A Beautiful Thing

In 1987, I heard Russ Taff interviewed and he made the statement,

"Music has a way of speaking to us like nothing else."

I definitely agree, and my wife and family know I agree by the amount of music that I continue to purchase (though it has declined a little post-kids).

Formerly, I bought music based on whatever was being released in that particular genre. Now, there usually has to be at least 1 or 2 good songs I've heard that I want to keep hearing over and over. And fortunately, music buying has changed over the years. When I was a kid, buying 45s of your favorite songs for a buck was the norm. With the rise of cassette tapes and then the glamor of CD's, buying a single became more costly. Nowadays, I can once again get my favorite song for $0.99 (Itunes, etc.) and then see if I want to plop down additional monies for the whole album (I still call it an album even though its nowhere near being an LP album).

One of the better new releases is the 1st offering from Group 1 Crew. I really enjoyed the first single that came out last winter, "Everybody's Gotta Song to Sing." It's Hip Hop/Rap. I'm usually more of a pop/rock guy with an occasional harder rock beat (no raspy incoherent screaming though). This is fun and lively music. And I thought it deserved a comment as it is one of the few albums both the wife and I have enjoyed (she's had it on autorepeat the past month or so).

Lyrically, its very simple: Love one another, sing a new song, clap and dance around in a circle before the Lord. Its quite infectious and the lyrics fit with the beat nicely. (I mean what would you expect? John Piper lyrics.) Rating each song from 1 to 5 stars, I came up with 3 Five-star, 4 Four-star, 5 Three-star, and 1 Two-Star. Though I can't imagine a second album being better than this, I'd be content if this was their only release.

Besides "Everybody," the other notables are "Forgive Me" and the current single, "Love is a Beautiful Thing" (see the video). And at $7.98 on Amazon.com, that's less than $1 per song (which is closer to buying a LP in the 70s with a price of $6.99). So much for inflation.

Word.