I think contemporary Christian music has reentered a place it hasn't been since the seventies in that the best music it has to offer is coming from the Church. Worship bands such as Gungor, The City Harmonic, Rend Collective Experiment, and Jesus Culture are making music that is much more raw and interesting and passionate than the schlock that mainstream Christian labels are signing and putting out.
One of the most exciting success stories of the past few years has been John Mark McMillan. He's too good, too interesting, and too weird to be on a Christian label. And yet he is. And it's Integrity Music, seemingly one of the most conservative labels around. But because he wrote one of the best worship songs of the past decade, "How He Loves", he is able to put out music as excellent as the stuff on his album The Medicine.
John Mark writes worship songs that don't rely on cliches like verses that start with "I fall on my knees" or choruses that only contain the word "holy". His music has challenged me as a songwriter and I hope it's doing the same for others. And the guitars on the album are phenomenal. John Mark's lead guitarist James Duke gets some of the best tone I have heard.
Check out a great video, recorded live (I like it just a bit more than the album version), of the song "Death In His Grave".
