Andrew Belle

Not many people seem to have heard of this guy; he's a Christian singer-songwriter from Chicago.  My roommate David Runkles introduced me to his stuff several years ago.  It's been quite a while since he's put out any new music, but his debut album "The Ladder" was exceptionally good.  It sounded a lot like Mat Kearney, but maybe less poppy.  The title track is an excellent example of his talent.  His voice is really interesting, but what sells it for me is the instrumentation; there is a huge variety of instruments, always arranged very well.  A couple of years later he came out with an EP, which featured this song.  Suffice to say it blew my mind; it kind of took over my life for a few months actually.  Incredibly powerful song.  So, fast forward to about a week ago; it turns out he's coming out with a new album next Tuesday.  For some reason I hadn't heard that much about it and wasn't too excited about it, but then I heard a single from it and was immediately obsessed.  Turns out the entire album is currently streaming on Paste magazine here, but only for the next few days.  The new album is a significant style shift from his previous work; it's more dream wave-esque.  I can't get enough of it right now.