Released 15 years ago this Sunday, this is the seventh and (likely) final studio album from Celtic progressive rock band Iona. Released 21 years after their first album, this epic, 95-minute album continues to find the band doing what they always do: mixing traditional Irish music sounds, rock music, and much more into a exciting musical journey. Sometimes it's a quiet, traditional sounding song sung by Joanne Hogg and sometimes it's Dave Fitzgerald and Dave Bainbridge and other multi-instrumentalists doing an instrumental melody that turns into a jam session. When there are lyrics, they are often full of religious imagery and references to nature. I love the long, cinematic tracks and the very unique mix of styles throughout. This isn't my favorite album from Iona, but I love all their albums and listen to them often.

Release Year: 2011
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

My introduction to Glen Hansard, an Irish artist who tragically passed away today in Dublin, was this film Once. In the film, Hansard plays the male lead, a struggling, shy folk musician, though in real life he had already had a fairly successful music career. The female lead, Markéta Irglová, is a Czech-born musician, and in the movie they strike up a relationship of both musical collaboration and friendship. I love director John Carney's movies because they do a good job of portraying the experience of creating music inside a dramatic narrative. Hansard starts the movie with just him and a guitar on an empty street in Dublin and it was so passionate and beautiful, I was immediately hooked. You get to see songs in progress of being written, songs recorded in the studio, and even the occasional concert performance, if I remember correctly. Much of this music was written by the performers on this album, and you feel how invested they are in these songs as they perform them. It's been too long since I've watched this movie, but it's beautiful to listen to the music today in memory of this very talented songwriter and musician. Hansard and Irglová also performed as a duo The Swell Season after this, and Hansard was also the lead of long-time rock band The Frames. Rest in peace, Mr. Hansard, and prayers for your band mates and family.

Release Year: 2007
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Released 15 years ago in March, this is the fourth studio album from artist and church music leader Tim Hughes. Some of my favorite artists doing worship music in the last 30 years are from England, and Tim Hughes is up near the top of that list. He's most known for earlier songs like "Here I Am To Worship" and "Beautiful One". This album is full of newer songs that haven't really been adopted by churches widely, but are still good worship music and also interesting pop/rock music to listen to. Produced by Martin Smith, whose band delirious? disbanded a few years before, most of these songs are also co-written by Hughes and Smith. Though it's a studio album, these songs are given room for the types of spontaneous, extended bits of praise and worship to God, with each track averaging over five minutes. This is a good album of reflection and worship to God with 12 new, original songs that you probably have not heard.

Release Year: 2011
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

"O-H-I-O!" Released 10 years ago Wednesday, this is the eighth studio album from Ohio-born punk/pop band Relient K. Lead singer and primary songwriter Matthew Thiessen definitely has a way with words and melody, and though the band does have a sound, there's a lot of variety in the sound, from classic punk to The Beach Boys-inspired harmonies—sometimes even in the same song. This late in their career most of the music is not punk, but is more a polished alternative pop/rock. The lyrics on occasion reference a Christian faith, but are mostly reflections on life and love with the occasional witty wordplay. Though I think their best work was 10 years before this, this album is by no means one to skip. I will admit that the production or mixing didn't really grab me at first; I didn't really find these songs interesting until I saw Relient K play the songs live a bit later and thought, "Wow, those songs are better than I thought." At 16 tracks totaling 60 minutes, it's not a short album, but they did not really ever make short albums. It looks like the 2xLP vinyl release has a slightly different track order than the CD/streaming version. Relient K has played some shows in the past few years, but seem to have no plans to release new music or tour regularly at this time, so this may be their last album.

Release Year: 2016
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify