Blog

Album Of The Day: This Beautiful Mess by Sixpence None The Richer

Album Art of Sixpence None The Richer's This Beautiful Mess album - A painting that is mostly a red background with a bit darker red on the left side. To the right 3/5ths of the artwork, a rough black square is painted and inside is a very modern painting of a person with hair down to the neck on the sides. The person is all a light yellow and has black lines outlining the eyes, nose and mouth. The features are a bit out of proportion and the lines connect in unexpected ways. Above the person in a box, it has the band's name in white in two lines of a very handwritten-style font. At the bottom in a smaller, dark yellow, it has the album title.

Released 30 years ago tomorrow, this is the second album from alternative rock band Sixpence None The Richer. I did not become a fan of this band until about 5 years after this release, and I think that I like their music from 1997 on more than these early albums, but it's definitely not a bad album either. Leigh Nash's ethereal vocals mix well with the band's jangly guitars. Lyrically, This Beautiful Mess talks a lot about struggling with a relationship with God and the ideas of faith, plus I think a few songs are love songs—longing for a friend. This album and their first album have less polish and more of a garage rock feel than their later works, but it's cool to hear where this band came from before they hit it big with "Kiss Me" and other hits as a pop/rock band in the late '90s and throughout the 2000s. It's also so exciting that they have resumed touring and released an EP last year, and I've heard that they even play some of these old songs on tour. Please do a headlining gig in Minneapolis sometime!

Release Year: 1995
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Chris Taylor's Worthless Pursuit Of Things On The Earth

Album Art of Chris Taylor's Worthless Pursuit Of Things On The Earth album - A photo of a wire-bound notebook with a scuffed leather cover that is even missing a bit of the bottom left part. Behind can be seen some pages and other papers sticking out of the top and bottom of the notebook on the very edges of the photo. A few coffee cup stains are also on the leather, just to the bottom right of a photo affixed to the front of the cover. The photo is of a man on a dark background with a brown leather jacket and a brown hat with a short, curved brim. He's holding the hat in his right hand like he is in the process of putting it on. He's slightly smiling and facing mostly to the left of the frame. On the leather above the photo is written in marker or something 'chris taylor's' and then directly on top of the photo is printed 'Worthless Pursuit Of Things On The Earth' by a black label maker.

Released 25 years ago on this Friday, April 18th (if my research is correct), this is an rock album from Texas-based artist Chris Taylor. Backed by The Ragamuffin Band on this album and featuring background vocals from Kevin Max on a few tracks, this is a fun album of rock that I only discovered years later, and still don't listen to too often, but when I do listen, I always remind myself I need to listen to this more (and check out Chris Taylor's other albums). The opener title track and the final track "Higher Ground" are probably my favorites, though the other songs are solid too. About 5 years ago, it was remastered and a few bonus tracks were added, and that's the version you can find online.

Release Year: 2000
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Buy on Bandcamp

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: At The Foot Of The Cross, Vol. 1: Clouds, Rain, Fire

Clouds, Rain, Fire album - On a white background, a gold border is around the inside of the edges. At the top it has the text 'At The Foot' in large letters, with 'of the' below it in smaller and 'Cross' next to those words in even bigger gold script. In much smaller, to the right of a photo, it says 'volume one', and below that on the right is 'clouds', then below 'rain', and below 'fire'. On the left half below the title is a photo of a bust of an angel sitting in a sunlit corner of a room on its side with a bunch of musical equipment like a drum, a tambourine, and a neck of a guitar can be seen as well.

As we near the celebration of Easter, it's a time to reflect on the life and death of Jesus Christ, and there's a good amount of music to do that with. This album was put together by three California-based musicians: Derald Daugherty, Greg Flesch, and Steve Hindalong, as a concept album of "songs to inspire worship". It's a fun mix of styles: rock from Derald and Mike Roe, country with Buddy and Julie Miller, and a good amount of atmospheric rock mixed with even a bit of traditional church prayers in Latin. This album is the first appearance of a song that would be covered by many artists, "Beautiful Scandalous Night". I especially like Mark Heard and Kate Miner's version of "My Redeemer Lives". Like many classic compilations and special event albums, this is not available on streaming services, but it is available for purchase from The Choir's Bandcamp page starting at only $4 currently.

Release Year: 1992
Buy on Bandcamp

Above is the 2022 remastered cover. The original 1992 cover:
Clouds, Rain, Fire album - On a white background, a gold border is around the inside of the edges. At the top it has the text 'At The Foot' in large letters, with 'of the' below it in smaller and 'Cross' next to those words in even bigger gold script, all with a black drop shadow. In much smaller, to the right of a photo, it says 'volume one', and below that on the right is 'clouds', then below 'rain', and below 'fire'. On the left half behind the title and down is a photo of a bust of an angel sitting in on its side on a red background with a bunch of musical equipment like a drum and a violin can be seen as well. At the very bottom, in small black text, it says 'Songs To Inspire Worship'.

