How He Loves

Unlike most Christian worship music, this version of this song gets deeply personal for the singer/writer in the last verse as he struggles to get through the memory of losing someone. It's heartbreaking and beautiful.

See How Man Was Made

Listen to more here.

Emanuel and the Fear

This band is great. They are an electro/orchestral pop group from New York. So far they only have an EP released, most of which can be heard on their myspace, but they are working on a full length. Apparently they are an 11 piece band made up of people who have played with various other artists, including Sufjan Stevens and The National. I especially enjoy the first three songs from the EP: the bright, poppy "The Rain Becomes The Clouds," the folkier "Comfortable Prison," and the dancy "Jimme's Song" which goes into an extended experimental electronic section.

Mayer Hawthorne

Just heard this today, this single is currently free on itunes!

Colossal

I realize I have never mentioned them on here before. They are a great band that blends punk with a little bit of math rock and jazz--and they happen to be from my hometown! Here is their myspace.

This Town Needs Guns

That last video reminded me of this one because of the jolty stop-motion stuff. This band is pretty good, too, they have that odd time indie/math rock feel with cool repetitive guitar riffs that remind me of Colossal and Anathallo.

Ida Maria

I just listened to her album Fortress Round My Heart for the first time and it inspired me to return to this blog I nearly forgot about. Of course she's from Norway, which further affirms my belief that there is something special about Scandinavian pop... Here's "Oh My God":