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Grace Notes<\/strong>\u00a0is a weekly exploration by Jason Morehead of\u00a0signs of common grace in the music world<\/a>. We hope to alert you to wonderful music, some of which will be spiritual in nature but all of which will be unique and worthy of your attention. Each week we will share brief reviews of albums worthy of your attention and maybe a video or two.<\/em><\/p>\n Another month, another collection of cheap, yet excellent music from Amazon. This time around, we\u2019ll be looking at alterna-pop legends, the greatest post-punk band of all time, and the return of post-rock\u2019s mightiest.\u00a0(All of these albums were on sale as of the week of November 18, 2012.)<\/p>\n The Smiths \u2013\u00a0The Sound Of The Smiths<\/em> (Buy Now<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re still in high school, then stay far, far, far away from this album. The music of The Smiths is not for those going through the angst and upheaval of the pre-college years. Actually, on second thought, if you\u2019re in high school, then you need<\/strong> to buy this album. Nobody in the history of pop music has communicated emotional awkwardness, alienation, and lost love with as much charm or wit as Morrissey. The wonderful paradox of The Smiths\u2019 music is that his paeans to melancholia and loneliness are accompanied by some of the catchiest, jangliest pop ever, due in large part to Johnny Marr\u2019s sterling guitar-playing.<\/p>\n Even if you\u2019re not prone to high school-esque angst, there\u2019s bound to be something in these 23 songs that will make you want to get your mope on \u2014 in the best possible way, of course \u2014 be it the sunny misanthropy of \u201cHeaven Knows I\u2019m Miserable Now\u201d, the shimmering gloom of \u201cHow Soon Is Now?\u201d, or that epic ode to unrequited love, \u201cThere Is A Light That Never Goes Out\u201d, which finds Morrissey crooning, \u201cAnd if a double-decker bus\/Crashes into us\/To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die\u201d.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cUjZjyIyNoE<\/p>\n Joy Division \u2013 The Best Of\u2026<\/em> (Buy Now<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n If The Smiths are too sunny for you, then there\u2019s always Joy Division. The band, which broke up shortly after lead singer Ian Curtis tragically took his own life in 1980, is the band most identified with the \u201cpost-punk\u201d genre; their bleak yet haunting music would go on to influence numerous artists, including U2, Interpol, Silversun Pickups,\u00a0The National,\u00a0and Nine Inch Nails, and establish a strong cultural legacy<\/a>. Their music, which combined angular guitars, sparse rhythms, chilly synthesizers and electronics, and Curtis\u2019 haunted voice and lyrics, made alienation and despair sound, well, majestic<\/em> \u2014 as if the only way to deal with such things was to face them straight on, diving headfirst into the storm.<\/p>\n The Best Of\u2026<\/em> provides a fairly nice overview of their too-small discography, and includes their most well-known song, \u201cLove Will Tear Us Apart\u201d, which (according to many) was inspired by Curtis\u2019 deteriorating marriage, and was released a month before his death.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qHYOXyy1ToI<\/p>\n Godspeed You! Black Emperor \u2013\u00a0Allelujah! Don\u2019t Bend! Ascend!<\/em> (Buy Now<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n