Christianity Today just got around to reviewing Andy Osenga’s Letters to the Editor, Vol, II, and gave it a great review. They write:
Another year, another half dozen songs from woefully underrated singer/songwriter Andrew Osenga (once the lead singer of The Normals, now lead guitarist for Caedmon’s Call). If you missed out on the first Letters to the Editor EP … well, what’s your excuse? It’s free to download, as is this one, though donations are most welcome.
The idea is simple, the execution masterful. Fans submitted ideas via Osenga’s website—a subject, a lyric, even a photo—then he crafted songs around them… Yes, the arrangements are minimalist, but Osenga makes the most out of his self-imposed limitations. He also maintains quality standards by recording at Jars of Clay’s studio. But oh what songwriting! He’s both clever and concise in his storytelling and imagery, often tapping into spiritual truths. The fact that he demonstrates all this in response to fan suggestions only makes it more impressive.
The songs are considerably shorter this time, half of them less than 3 minutes. But the truth is that Osenga says much more in these 17 minutes than most Christian artists do in an entire album.
I don’t think I blogged about this one when it came out, so I’ll try to get a detailed review up soon. For now, suffice it to say that I love it. I loaned Andy a couple of my favorite Frederick Buechner books while he was writing for this record (see here), and you can hear Buechner’s influence in several of the lyrics (”our secrets are shades of the same,” for one). Andy just put together both volumes on one CD, along with some extra tracks, and sent it off to be duplicated today. Hopefully it will be ready in time for the Andrew Peterson Behold the Lamb of God tour, so look for it there if you make it to any of those shows.
The other music news that I’m excited about is that Ben Shive’s debut record, The Ill-Tempered Klavier, was just named one of Christianity Today’s “Best Christian Albums of 2008.” For an independent release, available at first only on the Rabbit Room (now also on iTunes), this is high praise indeed, and says a lot about the quality of the record. The review says, “Exquisite, theatrical, pensive, penetrating, and cathartic—these words aren’t commonly used to describe Christian music, and that’s an indication of just how special this artful release really is.” I agree completely. Here’s hoping that not too much time passes before his next solo record comes out.