AslansChild, the Maccabeats never cease to make me smile! I think it's so cool that they would take their Jewish culture and turn it into memorable songs like that. To be honest, I actually learned some stuff I didn't know about Jews nowadays from listening to their music.

If you're looking for artsy indie/folk music, I'll reference you to my aforementioned current slight-obsession of mine. I don't know if you've heard of Mumford & Sons before or not and I'm not sure if they match your description of "artsy", but in my opinion, they're a lot more creative than a lot of other bands these days. They're mostly folk with a bit of rock thrown in here and there. If you watch some of their other live videos, they bring in an accordion, a fiddler, and some trumpets in addition to their guitar, banjo, bass, and keyboard. They're especially fun to watch perform live.

Here's the link to one of their live performances. http://youtu.be/CTew0ga2viw

It does take a while to get familiar with all of them and one of my new, new favorites of hers is "No Turning Back". I think I just love the intro to that song. It sounds like the scene from a movie.

I hadn't heard that one til you mentioned it! For some reason, that's the only one I don't have. Looked it up though, and loved it!

About Lecrae: If you haven't heard any from Gravity, I'd say it's REALLY good musically & lyrically. You can hear the whole thing in one video here on youtube. The ones that are good for a first listen are "Free From it All", "Buttons", "Tell The World", "Confessions", and "Gravity". And one of the bonus songs, Higher, has Mike Donehey from 10th Ave singing the beautiful chorus! And I love the "Man Up" anthem song!!! The music video gives me chills!

Oh and Mumford & Sons!!! Totally forgot to ask: is the new album good?? I LOVE Sigh No More, but haven't heard anything from Babel, except "I Will Wait". I really liked that one, though! What are your favorites?

Keeping the Mat Kearney talk going... I only have "Runaway" (oh SO catchy!!! ), "Ships in the Night", and "Closer to Love". Runaway is definitely my favorite though!

Is anyone familiar with Six Pence None the Richer? A friend of mine gave mea few of their songs, and I just loved them! She gave me a couple of the leader singers solo songs, too, which are great! My favorites are: "Melody of You", "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us", and "Isaiah 55".

AslansChild, I wasn't familiar with Mac Powell's song but I read the complete lyrics and in context it seems to be a parody of Rebecca Black's 'song' "Friday". If it isn't though, God help us.

I hadn't heard that one til you mentioned it! For some reason, that's the only one I don't have. Looked it up though, and loved it!

Yaay!!

About Lecrae: If you haven't heard any from Gravity, I'd say it's REALLY good musically & lyrically. You can hear the whole thing in one video here on youtube. The ones that are good for a first listen are "Free From it All", "Buttons", "Tell The World", "Confessions", and "Gravity". And one of the bonus songs, Higher, has Mike Donehey from 10th Ave singing the beautiful chorus! And I love the "Man Up" anthem song!!! The music video gives me chills!

My brother got "Gravity" for Christmas, so I will just have to commandeer his CD and perhaps put it on my computer. I'm pretty sure I've heard the song "Higher" at least once before. I remember one of my sisters going on about it (due to the fact that Mike Donehey was in it!! ).

Oh and Mumford & Sons!!! Totally forgot to ask: is the new album good?? I LOVE Sigh No More, but haven't heard anything from Babel, except "I Will Wait". I really liked that one, though! What are your favorites?

Their latest album is amazing. I felt like it took me a while to get into "Babel", but I'm in love with it now. It's just as good as "Sigh No More", only the production is a lot more clean since it wasn't self-produced and I feel like the band gets even more adventurous with their instrumentation. Favorite songs? Oh, that's hard...I really love "I Will Wait", "Lover of The Light" and "Lover's Eyes" as well as their bonus track "For Those Below", but my favorite song right now is probably "Not With Haste". They're all as good as the next, really. You should definitely look into the rest of the album!

As for Mat Kearney, right now I'm most familiar with his songs "Closer To Love", "Ships In The Night", "Hey Mama", and "Count on Me". I got hooked onto "Ships In The Night" with the intro. I so, so, so would love to cover that song someday... My other brother, haha, just recently got Mat Kearney's album "Young Love" so I'll have to commandeer that as well and listen to the rest of his music.

My brother got "Gravity" for Christmas, so I will just have to commandeer his CD and perhaps put it on my computer.

My brother got Gravity for Christmas, too! I was soooo sad that there wasn't a lyric book! Just some pictures and saying who wrote, produced and sang on each song. Disappointing! Of course, they're online, but it's still cool to have the official lyric book!

Their latest album is amazing. I felt like it took me a while to get into "Babel", but I'm in love with it now. It's just as good as "Sigh No More", only the production is a lot more clean since it wasn't self-produced and I feel like the band gets even more adventurous with their instrumentation. Favorite songs? Oh, that's hard...I really love "I Will Wait", "Lover of The Light" and "Lover's Eyes" as well as their bonus track "For Those Below", but my favorite song right now is probably "Not With Haste". They're all as good as the next, really. You should definitely look into the rest of the album!

