Best New Underwater Trends of 2009...

Ok, not really. That would be ridiculous, though possibly hilarious. I did think, however, that I would give a go at listing my favorite albums of 2009 (of the ones I have listened to, of course). Without further ado, my top 10, counting down:

10. Wilco (the Album) - Wilco
Notable songs include One Wing, Bull Black Nova, and Wilco (the Song)

9. Two Suns - Bat for Lashes
Notable songs include Daniel, Siren Song, and Traveling Woman
Also, Daniel may be the best song of the year--check it out here

8. Where the Wild Things Are Soundtrack - Karen O and the Kids
Notable songs include All is Love, Rumpus, and Heads Up

7. It's Blitz! - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Notable songs include Hysteric, Runaway, and Zero
*For my less attentive readers, both 7 and 8 acknowledge the huge splash Karen O (and her band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) have made on the music scene this year.

6. Sainthood - Tegan and Sara
Notable songs include Hell, The Cure, and The Ocean

5. The Hazards of Love - The Decemberists
This album is a concept album--listen to the whole thing many times through.

4. Middle Cyclone - Neko Case
Notable songs include This Tornado Loves You, I'm and Animal, and Magpie to the Morning

3. I and Love and You - The Avett Brothers
Notable songs include I and Love and You, Laundry Room, and Tin Man

2. Wait for Me - Moby
Notable songs include Shot in the Back of the Head, Mistake, and Jltf 1

1. Ordinary Riches - Company of Thieves
Notable songs include In Passing, Under the Umbrella, The Fire Song, and Quiet on the Front
I debated putting this album in the top spot, but I am a sucker for bands with incredible debut albums. And this album is incredible. Genevieve's voice is ridiculously good and the guitar is phenomenal. Trample people at Best Buy, rush to amazon mp3, or pay an obscene amount at Barnes & Noble--I don't care how you do it, just get this album.

"When we're older and full of cancer...

...it doesn't matter now, come on get happy. 'cause nothing lasts forever...but I will always love you." -Neko Case, Don't Forget Me

While the introduction to this post has nothing whatsoever to do with the further content of the post, it acts as a shout out to the marvelous Neko Case and the song Don't Forget Me off her year-topping album, Middle Cyclone.

Anyways, I've been recently thinking about the importance of worship through corporate song. Rather than go into a long-winded monologue on the subject, I thought I would provide y'all with three quotes to chew on:

"My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God...Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!" -Psalm 84:2,4 ESV

"The duty of singing praises to God seems to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections. No other reason can be assigned, why we should express ourselves to God in verse, rather than in prose, and do it with music, but only that such is our nature and frame, that these things have a tendency to move our affections." -Jonathan Edwards

"Some of us are afraid of getting too emotional when we sing. But the problem isn't emotions. It's emotionalism. Emotionalism pursues feelings as ends in themselves. It's wanting to feel something with no regard for how that feeling is produced or its ultimate purpose. Emotionalism can also assume that heightened feelings are the infallible sign that God is present. They're not. The emotions that singing is meant to evoke are responses to the truths we're singing about God--his glory, his greatness, and his goodness. Vibrant singing enables us to connect truth about God seamlessly, with passion, so that we can combine doctrine and devotion, edification and expression, mind and heart." -Bob Kauflin

Oh deary me, have the lights gone out?

Wow, it's seemed like forever since I've opened blospot.com, let alone posted an actual, real, live blog. So what do you have to say for yourself, Nathan? Something so profound I will start drooling as I read this? Something so drastic that even drama needs to be renamed? Or a post about your an electropop artist you are currently thoroughly digging (digging being slang for "enjoying the music of...")?

Well, I find myself at a loss for drama and at an unease with the drool of others. As such, I will write to y'all (y'all being the slang word typically associated with Southerners meaning you all--hey look, mom, I combined two words) about electropop. Electropop is, again, a slang word which in my book means something along the lines of combining electronic sounds (synths, drum kits, funky noises, etc.) with pop music. Often times, such combinations result in dreadfully hoky songs that don't merit a listen. However, some songs are solid gold, such as the vintage hit "Here (in your arms)" by hellogoodbye (yes, hellogoodbye--does anyone even remember them?).

Typically, I avoid electropop at all costs, yearning for more "real" and "pure" music. Yet when a friend introduced me to Lights (a wonderful female artist from Canada that I think is younger than me...wow, I'm aged), I took a few listens and ended up purchasing the album on amazon. And since then, I have been sucked into the music of Lights. Rare gems, such as Quiet, Savior, and the Last Thing on Your Mind remind me that electropop can still have pizzazz (has that word ever been using in a cool way, ever?). While ranting on and on about lights would be about as much good as me telling you what to eat for lunch tomorrow, I think you should check her out yourself on her myspace (look, I combined two more words to form the word belonging to the internet social website that everyone forgot existed).

With all this slang and craziness, all I have left to say is: electropop the night away, my friends. or, at least give it a listen after you have seen new moon 17 times.

You go easy little doves; i'll be fine

i need no money, i need no one to understand, but i need your love...

There is always something magical about meeting one of your favorite artists. That is, when such favorite artist is actually nice and fits a good chunk of if not all of your mental image of how such a person would act. Well, this past week, before seeing Brooke Waggoner perform at a rather small venue (Grace College), I was able to meet her and chat for several minutes. I felt like a giddy nerdy fan who has to restrain himself crossing into the dreaded territory of obnoxious fan.

