Top of the Pops

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It's the end of the year and I thought I would sign off by listing my favourite Music, Films, Books, Photos and Videos of 2011.

Music - I started the year of consciously listening to more music as a way developing my musical appreciation, exposure and growth. As a result this is the hardest category to pick one best band/cd but I will. Before that let me mention three notable bands/Cds
Rend Collective Experiment - Organic Family Hymnal, quite simply it takes me to a place of worship which no other music does, I wrote a post about one of there song why go read it - click here
Texas - White on Blonde, an old album from 1997 but it just brilliant
Jonathan Coulton - Joco Looks Back, if you regularly go to Ikea you must listen to his track of the same name, a fabulously quirky album which I stumbled across by virtue of the social network (seeing a friend listening to it so I listened to it)
But my pick for 2011 is Listener - Wooden Heart, I wrote about coming across this band at Greenbelt and they are just amazing - click here to read my post

Films - I watch quite a few films, I secretly want to be a film critic, but I rarely get to go the cinema so my top films this year are mostly via TV\DVD.
Thor - the best superhero adaptation in my opinion- funny, fantastic, great characters and great visuals and direction - the only bad thing was I had to watch it in 3D
Sunset Boulevard - a film from 1950 with William Holden & Gloria Swanson which I just loved
The Straight Story - a wonderful story about a man on a journey to repair his relationship with his brother
Bronson - a tour de force by Tom Hardy
But my pick for 2011 is A Town Called Panic - a French stop animation film which was just wonderfully surreal. It pops up on Film4 every now and then so try and watch it you will love it.

Books - if you follow my blog you will know that I have had a list of 20 books that I wanted to read this year. Of the eleven I actually finished two stand out.
The Shack by William P. Young -  - a wonderful touching story of God meeting a man at his lowest point it is moving and challenging and made me want to see more of God
My pick for 2011 is Teams of Rivals - the story of Abraham Lincoln's remarkable life and presidency. I reviewed this book back on Feb 12th mine and Abe's birthday!


Photos - this year I have been trying to take all sorts of photos - interesting and creative ones - I'm not going to choose one that is best but I here are some of my favourites.

Videos - I love how we can be inspired, amused and touched through the visual medium, here are some of my favourites - Resurrection by Rob Bell would be my pick for 2011.
 Resurrection by Rob Bell Parallel Parking by Yum Yum London Television is a drug by Beth Fulton John & Joe by the StoryCorps

Something unexpected

At the end of August my family & I went to Greenbelt. Greenbelt is a Christian arts festival where music, art, performance, thought, discussion and creativity meet amongst 20,000 people from all avenues of Christian traditions.

Beforehand we downloaded the festival app so my wife & I were able to browse through each day and mark all the seminars, gigs and childrens events we thought might be interesting. I marked about six or seven talks and two bands I wanted to hear Rend Collective and Idlewild.

As the weekend progressed I spent most of my time with my two girls taking them to different activities and talks which meant my wife to go to the talks she wanted. I was having an enjoyable and relaxing time, not worrying about missing out on anything. Then one evening with my eldest daughter looking a bit bored we reviewed the bands on in the Underground venue. I spied an act called Listener who performed something called Talk Music. We decided to go along and I can safely say things will never be the same again.

Listener mixes poetry, folk, punk and heavy metal sometimes into a wall of sound, sometimes playfully moving through the genres in one song. They have a performance style that is both agressive and a little in your face (esp. in a small venue) and at the same time incredibly heartfelt in a very self disclosing manner. The lead singer Dan Smith writes wonderful poetic lyrics full of surreal images that speak to you at a soul level, they are at times mystical yet full of love, grace, mercy and hope.

My favourite song of the show and the one I play over and over is the title track from their album Wooden Heart. The brilliance of the opening line "We’re all born to broken people on their most honest day of living" and the call for us in our churches to "wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief" are just two highlights (you can watch and listen to it below).



So I came away from Greenbelt with a new favourite band and more than that, music that speaks to me where I am right now and to something of the truth of who we are as people in this world.

All the family loved the event and we are sure to be going back again. I wonder what events or experiences you have had this year that have ministered to you and will shape your life ahead? Let me know.

PS: I even had a Gong Shower but that most definitely is another story!

Turn, turn, turn...

