Earworm

Kongos, Come With Me Now

Not entirely sure if the video is supposed to have any deeper meaning, but the song is more than worth the price of admission.

Earworm

Brighter Than Gold, by The Cat Empire

No deep thoughts here - just a song I don't at all mind having stuck in my head...

Merry Christmas

I Think I'm In Love

I've admitted before that I watch America's Got Talent - and sometimes they have some really cheesy acts that make the the term "guilty pleasure" apt.  But then they have a performance like this that blows me away, and I remember why I watch.

In case it's not clear from the video clip, the strings he's playing on are suspended across the auditorium - he literally turned the entire theater into a musical instrument.

Artful

Princess of China, by Coldplay (with Rihanna)

Not part of my Life Soundtrack series, but I really like the video.  And it's an opportunity to revisit this old post, where I referenced Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (which was very likely one of this video's inspirations)...

Merry Christmas

Little Drummer Boy, by Jars of Clay

Truth be told, I wasn't a fan of this song until Jars released their version in 1995. As a kid, I was that six-year-old who got hung up on the logical improbability of a boy with a drum showing up at the birth of Christ - and of an infant (and his mother) appreciating said boy's loud banging noises, however rhythmic.

But the message conveyed by the song is a positive one, artistic licenses aside...

Cold Outside

It's been a while since I watched Glee, but this is very cute...

Merry Christmas

Per my annual tradition, a Christmas light display, this time featuring Christmas Eve in Sarajevo by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. May your holiday be warm and your electric bill considerably smaller than theirs...

Play List

After a period of not paying much attention to the music scene, I've found myself going on a CD buying spree (yes, I still listen to CDs - so sue me) over the last year or so. A lot of my purchases have been older albums that I either missed before or just never got around to acquiring. Fortunately there are two really good used CD stores here in town to save me from premature bankruptcy.

Because I know you're all terribly excited to hear about it, here's a sampling of what's now helping to weigh down my shelves:

Burlap to Cashmere - Anybody Out There?

Creed - Human Clay
(mostly for the song "Higher")

Tonio K - Romeo Unchained

Kerry Livgren/AD - Reconstructions Reconstructed
(a remix of one of my all-time favorite Christian rock albums)

Matchbox Twenty - Mad Season

Alanis Morrissette - Jagged Little Pill

Pet Shop Boys - Discography
(one of those groups I wouldn't have dared admit I enjoyed back when maintaining a state of denial entailed avoiding anything that could have even remotely linked me to the slightest possibility that I might be gay)

Sam Phillips - The Indescribable Wow and Martinis & Bikinis
(I understand now what she meant when, upon walking away from the Christian music scene in 1988, she compared evangelical Christianity to a 100th-generation photocopy of the real thing - a slight exaggeration, but only slight)

Second Chapter of Acts - With Footnotes/In the Volume of the Book
(copied for me by a friend, as it's been out of print for years)

Sixpence None the Richer - Divine Discontent

Spin Doctors - Pocket Full of Kryptonite

Switchfoot - The Early Years
(actually a new compilation of their first three albums, but close enough)

They Might Be Giants - Lincoln

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - The Lost Christmas Eve
(okay, so this one isn't very old)

U2 - Achtung Baby

Now, if I could just find a copy of Ideola's Tribal Opera that doesn't cost an arm and a leg...

The Journey In Verse

I went to see my sister
She was staying with a friend
Who had turned into a preacher
To save the world from sin
He said "First deny your body
Then learn to submit
Pray to be made worthy
And tithe your ten percent"
I said "Is this all there is
Just the letter of the law?"
Something's wrong

(Amy Grant, "What About the Love")

I don't buy this game
It's the same old lie
We're just changing the name

We're still running into the wind
And leading a life of crime
Though we deny it
We show our colors under the gun
We're still running into the wind
And living on borrowed time
Don't try to hide it
We can't undo the things that are done

(AD, "Life of Crime")

Hey baby are you listening
I've battened all the hatches down
I've taken all of your prescriptions
But no remedy I've found

Counting the days
Until some freedom can scream my name
Counting the days
Until the gods break these chains

(Collective Soul, "Counting the Days")

This is your life
Are you who you want to be?
This is your life
Are you who you want to be?
This is your life
Is it everything you dreamed that it would be
When the world was younger
And you had everything to lose?

(Switchfoot, "This Is Your Life")

So what, so I've got a smile on
It's hiding the quiet superstitions in my head
Don't believe me, don't believe me
When I say I've got it down

Everybody is just a stranger, but
That's the danger in going my own way
I guess it's the price I have to pay
Still "everything happens for a reason"
Is no reason not to ask myself

If I'm living it right
Am I living it right?
Am I living it right?
Why, Georgia, why?

(John Mayer, "Why Georgia")

Questions fall like showers of endless rain
Into oceans of the unexplained
Someday it all will be made known
I can give no rationale or words of wisdom
Just a cloudy paraphrase
God works in mysterious ways

State of wonder, state of grace
Pieces falling into place
It's more than just an old cliché
God works in mysterious ways

(Kim Hill, "Mysterious Ways")

And I don't know much but I found you here
And I cannot wait another year
Don't know where you're coming from but you're coming soon

To a kid from Oregon by way of California
All of this is more than I’ve ever known or seen

Come on and we'll sing, like we were free
Push the pedal down, watch the world around fly by us
Come on and we'll try, one last time
I'm off of the floor one more time to find you

And here we go, there's nothing left to choose
And here we go, there's nothing left to lose

(Mat Kearney, "Nothing Left To Lose")