The new album from Delirious? - Kingdom Of Comfort

-
Those who know me know that I am a longtime fan of British Christian band Delirious?. Well, they've really surpassed themselves with their latest album, I feel. It has a focus, freshness and drive that is musically and spiritually invigorating, and it is their most consistently excellent set of songs. Martin Smith's vocals have never sounded better, Stew Smith's drumming (on his last studio album as a member of the band) is inspired. I've hardly stopped listening to the album this past week and find that I am not skipping even one track as I do so. Not a single weak track.

Lyrically the album follows on from "The Mission Bell" and "World Service" in terms of a call to action to stand up for what we believe in as Christians and live it out each day, but in the particular context of a world tour that took the band to some of the poorest places in the world in Africa and India.



If you click on the Video link above you will see and hear the band talking about these experiences and their influence on the record. The Music link will allow you to listen to 4 of the tracks on the album. The 2nd "Love Will Find A Way" is perhaps the most representative of the album as a whole.

For me personally there is the added bonus of hearing my backing vocals (and those of 2,500 other people) recorded at last November's gig in the Liverpool Anglican cathedral on the final track "My Soul Sings".

Current personal favourites include "Love Will Find A Way", "Stare The Monster Down", "My Soul Sings" and "Wonder", but this list may change within days, such is the overall standard.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God You don't need me, but somehow You want me - Tenth Avenue North, “Control”

-
Image
I sent the below message to my teaching colleagues in school this evening, braced as we are for the arrival of “those-who-shall-not-be-named” (i.e. OFSTED, national school inspectors) sometime between now and Easter. For those of you who live outside of Britain their job is to monitor and ensure high standards in all schools… the problem is that they keep moving the goalposts. Anyway, enough of that. Here’s what I said: I think that the attached video teaching is for us right now, to help us not lose sight of who we are and why we are here in a Catholic school. It's too late for the weekend just gone, but try to take on board its message of "wasting time for God" over the coming weeks, despite the pressures that we are all under. Even if you are not a believer yourself, give yourself some time alone with your thoughts, if you can… even just a few minutes.  The video teaching is by one of my favourite bands, Tenth Avenue North, and it accompanies a song of ...
Read more

District 9 - a sci-fi anti-apartheid allegory and the first handheld camera masterpiece?

-
Image
Following on from yesterday's post, here's an interesting article from The Guardian film blog . District 9: Where aliens come to Earth and handheld comes of age District 9, the shock blockbuster produced by Peter Jackson, isn't just notable for its box office dominance and viral marketing campaign. It's also the closest thing to a handheld masterpiece that's yet been made Handheld on handholding … A still from District 9 Lars, time to break out that cigar. When Dogme 95 was brewing, I wonder if von Trier seriously thought his cin-emetic had any chance of influencing pop culture. With the release of sci-fi blockbuster District 9 , we have the answer: the handheld style has finally come of age. The setup - filmed in to-camera interviews with its pencil-neck protagonist, Wikus Van de Merwe, and intrepid Unsteadicam as he enters the extra-terrestrial township - is jarring in the very best way. And traditional complaints of motion sickness, migraine and general inner-ea...
Read more

Transcendent God

-
Over the past few months I have become much more aware of the beauty of the Grail translation of the Psalms that we use in Morning and Evening Prayer (Divine Office) - I will write more about this in the near future - and I am also finding that this has rubbed off on my attitude to the other prayers in the Office. For example, the following hymn that we prayed just over a week ago. The words struck me as if I was discovering them anew, and this after having prayed (or simply recited?) them at least once a month for about 25 years.  The optimism of the imagery struck me most forcefully and I love the idea of God hearing our prayer "before we call", i.e. as the paslmist says elsewhere "before ever a word was on my lips... you knew me through and through" (I paraphrase). See what you think yourselves... Morning Prayer of Sunday, week 3 Transcendent God in whom we live, The Resurrection and the Light, We sing for you a morning hymn To end the si...
Read more