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Album Of The Day: Stereo by 4th Avenue Jones

Album Art of 4th Avenue Jones's Stereo album - A drawing that is red in the background, with the lines and rings of a notebook look across it. At the top, the band name is written in a very blocky font. At the bottom, hand-written is the word 'Stereo' in white, with 'the evolution of Hiprocksoul' scribbled in black next to it. In the middle, black and white sketches of a small, slumping man on the left, a young, skinny kid to the right of them, a punk with spikey hair and a big jacket, and then larger than all of them by far, a muscled man with bulging abs, a mohawk, and a large jacket a cook satellite man on it, and the man is holding a large boombox with both hands. The band name and the largest man with the stereo are the only parts in white, the rest is red.

In 1994, Ahmad released "Back In The Day" and it was a hit single, I'm told. In 2000, he started a hip-hop band called 4th Avenue Jones, and they were definitely doing hip-hop, but it was a live band and had guitars and even a violinist. From 2000 to 2005, they kept playing shows in the Los Angeles area and beyond and opened for many big acts, plus recorded a number of albums that never got released by the big labels and they released independently. Released 20 years ago tomorrow, Stereo: The Evolution Of Hiprocksoul was their first album released by a label and their last album as a band. I love this album as well as most of their other albums. Ahmad's wife at the time, Tena Jones, sings and raps as well, and the band mixes rock, R&B and hip-hop styles throughout. Sadly, for reasons unknown, this album is not able to be found on the streaming services, so you might have to track down a CD or something to give this album a listen. And also sadly, I feel this band did not get enough attention and was very talented but overlooked by the industry.

Release Year: 2005

Album Of The Day: The Abbey Road Sessions by Steven Curtis Chapman

Album Art of Steven Curtis Chapman's The Abbey Road Sessions EP - On a gray background with a bit of a white glow in the middle, a white man is strolling on the right towards the camera, with a guitar slung on his back, towards the camera and looking down. Behind him, in black are the rectangular shapes of a crosswalk. Above that is printed the EP title and 'The Walk' in black in large letters, with between those two the artist name in smaller, red letters.

Steven Curtis Chapman grew up in Kentucky and became an early leader in Christian pop/contemporary music with a dash of country. In 1997, preparing for his first Greatest Hits album, he and his band recorded a number of tracks in the famed Abbey Road Studios in London. Also, a documentary of his life and career was produced called The Walk. Two of the best tracks from the session were on the compilation album, but little did we know that a few more tracks were recorded. Released this week 20 years ago, five tracks from The Abbey Road Sessions were released on CD, accompanied with the DVD of the 1997 documentary. These are very fun, energetic versions recorded live in the round with Chapman and his band. The songs definitely sound different from their original studio album versions, and a few have a bunch of fun jammin' moments where it's clear the band is enjoying themselves. It's a short EP that does demonstrate why he's an amazing artist, and I'm glad we go to hear these recordings even though they took nearly 8 years to be released.

Release Year: 2005
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Album Of The Day: Spring by Jon Foreman

Album Art of Jon Foreman's Spring EP - On what looks to be yellow notebook paper with thin black horizontal lines and wear on the top and a vertical crease near the edges is drawn a stick drawing of a tree on the right, with the sprouts of grass just barely visible in its shadow to the left of the tree. The tree has little stubby shoots on the branches. Also, the yellow paper has a stain of what might be a coffee mug in the top left too.

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot continues to write songs with the band, but also writes plenty of music with others and on his own. Released on this day 17 years ago, this is the third of his four EPs titled after the seasons, and I think it's my second favorite after the Fall EP. "March (A Prelude To Spring)" is a beautiful little intro song, and "Love Isn't Made" and "Baptize My Mind" are great acoustic pop. "Your Love Is Strong" is still my favorite Jon Foreman solo song, as it's a beautiful song of praise and thanks to God. And "Revenge" is a great reflection on Christ's death from the point of a criminal executed with him. It's great to celebrate one of the most beautiful times of the year with Jon, and I definitely listen to this every year, at least.

Release Year: 2008
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Album Of The Day: Chase The Kangaroo by The Choir

Album Art of The Choir's Chase The Kangaroo album - A thick border of black with blue drawings making an indecipherable pattern surrounds the main photo. The main photo is one man on the left leaning in towards the camera and his hair is in front of his eyes. The second person is off to the right further away, and is holding his own shoulders and lookng down. Both people are slightly blurry like they were photographed in motion. In the top left of the photo is the album title and the artist name written in a handwritten manner in a mustard yellow.

The Choir is an ambient alternative rock band that's been active for over 40 years now. Released on this day 37 years ago, this is their third studio album. The first half of the album is just 4 tracks, the last 2 of the 4 running at 7 minutes each, for an epic, meandering rock album. They're one of the few rock bands I listen to that has a saxophone player in the band too, and that adds a fun element to their music from this era. Despite being from the '80s, it actually sounds a lot less dated than some of the rock albums of that time period, and it's a good listen that's a bit new to me. Note that on streaming, tracks 11-15 are from an EP released a few years before this when the band was known as Youth Choir, and that does sound a bit more '80s.

Release Year: 1988
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Album Of The Day: Even When My Heart Is Breaking by Matthew Smith

Album Art of Matthew Smith's Even When My Heart Is Breaking EP - On a background that looks like rough, brown paper, in a dark brown a rough heart shape is on the left in the middle. To the right of it, in the same dark brown color is the artist's name in large, lowercase letters. Then below that in a handwritten pen style is the EP title.

