Unlike my good friends, The Pensieros, I don’t like to play Christmas music early.  I like to give Thanksgiving (and the rest of autumn) its day and promptly start blasting the Bing, Frank, and George Fredric.

The truth is I don’t really like most (pop) Christmas music.  It’s generally cliche and… well, half-baked.  Most artists rip off some arrangements of traditional tunes, write one of two cheesy seasonal pieces and record it over the course of a couple days.  Rarely do I get excited about something fresh that’s holiday themed.

This is different, however. Daniel Renstrom released a new Christmas album called On The Incarnation and it’s great.  I’ve been listening to it all day long and I can’t stop.  It’s intentional album that weaves joyous traditionals and well-thought originals into a statement of joy at the most amazing miracle this world has ever seen– God with us.  Lyrically, Daniel’s writing is informed by the poetry of the hymnal (he covers Wesley’s Come Thou Long Expected Jesus) and the theology of scripture.  Musically, there’s plenty to hear–glockenspiel harmonies on His Company and the Radiohead-esque echoes of O Come, O Come Emmanuel are just the beginning–and it’s obvious that great attention was poured into the arrangement and production of this album.

Anyway, it’s great.  Go buy it.  Play in your house and at your church.  We’ll be doing His Company at RVC this December.

And while you’re at it buy his debut album too!

Filed under: Music