Musical Sunday!

It's days like these that really make me excited to blog about the music I listen to. In the midst of being insanely busy (no, I mean it. REALLY BUSY), I picked up a few musical gems along the way this week.

After downloading Sufjan Stevens free single, "Too Much," from his upcoming album, The Age of Adz, and being thoroughly impressed with his new raw, grunge-electric sound, I went ahead and downloaded his latest EP, All Delighted People.

Without launching into a full-blown review, I will say that the orchestration of ADP is absolutely incredible--all the symphonic talent of The BQE, and all the lyrical genius of his older work, like Come on feel the Illinoise!, with a few homages to Paul Simon splattered throughout the EP. In short: download everything I have linked to. It is cheap (if not free), and you are certainly be missing out on the beautiful art this man has produced.

Also in the musical scene, you should check out Derek Webb's latest Democracy, Vol. 1 track. Democracy is a side-project Derek has been working on, releasing one track a month for an entire year. Each song is a cover voted on by his fan base (hence the title of the album). I'm posting his latest cover, "Eleanor Rigby," and hoping that he won't be too upset :) But please, in all seriousness, go purchase the album. It's only six bucks, and he sends out the tracks via email each month. It's a great deal. Here it is, folks. An exceptional Beatles cover:

Well, that's all for the popular music. Now time for the retro stuff.

Alyssa and I went to the Teen Challenge thrift store the other day, and, browsing through their record selection, I found a few gems:

Okay, so I know I'm a nerd for the Gregorian Chants. But I couldn't resist! It's so peaceful to listen to, and not the distracting kind of music that keeps you from doing homework.

I've never seen this movie, but it's based on a book written by the same guy who wrote The Last Temptation of Christ, so I was immediately intrigued.

Good background music for when we have company for dinner, or if we just need some peaceful, "bumming around the apartment" tunes.

Probably one of the greatest albums ever written. Just saying.

Happy listening!

Peace,

Joshua

PS--Speaking of music and monasticism: Before sitting down to write this post, I was reading about John Michael Talbot, an interesting Christian-musician-turned-Franciscan-monk whom I have admired for about a year now. I "friended" him on facebook, and he responded with a message that he had maxed out his friend limit. I messaged him back that I was grateful for his personal response, and I mentioned to him my "protestant new/old novitiate monastery" idea, and he responded with three words: "Come visit us," referring to his Third-Order Franciscan monastery in Arkansas.

Bizarre, eh?