Rollin'

DeAnne approved the white background to the blog posts yesterday, so I guess we're good to go with the new look.  The only other thing she asked me about was the font size, which I have now increased ever so slightly.

I haven't talked about music in a while and a lot of that has to do with the fact that there hasn't really been a lot of music to come out lately that I've enjoyed.  This is especially true of the secular realm.  In the Christian music world though, I've found several albums that have become staples on my iPod.

Needtobreathe have two albums out, the second of which came out about a year ago.  Both "The Outsiders" (mp3) and their first CD, "The Heat" (mp3) are incredible albums.  The band is from South Carolina and they have kind of a southern bluesy thing going on.  It's hard to place it exactly or to find a good comparison, but either way, they're an incredible band and I highly recommend both of their albums.

David Crowder Band is a group that's been around for a while.  Their new album, "Church Music" (mp3) is pretty special though.  This is probably about polar opposite of Needtobreathe's sound in that DCB takes a more electronic approach to this album.  Sounds swirl and swell and at times threaten to overwhelm the whole thing, but it seems as though the band were aware of this and knew when to back off at just the right moment.  That being said, the songs can stand on their own without all the production.  "Summer Happiness" is an EP that contains four of the "Church Music" songs played acoustic.  "Alleluia, Sing" and "How He Loves" are just incredible here.

Finally, Fee have two albums out and much like Needtobreathe, those albums will likely never leave my iPod.  The band is no longer together and there's talk that it's do to some infidelity between band members and wives and it's a complete shame that something like that happens to a band that has written such awesome music for the Lord, but we all sin and fall short and while my heart breaks that whatever happened happened, I believe that the music they put out is still valid and worth listening to.  "Hope Rising" (mp3) and "We Shine" (mp3) are both great, great albums.  I probably have a little more fondness for "Hope Rising" but that's probably only because I bought it first.  Great production, great lyrics, great playing.  All of it adds up to Fee.  We're already playing a couple of their songs on Wednesday nights for the youth and we're probably going to add at least one or two more in the near future.  I just hate that this is probably all we're ever going to have of them.

So that's five (or six if you count the DCB EP) of the albums that I can't stop listening to right now.  There are a couple of others, but I think I'm going to save them for a post later on.

The weekend is going to be pretty busy for me.  I'm going on the annual men's retreat that I church does.  It's the first time I've been and I'm looking forward to it.  I'm not sure what DeAnne's going to do with herself, but I would imagine it'll involve her sister and Liam.  Have a good weekend.

--Paul