The Top 14 Albums of 2014

The Top 14 Albums of 2014

By James Morovich

14. The War On Drugs- “Lost In The Dream.”

This debut album from The War On Drugs was easily the best indie release of the year. Imagine if Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers joined up with Coldplay and they wrote songs in both their styles as well as traveling over to Pink Floyd’s section the world once in a while. That is what they sound like to me. The title track and “Eyes To The Wind” are straight up Americana and perfect for the car, while “An Ocean Between The Waves” is Coldplay in their more adventurous musical soundscapes, while “Under The Pressure” sounds like prog rock circa 1974, not 2014! A unique release that has me excited for what this band does for years to come!

13. Coldplay- “Ghost Stories.”

A highly anticipated release last spring, “Ghost Stories” had a terrible lead single in “Magic,” that fortunately didn’t reflect what was overall a solid project from Coldplay, but certainly not their best effort. It boasts only nine songs and lasts just over 42 minutes, which just feels too short! As always they give us some highly energetic numbers like “A Sky Full Of Stars” and “Ink” though the ballads like the acoustic guitar driven “Oceans” and extended musical landscape “O” almost steal the show! Coldplay announced a couple of month’s back that they will record only one more album before calling it quits. I look forward to what that encore will hold for a band that is easily one of the most important parts of music culture this past decade.

12. Kye Kye- “Fantasize.”

While I am not as big a fan of electronic music as some, there are always those few artists who do it really, really well, and thus I can’t help but respect and yes, like what their muse may be. New Zealand natives Kye Kye seem to have grabbed the best of the electronic influenced American rock of the 80’s and charged forward with it full steam ahead! The lyrics often can buried under lush synthesizer drones, but upon multiple listens the listener picks up more and more. They reflect both parts of relationships, the woes and wonders, over the course of 12 songs, the highlights of which are “Honest Affection,” “Scared Or Selfish,” “I Already See It” and my favorite the guitar layered, perfectly at home on the radio in 1985 “Softly” which is by far the best song that was never played over the airwaves anywhere this year!

11. Ellie Holcomb- “As Sure As The Sun”

Ellie Holcomb is best known as a part of the band fronted by her husband Drew (Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors), but on “As Sure As The Sun” Mrs. Holcomb shows us that she is quite an artist in her own right. The songs are all beautiful piano driven poems of brokenness, uncertainty and doubt, tempered beautifully by the hope of Christ. In many ways these songs call to mind a lot of the Psalms written by King David, where both joy and pain sit side by side. She reminds us that “His mercy will never end” on the title track which opens the album and that sets the overall tone of the album.  It is one person’s journey ‘out of the darkness and into the Light” (“Marvelous Light”) and a realization that there is such a predicament as “The Broken Beautiful.” She reminds us that ultimately His “Love Never Fails” without sounding cliché and reminds us that we need to look to Jesus as “My Portion And My Strength.” It all culminates in “The Valley” which is easily one of the best songs I have heard about the struggle of depression and darkness against a Christian’s desire to Hope in Jesus who is the only One who can ‘make [us] whole’

10. All Sons & Daughters- “All Sons & Daughters.”

This is a quieter worship project, but one that is beautiful. While not quite as musically stripped back as Audrey Assad’s masterpiece from last year “Fortunate Fall,” this album fits similarly under a file of ‘good albums to listen to while seeking God in prayer.’ “God With Us,” “Christ Be All Around Me” and “Great Are You Lord” are fantastic examples of the emerging modern folk worship scene. This duo from Tennessee are showing no sign of slowing down either, as they continue to tour as well as lead worship at their home church as often as possible, which is where many of these songs were born in the first place.

9. John Mark McMillan- "Borderland."

John Mark McMillan has continued to push the boundaries of modern rock and roll since his career began independently in 2005. "How He "Loves," became an international worship sensation, and launched his career. However, McMillan as a whole doesn't craft songs in the same vein as that anymore. He now writes songs that express some doubts and struggles  ("Love At The End," "Guns/Napoleon" the title track) and others about affirmation on God's presence in our lives ("Future/Past," "Visceral"). It is an album that gets better and better the more listens you give it!

8. Steffany Gretzinger- "The Undoing."

This is easily one of the most personal worship projects unleashed to the music world in quite some time. Gretzinger writes songs about "Letting Go" of her control and letting God take over her heart. "Morning Song," "Out Of Hiding" and "No Fear In Love" are reminders to all of us that Jesus desires intimacy in our hearts, and these songs, with their often sparsely instrumented accompaniments, are a perfect partner in helping one who seeks such intimacy to find it.

