Recent Musical Coolness

I just found this cool site - www.christrock.com It's a blog that has music reviews of a lot of cool new bands, concert reviews, and even free music downloads on Mondays.

And now, for your listening pleasure, here are the top 10 albums I've acquired recently and can't quit listening to, in no particular order:

NeedtoBreathe - Daylight (I got a prerelease and it comes out in a couple weeks) - Christian but going the dual label route with a mainstream release on Atlantic/Lava Records (home of Skillet) and Sparrow Records on the Christian side - kind of a cross between Lifehouse, Third Day, and maybe a little Dave Matthews in places - not too hard, but nice upbeat rock/pop sound. Lyrics are good and songs are amazingly catchy from the first listen - I can't stop listening to it!

Jonah 33 - The Strangest Day - just got this and am loving it - very solid Christian lyrics, and there's a great song on being pure with our eyes called "Desensitized" - not quite as rocking as their first disc to my ears, but just as good if not better

Crossfade - self titled - a secular band, kind of like Creed and a little POD sound at times - decent lyrics that are kind of introspective and somewhat hopeful - great rock sound - kind of hard but not much more than a typical Creed/POD album

House of Heroes - self titled - very inventive lyrics, very different for Christian band and good rock sound - quite original

Kutless - Hearts of the Innocent - another prerelease that I think comes out this week or next - very good if you like Kutless. A good combination of their first album and 'Sea of Faces' - not much worship a la 'Strong Tower' but a good mix of upbeat rockers and mid-tempo songs. Strong lyrics. If you like Kutless's sound, you'll dig this.

The Killers - Hot Fuss - highly talented secular band - sound a bit like Duran Duran - I am not that into the "new" 80's type bands, but they are just phenomenal and the whole album is great - I tend to listen to all the songs, which is rare!

Fall Out Boy - From Under the Cork Tree - another secular band - kind of a pop punk thing with rock elements - I'm not that into punk sounding guys such as Blink 182 but this is really good stuff. Big hits on this one are 'Dance Dance' and 'Sugar, We're Going Down"…

Marty Casey & Lovehammers - self titled - this is the guy that came in 2nd place on Rock Star: INXS - the guy has the intense singing style of a Curt Kobain or Scott Weiland - glad he didn't win the show, as his style is too hard for the poppy INXS - another great secular album from start to finish - check them out even if you didn't watch the show, as they're quite talented - good rock sound and nice hooks

P.O.D. - Testify - it's great - much better than their last album - closer to 'Satellite' and more back to roots sounding POD, after the somewhat disappointing (to me anyway) 'Payable on Death'

The Lonely Hearts - Paper Tapes - coming out soon I think - another prerelease I got - a Christian band with a great sound - these guys used to be called Holland but have changed to a more upbeat sound than their first album - somewhat reminiscent of Beatles-type melodies - so kind of poppy and not that hard - but good songs with strong lyrics and good hooks - catchy.

Rock on!