"The Jig is Up"

Obsessed.  I cannot stop listening to this song by Edison Glass.


It's such a huge reminder to me that I do not know everything, I can't even 'see' everything, and that I need to lean on His understanding...


Check it out here ---> The Jig is Up


Then go get Edison Glass' whole album!


"Your eyes see further than mine.  I can see as far as the sun and the moon in the sky.  Your hands are warmer than mine.  I'm still alive, but I can't feel the warmth from inside.


How can you say the warmth makes you?  How can you say your sight leads you home?


I asked with the right intent and bright eyes, but what I can't seem to figure out is how and why I can't seem to handle this.


I'll wait for Your words
I'll trust You'll say!


When we can't handle it all you'll say!


How can you say the warmth makes you?  How can you say a sight leads you?  How can you say?!


Your eyes see further than mine.  I can see as far as the sun and the moon in the sky.  I'll wait for your words, I'll trust you'll say!"


Yep, can't get enough of it.  


B R Y C E

Music I Found this Year that I want to Pass On

Here is a list of music I either first heard or just realized how awesome their music really was in 2009.

#10 Sufjan Stevens – “Songs For Christmas”

Labels: Christmas, folk, chillaxin’, deep lyrics, funny lyrics, Christian

So, this one barely made the list cause I’ve heard it a lot, I just never owned it myself.  But what a great deal – there’s over 40 songs on this CD!  All of them sound a little different than the normal Christmas tunes you’ve probably heard.  But, the main reason I love this CD is the emphasis Stevens puts on the reason behind Christmas.  Some of the songs sound more like worship music at times.  Great CD overall.

Lyric from “Star of Wonder”

“Oh conscience where will you carry me?

I found you, star of terrifying effigies

When the night falls I carry myself to the fortress

Of your glorious cause, Oh how I may seek Your fortress.

When the night falls, we see the star of wonder

Wonderful night falls, we see You, we see You there!

I see the stars coming out…”

#9 Family Force Five – “Family Force Five”

Labels: funky rock, fun, dance-party music,

Again, I’ve heard this CD a lot, but finally bought it this year.  This band is it’s own genre.  Imagine some white guys from Arkansas trying to rap and rock.  Apparently, they’re Christians, but you won’t find any worship songs here.

Lyric from “Kountry Gentleman”:

“My momma raised me in the dirty south

A country gentleman, so you best watch your mouth!”

#8 Switchfoot – “Hello Hurricane”

Labels: Rock, Christian

I really loved Switchfoot until “Oh Gravity!”.  I thought they were done for after that album.  So, when they released Hello Hurricane this year, I cautiously checked it out.  And boy, I’m glad I did.  They’ve gone back to more straight ‘rock’ with some great guitar compositions.  Add in some clever lyrics, and boom!  Great CD. 

Lyric from “Needle and Haystack Life”:

“Your breathin’ in the highs and lows we call it living.

In this needle and haystack life

I found miracles there in your eyes

It’s no accident we’re here tonight

We are once in a lifetime.”

#7 William Fitzsimmons – The Sparrow and the Crow

Labels: Singer-Songwriter, Melancholy, Raw

Imagine you go through a long, hard divorce at a young age.  Then, you pick up a guitar and write some songs about it.  That is this album.  Most of the songs focus on lost love, and you can feel his emotion throughout the whole album.  I saw him live this year and I would recommend his show to any.  Great musical talent and lyrics. 

Lyric from “Just Not Each Other”:

“We lost our chance to love one another

Well love again but just not each other”

#6 Fleet Foxes – “Fleet Foxes”

Labels: folky, Medieval mild rock?, sweeping tunes

I really enjoy this band.  Their music is what I imagine a medieval traveling band would sound like.  Very soothing, flowing and relaxing while still inventive.  Good stuff.

If you are NOT in the forge, I suggest you watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1tbX_NJn98

Lyric from “Blue Ridge Mountains”

“In the quivering forest

Where the shivering dog rests

Our good grandfather

Built a wooden nest

And the river got frozen

And the home got snowed in

And the yellow moon glowed bright

Till the morning light

Terrible am I child?

Even if you don't mind”

#5 The Myriad – With Arrows, With Poise

Labels: Radiohead, MAE, Christian, Rock, Great Musically and Lyrically.

Have you ever heard of Radiohead?  The lead singer of The Myriad sounds a lot like Thom Yorke, and the band goes toward that sound sometimes  - lots of deep guitar and high singing, followed by complex drums and piano.  Other times, they sound more like MAE – sort of pop-rock.  They’re pretty new, but they are going places that’s for sure.  Lyrically, you can hear some subtlety Christian messages.

Lyric from “Clean Shot”

“Hey now, oh no, You got a clean shot!