7. American Authors- "Oh, What A Life."

Every once in a great while a pop/rock album is just plain good, and no matter how much I try to rationalize to myself that I should hate it, I simply cannot get any of the songs out of my head! "Oh, What A Life" is an album full of such songs! It truly is impossible not to want to tap your foot or even dance around to songs like "Best Day Of My Life," "Believer," "Hit It," and "Think About It." There is also an overwhelmingly optimistic tone to all of the songs, which fit the upbeat tempos. The unique part of American Authors is their ability to incorporate mandolins and banjos into their music without ever really sounding like Mumford & Sons or Rend Collective. While those bands straddle folk and bluegrass, American Authors are rock and pop exclusively.

6. Crowder- “Neon Steeple.”

 It was easy for fans to wonder what David Crowder would do after his Band went their separate ways in January of 2012.  It was certain that he wouldn’t be done with music forever, but what would his sound be like. Would he gravitate towards the bluegrass and folk stylings, or the more electronic tones we had heard on a few of the later David Crowder Band albums. The answer was, simply, that David Crowder would continue in the vein of merging both the roots sounds with the digital sounds. This album is a mix of both, and it is done very well! “Here’s My Heart,” “My Beloved” and “Jesus Is Calling” carry on the roots sound, while “I Am” and “Come As You Are” fuses both the folksy with the electronic. “You Are” and “Ain’t No Grave” are high energy, while “This I Know” is a quieter reminder of the simplicity of our Faith and Hope. All in all, this is a fantastic re-launch of an already stellar career!

5. Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil- “Goliath.”

It has been twenty years since Steve Taylor last took a tour of duty behind a microphone! In that time he started and operated a small Christian label (“Squint”), wrote many lyrics for two Newsboys albums (“Going Public,” “Take Me To Your Leader”), and produced two films (“Second Chance,” “Blue Like Jazz”). Now he has returned to music with new band The Perfect Foil, and it is a fine, fine piece of 2014 rock and roll. Never have three-minute high-energy rock songs sounded so good. The themes range from our current desire to be seen on social media (“Rubberneck”), corrupt politicians (“Sympathy Vote”), and lethargic attitudes (“Happy Go Lazy”) all through the snarky eyes of the “Comedian.” If you are into witty lyrics and current events, you will love this album!

4. Mike Mains & The Branches- “Calm Down, Everything Is Fine.”

Mike Mains is another example of a thinking man or woman’s songwriter. He is a Christian, but he lyrically sings about things like doubt, and uncertainty which at times can come across as a bit challenging or even mildly offensive, particularly on the title track where he expresses frustration towards Jesus’ use of parables to illustrate Kingdom concepts. However, similar to Bono of U2, Mains’ honesty can also be refreshing and thought provoking. He can also give us reminders that we need to “Slow Down” sometimes from our fast paced lives. Give it multiple listens and you will glean more each spin cycle, I can guarantee it.

3. Rend Collective- “The Art Of Celebration.”

I first heard of this English band back in 2012 on their sophomore release “Homemade Worship By Handmade People” and was hooked immediately by their incredible energetic bluegrass influenced worship songs! This album continues in that vein, as songs like “Burn Like A Star” and “Create In Me” burst with musical speed and excitement that is sure to make you dance in your seat! “My Lighthouse” is a wonderful testimony to God being a guiding light bringing us ‘safe to shore.’ “More Than Conquerors” is straight out of Romans chapter eight, and my personal favorite on this project; a project born of a band that is sure to have a very bright future in the worship music scene!

2. NEEDTOBREATHE- “Rivers In The Wasteland.”

Back in April as “Rivers In The Wasteland” was about to hit the record store shelves, RELEVANT magazine published an article where they interviewed NEEDTOBREATHE. There, the band recounted how they had strayed away from their Christian roots and knew God was calling them back to those roots on their new project. Needless to say, they did just that. “Multiplied” is the most explicitly Christian song they have written since “Signature Of Divine (Yahweh).” “Wasteland” is a song written by someone who is emerging from a dark period in their life and finds hope in paraphrasing Romans 8, “If God is on our side, who can be against us?” Then there are the single ready tracks like “The Heart” and “State I’m In” which are going to easily get caught in your head for hours after you listen. This album is great because it meshes both the fun with the serious, and does so with instrumentation that rivals any roots rock band you can find currently making music.

