Religious music for less than devout

Mozart, Great Mass in C minor.

There was a time when religion was so revered by so many there was no higher achievement than to pay holy reverence to God almighty in as grand a scale as possible. All the best most productive people devoted their lives to it. Kind of like today they do it figuring out new ways to create money out of nothing and move it around with computers. Back then they built cathedrals, painted the Sistine Chapel, and wrote the Messiah. 

This comes up a couple times in the movie Margin Call. First its the kid who was trained as a rocket scientist, but finance pays better. Then it was the engineer who built one bridge that saved millions of man-hours, but then he went into finance and now realizes the awful waste of what could have been.

Anyway, this thread subject made me realize. Recently scanning the radio dial I came across some really interesting and quite good pop music. Took me a while at first, because it was so good, but gradually it dawned on me this was a Christian station. Every single song was Glory to God. It gets a little boring after a while, like if every song was like REO Heard it From A Friend. You know, all breakup songs. 

But the thing of it is, there was a time when this kind of religious music was universally awful. Unimaginative. Cliche. Now it is getting quite good. 

What this tells me, there's more interest, its becoming more widely admired, and its attracting more and greater talent. 

Good.

Janice Ian Breaking Silence has several songs with religious themes. Hard to beat Breaking Silence, on any level. Same with Jennifer Warnes The Well. Two bona-fide audiophile classics. The religious themes are in there, here and there, but always in the background never in your face. Perfect. In so many ways.

I collect gospel and CCM from the 1960s through the 1980s. Most specifically everything released on Word Records and all their sub-labels. This casts a very wide genre net, perhaps outside the intention of the OP.

In the traditional sense of religious music I would suggest "Spirituals In Concert" featuring Kathleen Battle & Jesse Norman. This album is in my, "If I had to pick 10 CDs to take with me to be be stranded on a desert island" list.

The Gospel category is wide and deep, but for people unfamiliar and looking for variety I strongly suggest Shirley Cesar’s album "Rejoice", especially the track, "Satan You’re a Liar".

For 80’s mainstream contemporary christian music definitely listen to Jon Gibson, any album will do, his Hits compilation that came out in 1991 is a good entry point.

For artist cross over albums Dylan's is obvious, but I greatly prefer Mark Farner's christian album, "Some Kind of Wonderful".

@ Palasr

 

RE: The Fairfield Four, "Standing In The Safety Zone". And you thought you knew something about a capella gospel singing...

 

I needed to leave something else for other folks like you to contribute. You may want to look up also “Sweet Honey in the Rock” in particular 1988 “Live at Carnegie Hall”. The songs “Run, Run, Mourner Run” and “Wade in the Water” will kill ya.

 

I don’t own the entire Fairfield Four catalogue, but I own a decent sampling. Not to neglect the “the Dixie Hummingbirds”but technically they are not a capella.  Neither is “Mighty Clouds of Joy” but they get the job done.

 & Thank you Oregonpapa for recommending: Kathleen Battle "So Many Stars.", I have a few of her CDs but not that one. (add to my orders.)

 I was looking for Oh Happy Day, Edwin Hawkins Singers. But it slipped my ADD mind.

 Ladysmith Black Mambazo will sometimes include a Gospel tune.

 O Sifuni Mungu (All Creatures of Our God and King) is worth looking up. The original was done by “First Call”

 Hezekiah Walker had a run away hit with his danceable song “Every Praise” which drew many imitators from Korea and Japan some of which are rater funny.

 

I am pleased this topic is well received.

Mindy Smith's albums. Good country/alt-country but with a sometimes subtle Christian message woven in every now and then.