New Release Tuesday! - October 12, 2010

I have decided that if I'm really excited about a CD coming out, that I would highlight it when it is released (which usually happens on Tuesdays). Today I actually want to highlight two albums that are released today.



The first is Flags by Brooke Fraser. Brooke is a musical artist from New Zealand. If you have paid attention at all to the last few Hillsong United albums, you have definitely heard her songs and her voice. Some of the worship songs you may be familiar with that are hers are Hosanna, Lead Me To The Cross, and Desert Song. However, she is more known in her home country of New Zealand as a best-selling solo artist. Her last CD is called Albertine and was my favorite album of that year.

Flags continues her excellent work. At first listen it seems a little less dark than the last album - both musically and lyrically. My favorite track so far is the last one, called "Flags." If you get it through Amazon, you get a bonus track, which is an acoustic version of Flags and I think even better than the original. Here is a snippet of the lyrics from that song:
You who mourn will be comforted
You who hunger will hunger no more
All the last shall be first
Of this I am sure

You who weep now will laugh again
All you lonely be lonely no more
Yes, the last will be first
Of this I'm sure

I don't know why the innocents fall
While the monsters stand
I don't know why the little ones thirst
But I know the last shall be first
I know the last shall be first
I know the last shall be first

I am looking forward to listening to this album over and over again over the next several weeks.

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Although, the same day that Flags is release, another favorite artist of mine, Sufjan Stevens, has released an album - so I guess I will have to alternate between the two.

Sufjan it seems has abandoned his quest to write an album for every state in the U.S. Which kind of makes me sad, but it's probably not a very realistic goal. Unless he's planning on doing this at age 95 or something. Anyway, not only is his new album The Age of Adz not a state project, it's also different musically than the last several of his albums, which have leaned more towards what I like to call "Americana quirky folk," filled with banjos, flutes, Sousa-type musical numbers, and cheerleader background vocals. (Don't worry, the flutes and cheerleader vocals seem to still make their appearances on this one.) Musically, The Age of Adz adds some electronica to the mix. So far I've really enjoyed it, although I've heard there's a song with some "surprising" lyrics coming from Sufjan, a professed Christian. But I'm okay with that.