Here are the 10 albums (in no particular order) that I've got hold of and
enjoyed the most in 2013:
The Invisible Way - Low: Alan Sparhawk has said that "Music in general has
been the fiber of my faith from the beginning. Everything I know about God was
taught to me in songs & the spiritual milestones of my life have almost
always been musical experiences. I think the process of writing songs has helped
me learn to listen to the spirit, which then testifies of Christ & His
Father." 'Holy Ghost' returns the favour, along with the rest of this inspirational album.
One True Vine by Mavis Staples: "From album opener 'Holy Ghost' (Alan Sparhawk), to the new [Jeff] Tweedy composition 'Jesus Wept,' the gravity in Staples' voice is transfixing, heavy with burdens but blessed with the promise of true redemption that shines through on the deft and driving 'Far Celestial Shore' (Nick Lowe), Can You Get To That' (Funkadelic), and Pops Staples' uplifting 'I Like The Things About Me.'"
Moyshe Mcstiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart by C.O.B.: "It's Middle Eastern, it's contemplative and it's about quite serious subjects." It has a "sad, faintly religious atmosphere" supplemented by C.O.B.'s innovative use of drones created through their invention of the dulcitar. Mick Bennett is a poet with an "amazingly powerful voice" who "contributed a huge amount to the atmosphere and spirituality of C.O.B.'s music."
Jericho Road by Eric Bibb: “The title refers to the road between Jerusalem and Jericho where the Good Samaritan, a traveler of a despised race, stopped to help a stranger in need after better-off religious leaders had passed by and done nothing. On April 3, 1968, the night before his death, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King urged us to follow the example of the Good Samaritan, saying: ‘Ultimately, you cannot save yourself without saving others.’ If this record has a theme, that’s it in a nutshell: have a heart.”
Trouble Came Looking by Ricky
Ross is a modern Celtic folk album written as the wheels started to fall off the economy. On the album Ricky captures the sense of helplessness we all felt as governments signed off billions to protect the banks and institutions, and then sat back and watched as normal people lost everything.
Meet Me At The Edge Of The World - Over The Rhine: Linford Detweiler and Karen Bergquist
say: "... we try to write music that in little ways helps to heal the wounds
that life has dealt us or the wounds we’ve dealt ourselves. We try to write
songs that can hum joyfully at the stars when something good goes down. We try
to write tunes capable of whispering to a sleeping child that in spite of
everything, somehow, all is well. We try to write words that help us learn to
tell the truth to ourselves and others."
Monkey
Minds In The Devil’s Time by Steve Mason, with a title referring to the Buddhist term
for an easily distracted brain, " is air punching, proletariat mobilizing, insurrection-pop of the highest calibre." "Lonely soars with melancholic-gospel-ennui, Oh My Lord is Sweet Home Alabama on a Bontempi keyboard, and Fight Them Back – arguably Mason’s finest piece of song-smithery since Dry the Rain." (BBC Review)
The Relatives’ sound bridges
the gap between traditional Gospel, Soul and Psychedelia. In the early 1970’s,
they recorded three obscure singles and a previously unreleased session—all of
which are compiled on the acclaimed 2009 anthology, Don’t Let Me Fall.
The release of the anthology brought The Relatives back together as a band,
planting the seeds for their 2013 Yep Roc release, The Electric Word.
The Memory Of
Grace by The Children is a volume of unconventional spiritual songs dedicated to the
Most High; a poetry and music rooted in English lyrical ballads; in Bob Dylan, and the sons and daughters
of Bob; in Ezekiel, Matthew and the Psalms; in cultural reggae and the gospel
blues.
Bill Fay's classic Time Of The Last
Persecution displays empathy in the face of apocalypse. Fay's songs are simply astonishing - simple and melodic yet with unusual
imagery and insights (both whimsical and surreal bearing comparison with Syd Barrett and Nick Drake) delivered with gravity and
grace.
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C.O.B. - Solomon's Song.
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