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Candycoatedwaterdrops by Plumb

Album Art of Plumb's Candycoatedwaterdrops album - A photo of a dark-haired woman with a fitted tee and a leather jacket has four men behind her on the sides, half looking at the camera and half looking in other directions. They photo is black-and-white with the white parts being a gold-grey hue. Printed above the middle of the photo, to the left of the woman, is the band name in big, white letters. To the right of that, the album title in much smaller letter, with the letters 'coated' in a light blue.

Released 26 years ago yesterday, this is the second album from the band Plumb. In the late 1990s, Plumb was an alternative rock band and Tiffany Arbuckle was the lead singer and face of the band. This album, Candycoatedwaterdrops, is a bit more pop than their first album, and even gets a bit country at the end. Still, this album's sound is mostly rock with a good amount of electronic programming and it is Arbuckle's powerful vocals that anchors the music. Lyrically, Plumb talks about some darker topics with songs like "Phobic", "Damaged" and "Drugstore Jesus", but still weaves in the message of God's love and grace that was expected of most Christian rock. The whole album is good, but the first 3 tracks are some of the best songs ever released by Plumb, in my opinion. Tiffany Arbuckle has performed as a solo artist under the name Plumb for nearly 25 years now, and her sound has often been more subdued or pop/dance and much less rock in those years.

Release Year: 1999
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: In The Morning by Carolyn Arends

Album Art of Carolyn Arends's In The Morning EP - A black-and-white photo of a white woman standing against a wooden railing and holding an acoustic guitar in some sort of small, rustic chapel with wooden walls and a small, simple glass window. She has blond hair down past her shoulders and is looking off to her left, while she has her hands on the guitar like she might start playing any moment. In the bottom left, printed in white is the artist's name and then the album title in gold below it.

Carolyn Arends is a Canadian-based singer-songwriter who has been making music for 30 years or more. This, her latest release, is an EP of hymns. Some of the tracks are beautiful, acoustic takes on classic hymns like "Holy, Holy, Holy" and "All Hail The Power Of Jesus' Name", while others are less well-known but not less beautiful. Arends also pens "To Whom Shall We Go" and invites some other Canadian musician friends to join her on this EP. It's a solid set of songs with a folk/acoustic vibe that leads the listener to worship and prayer.

Release Year: 2021
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Buy on Bandcamp

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Look Up Child by Lauren Daigle

Album Art of Lauren Daigle's Look Up Child album - On a mottled gray background, a black and white photo of a woman from the shoulders up looking to the right an slightly up. The photo is mostly a profile angle, with just a bit of her left eyelash showing behind her nose. Her hair is up inside a cloth that is wrapped around the top and back of her head, covering most of her ears as well. What is visible from her ear has a long earring hanging from it, and her hair covering also has some braided strings hanging from it. At the very top, on the left in a gray-black is the artist name in small print, and on the top right is the album title.

This album made New Orleans-based pop singer Lauren Daigle a star, and it's a very beautiful album. Some complain that she sounds a lot like Adele, and there's certainly many similarities in their vocal style and musical genre. Daigle's songs are mostly slow-to-mid-tempo ballads and her backing musicians are hitting all the right notes. But Lauren Daigle's songs bring more of a reggae and Gospel feel to the music than you would find on an Adele album, for sure. Lyrically, much of the album is Ms. Daigle talking about her personal struggles with life, faith and religion. And the album closes with the hymn "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" with a reggae beat. I find this album full of very memorable, inspiring songs and it's a joy to listen to even if it doesn't rock.

Release Year: 2018
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Mercury by The Prayer Chain

Album Art of They Prayer Chain's Mercury album - On the bottom quarter of the area, an image of a blue/silver nature, maybe of some shiny rocks over water or just water in glass. On the top three quarters, the top half of some sort of blue-green sphere inside some orange fluid, with some large orange bubbles right next to the sphere, and smaller clear bubbles inside the orange fluid. The two images are separated by a thick black line, and on that is listed the band's name in bright blue script-like font with a thin white and then a black border. Below the band's name is the album title in a smaller font and a golden orange color. Behind that, over the top of the two photos, are red scribbles or maybe red paint strokes.

Growing up as the oldest of five kids, my parents were very busy, and didn't spend much time at home listening to music. Music listening became a past-time of mine in 1997 or 1998 in earnest, so I'm still only now catching up on what I missed for the decades before. So, for example, today is the first time I've ever listened to alternative rock band The Prayer Chain, who were most active in the early to mid '90s. Released on this day 30 years ago, I believe, this is their final studio album before the band members went on to other separate projects. It's definitely my kind of album, with 10 tracks totaling 57 minutes, so some of these are long, meandering jams. There's squealing guitars and the vocals are so deeply mixed into the music that it's really hard to hear what they're singing. But it's a great underground vibe from that era and fun to hear for the first time today.

Release Year: 1995
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan

Album Art of Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline album - A photo of a young white man with a short beard and mustache in a black coat wearing a black hat, and he's holding his hand just below the hat like he's about to tip his hat. He has a noticeable smile and is photographed from below, looking down at the camera while holding his guitar in his left hand in front of him. Behind him can only be seen the blue sky, bluer towards the top and more white near the bottom. In the top right, by the neck of the guitar, the bare branches of a tall tree can be seen.