1. The Choir- “Shadow Weaver.”

The Choir is one of my favorite bands in the history of Christian music, that is, Christian music that may not always explicitly say Jesus or quote scripture in every song, but music that is written out of inspiration by a worldview steeped deeply in Christianity. They started in the mid-80’s and have soldiered on as indie artists for over 15 years now, taking hiatus’s here and there, when needed. Derri Daughterry’s voice paired with drummer Steve Hindalong’s lyrics is a thing of beauty, and on ‘Shadow Weaver,” The Choir have made their best album in over a decade. The songs vary in theme, but “It Hurts To Say Goodbye” finds Hindalong lamenting the fact that three of his four daughters have now moved away from home to different places all over the country. On one of my favorite love songs of 2014, he writes that “True love is the antithesis of blue” (“Antithesis of Blue”) in reference to his many, many years of marriage to his wife. “Get Gone” is about the need we sometimes have for solitude, written with some creative imagery might I add. “Rhythm Of The Road” as you might expect is about touring, and “We All Know” is about something we don’t like to talk about very much, suffering. If you haven’t heard this album, you really need to hear it soon.

Honorable Mentions:

JOHNNYSWIM- “Diamonds”

Johnny Cash- “Out Among The Stars”

Colony House- “When I Was Younger”

LIGHTS- “Little Machines”

Anberlin- “Lowborn”

NONONO- “We Are Only What We Feel”

Hope For The Future Of The Church: An Observational Piece on the Current Generation of Christians

I recently have been thinking a lot about my generation and how we as twenty something young people are probably some of the most in your face, open about our opinions, generation the world has ever seen. We are also as a whole, the most tech savvy, Internet literate group to ever populate America and planet earth as a whole. Taking all of these factors into consideration, I have been thinking about how they play into specifically my friends and the common denominator that many of us share: our Christianity.

You see, we as a whole are a product of coming of age in an era of church history that will now be known as “The Seeker Movement” that dominated most big churches around America for about ten years between 1996-2006 approximately. This movement was for all intensive purposes in my view and the view of many of my friends, an all out disaster. Instead of developing disciples like the Church was meant to do as taught by Paul in many of the New Testament Epistles, the American Church at the time put the highest priority on getting people ‘Saved’ and very little priority on anything beyond that. Therefore, many, many people my age simply ‘prayed a prayer’ and then went on living their life no different than they had before.

However, there was a small remnant of us who, began reading the Scriptures on our own, as well as other solid Christian authors, and understood that Christianity was about a whole lot more than just ‘praying a sinners prayer.’ In fact, a ‘sinner’s prayer’ isn’t even mentioned anywhere in the Bible!!! That small remnant is now, in my view, helping to shape the next generation of Christians, and we are all in, committed to following Christ and loving His Church as best we can, considering we are still imperfect people.

I think it would be fun to do a documentary on us, and the way in which we are living out our lives as Christ followers in a generation that in many ways in more crooked and twisted than ever before. We tend to be more comfortable talking about what we believe and why, and aren’t as intimated by people who disagree with us. We enjoy keeping an open dialog with those who are not Christians and also feel comfortable going to bars, having a beer and reassuring people that alcohol is not a sin in moderation.

We also have begun taking the concept of living in community with other Believers as a great idea and therefore the practice of four or five guys or four or five gals living under one roof, splitting rent, utility, internet, and food costs into affordable payments for each involved is becoming more and more common. This also is helping the fact that we graduating college at a time when we as a nation are still recovering from one of the worst recessions in recent history. Jobs are kinda sparse, so we are unable to financially afford to live out on our own like our parents generation often was able to after college.

What others might seen as a major problem, my generation has seen therefore as an opportunity; an opportunity to live together with other Godly men if you are a guy, and Godly women if you are girl. All throughout the New Testament, from Acts, to Ephesians to Hebrews we as Christians are told of the importance of two things: community and unity within the body. My friends and I have taken this to heart, and are seeking to learn how to live alongside one another despite differences in sleep schedules, tastes in movies and music, as well as being introverted or extraverted.

Unity though is my next point. My generation is looking at different church denominations that have been in existence and caused many a worship and doctrine war for centuries, and begun asking: ‘hey, you love Jesus right? I do too. Can’t we just focus on that common bond and yes, friendly debate one another, but ultimately stay friends despite those differences in whether you believe in speaking in tongues or are Pre-millennial or A-millennial?”  In Cleveland, OH we actually had several churches partner for bi-monthly worship and prayer nights for a while called “Unite: Cleveland” where city and suburban area churches from varying denominations got together to pray collectively for Cleveland and the people in it.

Conversations and discussions about how to better serve as witnesses of the Gospel of Christ, serve other people period, and general story telling sessions are often the main discussion topics at various Bible Study groups, coffee shop meetings, wing and beer sports bar hangouts, and post church Sunday night Applebee runs. The topic of conversation can turn instantly from serious heart issues to the viewing of a funny YouTube clip in a heartbeat, and we are okay with that. Using humor to lighten the mood is a common anecdote to otherwise hard times in the lives of friends.

