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Album Of The Day: Currents by Eisley

Album Art of Eisley's Currents album - Artwork of a green background which looks like murky water with a number of fish and seamonsters in the murky deep. In the lower middle is a large fish with a big, round eye. In front of the fish is what looks like a mermaid with blond hair and has her oustretched, webbed hand touching the large fish. Above all the fish is printed a circle gold logo with the band name in it, with the lowercase 'L' shaped much larger and shaped kinda like a fancy pen or something. In the center, in a simple, smaller blue-green font is the album title.

Released 12 years ago today, this is the fourth full-length album by Texas-based indie pop band Eisley, and the last album with many of the DuPree sisters playing together before moving on to other projects. Sisters Stacy, Sherri and Chauntelle formed this band with their friends and family and as well as providing tight harmonies, they also play much of the instruments. Lyrically, this album contains much of the whimsy and magic that was a part of their first few EPs and albums and disappeared as the sisters grew up and experienced more of life, though it's great to see it return a bit here from these women. It's the beautiful vocals and the ethereal quality of the pop/rock music that I like from this band and what caught my attention in their early days. I have admittedly not listened to their later albums like Currents too much, but it's fun to give it a listen today and find it's better than I remember on the last listen years ago. I'll need to listen to Eisley more often, I think.

Release Year: 2013
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Album Of The Day: Life by Andy Hunter

Album Art of Andy Hunter's Life album - On a brown, golden-ish background, a white circle that consists of white trunks in the middle emanating in all directions to some circular sprouts around the edge, forming the bigger circle. The white trunks/sprouts seem to be glowing a bit, as the background is a bit lighter around them. In the top right, the artist name and album cover is printed in s very tall, thin font on two lines, with the artist's 'ah' logo to its left.

Released 20 years ago today, this is an album from British DJ Andy Hunter. This might have been called an EP because it’s only 6 tracks, but with a 43-minute runtime, I think this could be called an album. This was Andy Hunter’s second release of original music as a DJ/Producer, and it’s an energetic set of dance/club tracks celebrating life and love. It’s fun music with an epic, cinematic feel like it could be from a movie soundtrack. Play it loud and have a dance party or just groove to the music in your chair!

Release Year: 2005
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Album Of The Day: True Believer by Phil Keaggy

Album Art of Phil Keaggy's True Believer album - A photo of a middle-aged white man holding a shiny, silver guitar in an embrace, his arms around the body of the guitar and the neck up next to and above his head. The man is looking at the camera with a pretty blank expression and is wearing a brown jacket over a black turtleneck and a black beret on his head. He is bathed in a warm, orange-ish light, and behind him can be seen a beige wall which might be rusting in places or something, as there's dark brown marks in many places. At the top, the artist's name is printed in large letters, first name in orange and last name in blue. At the bottom, in much smaller letters, is the album name, first word in blue and the second word in orange.

Released on this day 30 years ago, this is Phil Keaggy's 18th studio album. Keaggy is one of the most talented guitarists in the world. In addition to beautiful instrumental acoustic and electric guitar albums, he also has recorded many rock/pop albums like this one, which is one of my favorites. The whole album is great, but my favorite part is the last 3 tracks: electric guitars and bagpipes on “Be Thou My Vision”, the all-out blues rock jam of “Have Mercy Lord”, and a celebration of life in “The Survivor”, including an epic coda jam. (Phil Keaggy remastered the anlbum and edited out the end jam from his version a few years ago, but that’s only on Bandcamp and the original is still widely available.) I’ve been loving this album for decades and continue to enjoy what Phil Keaggy puts out today.

Release Year: 1995
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Album Of The Day: OneDay Live by Passion

Album Art of Passion's OneDay Live album - A photo of a man kneeling on the ground with his head right at his knees and his head looking down into the ground, probably in prayer. Above him, the blue sky and next to him, layered in with the sky is a semi-transparent photo of dozens of people with their hands lifted in prayer and praise. On the left side, it has the word 'passion' in a semi-transparent, blurry white. In the top left, there's a 'p' wheel logo in white and black. Across the middle horizontally, it has a thick white line, and a series of holes in the white line is the words 'one' in bold and 'day' right after it much thinner. Above the line is printed 'live' in a thin black type.

