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.