All the words you could pierce my heart!

Hey now, oh no, You run me right through!

With all these words that I’ve sung to You!”

#4 Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns

Labels: Chillaxin’, Mild Rock, Love Songs, Great Lyrics

I’ve liked Snow Patrol’s past albums, but this one takes the cake.  I haven’t listened to it in a while, but it’s a really phenomenal album.  They have some great lyrics on love and distance, while delving into a little rock sometimes.  Love it.  Last song, “The Lightning Strike” is a 16-minute audio-feast – combines three songs going from sad to happy each time. 

Lyric from “The Lightning Strike”

“Painted in flames

All peeling thunder

Be the lightning in me

That strikes relentless”

#3 Edison Glass – “Time is Fiction”

Labels: Creative, Rock/ Hard Rock, Christian, Great Musically

Yes.  I cannot stop listening to this band.  From the opening song “Let Go”, a short song about singing out loud (Open your lips/ Let out a song/ Open your Heart/ And let is sing), to “The Jig is Up”, a hard rock ballad about faith vs. sight, this band manages to infuse very creative sounds and deep lyrics without ever getting stale.  One of the better bands, nay, the BEST band that’s come into the Christian music this year. 

Lyric from “The Jig is Up”:

“Your eyes see further than mine

I can see as far as the sun and moon in the sky…

I’ll wait for your words

I’ll trust, You’ll say!”

#2 MuteMath – “Armistice”

Labels: Rock, Christian, Groovin’

Do I have to tell you why this album is awesome?  For the two people that don’t own it, just go take a little listen on iTunes. 

Lyric from “Spotlight”

“Because everyone would rather watch you fall

(And we all fall, we all fall)

Just take a fall, you’re one of us -

The spotlight is on!”

#1 mewithoutYou – “Brother, Sister”

Label: Complex sound and lyrics, biting lyrics, Christian, hard(er) rock

Welcome to the perfect christian rock album – intricate rock compositions and un-matched lyrical complexity (which the listener must untangle at times).  Altogether, this album tells a story from the perspective of a shipwrecked guy and his musings on life.  The whole thing has this ‘swashbuckling’ feel.  With this constant theme, each song sounds wholly different and engages deep, complex issues of faith, sin and praise.  Most of the time they’re rocking out, but you must listen to the lyrics!  They are downright cutting while still complex.  You won’t hear ‘praise Jesus’, but listen close cause most songs talk about God’s character in some way. 

The whole album’s lyrics flow together just like the music – the first song announces “I do not exist… if ever you come near/ I’ll hold up high a mirror/ Lord I could never show you anything as beautiful as you”; to the last song, repeating “I do not exist, only You exist.”  I had to look up a lot of the lyrics beccause he sings fast at times, but it’s worth it to see the complexity they put into their songs. 

Lyric from “A Glass Can Only Spill What it Contains”

“Like peacocks wandering the walkways of the zoo

Who have twice the autonomy the giraffes and tigers do

Saying:

"No one can stop me (no one stop me)

No one clips my claws!

now everyone watch me (everyone watch me)

Scale these outside walls!"

[Begin Rocking]

Oh you pious and profane, put away your praise and blame!

A glass can only spill what it contains!

To the perpetually plain, to the incurably inane

A glass can only spill what it contains!

What new mystery is this?

What blessed backwardness??

The Immeasurable One is held and does not resist!

Struck by wicked words and foolish fists of senseless men

The Almighty One does not defend!”

Or another favorite from “In a Sweater Poorly Knit”:

“You’re a door without a key, a field without a fence.

You made a wholly fool of me and I’ve thanked you ever since…

But if I’m a crown without a king, if I’m a broken open seed

If I come without a thing, then I come with all I need.”

New

New years resolutions are an interesting thing.  From them, I see our desire that we are seeking: a fresh start. 

There's nothing mystical about Jan 1st.  We could actually go on a diet or learn to be nicer to people any day of the year!  So why wait until this one day? And then, we never fail to complete these resolutions, right?  Yet each year, we make more promises... So, why do we do this?

I think I know why.  We want a fresh start.  We've messed up somehow this past year, so its time to start things right.  Not only do we want a fresh start, but we want a good one, a perfect one.  We don't want to 'sort of' stop drinking pop, but we want to do it perfectly, completely.

So, why do we have this desire to obtain a perfect, fresh start?

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." (2 Cor. 5:17)

"He opened a new and living way for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh" (Heb. 10:20)

Starting the new year with new resolutions reflects our desire to become a new (and later perfect) creation.  And, becoming new doesn't have to happen only one day a year, but continues everyday!

"For you have delivered my soul from death,
Indeed my feet from stumbling,
So that I may walk before God
In the light of the living." (Ps. 56:13)

Bryce