100 Songs for Advent! – An Advent Worship playlist (Contemporary – Blended worship)

Over the past few years, I’ve worked to expand my digital Christmas music collection and develop various Christmas playlists – 12 in total…  choral music, instrumental, quiet, rocking, CCM originals, Christmas “oldies,” Christmas worship, etc…  But I’ve only had one fairly anemic Advent playlist dominated by a number of different versions of O Come O Come Emmanuel, and a few similar traditional carols.  This year I’m treating myself to a bunch of new Advent songs, and also digging deep into my worship collection and working to develop several different Advent playlists.  There are a number of great new songs and artists I’ve discovered, and it’s been exciting to see the number of Christian artists and worship leaders who are embracing Advent and producing Advent-themed albums.   Later this week I’ll post an entry with 3 – 5 of my favorite Advent albums (traditional and contemporary.)

In the meantime, here is a list of 100 songs (nearly 8 hours of music!) which I’ve included in a Contemporary-Blended style Advent Worship playlist.  The themes include:

• Light,
• Hope,
• Waiting,
• the Promise of the Messiah’s birth,
• Expectation of the Second Coming,
• the Annunciation,
• Waking from slumber,
• Christ the Refiner
• Preparing our Hearts,
• Inviting Christ to Come
• Jesus, Emmanuel, God with Us

I’ll be uploading many of  these songs over the coming days and streaming them here at L&B  – especially the 5 or 6 very hard-to-find songs for which I’ve not been able to provide a link for purchasing the songs as individual MP3s.  But in the meantime, I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet file with all 100 songs:  the name of the track, the artist, the album, the year, some comments, and a link where to find the file.  

There are not too many traditional hymns on here. I figure most of L&B’s readers already have access to favorite choral renditions of Advent classics like O Come O Come Emmanuel, Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming, Lo He Comes With Clouds Descending, and Of the Father’s Love Begotten.  But as I’m discovering, there is a much wider range of Advent music available than just those ancient carols.  So, grab your speakers or earphones and enjoy some of the songs listed below!

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Here’s the spreadsheet listing all the songs:

ADVENT 2013 – Lent and Beyond – 100 SongPLAYLIST

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[Update: You can now listen to 12 of these songs in the Advent Worship Music 2013 Part 1 post.  I’ll be posting some of the songs from this playlist for your listening pleasure each week in Advent.]

I hope it inspires many of you to create some great Advent playlists of your own and to enjoy a season of sitting at our Lord’s feet and worshiping Him for the mystery, wonder and miracle of His coming to us!

Also, please share YOUR favorite Advent songs in the comments!  I’d love to discover even more great Advent music.  Thanks

A blessed Advent to all our readers.

– Karen B.

Note:  All Purchase Links are to the iTunes US store, unless otherwise noted.