My Own Little World

I think it can be safely said that Switchfoot is a band that has thoroughly stood the test of time. They have now released ten studio albums while maintaining a relentless touring schedule over the last nineteen years and show no signs of stopping anytime soon. The questions most bands begin to encounter at this point in their career are those of legacy and relevance. At the same time as maintaining the reputation and fanbase they've built over through their music, they typically also want to remain musically relevant and not just make new music for the sake of new music. The problem with doing the latter is it can tend to alienate the longtime fans because changes to a band's fundamental sound are jarring, especially when people have grown up with a very particular sonic image in their minds. This describes my experiences with Switchfoot perfectly. I grew up with albums like The Beautiful Letdown  and Nothing Is Sound  dominating my listening time to a ridiculous extent...

Lecrae is the undisputed pioneer of Christian rap. His albums have sold more units and garnered more acclaim than any other modern Christian rapper. His Church Clothes mixtapes are some of the best albums I've ever listened to. However, recently Lecrae has received some accusations of selling out to the mainstream, losing the punch in his lyrics and being a carbon-copy of mainstream rappers in his beats, even bringing some of them in for guest features. Does his new release  Anomaly  support these accusations? In a word, no. Lyrically, Anomaly  returns to some of the themes present in his most challenging work, Church Clothes . In particular, "Welcome to America" speaks to the approval we seek as Christians in United States. It's as humbling as "Church Clothes" in its exposure of the American church. "Nuthin" is pointing out that talking about the same-old, same-old is just as good as talking about nothing. It is a clever jab at the prosperity ...