Although I got my copy of this record a few weeks ago, this album officially releases today. Malcolm Guite is an English poet and on this album he recites his poetry, ruminations on the scripture, the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and more. Underneath Mr. Guite's poetry is laid acoustic guitar and the occasional other instruments from Phil Keaggy and friends. What results is a great fusion of poetry and music from two masters of their respective arts. 16 poems are read with music to go with the reflective poetry. After the poetry (on side B of the record), 20+ minutes of the same instrumental music is presented without the sonnets. I'm not sure when it will be available on streaming, but you can buy it digitally or on vinyl or CD directly from the artist.

Release Year: 2024
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Wake Low is three siblings: Aedan Peterson, Skye Peterson, and Asher Peterson. Their dad is Christian adult contemporary/folk artist, Andrew Peterson, and on this self-titled album, they make something that is not their dad's style, but is much their own. Electronic music, acoustic guitars, and other instrumental sounds fuse with their vocals to make an energetic sound speaking of life, God and the space in between. It's great to hear what these young persons are coming up with, not compartmentalizing their spiritual life from the rest of their life, and experimenting with sounds and musical forms. And it's fun to see the siblings take turns on vocals and other roles throughout the album. It's not a long album, but it's a good collection of fresh new songs from the Peterson family.

Release Year: 2020
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For the past few days, my album picks have been from the United Kingdom. So let's keep it going for a 4th day, I guess. Rivers & Robots is a British band that makes modern worship music, though not what you hear at most churches today exactly. Jonathan Ogden and band create beautiful and complex, sometimes jazzy and sometimes electronic pop/rock with lyrics praising God and/or talking to God directly. Many of the lyrics seem to be taken directly from Scripture, I think. It might not be exactly music to be sung in churches, at least in this form, but it's beautiful music that can draw us closer to God. I honestly only started listening to this band a few years ago and don't know if I can distinguish this album from their 4 other studio albums, but I've liked all of them and want to get into their music more.

Release Year: 2016
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Released on this day 5 years ago, this album is not one I listen to often, but I listen to it more than any other album Coldplay has released in the last 15 years. Coldplay released this by playing the songs live online from the country of Jordan during sunrise and sunset 5 years ago, which was a memorable way to debut the album. More than any other Coldplay album in the last 15 years, this album has a variety of sounds, not just the same energetic pop that they've been putting on their albums for the last 15 years before or since. There's a moment of Gospel music, some sounds of the Middle East, some beautiful instrumentals, and some lyrics talking about the world's issues today, not just feel-good pop anthems. It was refreshing to see the band coming back to making interesting music like they did on their earliest albums, and it's unfortunate their two albums since Everyday Life just seem they're going back to their formulaic stuff that does not connect with me as much. It's not that all their recent music is terrible, but this is their only recent album that I like listening through as an album.

Release Year: 2019
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