Thanks for the recommendations! I listened to a few of them last night, but nothing really stuck out. But most of the time, the songs I end up loving the most are the ones that I don't like at first! Strange how that is, huh?

Lots of new music here, I got Third Day's self-titled album for Christmas, and two of my siblings and Mom got new CDs as well: Sidewalk Prophets' These Simple Truths, Chris August's No Far Away, and Laura Story's Blessings. I love These Simple Truths. I heard The Words I Would Say and Show Me How To Love on the radio a lot for a while, but since it has been a while, I'm really enjoying the CD. And of course Third Day is awesome!

Before Christmas my brother bought Jeremy Camp's Carried Me and my older sister bought Francesca Battistelli's Hundred More Years. I'm going to order Third Day's Miracle tonight and my sister is going to get a new CD too, but she hasn't decided what yet. It's nearly a new music overdose here, but only nearly!

SnowAngel

I've been listening to two of ColdPlay's albums. I like their songs Clocks, In my place, Shiver, and Green Eyes.

My brother got Gravity for Christmas, too! I was soooo sad that there wasn't a lyric book! Just some pictures and saying who wrote, produced and sang on each song. Disappointing! Of course, they're online, but it's still cool to have the official lyric book!

Haha! You know, I had the exact same reaction. Like I said, I have difficulty listening to rap partially because the lyrics are hard to make out all the time and partially because most of the time the lyrics aren't worth listening to. Anyhow, I was extremely disappointed that Lecrae's lyrics weren't in the album sleeve...but then my brother and I concurred that the album sleeve would have been more like a book if the lyrics had been in there.

Thanks for the recommendations! I listened to a few of them last night, but nothing really stuck out. But most of the time, the songs I end up loving the most are the ones that I don't like at first! Strange how that is, huh?

Don't feel bad, because that's how I felt about the new album for a long time as well. It's the kind of album you need to listen to during a long road trip or something to sort of get yourself acquainted with.

Then again, it might just be that I'm head over heels for all the band members. They're so...classy and everything essentially English and British.

Purpleotter, I recently got Coldplay's album "Mylo Xyloto". It's the first full album of their's that I've bought. I've never been completely sold on Coldplay, but I think that's because I've never bothered to listen to their music a lot. I like a lot of their singles, like "Viva la Vida" and "Fix You".

I recently purchased Kari Jobe's album "Where I Found You". I bought it mostly because so many of my friends listen to her and have been telling me we should all cover some of her songs at some point. I'd only ever heard a few of her songs on the radio and while some people I know really love her for her voice, in my case her voice is what kind of turns me off from her music. It's not bad, it's just...breathy, if you know what I mean. When someone sings like that, you can tell they're not supporting their sound using their diaphragm and you worry that they'll ruin their voice completely in a few years. It's almost painful for me to hear people sing like that. My family and I have this thing about worship artists and their "breathy singers".

Other than that, I think her lyrics are all very good and her music has a nice upbeat feel to it.

AslansChild, I wanted to thank-you for the list of all the Indie singers you gave me some time ago. I enjoyed listening to some of The Vesper's work. I like the instruments that they use, especially.

Purpleotter, I'm a Coldplay fan, too. (Or, at least, of their older music.) My favourite album is Parachutes, and I like a couple songs off their other CD's, and one or two off one of their EP's. My favourite, right now, would probably be "Viva La Vida" (the song) and "Speed of Sound." "Fix You" is so beautiful.

I've recently gotten more into Switchfoot. I partly blame Gildor. It started with Vice Verses, and then I decided to listen to more of their stuff. I really like their Alternative sound. My favourite song right now is "Yesterdays" and "Let Your Love Be Strong." Most of my favourite songs are off Oh! Gravity. "The War Inside" and "Dark Horses" are just .... amazing.

The only song I've heard from Switchfoot is "Dare you to move". I really like that one, I have it on my iPad. I prefer downloading music on my iPad vs going to the store and buying CDs. It keeps the songs from getting scratched and I can keep my favorite songs in one place.

...I read the complete lyrics and in context it seems to be a parody of Rebecca Black's 'song' "Friday". If it isn't though, God help us.

First off, I'd like to thank you for getting that song stuck in my head!

fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun...

LoL, that's enough to make you go batty.

& secondly, you're right, he may have been trying to parody, but I have to disagree with his choice of lyrics, singing about looking for forgiveness for what you did on Saturday isn't the type of stuff that should be coming from a Christian's mouth, regardless of the intent. Just saying...

On a happier note, , Moriah Peters' song Well Done is a new favorite of mine, very happy and uplifting:

Aslanschild: I love that one!

Anyone a Paramore fan? I love their Brand New Eyes album. I really like the lyrics that they use.

Fall out boy is back. There new song is surely different. I want to hear the rest of the album before i judge.

Hawk Nelson has a new single out, Words.

I was never a big fan of theirs, but this song is really good. Waiting until a new CD comes out to give them a try.

Jeremy Camp's Reckless was released yesterday! It's awesome! We listened to it twice yesterday. Favorite songs - I'm not sure yet, other than Reckless!

SnowAngel