A Brief Look at four recent album releases of 2013

Hello all, James Morovich your Christian Rock Historian and overall music genius here. I thought I would try and post some more regular brief reviews of recently released albums for all you readers out there. Here is the first batch. Enjoy!

Fiction Family- “Fiction Family Reunion.” I was overall disappointed with the debut project from Jon Foreman (Switchfoot) and Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek) back in 2008, so I was really unsure about what to think of their follow-up, which has been over four years in the making. However, when it dropped back on January 29^th, and I saw it was available on Spotify, curiosity got the best of me and I thoughts I’d give it a listen. I was surprised to find I was listening to what is easily one of the most enjoyable rock and roll albums I have heard over the last month. Highlight cuts for me include “Up Against The Wall,” “Reality Call” (which features the fun line “reality calls and I just let it ring”) and the incredible great rootsy rock song called “Fools Gold.” If you are a fan of solid American rock and roll with roots influences, you won’t go wrong here!

The Last Royals- “Twistification.” This is a solid project that centers on concepts of growing up and looking back at what one learned or wish he’d learned. Though not from a Christian perspective, these songs tell stories all against a backdrop of 90’s guitar rock mixed with 80’s synthesizers and 60’s sounding nasally rock vocals from lead singer Eric James. Fans of the music of decades past will find a lot to like here, especially in songs like “Good Day Radio” and “Friday Night.” Then there is the slow dirge type indie low fi rock sound of “I Hate California” which summons up thoughts of Beck and Jonathan Rundman mixed together. All in all a solid debut!

Daniel Bashta- “The Invisible” Worship music is continuing to grow and expand on a yearly basis, and 2013 looks to continue that trend. Daniel Bashta is the man who wrote the song “Like A Lion” which has been covered by many artists including David Crowder and Kristian Stanfill. He is now recording his own material and taking his cues some from Lost Oceans, and some from the softer side of John Mark McMillan, Bashta takes us listeners on a ten-song musical stylistic adventure and worship experience. There are violins, drum looped beats (“Deliver Us,” “Suddenly “and “I Want It All”), sprinkled amongst acoustic and electric guitars and piano (“Undone” and “Behold The Lamb”) There is also some banjo thrown in on “By My Side” for good measure.

Starflyer 59- “IAMACEO.” Back in 2010 Jason Martin, the basic one man behind Starflyer 59 announced he had chosen to end his nearly 20 year partnership with Tooth & Nail records. Then he disappeared into obscurity for two years and many thought Starflyer 59 were no more. However, in 2012 he reemerged and announced he was working on a new Starflyer album that would be released independently. A Kick-starter campaign was started, and the result was “IAMACEO” which was released last month exclusively only on Vinyl and digitally via iTunes. While I always prefer to buy the actual CD of an album as opposed to just the mp3 files, I found myself breaking my rule for this project since I am and always have been a huge Starflyer 59 fan. I wasn’t disappointed! “IAMACEO” boasts some of Martin’s strongest lyrical work as he writes about trusting God quite a bit. “Bicycle Rider” “Is This All There Is?” and the long four and half minute droning “Father John” are the definite highlights of this project. Stylistically the acoustic guitar based sound of their last project “The Changing Of The Guard” permeates this project as well, though the songs don’t flow into each other as much. Martin this time has created enough breaks to make an overall more interesting album.

Why Should I Listen to Christian Rap?

OK, so this is something I've wanted to write about for some time now. I brought the idea to my fellow moles and there response was basically, why haven't you done it yet? I feel that rap in general gets a bad wrap (haha nice play on words). But I think Christian Rap gets passed by even more. One of our very own moles has over 130 gigs of music that he's collected over his lifetime. How much of that is rap? His response was 0 gigs. The other moles have listened to some, and may even have an album or two. But they didn't bring me on board because they knew all about the Christian Rap scene and I was just their friend. No, they brought me on because I know a thing or two on the subject. Now so far, from what I can gather, the few readers we have don't get down with my genre of choice either. The goal of this blog is to show people why Christian hip hop should stop being overlooked. There is a reallness about rap in general that can't be matched by any other genre of music. Sure it's filled with synthetic beats, produced by a computer, and even those with no singing talent can rap. However, the stuff that rap talks about can and does have a reallness unmatched by any other genre.

