I have heard of a lot of crazy and unusual things in my day, but this kind of takes the cake. Pope Francis, the 266th Pope is releasing a full length rock LP under his own name. Then again, this doesn’t entirely come as a surprise considering that in his younger days Pope Francis was a metal head.
According to Rolling Stone the album’s sound will range from prog rock to Gregorian chant and the lyrical content which will be in English, Spanish, and Portuguese will feature uplifting bits of wisdom from the Pope’s speeches as well as some of his favorite hymns. The album’s producer Don Giulio Neroni said to Rolling Stone:
For many years, I’ve been the producer and the artistic director of albums by the Pope. I had the honor to work with John Paul II, Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis… As in the past, for this album too, I tried to be strongly faithful to the pastoral and personality of Pope Francis: the Pope of dialogue, open doors, hospitality. For this reason, the voice of Pope Francis in Wake Up! dialogues music. And contemporary music (rock, pop, Latin etc.) dialogues with the Christian tradition of sacred hymns.
An empowering uplifting single from the album titled “Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!” can be streamed here via SoundCloud. I have to say, for religious music it actually kind of rocks.
