Round The Ball: Lent – 2009

The last of my list of favorites from the year — just hours before we ring in 2009 here in London! I made a few really fun music discoveries this year I thought I’d share with you all.  Enjoy!  And Happy New Year!

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1) Coldplay – “Viva La Vida” – I can’t remember what got me into this one, but once I downloaded it, this album pretty much became the soundtrack of our mild summer days here in London.  I will forever associate planning our 2008 InnerCHANGE Staff Conference with this album playing in the background.

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2) Tom Wuest – “Rain Down Heaven” – Speaking of our conference, Tom Wuest and his simple, soulful worship music was one of the best elements.  We invited Tom, a friend of a friend, and he brought his family along for the week as he shared his music.  These tunes are nearly straight from scripture, wonderfully melodic, and have a great sense of Kingdom justice to them.

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 3) Amy Winehouse – “Back To Black” – Aw, come on, she lives in our neighborhood, we have to listen to her!  Anyway, her music is a fun throwback to the rock ‘n roll of simpler times, and she’s got an amazing voice.

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 4) Josh Garrels – “Jacaranda” - Big thanks to Esther Knicely for turning me on to this guy. His music is provocative, soulful, and stunningly innovative.  First “Christian” album I’ve listened to in a long time that didn’t immediately sound sickeningly, well, “Christian.”  Prophetic lyrics set to emo-indy-rock.  Amazing.

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 5) The Postal Service – “Give Up” - One of those times I heard music I couldn’t ignore while in a coffee-shop, asked who it was, and immediately downloaded it.  Happy-sound with moody, esoteric lyrics.  Something about these guys is just fun to listen to.  And their band name has some significantly cool meaning as well, but I’ll let you explore that one on your own.

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 6) Jesse and Luci – “Live, 2008″ – Okay, this one’s not available in stores, but the kids and I worked for weeks on a little home-recording project that we turned into gift CD’s for their friends and cousins for Christmas.  Admittedly, the sound quality is bad and many of the 48 tracks involve Luci’s nonsensical rambling (we call it spontaneous spoken-word) . . . but these guys are just so darn cute and I’m proud of their hard work!