My Own Little World

Kings Kaleidoscope is literally (in Chris Traeger's voice) the best thing that ever happened to my taste in music. They partially restored my faith in Christian music's ability to be good (not an easy thing to do for me). Their only two full-length albums have gotten perfect scores from me, and one of them is even in my top 5 albums of all time. Some people would argue I have a massive bias towards them and their music. To a point, I agree: I am biased towards Kings Kaleidoscope's material. Here's the thing, though: it's actually that good.  More so than almost any other artist in Christian music, they blend musical ingenuity with superb songwriting and lyricism. Their debut flipped the switch on a new generation of worship music, while their sophomore effort progressed their sound into a relatively sparser palette while also shifting their aim from worship music to music for the Christian life. Continuing their near-perfect catalog is their latest release, Th...

In case you haven't talked to me in the past year, I love Hamilton . This Broadway musical makes me completely and entirely helpless whenever I hear it. It ranks among the best pieces of music I've ever heard in my entire life besides just being my favorite musical ever written.  One of the things that the musical's creator Lin-Manuel Miranda teased during the musical's development and performances was The Hamilton Mixtape , a compilation of multiple artists from the realm of popular music covering and reimagining various songs from the show. It was finally officially announced a month or so ago and released on December 2.  To be honest, the fact that Hamilton  itself is so untouchable in my mind made me really nervous for the mixtape. I don't think I've ever been more helplessly obsessed with any piece of music ever, and to see other people do these songs that mean so much to me and restyle them made me really apprehensive. I've memorized every...