Who is Miike Snow? Ok, that's a trick question. Miike Snow is really Swedes Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, along with American Andrew Wyatt. Remember when we all tried to fall in love with Animal Collective? Well, Miike Snow is what all of us who appreciated what Animal Collective was doing, but could never fall in love with their disjointed melodies have been looking for. Miike Snow's music enters the mix of the electronically enhanced pop music that we've seen from groups like Foster the People, LCD Soundsystem, and Bon Iver's self-titled release. And it is damn catchy... and there are some pretty insightful lyrics in there too.

Remember when we all thought this "electric invasion" of auto-tune and sampling the same old beats was going to kill pop music? Ok, maybe we didn't all think that, but I might have thought it at one point (a previous tweet of mine: When SNL & The Lonely Island can make a track as hot as any pop song, it's time to rethink the music industry), and surely a kid in skinny jeans said something to that effect while sipping on a tallboy of PBR.

One wonders what types of thoughts and ideas would be discovered during a woodland hike through the forest of Sufjan Steven's mind. One would expect to find strange things, delightful things. As one interviewer wrote of him, "It feels like he's from another time or planet...removed from the everyday in a way that speaks to either incredible discipline or admirable disregard." "Removed from the everyday." To be sure, one would find kaleidoscopes of colors, vibrant and verdant foliage, and plenty of playfulness - bashful, furry creatures singing three and four and five-part harmonies, voices cascading and echoing strains simultaneously joyful and somber.

Each of Stevens' albums reveal unique regions of his imagination and surprise in their own ways: from the inventive, Americana-celebrating tunes of Come on, Feel the Illinoise! to the meditative, hymn-like songs of Seven Swans. He consistently weaves themes and moods and ideas together to create humble yet ardent collage-works. In his warmup-act-of-sorts to his long awaited full length album The Age of ADZ, Sufjan uncovers new wonders with All Delighted People (EP), delighting in sounds familiar and unusual to his oeuvre that have been harmonizing about his forest for too long, exigently pouring into a handful of songs worth wandering and relishing through.

I remember first learning about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave in junior year English class. I hadn’t thought much about it since, until a friend introduced me to the music video for Yael Naim’s song, New Soul.  (The song was a rednoW favorite in 2008 and was made especially popular after being featured in the Apple MacBook Air commercial.)

Naim sings about coming into a strange world, hoping to learn about what is true and fake.  This is where the video begins.  A woman enters an empty, white room and begins to unpack her life.  She creates a world, a reality in which she lives - and it seems pretty great.  She hangs pictures of her best friends on the wall and plays with what’s real as she paints new scenes and objects into them.

Anytime someone tells me that “the next U2” is here, I know that I no longer need to pay attention to what they are about to say. There will not be, nor should there be, another U2. But when I heard Steve Stockman, author of Walk On—arguably the definitive book on U2—tell a group at Calvin College that Bono and The Edge can soon step aside because a new band that is rising in the UK is here, I felt I had to pay attention.

Mumford and Sons, with their debut album Sigh No More, are a far cry from being the biggest band on the planet, but they certainly are positioned as one of the best new ones. Paste describes their music as “A delicate fusion of vintage Americana and English folk.” If you have not heard it already from Fleet Foxes, welcome to the sound of neo-acoustica. In a time where banjo is the new black in indie music, Mumford and Sons sounds familiar but strikingly more significant.

When sifting through this year's favorite albums, it did not take us long to deem David Bazan's Curse Your Branches "Album of the Year."  As we have already mentioned, recognizing particular artists/albums over others often says more about the listeners than it does the artist themselves.  We acknowledge this.

So, what does it say about us?

While rednoW is not solely dedicated to the fusion of art and theology, it certainly grabs our attention when it shows up.  And with Bazan's most autobiographical album to date, it has certainly shown up.  But it's not Bazan's particular theology that draws us in.  Rather, it is his ability to rest in the tension of reality - even if this means questioning his (our) perception of God.

rednoW Favorites 2009

Year-end "lists" are a funny thing.  They often say more about its contributor(s) than it does than the very thing it is hoping to promote.  We are okay with this.  It has been our mantra since the inception of rednoW to simply point others to experiences of wonder.  These two lists (music, film) are attempting to do nothing else.

Albums

Music has always possessed a certain transcendent quality about it.  Whether it be the captivating sounds or the thought-provoking lyrics, these albums have lured us in enough to hit repeat. If you are looking for a way to bring a little wonder into your ear buds, allow us to make a few recommendations from the year that has been.

Compiled by the rednoW team (and friends), our Albums of Wonder 2009 are listed by US release date rather than some ranking of 'greateness' - if they made the list, we think they are worth your time and money.

Think we missed something? Tell us what and why....we're all ears.

Who would have thought that Charles Darwin, the bearded Englishmen so universally admired and reviled, would make such a compelling figure for a hymn?  Of course, "Oh My God Charlie Darwin," the title track for The Low Anthem's second album, isn't a hymn per se.  You won't find this haunting tale nor it's companions on the album bound and hidden in a pew rack, though this hasn't stopped the New England band's fans from claiming their songs as irreligious spirituals.

Set the sails I feel the winds a'stirring
Toward the bright horizon set the way
Cast your wreckless dreams upon our Mayflower
Haven from the world and her decay

And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin
Fighting for a system built to fail
Spooning water from their broken vessels
As far as I can see there is no land

There exists this tension within the band's lyrics: our desired salvation remains just out of reach.  The system itself, bound to decay, will ultimately betray our dreams of something more beautiful than what currently surrounds us.

If one is going to stand up to a God he has professed for most of his life, he better have a little swagger... and maybe even a little arrogance.  David Bazan's "When We Fell" carries just that, not only in its lyrical content but also in the blues-rock riff that makes this tune so damned catchy (pun intended?). "With the threat of hell hanging over my head like a halo I was made to believe in a couple of beautiful truths, that eventually had the effect of completely unraveling the powerful curse put on me by you." But after years of being told humanity's sinful nature is responsible for the damnation of the world, Bazan has seemingly tried to piece together a narrative that he feels doesn't add up. Bazan says he still believes in God, or a high power, but is uncertain of how the story of this high power matches up with all the brokenness in the world.

Because of this, there are those who have describe Curse Your Branches as Bazan's "break-up album with God." But Bazan refutes that to some degree. Bazan instead refers to his latest release as a "break-up album with a certain narrative of God." "When We Fell" seems to back up Bazan's comment. The bouncy blues-rock riff of this song echoes the old bitter break-up songs of the blues. But there's no "baby please come home" in this song. Bazan question's God's role in "the fall." If God is as powerful as we have been told over and over how is it that the world is in such shambles? And if it's not God's fault then it must be our fault? But if God made this all then what responsibility falls on God? Hmmm... good question David.

Well... he did it.  For all of you Pedro-Christians out there, if you were confused where David Bazan stood midst the Evangelical realm - it's official.  It's "outside".  Bazan's latest solo release Curse Your Branches proves to be his most autobiographical (and theological) album to date.    Though committed to shed the Pedro moniker, Bazan's captivating sound remains.  Hypnotic vocals.  Patient melodies.  Narrative irony.   And theological undertones.

But don't let the familiarity fool you.  This is a different album.  A notion we explored at a recent house show we (rednoW) hosted this past April.  When asked whether there was a difference between his familiar "poking at the Christian community" and this album, Bazan asserted that Curse Your Branches is more "Here I am, take it or leave it" - referencing  his departure from the "fold of Evangelical Christianity".