Much to my regret, the recent outpouring of NPR-approved Americana cabaret music leaves me cold, with the exception of the deliciously loony Sam Beam (see below).  So while I admire the craft and just-plain-niceness that went into the Low Anthem’s Smart Flesh, the Civil Wars’ Barton Hollow,...

For fans of new music, January is the crankiest month.  Coming down from the high-profile autumn releases and end-of-year listmaking exercises can be difficult, but we soldier on, often by listening to stuff from last year that we missed.  (See below.)  All of this is my apology for digging up only...

Top 10 Albums: Cathedral–The Guessing Game (Nuclear Blast) Jamey Johnson–The Guitar Song (Mercury) Ke$ha–Animal + Cannibal (RCA) Diana Reyes–Ámame, Bésame (EMI Latin) Slum Village–Villa Manifesto (E1) Israel Houghton–Love God. Love People. — The London Sessions...

The most annoying aspect of Kanye West’s recently anointed Greatest Album of All Time is that you need to mount a legal defense just to dislike the thing.  Or so it seems.  Said defense is attempted below; in the meantime, those seeking good rap albums should turn to Slum Village’s Villa...

A brief explanation of the “Sheep & Goats” grading scale: A “Sheep” is any album (or single) that doesn’t feel like a chore to listen to again — in this age of hyper-production, that’s higher praise than you might think.  A “Goat” is anything...

DC Talk Nu Thang (ForeFront) Not trynna start a beef like I’m a PHARISEE, but just relax and wrap your mind around some HERESY, namely: Nu Thang is DC Talk’s best album. Not that I’d call it “great,” though several of its songs certainly qualify.  More accurately, Nu Thang is their only underrated...

Plenty of folks, including Burnside on occasion, rail against the machinery of Christian music. There’s good reason to do so, since the Christian music industry at large has hardly been a catalyst for innovation and creativity. But many of Burnside’s writers have also been deeply impacted...

Frightened Rabbit The Winter of Mixed Drinks (Fatcat) God:  Is it right for you to be angry about the bush? Jonah:  Yes, angry enough to die. That’s just one of several laugh lines from what’s surely the funniest book of the Bible, in which we’re asked to identify with Jonah while...

Marvin Sapp Here I Am (Verity) Marvin Sapp’s band doesn’t take a lot of solos, so it’s easy to overlook what an all-out chopsfest his new album is.  Rev. Sapp recorded his eighth solo album, Here I Am, live in front of an enthusiastic Michigan congregation.  Despite some heavy...

Every so often I turn on one of the local Christian Adult Contemporary stations–there’s, like, six–to get a sense of What’s Happening.  These experiments are usually awkward and soul-deadening.  This past weekend on Positive Encouraging K-Love, my poor wife and I caught...