Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Today brings new music from one of the very first Idol finalists: AJ Gil

Bet you didn’t expect that name, huh?

But the guy who finished eighth way back in Season 1 has released a mixtape on iTunes and Amazon called “Life, Death and Resurrection.”

It’s a seven-track Christian-gospel CD, featuring a lead single called “I Live,” one song performed in Spanish (“El Triunfo”) and a very pretty cover of “Listen to My Heart,” part of which he also sings in Spanish.

This marks AJ’s second significant release since Idol, following “Love Me Later,” an R&B/soul album released in January 2011 that features lots of party songs.

AJ, 17 at the time of his Idol audition and now 29, addresses the transformation in an October Facebook post about his experience writing the lead single, then called “I Live For You.”

“Prior to writing this song God was really teaching me the value of keeping Him as the center and focus of my life,” AJ wrote.

“Music has always been my passion, but music had become my idol! Long story short, God took music away from me for almost two years which allowed me to spend time seeking God and knowing Him in a much deeper level.

“God is amazing!! When I wasn’t thinking about doing music, He inspired me to go back into my studio and produce this song that speaks very strongly about my life.”

Here’s the song. You can check out snippets of the others, of course, on iTunes or Amazon.