My Sunday Song – “In My Veins” by Colton Dixon

For My Sunday Song #440, we are talking “In My Veins” by Colton Dixon. The song is off his stellar 2017 album ‘Identity’ released on March 24th of that year. The song was not a single, but my absolute favorite song on the album. The singles “Limitless” and “All That Matters” helped propel the album to #73 on the US Top 200 albums chart, but it went to #1 on the US Christian Albums chart. If you don’t know Colton, he is a former American Idol participant during Season 11 and made it to the Top 7, but amazingly didn’t win.

The song was written by Colton and Tommee Profitt and of course is a very religious song. The album it was from, ‘Identity’, was a concept album that had three parts, The Mind, The Body and The Spirit. “In My Veins” fell in The Body section. It is about how Jesus is inside of us, He is the fire in our veins. He gives us life through His death. When your world is dark, he is the light, the power that drives you and through your faith you can accomplish anything with His name written in your veins. A very spiritual and powerful message and every time I hear this song, I feel rejuvenated.

The song opens with a dramatic keyboard run, then the drums explode and you get some orchestration. It is all explosive and over the top in a good way. The chorus is huge, layers of vocals, great harmonies and Colton sounds amazing. The slow build up, the explosiveness and then to go go back to the softness before it explodes again takes you on a journey both musically and lyrically. The music gives you an uplifting, rejuvenated feeling that washes over you. Colton’s vocals are a higher range that is delivered so smooth and so effortlessly. The combination is perfection. A Christian song that is both a sensational pop song and a rock song at the same time.

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Winger – ‘Pull’ (1993) – Album Review

By 1993, the music landscaped had completely changed for the 80’s glam metal scene. Gone were the bands I’d had grown up loving and replaced by Grunge, but that didn’t stop bands from putting out albums. In fact, for one band, Winger, it might have produced its best album to date. Beavis and Butthead might have made Winger a laughing stock, but us diehard fans, didn’t take stock in that farce. No, we continued to follow the band’s music and if we hadn’t we might’ve missed out on the band’s heaviest and most daring album.

The band was down to three members with Kip Winger, Rob Morgenstein and Reb Beach as keyboardist Paul Taylor had left the band. He wasn’t the only one to leave as producer Beau Hill was out as well. In his stead were Kip Winger himself along with the help of Mike Shipley who had recently worked on Def Leppard’s Adrenalize album. Released on May 18, 1993, ‘Pull” showcased a very mature Winger and a band that wasn’t going to be stopped creating and putting out their best material (even though this was their last album for years to follow).

The opening track, “Blind Revolution Mad”, starts off with an acoustic guitar with a very dark overtone. Kip was singing in richer, deeper tone that came across as eerie and meaner. The song keeps building slowly with each line and you feel an intensity that is about to be unleashed. The first chorus is ready to explode and the song goes full on gangbusters. It is bombastic, energizing and electric. The guitar riffs are shocking, the drums are destructive and when Kip lets loose, his energy is set forth upon the world. A brutal and glorious song.

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