Released 56 years ago yesterday, Nashville Skyline is Bob Dylan's 9th studio album. Recorded less than 4 years after he shocked the attendees of the Newport Folk Festival with his rock music, he recorded this album in Nashville with a much more subdued, country-influenced sound. For a few years around this time, Bob Dylan stopped smoking and on this album his voice has a much more smooth, crooner feel to it. The most well-known and best songs on this album are a re-recording of Dylan's hit "Girl From The North Country" with Johnny Cash and "Lay, Lady, Lay". And the "Nashville Skyline Rag" is a rollickin' instrumental song too. It's a short album, but it's a fun set of songs from the songwriter featuring great musicians mixing country, bluegrass and even a bit of rock.

Release Year: 1969
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Home by Josh Garrels

Album Art of Josh Garrels's Home album - On a white background, there are four drawings set into light brown squares. The top left has a crude drawing of a structure's corners with of various sizes, a garden growing inside of it in just black pencil. The top right is a picture of a house of a white color with many small lines that are windows on the closest side, that is surrounded by tall, thin trees on three sides. The bottom left is a very similar-looking white house with a roof and many windows on two sides, but this one is for some reason floating in a drawing of a bathtub with the tap running. The bottom right is a large, white building with no visible windows that has a rooftop garden on one half of the roof, and a more traditional angled roof on the other half. Over this last white house is written the artist's name in black, hand-written small print and underneath that in much bigger print the album title.

Released on this day 10 years ago, this is the 7th album from independent folk/pop/rock artist Josh Garrels. I remember I was a bit disappointed when it first came out, as it was less epic and exciting as his preceding album, Love & War & The Sea In Between, still my favorite album of his. But after giving Home a few more good listens, I appreciate it much more for the shorter and more succinct masterpiece it is. The musicians create beautiful soundscapes and Garrels's treble vocals mostly float above the instruments. I think my favorite song is the rock-heavy "The Arrow", but all the songs are a great lyrical exploration of the place we live and family, on life shared with others. Another beautiful song is "Heaven's Knife", which doesn't sound like a love song to his wife by the title, but that what it is. It's a beautiful album that reminds us of the most important things to us: home.

Release Year: 2015
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Buy from Josh Garrels directly

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Cutting Edge by delirious?

Album Art of delirious?'s Cutting Edge album - The top and bottom and most of the background is white. Interlaced into the background are pictures of a scissors and a shaver in verital lines, somewhat blended into the white at the top. In the top middle, there's also a small photo of a scissors. There's print that says the album title in black, and then white slightly below and over it. In the top right of the middle section, there's an orange oval with the band name in them, except the 's' is replaced with a '5'. In the middle is a blue rectangle with the letters 'd:' cut out. And a small photo of 5 white men lit by light bulbs in front and behind, with a mirror behind them.

In the early 1990s, a worship band started leading youth-oriented prayer meetings on the small cities of England's southern coast. They were known as "Cutting Edge" and they wrote, recorded and released four EPs on cassette, creatively titled 1, 2, 3 and Fore. When I heard these songs in 1998, they were packaged into this two-CD, 25-song compilation of all four EPs. By that time, the band was known as delirious? and the compilation album was called Cutting Edge. Throughout this album, lead vocalist Martin Smith wrote and passionately sang about a relationship with God in a way to that was much more personal and compelling than most of the old hymns and hippie folk songs that their parents were singing in church. Over the last 30 years as the English-speaking world came to know this album, songs like "I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever" and "Shout To The North" became songs commonly sung in churches with modern worship music. And songs like "Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?" and "Obsession" showed that while they were definitely a worship band, they also had a rock band creativity and drive to go beyond what a church worship band might normally do. The band delirious? went on to create 7 more studio albums combining pop, rock and worship genres, get played the UK Top 40 pop radio, and tour around the world before saying farewell to their fans in 2009. And I've been enjoying these songs for nearly 27 years now.

Release Year: 1993-1995
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

The original UK CD releases looked much like the original cassette covers:
Album Art of delirious?'s Cutting Edge 1 and 2 album - The left half is a bright yellow, with a very light scissors icon just a shade whiter in the background. There's a black circle in the top left that has the band name in it, and a black '1' in the bottom left corner. On the right half it's a somewhat pinkish-purple color, with a black '2' on the top right. Vertically in the middle it says 'cutting' from the top to bottom in white, with 'edge' just to the left of it bigger in gray. In smaller print, the song titles are printed on both the left and right side.
Album Art of delirious?'s Cutting Edge 3 and Fore album - The left half is an orange color, with some blocks of dark blue on the edges. There's a black circle in on the left that has the band name in it, and the words 'Three' written in white in a scripty font above that. Down the middle, in a dark blue box, it has 'Cutting Edge' in a font that looks like it's printed by a labeler machine. On the right, the color is mostly a light aqua blue with white spheres in it, plus a bunch more dark blue boxes. In the dark blue area there's a photo of a golf ball with a much smaller tee and flag photo towards the top. The golf ball has lines encircling it like it's a nucleus of an atom. At the bottom in a serif font in gray it says 'fore'.

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Pages

Browse the blog by category or date