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The spirit of Bob Dylan, Johnny Carson and political cartoonists everywhere is alive and well in the newest (and best) political satire entertainment on the web.

The folks at Jib Jab have again risen to the challenge of creating political satire that is as entertaining as it is offensive, making fun of both sides while sparing jabs at no one. Such is the beauty of equal-opportunity-well-done political satire. Excellence is inspiring, and humor brings levity. This is full of both!

The Dylanesque take-off serves as the theme song, "It's Time for Some Campaignin'" (And the musicians are actually really good!) Through the rhythmic verses and powerful refrain we hear several highlights that could only be uttered in this kind of piece, including:

On their new release, "When Angels and Serpents Dance," P.O.D. is in a tight spot: they've got a lot of people to please, and whatever they do is gonna piss somebody off.

Having achieved a huge degree of success in the Christian rock ghetto and pop-culture platforms like Ozzfest and MTV, P.O.D. crossed a lot of boundaries, and so have fans in a lot of camps – angry teenagers, rap-metal dudes, youth pastors. In the past they've managed to do most of the things you're supposed to do to get Christian rock fans to disown your band real quick: they don't use the name "God" all that often—in fact, they call Him – gasp – "Jah!" They've toured with eeevil bands like Korn. They had a public breakup with guitarist Marcos Curiel (now back in the band), who then accused the band of acting "all holy and s--t."

Still, once a Christian band always a Christian band, and a new dual record deal finds P.O.D. selling albums via Columbia as well as Christian INO. There are predictable controversies surrounding this album, like guest spots from members of secular bands Helmet and Suicidal Tendencies, one of whom swears on a song! At times, the band's spirituality is vague, like when frontman Sonny Sandoval sings: "My love is like la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la." What? Kids who just wanna mosh won't dig the Chicken Soup for the Rocker's Soul of "It Can't Rain Everyday" or the folk-protest of "Tell Me Why," and even Christian Music Today bemoans the band's loss of "ferocity." Nobody's happy.

We at Burn or Burn are always working hard to come up with good fire-related puns to attach to our recommendations (or disses) of today's faith-minded albums, and we'd like to thank the Mountain Goats for making this one easy: there's fire all over the place on the album; plus, you know, heretics. So let us take up the question of whether their new album, "Heretic Pride," should be tied to a stake and set aflame like a jewel-boxed Joan of Arc.

"Heretic Pride" is hailed as a return to fiction by John Darnielle (the founder and only permanent member of the band) to fiction; his previous three albums, especially the critically lauded "The Sunset Tree," about his abusive stepfather, tended toward autobiography. This record is a series of character sketches, many of them about people in dire straits. This is nothing new for Darnielle, who for years wrote songs chronicling a hopeless fictional couple's disintegrating, addiction-damaged marriage.

Erykah Badu has always been a mystery. From the 1997 release of "Baduizm," she blazed the trail for neo-soul as a genre, but she also brought with her a raw spirituality that made her god no particular god. It was an untouchable spirituality so firmly planted that it seemed like Badu had created a neo-spirituality—Baduizm—that was all her own (and one that would allegedly spread to her lovers, who have included Outkast's Andre 3000 and Common).

But this never concerned me as a Christian, so for nearly ten years I fed into Baduizm. I was enlightened when she spoke of our being made in His image on "Baduizm." I went through the motions of love--self and other--on "Mama's Gun." And I pumped my fist on "Worldwide Underground."

But all that stopped when I heard her latest album, "New Amerykah."

Anybody who follows Christian music has probably heard the old saw from Christian bands: "if we cross over, we're going to carry the cross over." Really, though, when was the last time you heard a Christian pop band sing about the cross on, say, MTV? In fact, when the dust of 2007 cleared, there was an album called †--"Cross" when you're speaking--nestled snugly into album-of-the-year and single-of-the-year lists everywhere, but it wasn't by a CCM artist. The band was a French dance-rock DJ act called Justice.

Most obvious is the overwhelming sense of awe that comes from Sigur Ros' music. "The world is charged with the grandeur of God," Gerard Manley Hopkins once wrote, and compositions like "I Gaer," are charged with that same grandeur. Starting with a modest glockenspiel melody, the song suddenly cracks open like a raging electrical storm, a billowing frenzy of guitars and drums. The band is joined on many tracks by the Icelandic string quartet Amiina, and together, the musicians build songs that can only be described with breathless hyperbole and metaphor: angels dancing, birds soaring above clouds, flyover shots of glaciers. There's such a hugeness to this music--the melodies are clearly in service of something more than entertainment or selling CDs. Also, Sigur Ros understands how to create space for listeners to experience songs. This is true both because of the long moments of profound stillness in their music, and the openness with which their lyrics can be interpreted. While many of Birgisson's lyrics are in Icelandic, some are also in a wordless vocal style he once called "Volenska" (usually translated as "Hopelandish"). There's been a lot of unnecessary media hype about this "language," but perhaps it's close to what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote of "groans too deep for words." The lyrics to "Vaka" sound like this:

ee-sai-a-lo, ee-so ee-saw-ee-slow, ee-so ... you-shy-naw-no-ee-oh

What does that mean, exactly? Nothing, or maybe everything. "You saw the light?" "He saw you low?" "You shine on us?" Or something entirely different? Combine these vocals with the band's aptitude for epic, reverent, hymn-like songs, and it seems Sigur Ros has given us a language for worship, a kind of less-spooky speaking in tongues. "Hvarf/Heim," along with the band's last two albums, "( )" and "Takk," are utterly burn-worthy. Listen, and before long, you'll be singing along in your own language.

Click Here to Listen to "Radio Nowhere" from "Magic" Doug Howe has already spread the good news of the new Bruce Springsteen album in this space, joining a chorus of hand-clapping reviewers since "Magic" debuted this fall. (A.O. Scott...

Here at Burn or Burn, we've been careful not to encourage dishonesty: you'll notice that when we advise you to digitally burn a record, it's as an extra copy, say for your car. We're good citizens, and it is still...

Have you noticed? There's an intake of fresh oxygen being sucked into the collective lungs of Christians who love music. It's finally time, it seems, for genuine Christian engagement with pop music – any pop music, made by anybody, sold...

There are some things we just expect from certain musicians. We know Radiohead will give us postmodern technological alienation. We know Kanye West will give us pious braggadocio. And after five LP and EP releases, we've come to know that...

Rilo Kiley seems like a weird choice for burn-or-burn scrutiny: Nobody from the band has publicly claimed to be religious, and they're kind of potty-mouthed. But band member Jenny Lewis' solo album, last year's "Rabbit Fur Coat," was mostly about...

MxPx's first album, 1994's "Pokinatcha," was one of the first releases on Tooth and Nail Records, a label which has since become the juggernaut of Christian indie imprints. A few years back, MxPx and the label's owner, Brandon Ebel, had...

Ever since I heard Common's "Retrospect for Life," a track off his 1997 release "One Day It'll All Make Sense," where he ruminates on the mistakes he made as a premature father, I fell in love. I loved his ability...

A Burn or Burn profile of Mute Math almost writes itself. This is a band whose lead singer once fronted Earthsuit, a band with crystal clear Christian credentials. This is also a band who sued its label, Warner, when the...

Growing up Christian means growing up conflicted about popular music. Different families and churches handle it in various ways, but it's generally true that all secular music (What Everyone Listens To) is seen as either potentially dangerous or completely taboo,...