Singers with Amazing Voices

As you've probably noticed from reading my blog, I really like listening to music. The other day, I was thinking and I was trying to figure out who my favorite vocalists are, and so I compiled a list. Not all of them are sing lead, but all of them have amazing voices, and their music is really worth checking out!

(On an extremely coincidental note, I'm watching The Five on TV and they're doing a segment on their favorite singers. Weird, right?)

Jen Ledger
Band(s): Skillet
Notable Songs: "Salvation," "Fire and Fury," "Hero," and "Yours to Hold [Live]"
While Jen isn't the lead vocalist for Skillet (John Cooper is), she has contributed her beautiful voice to many Skillet's songs. She normally plays the drums, but since she joined the band in 2008, she has sung on more than ten different songs. She is an incredible drummer as well, which is especially noticeable at Skillet's live shows.
She's also British. 

 


Stephen Christian
Band(s): Anberlin, Anchor & Braille
Notable Songs: "Alexithymia," "Self-Starter," "City Electric," and "Readyfuels"
Stephen has been the lead vocalist for Anberlin since it was founded in 2002, and for his acoustic side project Anchor & Braille since 2004. He has an incredible and elegant voice, and it's just really... mesmerizing. He's also written a book, The Orphaned Anything's, and started a non-profit
organization, Faceless International.

Valentine's Day Songs for the Single and the Not-Single

(Okay, I didn't know what I was supposed to say there. Honestly, "Not-Single" was the best I could think of)

Ladies and gentleman, it is that time of year again! The time when flower and chocolate sales go up really high, when everything thing turns pink, and when you can't turn around without seeing something heart-shaped. Yes, I'm talking about Valentine's Day, a holiday with the sole purose of celebrating love.

Alright, full disclosure - I've never really cared for Valentine's Day. And before you write me off as a bitter teenage girl, let me explain. Usually, I just kinda saw it as an excuse to get free candy from V-Day card exchanges with my friends (of course, most of it was just bland lollipops and Fun Dip). I'm kind of too old for that now though, so this lovely holiday (pun not intended) has become pretty useless to me.

Also, I can't stand people who write stuff like "Happy Singles Day. #foreveralone"

Anyways, the point of this post was not to talk about Valentine's Day and what I think about it. The point is, I've compiled a list of songs for you to listen to this Valentine's Day, whether you're single, married, in a relationship, whatever. I'm compiled this list from my own resources (like the CD rack next to my computer).

And, as a fair warning, there are duplicate artists (for example, Flyleaf shows up once on both lists).

Click the jump to see the list!

Things Change. Get Used to it.

This might make some people mad at me.
Not that it really matters, because no one really reads this, haha, but still. Anyway, this blog will probably focus on music and other nonsense surrounding it. For starters - GUYS. Rise comes out in FOUR DAYS. Listen to the singles:

Sick of It
American Noise
Rise
Not Gonna Die

...Anyway.

The real reason I decided to blog is this: People complaining about the ways bands sound. I was listening to one of the new Skillet songs for like the hundredth time, so I flipped through some comments on YouTube. People say things like, "I miss the way they used to sound..." or "This is so different from the way they used to be..." And I think, "No DUH." Of course a band is going to sound different album to album. I mean, what do you expect? They get new members, listen to new music, get influenced by different things. Case in point - listen to the following Skillet songs in order. It's the first track off of their last four albums.

Alien Youth (Alien Youth)
Forsaken (Collide)
Rebirthing (Comatose)
Hero (Awake)

To those of you who actually listened to those songs, give yourself a pat on the back. Anyway, do you see my point? The band's sound changed through time. It's perfectly normal for that to happen. There's no use in complaining and saying, "I wish they stayed the same" or "What happened to the old [band]?"

Click to make it bigger!

And yes, I do understand that even if a band stayed the same way, people would still complain. I saw
this graphic (see right) once on Anberlin's Instagram page. Seems about right to me. No matter what you do, people are gonna criticize. Still, I think some fans need to realize that bands will change. That's just the way it goes - nothing can stay the same forever.

Which leads me to my next topic.
Click the jump!

CCM Magazines

An article about Flyleaf from the Feb '06 issue

Hey guys! I never posted about my amazing find (well, amazing to me at least), so I thought I would do that now. Anyway, I was looking through some stuff in my youth group's classroom, and I found a stack (ten total) of old CCM magazines! CCM Magazine is a Christian music magazine that used to be published physically, but they stopped doing that in 2008. You can subscribe to the online version of the magazine now, though. So obviously, my copies of the magazine are pretty outdated (the newest one is from July 2007) but it's still a lot of fun to read through them. Unfortunately, I couldn't find much about Skillet, but there is one article from the February 2006 issue that talks about Flyleaf when they were first getting started. I scanned it, so there it is on the right (you can click the image to make it bigger so you can read it). 

