriculum, lots of new songs, and new liturgical materials, we've barely had time to catch our breaths. We're so encouraged by the ways that God has grown this project of ours into something larger than we could have foreseen four years ago, when we began.
Now, after a two-year hiatus since our last full-length, Bifrost Arts is excited to announce that a new record is fully underway. Our plan is to gather together some of our favorite singers and musicians from past records, as well as a whole host of new talent to converge in the recording studio this winter, to record another full-length record.
For the last two years, we've been writing an compiling new church music, trying it out in our congregations, as well as demoing the new material. The theme of the record is the Lamb of God. Many of the songs are are about death and resurrection, about communion, and about suffering and redemption. Folks who have attended Bifrost Arts events in the last two years will recognize some of them from our hymn-sings.
Please consider giving generously to this project so that we can continue our work of writing, producing, and performing new sacred music for our churches and for our communities.
(You can email bifrostarts@gmail.com with questions about the details of the project, and the recording budget.)
Go support these great artists as they produce more music to bless the church.
Joe Thorn told me about this great video about art from David Murray. You should keep up with David's blog: HeadHeartHand. Joe has a post going up about it, which I haven't seen. He predicted that after watching the video I'd post on it first. Sorry Joe.
At the end of the video, which you should watch in full, where he discribes some pieces of art and shares glimpses into their meaning at the Grand Rapids Artprize Festival, David says this:
"Some beautiful pieces with some really moving messages. What heights? What depths? What hopes? What fears? Exploring our un-creation and calling us to re-creation. And that's really all art can do. It can call. It can summons. It can point. It can raise questions. But it can never be the answer. Jesus Christ alone is the answer. When we find him we stop asking 'What's next?' He is God's hand reaching down to our hand. His peace calms our confusion. And it's only through Christ that we can do all things. Jesus Christ is the answer. He can take our darkness and chaos and transform them into beautiful light and order. And that is a true work of art." (visit David's post)
The Field: Looping State of Mind came out today. When it started streaming free online recently I got my first listen and loved it. I just picked it up today and I'm listening as I do some work. It breathes wonderful, danceable, non-concentration breaking, atmospheric soundscapes. It fills up the room. I think you will like it a lot. Don't believe me? Ask Pitchfork, Drowned in Sound, CokeMachineGlow, and others.
I surprised many by choosing Four Tet's There Is Love In You as my album of year last year over Arcade Fire: The Suburbs and The National: High Violet. This year The Field is already making a strong argument for my best album of 2011.
White Horse Inn posts a review from Anthony Parisi on the Courageous movie. I haven't seen the movie, but I resonate with the reviewer's take on the state of Christians and this kind of "art." If you have seen the movie, what are your thoughts on the review? Even if you haven't seen the movie, does the review reflect your concerns about how some Christians do art? Here's a teaser...
While surely produced with good intentions, Courageous is likely to further entrench the misguided culture wars and bring harm to the Christian witness in the world.
Some good Kindle books for cheap right now...
Pretty cool marching band version of LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem."
From Tim Keller's forward to JD Greear's new book, Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary (via)...
It is one thing to understand the gospel but is quite another to experience the gospel in such a way that it fundamentally changes us and becomes the source of our identity and security. It is one thing to grasp the essence of the gospel but it quite another to think out its implications for all of life. We all struggle to explore the mysteries of the gospel on a regular basis, but we should strive to dive into it and allow its message to influence our thinking daily.
Read the rest, buy the book.
Tim Keller discusses 3 rules for Gospel Polemics in his new post that "will help us neither avoid polemics nor engage in them in a spiritually destructive way." Here are the rules, but go read his explanations.
1. Carson’s Rule – You don’t have to follow Matthew 18 before publishing polemics
2. Murray’s Rule – You must take full responsibility for even unwitting misrepresentation of someone’s views
3. Alexander’s Rule – Never attribute an opinion to your opponent that he himself does not own
Read "Gospel Polemics, Part 2," or start with "Gospel Polemics, Part 1."
Another month, another 100 $5 albums from Amazon. My favorites & some greatest hits albums...
GREATEST HITS
Sarah and I were walking out of Java Planet yesterday just after a storm passed and I asked her to do that one superhero thing she does. If she aims it at you, you die. Beware. Actually, just after I took this a double rainbow showed up and I didn't take a picture. I was too busy wondering what it meant. See more of my photography.
When I write, study for sermons, etc, I often like to listen to music to drown out other distrations and give my work some rhythm. If it's too lyric-driven (which is a lot of the music I like), it doesn't work. Here are a few of the albums I enjoy when I'm doing work that requires concentration and focus. Name in the comments some albums and artists you like to work to.
Wow. Cool. Amazon's Kindle Fire is now very much on my radar.
Ok, I'm sold on it now.
UPDATE: Embedding video has been disabled, so go watch it at YouTube.
Wilco's brand new album, The Whole Love, is out today and on sale for $5.99.
UPDATE: The Whole Love Deluxe Edition is also out on Amazon and it's $9.99. It's the regular album plus 4 songs, so if you purchased the $5.99 version, you can go here and download the other 4 songs and essentially pay the same price. If you haven't bought it yet, I would get the deluxe edition.
