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Album Of The Day: Shipwrecks & Islands by Gold Records

Album Art of Gold Records's Shipwrecks and Islands album - At the top, it seems like a map with numbers and arrows on it, with a green-ish hue and some parts of it are reflected or are semi-transparent with layers under it. The middle is black, and has the album title in white print with a light blue, thick border around it. Below that, it transitions form black to white, with a bit of red and blue in the transition. At the top, in small print, it says 'Touching the heart of a broken world' and at the bottom says 'Poems by Adrian Plass. Words and music by Phil Baggaley, Dave Clifton and Ian Blythe'.

This album is a bit different than most modern worship albums. Although there is pop/rock-styled songs that could be used as a part of a modern church service or prayer, the album has poetic reflections on life and spirituality by Adrian Plass between each song. This British music team lead by Phil Baggaley, David Clifton and Ian Blythe performs the music. It's high-quality music and the music and the poetry works really well as an album to listen to straight through. This album is definitely not something an American record label would produce. The poetry between the songs provides a very different feel than most Christian albums, and I find it refreshing that this album exists and provides a way to reflect on our life as well as call us on to be better people.

Release Year: 1999
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Album Of The Day: Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis

Album Art of Miles Davis's Kind Of Blue album - A photo of a black man in a navy blue suit and a tie playing a trumpet, only his upper body and the mouth of the trumpet are seen along with his hand playing the trumpet. At the top, in large print in white it says the artist name, with the title of the album in smaller blue text. Also above the album title is the Columbia Records logo and name, and below the title a list of the other players on the album.

I wasn't so convinced when Ryan Gosling's character in La La Land endlessly praised jazz, but this Miles Davis recording has made me a believer. Davis plays his heart out on the trumpet and the band follows him wherever he goes. All the instruments are played masterfully, and it's a roller coaster ride of sounds, from beautiful and calm one moment to loud and blaring the next but no less beautiful. It's so much fun to listen to masters of their craft improvise together and make music that is loved nearly 70 years later. This is often listed in the top albums, and it's clear to me why that is because it's such a fun and engaging listen.

Release Year: 1959
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Album Of The Day: Curioso by Wilder Woods

Album Art of Wilder Woods's Curioso album - A photo of a man sitting on a nice chair in front of a bookshelf, though there's no books here. The top shelf is dozens of liquor bottles and dozens of shot glasses. The middle shelf has an NBA basketball, a baseball in a bowl, and cigarette ad that says 'Wilder Woods!', plus a bust that looks like a dark-skinned woman with a head covering. On the last shelf, there's about 30 records, maybe. The man is leaning back in a chair, wearing a T-shirt, and has a cowboy hat over his face. The man has a number of large rings on, a golden armband, and a number of tattoos on his arms. In the middle, the word 'Curioso' is printed in bright yellow.

Bear Rinehart is a prolific songwriter and the lead singer of a band called Needtobreathe. But he also releases music under the artist name Wilder Woods, and his third album as Wilder Woods releases today. Curioso feels like Bear is trying lots of things that he can't do in his main band. These songs feel more personal and he's able to stretch himself more artistically, maybe. It's a bit more romantic and less spiritual than Needtobreathe songs overall, and it's a bit more straight indie rock than the southern rock/country vibe of the other band. I like Wilder Wood's music, but none of his albums have really become regular spins so far. Though maybe I should see these songs played live next month....

Release Year: 2025
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Album Of The Day: Word Of Mouth by John Reuben

Album Art of John Reuben's Word Of Mouth album - A black and white photo of a man with a large kick drum slung over his shoulder on to his back is in a field and looking to the left. A microphone is hanging from the top of the frame to the left of him. A dog is sitting behind him and looking to the right, away from the man. To the left of the man on the top left is the artist's name in large orange type, and the album title in much smaller text in gray type.

John Reuben, the self-named "Cool The Underdog", delivered what I consider his best album on this day 18 years ago. "The thrill of proving the world wrong is finally gone / You should move on." It's a good 36 minutes of rap from this self-critical white man. John mixes his honest thoughts with some sarcastic remarks and talks about his insecurities as well his faults along with the normal rapper bravado. It's not a long album, but it is some of his best work in both music and rhymes. I love it and although his latest stuff hasn't been as good as this in my opinion, I enjoy his more recent independent releases too.

Release Year: 2007
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Album Of The Day: Intimate Portrait by Caedmon's Call

Album Art of Caedmon's Call's Intimate Portrait EP - On a light blue background, a photo of the right half of a woman's face is shown with a red heart cutout next to it. Over the photo, a dotted arrow points to the text '(ip)' to the right. At the top, the band's name is printed in uppercase in a dark red, serif font. Below that in blue-green is the album title in lowercase.. At the bottom, it says '5 song enhanced CD'.

This is one in my collection that is not available on streaming, and you'll need to find a used CD copy to give this one a listen. This EP had a few B-sides and alternate recordings of songs from their 1997 self-titled album, plus the Enhanced CD provided low-quality digital videos of the band as well. (Everything from that era that could be played on a computer is terribly low-quality today.) It's a rare early item from the Christian folk-rock band, and it shows their great musicianship and songwriting even only a few years into their career. The band would go on to record many other releases, and even recently re-recorded their self-titled album and played a few reunion shows after a long hiatus.

Release Year: 1997

Album Of The Day: 2 Edged Sword by Faith Massive

Album Art of Faith Massive's 2 Edged Sword album - Most of the area is a dark green photo of a sword hilt that seems to be suspended in a green liquid, with bubbles around it. In the top right, a circular logo with a backwards 'F' and an 'M' is next to the text FM and the title '2edgedsword' without the spaces.

