Prolly The Most Important Thing You Can Hear

True & Better from Peter Artemenko on Vimeo.




I posted this same exact thing a couple years ago.  I just transcribed it by listening to the sermon & typing it out.  I had to pause it like 400 times to get it just right.  This is definitely a better presentation of this message.  If you can get this, than all the scriptures will open to you.

Swiss Army Knife Award

That's right!!!! Mumford & Sons nabs the Swiss Army Knife Award, the highest Audible Heisman there is.  This is one of those 'sign post' albums, where you know exactly where you were when you first heard it.  I was on the Mogollon Rim driving to Phoenix with my buddy Robert.  They come in with the 'serve God, love me & mend' and I was like, 'oh, ish!!!! This is something like I've never quite heard before.'  It simultaneously is a breath of fresh air that takes your breath away.  I haven't had that confused respiratory sensation sense ridin' with my boy Jerry listening to his bootleg copy of College Dropout.  


Since Sigh No More's arrival to my cd player, it has not left.  I have never once skipped a track.  There are literally no dead spots in the whole album!  Another mark of a great album, my favorite song has changed numerous times; currently it is "After The Storm".  The prime reason I love this album so much is it's exultability.  You see, I don't like to demarcate the world into secular and sacred.  I feel that makes God way to small.  To say that you could only praise/worship/honor/revere God in these three specific ways that 50 yr old, white republican guys approve of, limits God.  I believe that God is so sovereign that anything that is created, ultimately, will serve to glorify Him.  I call it running it up the flag pole.  If I were just stop at Mumford & Sons and say, 'wow, these guys are talented.  This music makes me feel good, etc.'  I would've have stopped short of the music's ultimate intended end.  But if I were to say, 'wow, these guys are talented, praise the God that invented music & instruments that can make that sound.  Praise the God that heals me while I listen to this music.  Praise the God that has accomplished the actual victory I feel when I listen to this album, etc.'  I believe we should do this with all things.  


Here are exulting highlights from the album:

"Sigh No More"- 'Love it will not betray you/ Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free/ Be more like the man you were made to be'
"Roll Away Your Stone"- 'It seems that all my bridges have been burnt/ But you say that's exactly how this grace thing works/ It's not the long walk home that will change this heart/ But the welcome I receive with the the restart'
"White Blank Page"- 'Lead me to the truth and I/ Will follow you with my whole life'
"I Gave You All"- 'If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy I could have won'
"After The Storm"- 'But there will come a time you'll see/ With no more tears/ And love will not break your heart/ But dismiss your fears/ Get over your hill and see, what you find there/ With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair'

Here is my current favorite song on the album, "After The Storm".  Hope you enjoy it.  Def check out this whole album if you haven't already.  

Swiss Army Knife Award Preamble

At long last, the Audible Heisman for the best album of the year.  This one was quite the photo finish!  2010 was a solid year for music.  The runner-up department is multi-tiered.


Farthest from the front, you have the Lady Antebellum/Sufjan Stevens for the show.  Need You Now was a very impressive sophomore showing.  I really didn't think it would be all that great. But four singles to date, including the crossover that is the album's namesake; I was mistaken.  Age of Adz was a raving indie success.  A lot of people's favorite album of the year! To be great, an artist must continue to adapt & grow and Age of Adz certainly accomplishes this.  Its sound is takes a complete 180 and goes crazy electro-funk hippie and it really lands.  The hardcore Sufjan purists might hate the change, but I like it.  The main reason the album slipped to third runner-up is that I think the concert that I attended was much better than the album actually was.  The visual experience of the concert really brought the music alive but the best album of the year should be able to stand on its own.  Plus, if I was ever to grab coffee with Sufi, I think I'd throw up in my mouth bout 3 times & cold cock him 5 times. 


Placing is Taylor Swift/Arcade Fire.  Speak Now is fantastic.  The album will probably have 4-5 hits when its all said and done.  Unlike Sufjan, my beloved Tay Tay has not really adapted or changed all that much, which is kinda okay by me.  I know it sounds contradictory, based on the previous paragraph, but let me explain.  Some artists just need to find they're lane and stay in it, she may be in that category.  She's still really young and time will tell which way her career goes, but I still submit that if she wants to be great, I mean, short list great, she'll evolve.  Suburbs really hits hard.  A slightly different sound, but still retains the Arcade Fire intensity & depth.  The whole album just flows really well.  I don't have anything really negative to say about it, it just didn't do enough to eek out the victory. 


With the win, the first runner-up is Kanye West.  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, in a way, encapsulates Kanye West.  He's gonna piss you off with his arrogance; then bring you back with his talent (small jag: he doesn't piss me off with his arrogance.  I am really attracted to arrogance.  Especially when it is backed up).  Lets do the timeline:
09.13.2009: Kanye Crashes Tay Tay's acceptance speech.
09.14.2009: Start of a whirlwind of Kanye shunning. Butt of everyone's jokes, national tour with Lady Gaga cancelled, bit of depression, etc.
02.2010: Goes to Hawaii, fly's out Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver, Charlie Wilson to record upcoming album.
07.28.2010: Ye joins Twitter, accumulates over 220,000 followers on first day.
08.2010: Starts G.O.O.D. Fridays where he leaks a free song every friday (started a chain reaction of other hip hop artists doing the same), assures public next album is gonna be fire and will come out in November.
11.22.2010: drops My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as the years most anticipated album, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with almost 500,000 sold in first week, 4 hit singles, etc. 
04.17.11: Closes Coachella, the biggest music festival of a year (prolly the best musical festival in my lifetime) with a 2 hour set that left crowd stunned & awed. Game, blouses!


And MBDTF is the runner-up!!!!!!!! So, the Swiss Army Knife Award goes to...