Look at this verse for example:

"Lord thank you for another day 
I could have been another case of a son in grave 
I could of been a waste of a brothers slaying 
Just a rain puddle off the face of a mother's pain 
I could have lost and cut a vein 
Fed up with my life times I ain't wanna stay 
Drop to my knee's like Lord I wanna change 
I don't wanna live like this for another day 
I could've been another one in chains 
for armed robbery jealous of another's gain 
Or a victim of robbery and they'd end up popping me for being stubborn like nah ain't giving up a thing 
Lord you could have looked the other way and let whatever happen happen to me while I wasn't saved 
You could have never sent your son to pay for my sin 
but he did that's why I wanna say" 

This is from Bizzle's song "Forever" off his album Tough Love & Parables. And I know not all of us can identify with the "thug life" but it's a reality in America. What other Christian artist can you think of that talks about such a hot button issue? 

And if you want something that hits a little closer to home -

Let's look at another verse:

"This a toast for that one guy up all night with his laptop in that porn site
for the brother the struggle with his lust alone his soul weak and he can't fight
he's trying daily He fails daily masturbation ain't trailed lately dark nights he done fights he don't know how to confess it all
maybe he scared and he fears the somebody's going to tell his peers
so he smears his tears try to cover up what God sees clear
and confession aint no question that he wants the help cause he's nervous
oh God oh Lord let them come to you Cause he's hurting
and its a struggle to talk to his sister,
Because none of them know he's not alright because he puts the face of those bodies that he looked that on them porn sites
oh God oh God oh help him please today
yes he's flawed he's flawed but there's hope"

This one is off Canon's "Loose Canon" EP. If you can honestly say that you've never struggled with sexual sin and can't identify with this at least a little bit then praise be to you. Otherwise, praise be to God for putting artists out there that aren't afraid to use God given talents to speak on issues that otherwise might get overlooked. Because let's face it, who wants to talk about this to anyone? It's a hard subject to talk about. Yet it's so real and honest. These are just two examples. I could honestly sit here and give you hundreds just off the 9 gigs of music I have. And there's so much more. Of the 130 gigs our fellow mole said he had, only about 1 of those covers these kinds of issues. And of that one gig I would say none of the bands he mentioned were very popular. So why isn't Christian hip hop being listened to? Is it because of the negative connotation we give rap in general as Christians? This is something I honestly want to know. 

The most truly beautiful thing about Christian rap is that while it can be so real and up front about issues that not too many other artists want to talk about, it can also be worship filled as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLuJ8EtGmY0

Here is a great example of a Christian rap song that is worship filled. It is Caine's "Beautiful" off his Abstract Thoughts mixtape. 

So my question again is, why are you overlooking Christian rap? What do you have against it? Is there no room in your heart for it? Or is it just something about the beats and the way they talk that you can't get down with? I challenge any reader out there to honestly give Christian rap a chance. If your reason for not listening to has anything to do with a negative connotation that you have placed on it then it may be time to give it a chance. If you just don't like rap in general than maybe do what our fellow mole James is doing and ease into it. One of the things that was pointed out to me recently is that rap might be an acquired taste. Start out by listening to some Lecrae (*cringe*) or some old Ambassador, Flame, or Canton Jones. This will open the door for you and won't come off as rough. But then I challenge you to really open the door to new artists. Try a Bizzle on for size, or a MC Jin, or Datin. The point is I can honestly say you do not know what you are missing out on. There is only room for reallness in Christian rap. Then hopefully you will begin to see it as I see it. 

I wanted to end with this thought. This post is not designed to put pressure on anyone to listen to Christian rap. I don't want to sit here and say that you are wrong for not listening to it. However, what I am trying to do is show you that there is so much more in Christian rap that people do not understand. 

Thanks, and stay Holy my friends,

Shawn