I'm trying to remember how I got into this artist. It was maybe mp3 dot com free downloads back in the day or a recommendation from a dance music fan on an e-mail list or something, but I can't remember. Faith Massive is an electronic, drum and bass artist. It's mostly all instrumental sounds mixed electronically with the occasional lyric, as much sampled as sung. It's an interesting vibe, sometimes pounding and sometimes more chill. It's not the pop dance hits you might hear at a club, I imagine, but more distilled beats for those that are really in the dance genre. It's definitely not what I listen to too often, but I enjoy mixing it up and listening to something different from time to time, as you've probably noticed.

Release Year: 2002
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Album Of The Day: Crimson & Blue by Phil Keaggy

Album Art of Phil Keaggy's Crimson And Blue album - From above, a photo of a man looking up at the camera is the main focus. The person is also pointing the index finger of their left hand up at the camera, near his face. The background is colorful, mostly red and blue, but it not really distinct enough to make out. In the top write, the artist's name is painted in the middle of a circle with the album name circling around it in white color.

Phil Keaggy is known to many as an instrumental guitarist on electric or acoustic guitars, but he's also done many albums as a vocal solo artist. Crimson & Blue is maybe my favorite Phil Keaggy vocal album. The guitar work is stellar, and the backing band is firing on all cylinders as well. The end of the album really brings out the epic, extended jams, with his version of the Gospel/blues song "John The Revelator" and original song "Doin' Nothin'" clocking in over 8 minutes each. "Everywhere I Look" and "I Will Be There" are beautiful, laid-back pop/rock tunes where Keaggy's vocals really shine. Lyrically, Phil is focused on God's love and joy, though other topics like friendship and class disparities make appearances as well. Phil Keaggy's soaring guitar solos are a highlight, but I love every minute of this album.

Release Year: 1993
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Album Of The Day: Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars

Album Art of The Civil Wars's Barton Hollow album - A black and white photo of two young white people, on the right a man with curly hair, a beard and mustache in a suit coat with a bowtie, and on the left, a woman with darker, long hair and a sleeveless dark top. They are sitting in a corner booth with a marble tabletop sitting in front of them and glasses of water on the table. The man is looking at the camera and has his right arm behind the woman and the woman is looking away from the man to the left. There is lots of light behind them as the area has many windows, it seems. It seems like they also may be photographed through a window, because there's a reflection of another window overlaid in front of the couple.

Released on this day 14 years ago, this album won "Best Folk Album" at that year's Grammy Awards. Joy Williams and John Paul White, both accomplished musicians, joined forces as folk/country/Americana duo The Civil Wars. This album is defined by the duo's powerful vocals, plus very sparse but effective, simple instrumentation. Lyrically, this album is mostly love songs, even though both in the duo are married to other people. It's a beautiful album and is top-notch music throughout, though definitely a bit darker in tone and less energizing than most other albums I listen to. For a moment The Civil Wars were thought to be the next big thing in music, but a year or two later they stopped performing together due to creative differences. They have individually released solo music since then, but have not reunited.

Release Year: 2011
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Album Of The Day: Cover Story by Russ Taff

Album Art of Russ Taff's Cover Story album - A black and white photo of an older white man with shoulder-length dark but graying hair slicked back, a beard and mustache, wearing a dark T-shirt, on a gray background. In the bottom right is the album title in lowercase in a script font, and the artist's name in a bigger, blocky font in white.

Russ Taff is an artist from before my time, to some extent. He was a member of the christian vocal group The Imperials in the late '70s and early '80s, then performed as a solo artist for a few more decades, and that was mostly before I started listening to music in earnest. Away from the stage and studio, Russ had a hard life, coming from an abusive home and struggling with alcoholism, among other things. But at age 71, he's still got a good voice and a longing to sing. Released today, this album of covers finds this vocalist covering songs by Bill Withers, Bob Dylan, Prince and The National, among others. While his voice has a bit more rough edges than it did back in his younger days, Russ Taff can still belt out a tune, and he makes these classic songs his own, plus covers a few songs you might not know as well. Through these covers, he tells his own story of struggle, love and redemption over his 50+ years in music.

Release Year: 2025
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Album Of The Day: The Great American Midrange by The Elms

Album Art of The Elms's The Great American Midrange album - On a beige background that is more gold closer to the edges is a series of embossed lines coming from the top, and stopping to form an embossed frame around the middle of the artwork. In the middle in a decorative font is the album title, and below that frame is in smaller letters 'By The Elms'.

The Elms is still one of my favorite bands of all time. This rock band created great rock records championing hard-working, blue-collar Americans and celebrating both the highs and lows of life. This was their fourth and final album, released independently before deciding to call it quits a year later. Thom Daugherty's guitar work is iconic and Thom playing guitar at their reunion show in 2015 is still my phone's lock screen. This album is maybe best known in the band's home state of Indiana for the song "Back To Indiana", where lead singer Owen Thomas pines to return to his loved one as soon as possible. It's an excellent song for a road trip, and I've definitely played it on the way to Indiana a few times. "Thunderhead" and "A Place In the Sun", while not as rockin' as some other tracks, ends the album in a quieter note and are a fitting end to the band's epic 10-year, four-album run. (On some streaming services, the "Complete Edition" is available which has acoustic versions of every song on the album, but the first 12 tracks is the original album.)

Release Year: 2009
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