The Christian Music Thread Genre • Page 16

I never really gave them a listen before. I've been listening to The Happy Rant for a year now, and really appreciate Ronnie Martin's contribution. I listened to JE after this podcast ep and thought the same thing. Weird, but cool.

 

What's everyone listening to in the Christian music world at the moment? I'd love some recommendations.

Also, has anyone given the new Propaganda record a spin?

 

Have you heard Will Reagan's new album Tell All My Friends? I think that's my favorite Christian release so far this year.

I spun the album yesterday actually haha. I think it was little bit too long, but it had some great tracks. I really enjoyed I Hate Cats

 

I love that Will Reagan album. It's up there alongside Loud Harp as my favourite. I just love that he always tries something new. Great music.

I Hate Cats is brilliant. First time I listened I was like "why's he hate cats so much?" and didn't get it until I heard the "didn't they have cats in the White House" line and the penny dropped. I immediately relistened and thought how clever it is.

 

I've had Bethel worship in my rotation for like 3 weeks now. Can't get enough Amanda Cook lol

 

She's got an incredible voice. There's an event at the end of every summer called David's Tent here in the UK where they have 72 hours of non-stop worship. Amanda Cook, Steffany Gretzinger & Jeremy Riddle have been over the last two years and they really are great at leading worship. The whole experience of being in that kind of prolonged atmosphere of worship is incredible to be honest!

I find the Starlight record to be good on the whole - there are some phenomenal stand out tracks but then quite a number average tracks. I think this is the problem that most 'big churches' (ie. Hillsong, Bethel Music etc.) who start churning out record after record each year encounter. Everything begins to sound the same eventually.

 

Yes, yes, yes! Can't wait for this. And as someone who pledged at the end of 2016, it feels like I've been waiting for a long time...



Love that Liz Vice is getting a feature too.

 

Didn't love Borderland.

Hoping I like this one as much as I enjoy The Medicine.

 

Ah man, I love Borderland. For me it was a return to form after Economy felt a bit forced. I liked that he did what he wanted (lyrically and musically) rather than trying to write and repeat past successes. The Medicine was good but nothing had matched The Song Inside The Sound of Breaking Down until the Borderland era. The live album that followed Borderland (Live At The Knight) is probably my favourite release from him. And I don't usually like live albums.

 

I actually never heard of Will Reagan till a friend of mine played a worship song of his earlier in the year and I was like dang. After that I searched him up, heard his new album and loved it.

And I think I understand what "I Hate Cats" is referring too, but I'm not totally sure lol.

 

I'm beyond excited for some new John Mark! Borderlands is what introduced me to him, so that album has a special place in my heart. Outside of that I've heard The Sound of Breaking Down and The Medicine, both which are great. Definitely one of my favorite Christian artist. I love how he continues to push himself and experiment and not just settle with crunching out worship songs. I'm really liking the direction he's going in, sounds like a natural progression from Borderlands.

 

I'm a white man living in Britain so I may not fully get all the references but I believe if you were to replace 'cats' with 'blacks' a lot of the excuses the song gives for hating cats allude to excuses some white Americans (and white people across the world - but I think he's probably speaking into his experience in America) give for hating blacks (especially as the song progresses). I think the song is clever - serving the purpose of exposing how ridiculous some of those mindsets are and shining a light on the biases people of privilege (I include myself in that) often have.

Yes, very excited to hear this in full. Looking ahead I think it's the only album that could rival Loud Harp and Will Reagan as my album of the year.

 

Okay I was thinking it was about race, but your explanation definitely helped. That's some great insight!

Yeah for sure. I'm sad I'll have to wait until September though :(

 

really can't wait for Mercury & Lightning. Borderlands was in constant rotation for the first six months after it came out for me.

 

This is kinda late since I just now heard them, but has anybody heard the new singles from JGivens and Eshon Burgundy?

 

Been asked for a list of Christian punk (particularly bands on the more heavy spectrum). Who are your definitive bands? Just trying to check I've not missed any.

 

New Tooth & Nail band, LOYALS, have released a single. Thoughts? I quite like it actually. There haven't been many T&N bands in recent history that I've liked.

 

I'm a little surprised that there's been no discussion on Shai Linne's new song Random Thoughts 3, as it seems to be stirring the pot quite a bit in the CHH world.

 

Ha. I don't know where to begin. My understanding is that he's calling out Reach Records artists for not talking about Jesus enough anymore. Forgive me if I've misinterpreted the debate.

What are your thoughts?

I'm not a fan of Shai Linne and although this kind of song is one reason why I just don't think he's that good in comparison to artists such as Beautiful Eulogy, Lecrae and Propaganda. I find his flow to be a bit awkward in places.

Anyway, this situation... I find it to be a bit disappointing. At the end of the day I guess it comes down to theological perspective. I know he comes from a more reformed perspective - it's not something I've ever felt comfortable with but I can understand that a reformed rapper would feel the need to call out Reach Records if they felt that they were ignoring God to have a wider appeal.