25 years ago today, 40,000 college-aged people gathered on a farm in Tennessee to pray together and learn about God, and at this "OneDay 2000" event, this album was recorded. This recording captures what I expect were some of the best musical moments of the day, plus also gives a glimpse of the speakers and prayers of the day, mostly on the song "You Are My King" and the prayer by Louie Giglio at the end of that track. Passion worship leaders like Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall and Christy Nockels perform some original songs as well as popular worship songs at the time like "Shout To The North" and "Breathe". Tomlin also teaches the audience to sing his song "We Fall Down" in some African language, which is a fun moment reflecting the worldwide nature of the church and the Passion movement that Giglio and team were building. And Charlie Hall's version of Matt Redman's "Better Is One Day" here is one of the best versions recorded, with the extended "better is one day with you" bridge and Darwin Hobbs singing backup being beautiful additions. This is a defining album of my life, despite the fact that I was not at OneDay 2000, because this music has become a recurring prayer for me that I have listened to many times in the last 25 years.

Release Year: 2000
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Album Of The Day: Reubonic by John Reuben

Album Art of John Reuben's Reubonic album - A photo that seems to be a large, low-ceilinged room with turned off pinball machines and arcade cabinets to the left in the dark, though there's an orange glow coming from above and behind them. On the right, a bright white light is overpowering everything else, except to the far right, one hand is in front of the light reaching out. In the blackness at the bottom is printed the album title in a yellow outline. The left part of the 'R' extends all the way to the left, with the words 'Future Nostalgic Presents' inside it.

Released on this day 8 years ago, this is the 7th album and first independent release from rapper John Reuben. His earlier releases mixed lighter, more humorous topics into the lyrics, but that does not happen much on this album. This time, Reuben stays on topics such as the evils of religion, how we cling to identity and nostalgia, and personal insecurity. The beats and beds definitely feel different from previous albums, but considering this is an indie release and he didn’t release any new music for the 9 years before this, it’s expected that it sounds a bit different. I’ve always liked John Reuben’s music because he calls it like it is and does it in his own style, and I’ll keep listening to his music as long as he makes it.

Release Year: 2017
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A 14-minute music video containing a number of songs from this album:

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Album Of The Day: Brothers by The Black Keys

Album Art of The Black Keys's Brothers album - With a rough-edged white border, there is a black background with text written on it. In white in the middle, it says, 'This is an album by' then the band's name in a bigger red print. Then it says, 'The name of the album is' and then the album title, 'Brothers', in a bigger white print. In the border on the edge in the top right corner, it says 'Stereo Sound'. And in the bottom corner, it has the 'Nonesuch Records' large 'n' logo in black inside a white rounded rectangle.

Released 15 years ago today, this is the sixth studio album by rock duo The Black Keys. Dan Auerbach sings and plays instruments, and Patrick Carney does drums and percussion. They are known for a very guitar-heavy blues rock style, and pretty often Auerbach's vocals are a high falsetto. Their songs like "Everlasting Light" and "Tighten Up" are fun jams and I love the sound of their drums, bass, guitars and keyboards for some reason. Maybe there's something very stripped-down to this two-person band, or maybe I just love bluesy rock, and this is one of the few modern artists in that genre that got mainstream enough that I heard their music. There's also something about albums like this one that were recorded in the small southern town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, USA as well. I just love the vibe of this band and this album, though this type of midwestern garage rock may not be for everyone. Their last few albums haven't excited me as much, but this one of my favorite albums from The Black Keys.

Release Year: 2010
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Album Of The Day: Blurryface by Twenty One Pilots

Album Art of Twenty One Pilots's Blurryface album - On a black background, there are 9 circles in the center. Each circle has a pattern inside it, mostly black-and-white, though two (top right and bottom center are red and black). Some are just geometric patterns, others look like plants or something. At the top, it says the band's name in white print on two lines, with the 'O' characters joined with lines between them. Below the circles is printed the album title with a strikethrough line, though the line goes behind the 'U' and 'A' characters.