But meeting Brooke also just put a stronger mental image behind the person so invested in her absolutely gorgeous music. While Brooke has to be (yes Sam Haist, this is objective, not subjective) one of the best musicians at coming up with piano and string(ed?) arrangements, she has some songs that just grab you instantly. For example, Hush If you Must may be my favorite song ever made (which can be found on her website, www.brookewaggonermusic.com). She also has a CD coming out on October 6 (digitally), which I cannot wait for and has such an instantaneously catchy song, called Go Easy Little Doves, I'll be Fine (also found on her website). She simply belts it vocally on that song. But more than just a few songs, Brooke is able to put together simply beautiful CD's, which grow on you over time until the whole thing does something in your soul. Anyways, please, please, please check her out and I hope you are not disappointed!

Bat for Lashes and the Divine Order

As the quirky title suggests, this blog post will be about two things. The first, is issues concerns a musical artist I recently discovered, while the second thing discussing my musings on the divine order of the Bible. Completely unrelated topics, but, hey, this can be a "choose your own adventure" type of blog.

First, after hearing several pretty good reviews, I recently purchased the album "Two Suns" by Bat for Lashes. Looking at the album cover, I expected something experimental and trippy similar to a female version of antony and the johnsons, though natasha kahn (the lead singer of bat for lashes) is probably not nearly as messed up as antony. But I have thoroughly enjoyed natasha kahn and her band's album for several reasons. First, natasha's voice is simply mesmerizing. While on parts of the record it can sound almost gothic, on songs such as daniel (my personal favorite), her vocal chords warm for a beautiful pop song. Second, many times she reminds me of cat power, my favorite female vocalists. Songs like "moon and moon" and "traveling woman" have a minimalist instrumentation and vocal overlay sounding a lot like cat power. Third, her lyrics are incredible, though often dark. Like the hold steady, natasha creates a character (pearl) that carries throughout the album. In the song siren song, pearl is introduced, citing her willingness to love despite her wickedness. The song pearl's dream then carries through a vision of pearl's. Finally, as the album has an overarching theme of love and loss (and of broken relationships), pearl ultimately dies in the big sleep. I would recommend listening to her music on her website as well as reading this excellent article from spin magazine.

Second, something I've been thinking of a lot recently is the divine order of the Bible. The Bible is first meant to be read objectively and then subjectively. Too many times we read the Bible looking to feel a certain way about some issue or another, but that is not the case. Granted, the Bible creates feelings through being objective, but these feelings are a result of objective facts and statements. You may be saying, "nathan, you're going in circles, not making any sense" and perhaps the following quote by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones will help: "most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself." What if each and every day, despite feeling happy or sad or depressed or bubbly, we allowed the power of the cross and the wonderful nature of grace to dominate our lives??? Everything changes. I probably haven't painted a very clear picture, but I encourage you all to read "The Cross Centered Life" by C. J. Mahaney. It's a small, 86 page book, but Mahaney is a man truly humbled and broken by what Jesus did on the cross and what we did as sinners to put him there. The chapter out of which most of my ideas come is chapter 5.

That's all for now. Just some of my pondering.

Church and Ed Stetzer = Awesome.

So I just finished reading Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer. It was one of the most detailed books I've ever read, but is a wonderful, God-inspired resource for church planters everywhere (as well as those who care about church planting). Ed lays out many of the details behind planting a church as well as Biblical qualifications for leaders and whatnot. But most importantly, a church should reach people in culture while being Biblically sound. In addition, church planters should rely most heavily on Jesus and the gospel as the power behind their church.

However, one of the things which the Lord laid on my heart while reading this book is the necessity of evangelism in every Christian's life (particularly evangelism through developing relationships). The Great Commission has always made me uncomfortable and I think this is why: evangelism is the hardest practice for me to put in my life as a Christian. What I mean to say is that while I can humbly come before God in prayer and serve through actions and whatnot, it's so hard for me to seek out building relationships with others (particularly non-Christians) that eventually lead to evangelism (and do NOT end there). But this is something that is essential for church planting. As Ed Stetzer puts it, "it's easier to start a church by drawing Christians from other churches than to win new disciples from the community." But church plants should be seeking to draw most of their members from new converts. So interesting, yet so scripturally relevant. Anyways, I know I barely scratched the surface, but those are just my (initial) thoughts.

Psalm 127:1 - Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Best Albums of 2009 (Thus Far)

This, in many ways, is a good blog to look back on at the end of the year to compare the wonderful albums yet to be released with the fantastic albums already released this year. So I've thought of my top four so far this year and will now present them from 4 to 1.

4. It's Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeah's - a completely revamped sound, but a change for the better. noteworthy tracks include hysteric and runaway.

3. Middle Cylone by Neko Case - Case has finally developed into a stand-alone artist, with a fantastic smattering of fanciful, imaginative songs. noteworthy tracks include fever, magpie to the morning, prison girls, and pretty much the whole album.

2. Hazards of Love by the Decemberists - as a concept album, this album tells a story, but takes a while to grow on you. by far their most ambitious project yet to date, I would also declare it their best. As a concept album, there really are no stand-alone tracks.

1. Wait for Me by Moby - possibly his best since Play (so in about 10 years). A beautiful mix of instrumental tracks as well as those with vocals, wait for me bleeds themes of mortality and loss. Noteworthy tracks include Shot in the back of the head, Mistake, and Jltf.

P. S. I know Sam might yell at me for not putting Wilco (the album) on here. And while it's a good album, I don't (personally) think it's among the best so far this year.