Earlier today, an interview with Jennifer Knapp, a popular Christian music artist from 1998-2002 who recently announced a comeback to music, was posted on the Christianity Today website.  In the interview, Jennifer Knapp reveals that she is a lesbian and has had a relationship with a same-sex partner for eight years.  But she says that's not the point.  I urge you all to read the interview for yourself.

A couple Christian music websites have made disclaimers along with the story saying they do not endorse the opinions of Jennifer Knapp.  I'm sure that, in the next couple days, music websites and fans alike will be condemning Jennifer's music and some may even get together copies of her old albums and burn them.  The album will not be carried in Christian bookstores, I can almost guarantee that.

This morning, it was announced that Apple and the music industry are hoping to prop up album sales by offering interactive features with full-album purchases.  I, for one, welcome the change, although I'm not sure it will change my buying habits much.

You see, I'm pretty sure I've never been the average music consumer.  I get CDs from plenty of Christian music labels for review and I listen to the ones that interest me.  In the late '90s I spent all my money on CDs.  And, to this day, I still buy probably a couple CDs per month, although that may be on the rise.  The data out there says that most music buyers just purchase the song or two they like digitally, but I've never really gotten around to doing that.  I will buy songs in their lonesome on iTunes, but it's still mostly those that are only going to be released digitally.

Y'all should check it out! In an unprecedented amount of access, rock band The Elms are streaming their entire three-week recording session online.  Thanks to the magic of Ustream and rigging together some great equipment, The Elms are giving a great view of the studio's main control room for 24/7 and are even streaming all the audio from the control room as well.  Fans can hear the entire recording process, a number of the band members are blogging daily, and a number of them also chat on Ustream's page with the viewers.  It's a great way for fans to interact with the band and even gives fans such as myself a feeling that we have a part in the recording process.  Plus, there have been some golden moments that can only be caught on the live stream, such as Owen, the vocalist, recording some hilarious falsetto, soul versions of the songs and much more.  Check it all out at www.theelms.net.  The album they are recording, The Great American Midrange, will be available later this year and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.

Hey all,

inReview.net is finally on Twitter!  I'll be posting my quick thoughts on music on Twitter.  Follow me with your Twitter account here:

http://www.twitter.com/inreview

If you want to follow my personal account, you can do that too!  Here's my account:

http://www.twitter.com/deliriousguy

If you're one of those Twitter folks (because I know I am these days), enjoy!

2008 is a leap year, and it seems that with another leap year finds Third Day trying to get back to their roots. According to a recent news article, Third Day's upcoming summer release, Revelation, find the band "searching for definition" and working with producer Howard Benson, known for working with rock artists such as Flyleaf, P.O.D., and Hoobastank. The album most assuredly brings back their southern rock flavor, and with guests such as Lacey Mosely from Flyleaf and Robert Randolph & The Family Band, the amps must be turned up a bit.

By now, you've no doubt heard from plenty of sources that you can download the new Radiohead album directly from Radiohead.com. The lads in Radiohead are allowing you to pay whatever you want to download the album, you just have to give them an e-mail address. You can even pay 0£ if you like, which I did. I've taken a listen and have liked it. Since I'm not that well-versed with Radiohead, I may even go out and buy a couple albums, now that I've been introduced. We'll see.

Almost since I first heard it, but especially over the last couple weeks, this song has been playing over and over in my head. It's such a simple but worshipful song that convicts me every time to want to surrender more of my life to Christ. Thanks, Relient K, for this great song:

Give
from Five Score and Seven Years Ago

A week ago, I sat at a local eating establishment and they happened to be playing the local (Inspirational format) Christian station.  As usual, I didn't know half the songs because I don't keep up with Mark Schultz, Selah, or Newsong.  But that didn't bother me.

Somehow, though, the subject of Derek Webb, who recently has reunited with Caedmon's Call, came up.  I ended up sitting through 5-10 minutes of my coworkers going over how much they hate him and his solo albums.  And, honestly, I can't figure out why.

Every year the Gospel Music Association has an award for "Best Music Packaging". At least half the years, the winner is an album which had absolutely no cool stuff about their packaging. Apparently everybody in the GMA just votes for their own album, and the people who don't have an album just pick one out of a hat. For some reason, that WOW album gets one more vote than the others and wins. Yipee.

Recently we reported on Switchfoot leaving Columbia Records, a major music label. Because many of us as Christians are proud of how Switchfoot did, we were discussing why this happened to Switchfoot. I noted that the problem was just that Switchfoot did not garner enough radio hits or a high enough level of sales to keep the mainstream label happy.