On Love Lust Faith + Dreams, 30 Seconds continues to break new ground on their sound, and push themselves even further creatively, than on their past three discs.

A DC*B retrospective and a Christian Youth-pop singer turns to modern worship: all on this week’s Beats Journal

is, all at once, darker, further reaching, but more to the core of VW’s sound than the sum of their past two discs. The West African vibey beats, Renaissance-era harpsichord, and Koenig’s lilting vocals are still in full effect, but calling this album more “mature” seems both a cop out, and an understatement.

Radin brings it back home, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward recreate She & Him magic a third time, and Lady Antebellum with a potential Grammy-worthy followup on this week’s Beats Journal

3RingsLeft has created an original song as “a tribute to the cast and crew of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.” Click through to see the video.

All Sons and Daughters add a whole new element with their live disc, and LIGHTS simplifies things to refocus her vision. All in this week’s Beats Journal.

Project peaks at No. 2 on iTunes overall albums and hip hop chart while critics sing Mineo’s praises.

Delirious? former frontman, rising like a…well, a phoenix, and the French indie rockers back at it, after their huge 2009 hit machine.

The Afters just keep getting better with their fourth studio album, and Mineo strikes white hot on a genre-spanning debut disc.

This week in The Beats Journal: The Band Perry avoid the sophomore slump, Hawk Nelson make the best of a tough break, and the new one from a few familiar names.

Courtesy of Grace Hill Media, you can be one of three lucky Hollywood Jesus readers to win a set of books and the CD related to the History Channel’s The Bible miniseries, available now.

OneRepublic continues to top themselves with each subsequent release, Shawn McDonald goes old school, and Chapman goes even further than that in the Wayback machine with hymns and bluegrass.

How does JT’s new disc stack up against his last two, and who is this band behind all the covers, and can they do it on their own as well? This issue of Beats Weekly.

Brand new Aussie brother duo, JJ Heller’s 9th album, the latest from Passion Conference 2013, and veteran Christian rockers take on modern worship. All part of this week’s Beats Journal!

“When we watched it, it was like nothing we had ever seen before. We were mesmerized. We’ve been in love with the land of Middle-earth and its inhabitants ever since. That’s why we’re so excited about all of the new Hobbit movies coming out!”

One worship band goes indie, another goes instrumental, and one features Jack White’s partners-in-crime on her follow-up disc.

If you’ve listened to Christian radio at all in the last month, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard her new single, the title track, “Need You Now.” The unbelievably powerful comeback track brings back a style similar to past tunes like “Bittersweet” and “I Can’t Do This,” with desperate-for-God lyrics like “How many times have you heard me cry out? And how many times have you given me strength?”

After teasing her fans with a brief snippet, pop superstar Mariah Carey has finally released the full version of “Almost Home,” the theme song to Disney’s upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful.

Reckless comes at an interesting time in the Christian music world, where the sides seem split between secular-inspired influences and the praise/worship tradition, as found on the Passion circuit. With Reckless, Camp has successfully dipped into both, and come out with his most cohesive and varied album to date.

The latest album from the Dove Award-winning band Sanctus Real encourages us to trust God in all things, and to seek out the power of the Holy Spirit.