--Strangest news first: Pope Francis is releasing a music album. Well, that’s not the strange part—the strange part is the genre of music represented on the one track released so far. While the album, titled Wake Up!, will include a number of styles of music, combining recordings of the Pope’s speeches in multiple languages with sacred hymns, pop-rock and Gregorian chant, the newly premiered “Wake Up! Go! Go Forward!” sounds a lot like progressive rock. (If you don’t know what that means, think Yes, early Genesis, Jethro Tull, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, etc.)

This piece, along with some other parts of the album, was composed by members of 1966-founded Italian prog-rock band Le Orme. Rolling Stone compared the sound of the Pope’s epic new track to the Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, which is not a sentence I ever expected to write. The piece features an address Francis gave in English last year to South Korean youth, encouraging them to wake up and receive God's mercy.

The album is available for pre-order on iTunes and will be released on Nov. 27th. Some of the proceeds will go to a fund for refugees.

http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/the-city-gates.cfm?id=1154

I'm afraid poche posted this thinking this was a good thing.