Five questions with Trevor McNevan.

The other thing I found interesting was a short interview with Trevor McNevan from Thousand Foot Krutch and FM Static in the December 2004 issue. It's just five questions, but it's pretty fun to read. My favorite is #4, haha.

Anyway, I thought this would be fun to post today. Enjoy the scans, and if I find anything else interesting, I'll let you know!

Note: In order to make the articles big enough to read, you can click them, which will open the picture in a sort of slideshow thing, then right click the picture and press "view image." It should then open up an a way that you can zoom in on the text :)

"Fans"

(not the trippy kind)

I'm sick, sick, SICK of all the people whining about Flyleaf. So yes, I'm going to rant a bit. Okay guys, this is kind of my opinion: If you are really, truly, a fan of a band (say that three times fast), you'd like them despite lineup changes. Does this seem logical, or am I just crazy? Yeah, it's okay to be upset for a little bit, but seriously, after nearly two months, I think it's time to move on. We're all going to miss Lacey Sturm as Flyleaf's lead singer. But come on, do you really have to insult Kristen and post hateful comments on every Flyleaf video and Facebook post? Especially the ones who say that they're no longer going to listen to the band. They claim to have been huge fans of Flyleaf, but they completely turn their back when Lacey leaves.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to continue loving their music. Okay? I'm not worried about how they're going to sound or what's going to happen. And, honestly, you need to give Kristen some credit. Anyone willing to take the place of a much-loved lead singer and be able to listen to all of that hatred and criticism deserves a chance, if not some respect. I think I like her. And I understand that I might be being a bit harsh to people here, but I think I have the right to voice my opinion. Kristen May is a great singer, and although I had my doubts before, I think she's a good choice for Flyleaf's new vocalist.

Rant. Over.

You may now continue with your normal lives.
Oh yes, and all of the pictures in this post belong to Flyleaf, not me.

More Fire. This Fire Involves Flyleaf

So, Flyleaf posted something about a little secret show they had, and Kristen May (their new singer, in case you missed that) performed with them for the first time. So there's a video of "Fire Fire". Honestly, I don't think it sounds all that bad. Kristen seems like she'd be able to do a lot of their new songs very well. It's a few of the older ones, like "I'm So Sick" and "Cassie" that I'm worried about. But she is much better than I thought she would be. Anyway, here is the video:

For those of you reading this on a mobile device, here's the link.
And also, if you want to listen to the album version of "Fire Fire," click here.

Guys, I'm in Denial

I feel like someone broke up with me. I guess that's one way to put it. I don't know if I can handle it, I'm not sure what to say. Last night, I did my sneaky thing and checked all of my favorite band's Facebook pages, and one post caught my attention. "ANNOUNCEMENT from Flyleaf." Of course I clicked on it.
Geez, I was so unprepared for this:

Click the jump for the rant!

Stupid Annoying Flyleaf Fans

Disclaimer: I do not hate Flyleaf fans (if I did, that would be ironic, considering I am one). I'm just kinda in an annoyed mood with a few of them who... well, you'll see...

So since I'm too lazy to purchase music on iTunes, I like to listen to songs on Youtube. And sometimes, I get a little bored, and sometimes, I read comments on the video. There's nothing wrong with most of the comments. Some of them like to start arguments about religion though, which is a topic I'm not going to get myself into. (Flyleaf is definitely a Christian band, END OF DISCUSSION!) Sometimes, there's actually people trying to be helpful, and they post their thoughts about what the song means, either in general or what it means especially to them. There's nothing wrong with that either. It's just that some of the comments really, really bug me.

For example, a lot of the people trying to be helpful often say things like, "I think this is about Lacey's..." or "I think this is about this that happened in Lacey's life..." and so on and so forth. I mean, yeah, there are a lot of songs that have been inspired by her (she's the lead singer, by the way), like "Treasure" was about her engagement and "Beautiful Bride" had to do with something in her family, but not EVERY SONG is about her. I just wish these people would realize that this band isn't about Lacey, it's about James, Sameer, Jared, and Pat too. This isn't some pop culture band where everything revolves around the lead vocalist. I'm not saying that there aren't a number of songs based off of her experiences, but they way that some people put it, it seems like Lacey is the most important. But what if there wasn't a guitar? Or bass guitar? Or

drums? You see what I'm trying to point out here? Everyone in the band is important!

Okay, so I think that's it for my Flyleaf rant. Hopefully that made at least some kind of sense. If it didn't, then you just wasted a few minutes of your life. Sorry to make you suffer through that, but it had really been bothering me for a while now. Okay. Done ranting. Go back to reading now.