As I said earlier, we are comfortable with people disagreeing with us. This is especially true when it comes to sharing our faith with non-Christians, where we tend to take the approach of never denying we are Christians, but not ever forcing what we believe onto anyone. We simply state that we love Jesus and do our best to live up to the teachings of the Bible, while being the first to humbly admit that we fail to so often. We allow non-Christians to feel we are approachable and welcome discussion and questions from them, while remembering that we can’t expect them to think like we do, without the help of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we aren’t offended if they tell us that they think the Bible is completely untrue and that they doubt the very existence of God. The fact that they enjoy talking and feel safe talking to us is enough to keep us happy to share our views on matters in society and everyday life.

Ultimately, we want our parents generation to know there is hope for the future of the Church in America. A great majority of our generation has completely turned their back on the Church, and we realize this every day from simply living and going to work in our society today among our peers. While many have chosen to compromise and assimilate a good majority of what the culture teaches while still claiming to be Christians, we are choosing to stand firm and ‘fight the good fight of the Faith” and the Apostle Paul told his young prodigy Timothy two thousand years ago. Yes battles are coming, but we are going to stand united in our love and faith in Christ, knowing that divided it would be impossible to stand.

A Taste Of Walk-Off Excitement

It was a summer night in early August at 1 Cor 16. A group of friends from church had gathered for a night of sockball and card games. It was the inaugural game at “1 Cor Field” and it had been quite a game. My team was trailing my best friends team 23-20 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. We had actually had two friends part their cars in our driveway horizontally facing the front yard field with their headlights on. It was really cool playing sockball under a starlit night sky, with just enough light cast by the headlight beams to see the ball soaring through the air.

As my team scratched out a couple of runs and cut the score to 23-22, I stepped up to the plate.  The scenario: two friends on base, two out and our best power hitter, my good friend Shawn on deck. My thought was to simply get a hit to keep the game going and get Shawn up to be in position to win the game.

I fouled the first pitch delivered to me by my best friend and stood back in. As my best friend lobbed the sock ball towards home plate to me again, I took a smooth easy swing. My metal softball bat connected with the sockball, emitting a soft ‘plop’ sound and began to sail on an ascending line towards the SUV parked in our driveway representing the center field fence.

I headed for first base and I watched simultaneously as the ball soared through the night and my friend Andrew tracked it as it headed to the SUV ‘wall.’ I watched as if in slow motion the ball broke the plane of the lights on our garage that illuminated the warm summer darkness and sailed just over the shadow of Andrew’s outstretched fingers and landed with a soft ‘pop’ onto the roof of the SUV, which meant by sock ball 1 Cor Field rules that ball was a home run!

Could it be?! I remember thinking as I rounded first base. Did I seriously just hit a walk off home run in my favorite backyard version of baseball! My grandfather and I invented this game back when I was nine years old. I was now 26 and had never been the person to hit a game-winning homer. The craziest part was I wasn’t even trying in that moment. I extended my arms in the air and screamed “yeah!” as I rounded third and headed for home, where I my teammates were waiting with outstretched high fives. I jumped on home plate and landed a return high five on each one of their raised hands.

Childish? Perhaps a little, but the fact that I still remember this moment clear as a bell seven months later tells you that I definitely still have an inner child that gets released during a game of sockball. I think God gives us joy in small things like that in order that we remember that he wants us to have a child like faith in what big things He can do in each of our lives. May you trust Him more and more each day, and I will try to do the same! 

Some Short Thoughts On Love and 1 Corinthians 13

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

-1 Corinthians 13:7

Valentines day is upon us. A day in which both married couples and dating couples celebrate the love and romance that they have found in each other. As a single person, I have spent many a year bemoaning the fact that I didn’t have a girlfriend. Pathetic yes I know, but I couldn’t help myself.

Lately though, God has been challenging and teaching me about just what loving another person really involves. It is not just about what you do or say when you are having the warm fuzzy feelings towards that special someone, it is also about how you act and what your heart does when you are angry at, hurt by and all out frustrated by, that person.

This is why Paul tells us in the verse above that love “bears all things…endures all things.” This means that if I genuinely love someone, not just like, and not just infatuated with, I will not run when things get tough and the “rubber meets the road” as the old expression goes. It means that I am required to forgive my future wife when she hurts me, be patient with her when she is upset and angry with me, and commit to work it out with her.