I have recently been listening to the excellent album The Man Who by Travis and especially the track Turn:
I want to see what people saw

I want to feel like I felt before
I'd like to see the kingdom come
I want to feel forever young
I want to sing
To sing my song
I want to live in a world where I belong
I want to live 
I will survive
And I believe that it won't be very long
If we turn, turn, turn, turn, turn
Then we might learn
So where's the stars?
Up in the sky
And what's the moon?
A big balloon
We'll never know unless we grow
There's so much world outside the door
I want to sing
To sing my song
I want to live in a world where I'll be strong
I want to live
I will survive
And I believe that it won't be very long
If we turn, turn, turn, turn, turn
And if we turn, turn, turn, turn
Then we might learn
Turn, turn, turn, turn
Turn, turn, turn
And if we turn, turn, turn, turn
Then we might learn
Learn to turn

As I listened to this wonderful song it spoke to me in so many ways - belonging, seeing, living, growing - but the refrain to turn, turn, turn really resonated with me. If we turn - look at things differently, consider changing our views, engage with one another - turn to one another then we might learn, so learn to turn.
Beautiful and moving - give it a listen

No more happy clappy? (New Music #3)

At the beginning of the year I had a sort out of my CDs, getting rid of some old ones and sorting them into order.  I decided to put all the worship and Christian music together.  Having done this over the last couple of months we have been listening to some old Stoneleigh worship CDs (1995, 96 & 98) and an old vineyard CD (Hungry, 1999).

First off, having listened again to Hungry I think it is the most complete worship CD I have ever heard – it has uplifting joyous praise, great declarations of worship, powerful intimate personal songs to God, it is 9.9 out of 10!

Secondly, I would sum up the Stoneleigh CDs as full of uplifting joyous praise and I have to say I think that is missing from Christian worship these days.  I am not saying new songs (and by new I mean anything in the last five years) aren’t good and hey I only listen to new stuff occasionally on the radio and at church, so there are hundreds of new songs I haven’t heard.  But my question is this really – when (or why) did we become so sombre & serious about our worship? I love singing the great truths about God but do they all need to be so earnest and why do I have to remind myself again and again that I am such a worthless rag? It makes you wonder why God bothered to rescue me if I am so filthy? How about some exuberant praise about the fact that ‘everything that has breath can praise the lord’, ‘there can be joy in the Holy Ghost’, ‘there’s no one like our God’ and ‘the river of God sets our feet a dancing’ to quote some memorable lines from worship songs of the past.

I love that there is a constant stream of new songs and artists and I think a lot of them are great (Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman & Charlie Hall I particularly like) , but I think for the time being I am going to listen to old (over 10 years old!!) praise songs and live in the joy these bring.

"New" Music #2

Continuing my expansion of my music collection and hopefully an increase in my musical knowledge, appreciation and maturity - see previous post.

So the latest selection I have purchased and been listening are listed below, as ever let me know what you think.

Beautiful South - Quench and Blue is the Colour (1998 and 2001) - 50p each - 2 stars

Wonderfully crafted lyrics and with interesting melodies and rhythms BUT I just didn't get into these songs. I just didn't get caught up on any of the hooks.

Lily Allen - Alright, Still (2007) - 50p - 2 stars

Lily's voice is catchy and the tunes are very rhythmic but the topic of the songs seem to be all the same and worst of all I think Kate Nash does the same type of songs but twic as good.

The Proclaimers - The Best Of... (87-02) - 50p - 3 stars

All their great hits - Letter to America, 500 Miles, Sunshine on Leith - but also quite a few other excellent tunes and covers. OK a few duff tunes but with 20 tracks you definitely get 12 tracks that are really good.

Norah Jones - Come Away With Me (2002) - 99p - 3 stars

Norah's wonderful voice and the relaxing mix of guitar, soft drums and piano is lovely.  Music to sit and listen to, walk along on with it on a summers day or just in the background as you potter around the house.

"New" Music #1

I have decided to expand my music collection by browsing the second hand stores to pick up albums and artists I have heard of but never really had the chance to listen to their music.  I will occasionally post my thoughts and even commit myself to an 'out of 5 stars' rating.  Let me know what you think.

The Zutons - Who killed the Zutons (2004) - 99p - 2½ stars
OK album, their debut album and the main hits came off their second album.  May occasionally listen again

Dido - Life for Rent (2003) - £1.99 - 3 stars
Very enjoyable album, lovely voice and relaxing slightly melancholic tunes.  I remember this artist being regularly lampooned on Never Mind the Buzzcocks but I quite like it.

Razorlight - Up all night (2004) - 99p - 2½ stars
Intense guitar rock, not dissimilar to The Editors. Not sing along but solidly good tunes.

Texas - White on Blonde (1997) - 99p - 4 stars
Really love this album, it seems contemporary, cool and such a good mix of soft rock and fantastic lyrics.  This is one that will get many spins on turntable

Will Young - Friday's Child (2003) - 50p - 3½ stars
That very rare thing a reality pop star with talent and originality. Soulful pop ballads, very toe tapping!