What I’m Listening To

Fresh from my mailbox:

A while back, philosopher Sam Rocha posted sample tracks from his album project on his Patheos blog. I bookmarked the link, and found myself listening to some tracks multiple times a week. Finally, I admitted to myself that I was going to buy the CD, so I might as well order it right away. It was released on August 28th, the feast of St. Augustine, and arrived in my mailbox today.

Sam calls Late to Love “Augustinian Soul Music”—Augustinian because it is a series of songs inspired by and meditating on Augustine’s confessions—though the meditations are pretty oblique, and it’s the rare line that hits you in the face with its source material. Soul music because…well, I’ll let you take a crack at understanding Sam’s explanation:

Soul music is not so much a genre as it is a sentiment, a quality. When a musician “has soul” it is not something that is stylistic or technical. No. To have soul is to have a certain conviction, grit, and sincerity. Soulful music is music that has the capacity to show and offer love. Augustinian soul music, then, verges on redundant since, for Augustine, it is the heart that moves the soul. 

There’s more, but that gives you an idea. Nor does music take the backseat to philosophy in this album. I’m no expert, but I have enough of an ear to distinguish something original, thoughtful, and complex—though not complicated—from the kind of derivative formulas so common in music marketed for Christians.

Now that I have the whole album to listen to, I’m not sure which is my favorite, though the title track is certainly the catchiest of the bunch. But I encourage you to go listen to the tracks on Soundcloud and see what you think!