Recovery

I don’t normally use this space to rave about music, but this one needs to be shared. Jeremy Casella sent out an e-mail humbly requesting us to write a post on our personal blogs, to generate some “noise” for his latest release “Recovery”. I knew I would immediately. Some music is so good you have to share it with someone, or everyone. My wife can attest to this and has heard this album as a soundtrack to our weekend trips around the state numerous times. It’s also been the CD of choice for making art lately, a pretty lofty honor in my home office.

Why you need to pick it up...
I have a wide range of music flowing through my library, but by far the most listened to list is top heavy with the artists of the ”Square Peg Alliance.” They are a group of musicians that break the mold (thankfully) of the Christian sub-culture and strive to make great art while being authentic to both themselves and their faith. I really love all of them, there is no weak link. I tell my wife to just get me something from one of the Square Pegs, I know I’ll like it. They tend to be folk, acoustic, guitar driven music - but genres are broken in many places. Casella’s “Recovery” is one of them.

The whole CD has lush string arrangements throughout, a touch of electronica and is produced wonderfully. The highlights for me include “Distress Signal” (and Matthew Perryman Jones voice singing “Nothing holds you like the hand of God...” Wowza), “Freight Train” and the bookend to Distress Signal, “Hand of God”. Beautiful and poignant. The spiritual themes are mellow and real, not fluff in the least. I almost can’t stand fluff anymore and need my art to be real and authentic above all. “Recovery” is that and more.

I’ve also been known to buy a CD or book by it’s cover. It’s a art/design curse of sorts. The package design on this project is gorgeous. It’s a sleeve type, so it opens up and has a sleeve for the book, sans plastic. Nice. The typography and photography work perfectly together. You can also check out a “making of” video on Jeremy’s site, allowing you a further look into his heart and process.

I won’t tell you that you need this album, just check out the making of video and see what Jeremy’s about. I have a feeling you’ll be making art to his soon.

This is where I ramble on and you tell me about it below. Ok, I actually hope to do more than ramble, but the jury is still out.