Just finished listening to the rough mix of Sam Rocha’s freshly released album, Late to Love. In my effortless knack for sticking with the “late” theme, I finally got around to listening to my review-files oh, you know, long after they’d arrived and a few days after the album came out. Nothing against the feast of St. Augustine, I promise.
What you should know:
- Do you listen to soul music? I’m not up on the genre. Lately, in the unlikely event that I get silence, the last thing I want to do is put sounds into it. Historically I’ve listened to an awful lot of everything, but very little soul. It might be worth investigating? Hmmn? But you have to be willing to get into it and try something new, and not be expecting it to sound like that other music you listen to.
- Let’s talk poetry. I’m picky about my poetry, very picky. I’m afraid most of what passes for poetry these days — these recent centuries — is pretty banal. I suppose in the end the contemporary drivel will fade away like the worst of the previous centuries’ efforts, but for the moment it keeps showing up places. So here’s what struck me most about Sam’s album: Ha! Poetry! Good poetry! Surprising turns of phrase, interesting metaphors, complex emotions . . . I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, from a guy who wrote this book, but one loses the habit of hearing good poetry and begins to not expect it anymore.
So there you go. If you’ve been complaining that all the Christian songwriters are sappy, fluffy pop-genre wannabes, this is the antidote. Christian music that isn’t liturgical music, isn’t devotional music, it’s just music. With soul. (I know. I said that. But really, that’s the word for it.) Neat stuff.
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