I realized the other day that I have a growing stack of CDs around here awaiting some kind of attention on the blog. So today let me draw your attention to a few noteworthy new albums.
Nate Fancher: The Cross of Jesus – I wasn’t quite sure how to describe the sound of this EP, but found some help at Nate’s site: “A catchy and classy pop/rock genre graced with rhythmic arrangements, ambient guitars, percussive keyboards, and soul lifting melodies might help describe the music of Nate Fancher. And if you call yourself a fan of ‘modern worship’, you’ll feel right at home.” That sounds about right. If the music reminds me of anything else in my collection, it is probably the Passion albums with their big choruses and “loud” instrumentation. You can hear several of the tracks at Nate’s MySpace.
Sovereign Grace Music: Sons and Daughters – You may well be familiar with the Sovereign Grace albums–there are quite a few of them now. As time goes on, it seems to me that the songs are getting a bit tighter and the instrumentation a little bit more varied. I take this as a good thing. For example, you can give a listen to “God Delights in You” and you’ll soon realize that this song would not have been likely to appear on any of their previous albums. There are some new songwriters and some new musicians and that is helping to keep this line of albums fresh. You can find information about the album here.
Sovereign Grace Music: To Be Like Jesus – One of the first Sovereign Grace albums I listened to was Awesome God, one that was targeted at children aged 7 and up. A thing I enjoyed about the songs on that album was that they were deliberately focused at kids who were raised in Christian homes but who were perhaps not yet Christians. So rather than having songs that said, “I’m so glad I’m a Christian” they were songs that simply spoke of how Christian kids ought to behave. In this way they leveled a real challenge to the children. The follow-up to that album, To Be Like Jesus, is much the same. It “contains twelve worship songs that teach the fruit of the Spirit in a creative and memorable way.Through these songs kids will learn that Jesus is our perfect example of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. More than that, they’ll discover that we can’t be like Jesus unless we trust in the power of his cross to forgive us and the power of his Spirit to change us.” read more here.
Daniel Renstrom: On the Incarnation – As you may guess from the title, this is a Christmas album (which releases on October 27). Renstrom reminds me, both in voice and in musical style, of Derek Webb (though without the cussing). The new album has eight tracks split between originals and traditional Christmas songs. Be sure to also check out his previous album Adore and Tremble. Both of them are fantastic. You can read more at Daniel’s site.
Indelible Grace Music: By Thy Mercy – Surely you know Indelible Grace Music by now. They have just released a new album and this time around it is an acoustic album. As with the others, it features a series of hymns set to new or mostly-new melodies written and performed by a variety of artists. I am not the biggest fan of this kind of acoustic music, but still enjoyed this album. It’s a fitting addition to the series. Check it out at igracemusic.com.
