In another life, I had the privilege of touring with a Christian pop-rock band called Article One as their drummer. Over the course of a five year career, we travelled to 46 of the lower 48 states in America, flew over to Australia twice for shows at festivals, lived and recorded in Nashvile, TN – Music City USA, drove back and forth across Canada around 7 times, and basically had the time of our lives while doing so. God blessed our band, and he blessed my life with that experience.

We toured with some great bands, namely The Newsboys, Julian Drive, Stellar Kart, Superchick, and played a whole host of one-off shows with bands like Switchfoot, Jars of Clay, Casting Crowns and a number of other Christian artists. One of the most memorable tours we did, however, was a 36 show tour in the fall of 2009 with the Canadian Christian band Starfield.

Starfield, a band fronted by two brothers, Tim & Jon Neufeld, had already been on the scene for quite a while before we connected with them. They had a strong following around North America, strong enough to support long headlining tours while bring a band like ours as an opening act and work crew that would help set-up and strike the stage every day.

It was a memorable tour that essentially consisted of a large loop around the whole of North America. The tour started in Seattle and ended in Victoria, BC over the course of almost three months. It was a long, arduous tour, but we have many good memories and strong friendships were forged during that time.

Coinciding with our arrival into the music scene was the decline of the compact disk, or CD. Many of you will remember, and some of you probably have collections at home, of these digital disks that often would sell for $20 each. That was a different time for music, and once digital downloads arrived on the scene, with the ability to purchase one song you like for $1 rather than paying $20 for an entire CD (even if it was just for the one song), the music industry saw a drastic drop in revenue across the board. Most bands then, and now, had to make their living touring and playing live gigs across the world to make a living. Now the COVID-19 pandemic has all but shut down the live music scene.

Another impact that digital downloads had was to the listening of music itself, by you, the consumer. While the formats of vinyl, cassette and CD offered an expedited experience of listening to a whole album straight through, the format offered by the digital realm created a different listening experience. Instead of enjoying an entire album straight through, with its transitions, themes and cohesiveness, most listeners now would piece together playlists consisting of their favourite songs from different bands and artists. While these playlists can obviously be curated specifically to individual tastes, it is my contention that something has been lost in the antiquation of the ‘album’. That is, the set of songs released by a band with coinciding lyrical, musical and artistic themes. It is a unit, and not listening to ‘albums’ straight through, without stopping, is rapidly becoming a lost art form.

With the pandemic and quarantine regulations, many people have much more time on their hands. And so, with that introduction, I want to initiate a challenge to you, the music listener. This is the challenge: Listen to an album straight through. Put on some good headphones, sit back, and just enjoy the sonic experience.

I want to offer an initial suggestion to you. Starfield released an album in 2008 called “I Will Go” which was the album our 2009 tour was in support of. While those songs will forever be ingrained in my head after hearing them dozens and dozens of times, the fact is that this album is great. There are many solid songs on it, including one of my favourite worship songs of all time “Reign in Us.” “From the Corners”, “Holy is our God” and “All We Need” are also some great tracks. This album is just a suggestion – maybe you have some favourites that you’d like to go back and revisit!

In Psalm 96:1–2, we are instructed to sing to the Lord:

              Oh sing to the LORD a new song;

                             sing to the LORD, all the earth!

              Sing to the LORD, bless his name;

                             tell of his salvation from day to day. (ESV)

Corporate worship -- our voices raised together in song -- is a powerful, beautiful sound. I’m praying that we as a gathered body will soon one day be able to come together again to praise God. Until then, we are limited to singing with the confines of our home. Let’s not stop singing! But, let us also not stop listening to music for what it is – a God-created experience that evokes emotions and memories that can only be experienced through that particular medium. Good music glorifies God – it shows us His creativity and beauty, and as I noted before, the singing and accompaniment of instruments is a wonderful means of celebrating God for who he is. 

Today, music is in danger of becoming sonic wallpaper. That is, we put it on as a background distraction, while we attend to other tasks. We restrain from fully devoting our time and attention to its consumption, and subsequently, to its enjoyment. To me, that’s to our detriment. I do believe that we are meant to enjoy music in and of itself – a gift that God has given us to savour. It seems we are moving away from enjoying that gift as we once did. Maybe we can change that, one album listen at a time. Thanks for reading.