Happy 25th Anniversary to Jars of Clay’s Much Afraid album! The Album’s Inspiration: Hannah Hurnard’s allegorical novel Hinds Feet in High Places. originally printed in 1955. The Album Themes: Fear, Frailty, Vulnerability, Growing up My Experience: Initially, I was disappointed that Much Afraid didn’t sound like the Self-Titled, but I […]
Author: Josh Balogh
Josh is a Christian music nerd/historian whose wife calls him a "perpetual nostalgianator" a word she made up, but makes sense if you know him. He loves reading, writing reviews and blogs, list making, watching old movies, playing card games, and all things music. Some of his all time favorite bands and musicans include Jars of Clay, Switchfoot, Relient K, Dctalk, The Beatles, Twenty One Pilots, Brooke Fraser, Andrew Peterson, PFR, Young Oceans, Jon Gibson, The Gray Havens, and Coldplay.
“1997: 25 Albums Celebrate 25 Years” by Josh Balogh
1997—What a year! I know I probably say that about every year in my favorite decade of music, but I think by the time you hit the end of this article you’ll agree that these 25 Christian albums turning 25 in 2022 are of the highest quality. In fact, I […]
“Ranking David Crowder Band’s Discography” by Josh Balogh
David Crowder Band was a genre-blending wrecking ball of creative energy that co-existed in a timeframe when most worship-based artists played it safe. Some would even say they dared to be “unsuccessful” in lieu of pushing the boundaries and chasing the muse. I liked that about them then, but appreciate […]
JFH25: Josh’s Top 25 Sixpence None The Richer Songs
Sixpence None The Richer should get an award—if you know their story at all, you know it was one fraught with delay and frustration. They were (are?) a supremely talented band with poetic lyrics, the angelic voice of Leigh Nash, fantastic guitar work, and the right amount of melancholy. For […]
JFH25: Josh’s Top 25 Relient K Songs
I certainly hope this isn’t the last we’ve heard from the Relient K fellas, but if it is then fans myself included have much for which to be thankful. What a body of work! At my last count their have recorded and released a whopping 193 songs in their time […]
“100 Greatest Christian Albums of the 90s” by Josh Balogh
Ahhh, the 90s! What a decade of great music. Truth be told, though this is the decade of my formative years, and therefore my favorite overall decade of Christian music, I’ve put off making this list. Well, better said, I’ve delayed finishing this list for a long time. Many a […]
“1996” by Josh Balogh
It’s time for another yearly retrospective! Here’s my picks for what a Top 10 would have looked like had I been making them twenty five years ago. Of course, I have the benefit of hindsight, but to be fair at least seven of the ten were favorites then and I […]
“Fun Songs of 90s CCM” by Josh Balogh
Goofy. Weird. Odd. Fun. Tongue-in-cheek. Witty. Cringe-y. The 90s of Christian certainly hits its zenith of genres both good and bad. It expanded to include a greater portion of rap, ska, swing, hard rock, industrial and just about any other splinter genre of music that existed at the time. And […]
25 Years Later: Audio Adrenaline, “bloOm”
So—Let’s get the obvious out of the way—how in the world can this album already be twenty-five years old?! It seems like just yesterday I would have been enjoying the sweet sounds of “Never Gonna Be as Big as Jesus” on the radio, rocking out to the delicious riffs of […]