In general, I haven't listened to many Reach releases recently - I've actually enjoyed the more social conscious releases on Humble Beast from Propaganda and Sho Baraka in the last year. But I honestly don't care if people are choosing to mention faith/Christ less in their songs - at the end of the day it's art and it can still have a positive impact on culture and change lives. And anyway, other than Lecrae, who has had out and out mainstream success? Is anyone in the CHH world really doing it for the money? Have they really left Jesus behind?

I find the questioning of the motives to be overly harsh. Particularly lines like "Christian Hip-hop found a different algorithm / and crossed over without taking the cross over". Questioning whether people are 'carrying the cross' to the mainstream culture isn't the way I'd do things. It's like the whole 'we're Christians in a band not a Christian band' thing that T&N/Solid State bands faced in the 2000s. There is surely more than one way of sharing Christ with people. You don't need to rap about the gospel every verse. That's not what Christianity is about, surely?

I also find his attitude to be a bit conceited in places: "And I ain’t dissing them, my prayers are the proof" comes across as a bit 'look at me, I'm praying' rather than being constructive. I don't know the ins and outs of what a 'diss' is in the rap world, but you are definitely calling out people in a damning way here.

A few thoughts. Again, might have misinterpreted bits of it.

 

Great reply and perspective!

I'm definitely coming from the other angle, I'm a big fan of Shai Linne and would consider myself in the reformed camp theologically.

That said, I can understand how people would feel that this sort of song seems out of place and actually detrimental to the Gospel. I think Shai is coming from the perspective that CHH wasn't a reformed/not reformed, Christian/Not Christian issue 10 years ago, and it recently seems like that divide has oddly happened. It honestly reminds me a lot of what "Christian" metal was for a long time, where it wasn't "christian metal" but "christians" in metal. The problem with the metal scene is that a majority of the bands who said they were "christians" in a metal band were engaging in a lot of the nonsense the secular music scene offered. Countless interviews spoke towards the "Christians" in metal bands partying harder and living incredibly debaucherous lives on the road. I'm not saying Christians are without sin, but I do think that their actions really helped kill that scene and a lot of opportunities for the Gospel to be spread.

Anyways, I think that Shai is weary that something like that could happen within the CHH world. It seems to me like he's more concered with the artists who went from having the Gospel explicitly preaches in all their albums to rapping about only secular things. He went on a pretty long twitter thread about it that seemed pretty heartfelt and just concerned about how they could preach the Gospel.

I think the whole discussion honestly speaks towards an issue the church has been discussing a lot recently, and that's the attractional model of ministry. Some people think it's damaging towards the Gospel, others seem to view it as the way to go. I think I lean more towards being against acctractional ministry, but I can certainly see how God uses it

Either way, I'm very curious to see the direction CHH goes in for the next 5 years. I hope what Lecrae and Reach are attempting to do is incredibly fruitful for the Gospel, I just land more towards the side of not being sure if it actually will.

 

I have a friend who's a big fan of Shai Linne and I just haven't been able to get into him. As far as hearing excellent theology in my music goes, Beautiful Eulogy fulfills that and then some. Their new record is my most anticipated of the year and probably the only thing I can see rivalling Manchester Orchestra, Paramore, and '68 for me at this point. They're unbelievably good.

I think my issue with Shai Linne is the same I have with close friends of mine who espouse reformed theology and call out leaders on their Facebook page. I appreciate the zeal, but there might be more thoughtful and loving ways of proclaiming truth without being unnecessarily divisive. Also, I'm very reformed and that certainly comes out in what I write to an extent, but I never feel obligated to sit down and write a theological treatise. If anything, that wouldn't be genuine for me.

I guess my point is, it frustrates me when believers try to moderate other believers' expression of art, especially when they have no idea what's actually going on in their hearts. They could be even more solid but they just talk about social issues (which, by the way, is much harder than espousing views on depravity and sovereignty and the like).

 

I think you're making the misstep that you're accusing Shai of. Shai is actually really close with all of the Reach guys, and they get together on the regular. A day after this released he got together with KB for dinner, and a lot of the Reach guys have confirmed their friendship. I think it's a little unfair to claim he's moderating another's art, I think it would be more fair to say that he's "moderating" another's expression of Ministry, which we see plenty of times throughout scripture as a healthy way of holding each other accountable.

For the record, I'm suppppppeeerrrrr stoked on Beautiful Eulogy's album too. It's been a really great year for CHH with Shai, Prop, and Beautiful Eulogy coming out.

 

You're absolutely right. I'm sorry, man. I don't know Shai Linne's heart enough to be critical of him, and honestly I haven't listened to enough of his music to really fairly critique that either. I was purely going by what I've heard and those I know who listen to him. Looking back at my post, that was really hypocritical of me. Thanks for calling me out on that.

And for the record, I don't think there should be no accountability for us where it concerns music. But I do recognize that Christian witness through art doesn't always involve speaking explicitly about the Gospel through song. Anberlin, for instance, did a lot of behind the scenes witnessing to other bands even though Stephen Christian didn't write about a lot of explicitly scriptural things. Whether that's the "right" approach or not, I don't know. I just know that approach exists. It's an interesting conversation for sure.

 

Today I decided to finally listen to Dustin Kensrue's worship album, The Water & the Blood. Oh my.. Why did I take so long to listen to this? This is fantastic!