A Capsule Review

Ok, so I'm becoming somewhat scarce around here, not intentionally, just the way it happens. Hopefully you'll hear more from me soon. I've got some interesting news.
Anyway, I figured I'd give you at least something to read in the in between time, a capsule review! Maybe you'll go out and buy the album I'm recommending.
The Alt Rock band Mae happens to be a personal new favorite and future all-time favorite of mine, I recently bought their recording 'The Everglow', a soaring, anthemic album that crosses a wide expanse of ideas and emotions. The name, Mae, is actually an acronym, meaning Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience, and that description certainly comes across through their music.
From the very beginning of the album with the prologue and spoken instructions on how to read the lyrical insert, along with the simple but emotional piano riff in the background, to the opening 'We're So Far Away', with it's longing and sparkling piano, to the interesting segway into the main body of songs, the creative minds of the members of Mae start to come alive. On the note of the lyrical insert, it is a small booklet full of artwork to go along with each song, part of the experience that the band provides for the album. The album starts in with 'Someone Else's Arms', a rocking, pulsing anthem to those lost in mediocrity, and it's obvious from that starting song that this band can crank out the radio hits. From the intense 'Suspension', to the emotive 'This Is The Countdown', to the infectious 'Breakdown' (my personal favorite of the radio ready songs on this album), the music flows and builds fascinating thought patterns in our minds while rocking the house at the same time. Almost every song on this album could be released on the radio and probably be successful.
But they go onto prove that they can do more than just rock. The beautiful and longing piano-driven 'The Ocean' shows their talent at writing the pop ballads as much as the alt rock hits, and the harmonious and flowing 'The Sun and The Moon' is a surprise treasure at the end of the album. The end of the album is a recall of the beginning 'Prologue', with 'Epologue' being a final instructions and goodbye from the narrorator, with the same simple piano riff closing the album in the same way it opened it.
Mae brings us through this album an expansive range of emotions and ideas that really stick in the mind. It's obvious the talent this band has, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them years from now, bringing us a musical and lyrical landscape of songs that reach to our very souls.
So anyway, go out and buy this album. I'll try to post sometime soon if I have the time. Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear from you all!

The Reckless Raging Fury

I thought I'd drop in and post a paragraph or something for any of you out there reading. I'm coming to you from the beautiful (and relentlessly stormy) Estes Park, Colorado, where I've been attending the Gospel Music Association's Academy week-long conference and competition. It's been great, I'm learning so much. It reminds me of living in Nashville, there's something very specific about Nashville that seems very prevelant here, a type of feel, believe it or not.
I just came out of a worship concert with some great artists, including Caedmon's Call, Margaret Becker, Paul Baloche, among others. It was amazing, the music they performed was so that the lyrics pointed to God. It's amazing to see and feel the power of the Holy Spirit working inside us, and to watch God change people's lives, soften hardened hearts, open blind eyes, and heal wounds. This conference has opened the door for the Holy Spirit to impress upon my heart many things that I need to remember. I need to remember that I'm not just another person who lives, eats, works, and dies, I'm a called son of Christ!
Through that, Christ has called me to a higher calling, one that is not temporal, but one that is eternal. I have such an opportunity, such adventure ahead of me, full of darkness, and twisting paths, and refuges and sanctuaries, and dangers and challenges, and deep joy and deep sorrow, but ultimately, one that leads me to the presence of Christ. This is such a reoccuring theme in my life. What a great drama we could live in! What a story the writer could weave, if only we'd yield to Hand to guide us.
It scares me how much I sometimes choose to live in dull safety rather than live in the risky, dangerous life that God has given me the chance to live. It gives me an adrinaline rush just to think of the life I could live. I want to find that abandon, I want to find that release. Of course God never promises safety, in fact, one verse in 2 Timothy says, all who wish to live in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It shouldn't surprise us when we take that leap, that we get bruises and cuts on the way. When we open our eyes in that way, we also see another overwhelming thing. We are at war. There are legions at battle against us, and so much time has been lost, because so many are blind, but we still have the chance, and the assurance through Christ that we can fight for Him and He will defeat the enemy. There is no promise of security, but that which we find in Christ. That is true security, and if we find our lives in Christ, why should we care about anything else?
I love the way C.S. Lewis paints it in the Chronicles of Narnia, in the discussion between the beavers and the Pevensy children:
'You said he was a lion', one of the children said fearfully.
'Yes indeed,' Mr. Beaver replied, 'the greatest lion of all.'
'But if he is a lion,' Lucy asked hesitantly, 'Is he...a safe lion?'
'No, he is certainly not safe. But he is GOOD.'
I hope and pray for myself and for all of us that we would lose our security, lose our safety, and submit ourselves to what Rich Mullins calls 'the reckless, raging fury that they call the love of God.'
Peace of Christ to all of you, and goodnight!