The first three chapters of Hosea show us this in an extreme form. God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer, as an illustration of how He loves the nation of Israel despite their worship of other gods. Hosea marries Gomer and then must go after her when she goes back to her old ways of selling her body. Hosea never gives up on Gomer and loves her unconditionally. It may be one of the most powerful examples of what true love looks like in the Bible, and functions as an allegory for how much God loves us.

True love is only true if it stirs in our hearts a desire to sacrifice for the better of the person we love, putting our own needs and desires aside and placing their needs ahead of ours. True love then, is always selfless and never selfish.  It means that you trust that person deeply and completely.

This is why getting married is probably one of the top two most important decisions any of us will make in our entire lives. So as my thoughts tonight are very brief I will sum things up this way: if you are married tonight and reading this, allow yourself to be challenged by Paul’s words to remember each and every day that your marriage is not about you, it is about how you sacrifice for your spouse. If you are like me, single, or in a dating relationship at the moment, allow Paul’s words to prepare you for your decision one day about whom you marry. Ask yourself, is this a person I can see myself laying my own will and desires down for on a daily basis?

I can tell you that I have been challenged to look at things a lot differently lately because of this passage in 1 Corinthians 13, and I hope you will allow it to do the same for you. Ultimately then, Valentines Day is about sacrificial love, and the way in which we demonstrate that love to other people. May you love well, not only today, but every day for the rest of your time on earth. 

On Creativity And Its Many Forms: A Treatise

Every have one of those times were you feel like you want to do something that shows your creativity and keen sense of insight into life , yet you find yourself at a loss for where to begin? Ever have one of those nights where you don’t have any plans and are just resting, yet feeling like doing something, anything, but you don’t know just what it is you want to do?

I call this ‘artistic restlessness’ but in all reality all it really is, is a form of writer’s block. We all will experience this at some point because I believe God has given each and every one of us a drive to be creative. That is right, because each and every one of us bears the mark of our creator. After all, in Genesis 1:27 we are told that God created us ‘in His own image” and when one considers the fact that God did this after spending nearly six days being creative with the whole world, I have to believe this means He meant for us to be creative too.

This is where things get interesting. If you are in any way like me, you think of creativity being expressed in the forms of artistic talent, namely being able to draw, paint, carve, mold, or stitch in a way that is beautiful and at times lifelike. Perhaps you also like me, think it is expressed in musical form, or being able to sing, play and instrument or compose on an instrument or all three as being a chief form of artistic talent.

Here is the truth that God has been showing me lately though: these are talents, make no mistake, but they are not the ONLY talents He gives his children when He created us before we were born.

There are many artistic talents folks. For instance, having an eye for capturing a canvas before one’s eye in the form of photograph is an art. There is so much that goes into taking a good photo. You have to think about light exposure, time exposure, and things like framing a shot and a whole bunch of other things that to be honest I know almost nothing about. Yet, there a folks who naturally are able to do such things and snap photos that upon viewing leaving us breathless in amazement.

Storytelling I am told, is an art form as well. It is not every person that can draw you into a story the moment they open their mouth. You know a good storyteller when you meet one. What makes them so good? Well from my experience, they know how to use descriptive phrases and words with ease that stimulate your imagination to the point that you can be there watching what they are describing unfold in your mind’s eye.

Teaching is an art. Yes, in many ways there is science behind it, and methods are good and all, but deep down, each person whether they are a young child, or an elder, learns a little differently. That is where the art comes in. No one person can learn in the same way, and a good teacher can navigate through all kinds of style, finesse and form, to communicate effectively what they are trying to plant inside of a fellow humans mind. Some people learn through visual stimulation, others through hearing, and others through hands on activity, and almost any combination of the above.

Scrapbooking is another form of expression that is artistic. Taking memories that are captured through photos and finding a way to tell a story with them is not something just anyone can do. Think about this, look through a set of photos from a family vacation with no one from the family around to narrate what each photo is capturing. Doesn’t really communicate much does it? Then look through a scrapbook of a family vacation with no one from the family around to narrate and you will get a fuller story. Why? Because there are all kinds of notes, stickers, and backgrounds to enhance the experience and tell you the story behind each photo! That is art!

Similar to photography, cinematography is another form of creativity. Think about movies for a minute. How often does the way in which the angles of each shot help set the mood for a scene? How about the use of shadow, light, color, blurring, fade in, fade out or anything else I may be forgetting. All of this helps tell a story through non verbal communication. That is a gift that not just anyone has, and yes, it is art!

There are many, many more form of artistic creation that I know I haven’t covered, but hopefully you will think a bit differently about labeling someone ‘artistic’ or ‘not artistic’ from now on. Remember, as I said earlier we are all made in God’s image, and God is incredibly creative after all how else do explain the Duck Billed Platypus or the Kiwi Bird?