Monday, April 18, 2016

Bummin'

Matt Thiessen from Relient K is one of my song writing heroes.

The guy can write. Like... really, really, really well. He's the Matthew West of Christian Rock.
He'll take a sentence that doesn't seem to have any logical follow up line and put the perfect verse... and make it so fun!

Example - 

It's simple, catchy and just sappy enough to not be cheesy. Love it!


In recent years, Relient K have been... less than awesome in my books. The songs are still well written, but seemed to be lacking a bit of that youthful cheekiness. The joy wasn't there.

Enter their new song Bummin'. To be honest, I don't know what I think of the song... nor do I know if the joy is back.

What I do know, is I've listened to it about 12 times today and am [finally] enjoying a new upbeat pop-rock song from Relient K!

'Bout time!


Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Remedy

Growing up, worship music was produced by one group - David Crowder * Band. I couldn't get enough of them. Still can't really... which is too bad since they closed up shop a couple years back.
David is still writing and recording. It's still good music... but it's missing a bit of that special David Crowder Band something.

Anyway, I've been going through their discography recently and was reminded of the song Remedy.

It's a really cool song. Very minimalistic in it's instrumentation. Just a simple piano and banjo line with a bit of drums. Sure it builds, but the first 2 minutes are a breezy, enjoyable ride.

Lyrically, like all Crower Band songs, is where it really shines. It's a song about our "sickness". That sickness being sin. Our need of a cure and how Jesus is that cure. The thing I love most about it is the closing of the song. Through the violin swells and soft banjo plucks, the song turns into a prayer. A prayer for God to use us to be a remedy to a sick world.

It something I've been thinking and praying about a lot recently. How can God use me to be a "salve" to the world. It's easy to sit on the sidelines and comment about other people's issues. But how can we help? So I guess I'm liking this song for more than one reason!