Christian albums I still like

In high school, all I listened to was Christian music. That was because it was all I had been exposed to. My parents did not like me listening to secular stuff, and I think that wasn't necessarily a bad thing during my formative years. But as I got older and started exposing myself to different non-religious kinds of music, I stopped listening to the Christian stuff. The main reason for that the secular stuff is just better. Not to say that all christian music is bad... some may even be just as good... but very little is better. For the most part, believers just content themselves with imitating, not creating. The Christian music industry replicates every musical and production value the secular music has and adds Christian lyrics. It has all the shallowness of mainstream pop but with clean lyrics. In fact it is more shallow, because not only does it imitate a shallow thing, but it pretends that by adding generic Christian lyrics that it becomes good. That's like putting a garnish on a Mc Donalds value meal and calling it healthy.

So I began to listen to secular stuff because it was the only stuff with any level of authenticity and originality. It was going somewhere. And when I listened to old stuff, it had gone somewhere, it had forged a new path and was original. It had that intangible... art... to it that the stuff sold in Family Bookstore did not. But recently I have begun to rediscover little gems that I had thrown out with the rest of the stuff. I'll share a couple of in in detail and maybe enumerate some more at the end.

Mezzamorphis by Delirious: This is a controversial one because it is one of those albums that was discarded by the Christian community as a whole when it came out and most people still don't like it. Delirious was a worship band. This CD was a rock album. And even a worse sin for the worshipmongers, it was experimental and abstract. It was a record at the forefront of where rock was going in Britain. If you listen to it and listen to the kinds of rock that soared up the charts in the early 00's you will notice the similarities, but Delirious was ahead of the game. Sadly, they freaked out with the way this CD was received and tried to copy their earlier stuff and then later copy the stuff that was on the market. But this one album does shine for me.

Self-titled Jars of Clay album: This album has retained much of its timelessness. With their debut album, Jars of Clay showed the music community a new sound. The tremendously acoustic instrumentation was contrasted by the high production values. Sampling was used on top of crisp acoustic guitars and strings and rich vocal melodies were heard once more in an era dominated by new-wave punk and ska and post-grunge rock. And while it had enough straightforward Christian lyricism (in songs like "Faith like a child" and "Love song for a savior") to attract mainstream Christians, it also had many songs filled with poetic words that relied on symbols and abstract imagery.

Smell the Color Nine, by Chris Rice: I am not sure why I like this Chris Rice. I think it is because of his simplicity. His music is quite simple most of the time, though some of the arrangements are a bit otherworldly at times. His lyrics come dangerously close to being cheesy at times. But that is the appeal. While they do go a bit overboard at times, it is his sincerity that pulls it through. His starry eyed views of God aren't all rainbows and butterflies. He is a doubter, a desperate human being. That's what sets him apart from 99% of the others out there. His voice expressive voice is able to pull emotions that have so often been overdone in music (angst and love) and turned them into something that is still human.

High Noon by Mark Heard: Now here is a guy most of you have never heard of. He was from the late 80s, and really he never became super huge back then either. His music is remarkably undated, due probably to the fact that he was playing a sort of style that today would be called Alt. country rock. He never quite fit in, hanging in the gap between Christian and secular in a style that would take the world another decade to begin to understand and appreciate. Probably one of my favorite lyricists secular or Christian.

There are other albums that I can actually take seriously again, like (surprisingly) Take me to Your Leader, by Newsboys (it is the only one of their that is worth anything), Kansas by Jennifer Knapp, Legend of Chin by Switchfoot (their most secular and rocky album, and the only one that is good really). Then I have to admit that I have a soft spot for many early Christian music artists, those that came out before there was an industry pumping out God's music. I mean people like Keith Green, early Michael Card, Larry Norman... They are generally really cheesy, but they were groundbreakers, singing music styles they liked (that many churches banned) about things that they cared about, it just happened to be that the thing they cared about the most was God. There is a certain uncompromised feel about their music that most groups have lost today. Today most Christians musicians interested in making good music actually go secular. Kind of sad that the christian led music industry has become so shallow that Christians have to go to the secular guys to make something with any depth. And many of the ones that should be hailed as prophets because of their strong criticisms (I'm thinking of people like Pedro the Lion and rebukes are being demonized. Its a shame. But every now and then, one can find diamonds in the rough.