"Honest, there's a few songs on this record that feel common." Released 10 years ago today, this is the third album from Twenty One Pilots, a duo that blends rap, rock, reggae, alternative and indie pop to make a very unique sound. Though singer/lyricist Tyler Joseph might not be too comfortable with his success, Blurryface keeps the listener guessing what is coming next and on a musical journey through very dramatic life events and sometimes dark places, though there are hints of hope. It's a wild ride with lots of energy, and I love it, though it might not be for everyone. This is still their best album to date, in my opinion, and worth a listen if you want to hear something unique.

Release Year: 2015
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Twenty One Pilots and Mutemath Sessions:

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Album Of The Day: "Hello, Good Friend" by The Rocket Summer

Album Art of The Rocket Summer's Hello, Good Friend album - In the middle, a photo of a young, white man with spikey blond hair is wearing a light blue T-shirt and a navy jacket, plus blue jeans and sneakers. He's holding a yellow electric guitar. Around him is just a white void, no background or shadow. To the top left, it has the artist name and in the bottom right, it has the album title in quotes, both in a hand-written black marker.

Released 20 years ago tomorrow, this is the 2nd album from The Rocket Summer, the artist name of Bryce Avary, who wrote, produced, sang and played every instrument on this album. This album caught my fancy back when this came out, and I still listen to it from time to time. The Rocket Summer's music is performed with such passion and a bit of a reckless momentum. Bryce's vocals are sometimes so energetic he's screaming a bit, and then other times it's a whisper. His sound might be considered a bit "emo", but it's a mix of piano-based and guitar-based rock. It's a fun hour of poppy rock ruminating on life, love and relationships from this man who was young at the time. A few months ago, I got to see him play this entire album and it was fun to see him play live for the first time. He definitely talked about how feels that even 20 years later, these songs still resonate with him, and they do with me too. It's a fun album.

Release Year: 2005
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Album Of The Day: Mat Kearney by Mat Kearney

dark blue on top, dark red on the left, dark green on the right.

Released on this day one year ago, this is the 8th studio and latest album from pop singer/songwriter Mat Kearney. For over 20 years now, Mat has been making pop with tinges of hip-hop, reggae and more. Like his previous album January Flower, Kearney isn't doing music as heavily programmed as his 2010s albums or with as much hip-hop, spoken-word verses as his older music, but it's still beautiful, heartfelt pop to play on a nice day, a quiet evening, or whenever. Songs like "Drowning In Nostalgia", "Good Thing Going On" and "Headlights Home" are instant classics. And there's 9 more tracks with love songs to his wife or just reflections on life. It's maybe not yet my favorite Mat Kearney album, but these songs were fun to see performed live last fall, and with time it might become a favorite album from Mr. Kearney.

Release Year: 2024
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Album Of The Day: Unguarded by Amy Grant

Album Art of Amy Grant's Unguarded album - With a rough black frame on a white background, a photo of a young woman with long, dark hair wearing a white shirt and a coat with white and black spots and black edges. Her sleeves are rolled up and she's wearing black pants, and seems to be in the middle of dancing with her arms near her sides but extended, and her body in a bit of shimmy motion. Behind hear, across the top it says her name in large, pink letters. To the right of her, in very small, black letters is the album title.

Released 40 years ago tomorrow, this is the 7th studio album by Christian pop icon Amy Grant. By this time, Grant was now the queen of Contemporary Christian Music. She was mostly music my sisters listened to and I don't remember this album specifically being played on cassettes as a kid, but I'm not afraid to give it a listen all these years later. It's certainly very '80s pop, which is not at all surprising. I'm familiar with "Love Of Another Kind" because I'm a Rich Mullins fan—he co-wrote it—and have heard him sing that before. And I've heard "Find A Way" and "Everywhere I Go" because those were major singles and are on her hits compilation for this period. But it's a good album, I'm finding today. "Wise Up" is fun pop with a good '80s rock edge to it. I'm not sure if the album is timeless, but it's a great snapshot of the best Christian pop had to offer from the era. The album originally was released with four different cover artwork versions on LP and cassette, and the digital 35th anniversary release incorporates all 4 photos.

Release Year: 1985
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Album Art of Amy Grant's Unguarded 35h Anniversary album - At the top, it has the artist's name in large, pink block letters. Below it, much smaller on the right, is the album title in black type. The bottom 2/3 of the area is a rectangle spllit into 4 smaller rectangles, each with a different photo of the artist striking a dancing pose in black and white.

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