Matthew Smith has spent decades taking old hymn texts and either giving them new melodies, or just recording them in a more contemporary style. He has worked with the Indelible Grace artist collective a lot too. One of his earliest solo artist releases is this EP, a collection of five hymns. These renditions are beautiful and can bring new life to these hymns because it's very different than the church choir backed by an organ or piano. Somehow, I have both the 2004 CD and the 2011 CD re-release; I made that mistake because the 2011 re-release has much different artwork, I think. But on the other hand, i guess it's not a mistake to support independent artists, so let's just say I'm a collector, then.

Release Year: 2004
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Album Art of Matthew Smith's Even When My Heart Is Breaking EP 2011 edition - Towards the top in the center, the artist's name is printed in grey, with a hand-drawn double line below it, and then the hand-written EP title in white pen. The rest of the artwork is an illustration of a man in shorts and a T-shirt huddled in a rowboat, being tossed and turned in the large waves all around him.

Album Of The Day: Drawing Black Lines by Project 86

Album Art of Project 86's Drawing Black Lines album - In the top right, the word 'Project' in white in uppercase block letters, with '86' below it aligned to the right. Below that, scribbled in black is the album title, and to the left of that is a white dragon icon. The rest of the album cover is 16 geometric symbols in a grid, semi-transparent of a photo too blurry to tell what it is portraying.

If you've been following me, you may have noticed I like lots of styles of music. For example, yesterday was a Sara Groves album (adult contemporary/folk), but today's a nu metal album that was actually released around the same time, but had mostly a different audience, I expect. Released on this day 25 years ago, this is the second album by Project 86, which has been fronted by Andrew Schwab for nearly 30 years now. As with most of Project 86's albums, there's lots of emotion, anger and angst to Schwab's vocals and lots of screaming over the roar of guitars. The vocals are pretty dark and bleak, but there is some light and hope hidden deep in there, I think. I don't listen to this band very often and I don't know this album well, but it's pretty good, and I remember hearing "One-Armed Man (Play On)" and "Me Against Me" on Christian rock radio/TV a bunch back when this came out. If you ask me, there's something to music like this that amps you up and questions authority a bit, and it's fun to rock out sometimes. If it's not your cup o' tea, come back tomorrow for something different and maybe you'll like that more.

Release Year: 2000
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Album Of The Day: Conversations by Sara Groves

Album Art of Sara Groves's Conversations album - A close-up, grainy photo of the right side of this white woman's face from the front. Her nose and most of her mouth is on the left side of the frame, and her ear in the middle of the photo, so her face takes up most of the left half of the photo. It's just very bright behind her face and over her shoulder, which is just visible at the bottom. Printed in uppercase black letters to the right of her face is the album title, and in a bright red is the artist's name in lowercase.

Sara Groves is one of the best songwriters in Christian music, in my opinion. This is the first album of hers I heard and is one of her many albums that I love. Released independently in 2000 and then re-released on INO Records on this day in 2001, Conversations is a very good title for this look into the many conversations Sara is having in song with God primarily, but also with friends and family. Musically, Sara's sound is contemporary folk-pop. and the band along with producer Nate Sabin do a great job with the sound here, making every song unique and fresh and working perfectly with Sara's gorgeous vocals. Lyrically, Sara's songs wrestle with faith and doubt, listening to God, but also proclaim God's love and grace. And it ends with a fun live recording of her singing about an old-timey revival "Tent In The Center Of Town". It's a great hour of music and I can't believe it's been 24 years now of enjoying and learning with this album.

Release Year: 2000 / 2001
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Album Of The Day: The Cannonballers by Colony House

Album Art of Colony House's The Cannonballers album - A photo of a pool from above, with an aqua blue hue and parts of it are whiter than others from the light bending through the water. In the top right, above the water is the torso and arms and legs of a white kid in red swim trunks, with his legs tucked under his chest. In the bottom left, you can see his shadow on the water. In the middle, printed above the photo is 'The Cannonballers by Colony House', in an off-white color and a jaunty font, with the album title bigger and the band name smaller.

Colony House is the band I've seen play live most in the last 10 years, I think. (I fact checked myself and this is correct. Colony House 9 times, Switchfoot only 7.) This is Colony House's latest album, a short but quality set of new songs. The album starts out sounding like a surf rock album, but after a few songs it seems to go back to just standard indie rock. Though I certainly don't mind. Many of the songs are just fun celebrations of life, while some others are encouragement and commiserating through hardship. And there's of course a few love songs as well. These four guys put on a great live show, and I enjoy all their albums a lot. Give them a listen if you haven't yet.

Release Year: 2023
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Album Of The Day: Seven Swans by Sufjan Stevens

Album Art of Sufjan Stevens's Seven Swans album - On a marble brown background, a black-and-white pencil drawing of a swan takes up most of the space, with the head of the swan nearly touching the top and the wingspan of the swan just off the edges. The swan looks like it's either walking with its wings spread out or flying, but it's hard to tell since there's no background or ground to place it on. On each side of the swan's long neck, the artist name and the album title is printed in black in a hand-printed script.

Along with the Album Of The Day highlighting albums I love, it's also a chance to listen to albums I don't listen to much, like today's album. I really enjoyed Sufjan Stevens's Illinois album, but didn't give his earlier works too much of a chance. Released yesterday 11 years ago, this is Sufjan's 4th album and the album between Michigan and Illinois, his two albums about different states. I've only listened to this a few times and found I didn't like it as much as some of his other albums; I found it very mandolin-heavy and a bit slow. But upon today's listening, I found I liked it a bit more than I remember. There's lots of Biblical references here, from reflections on Jesus's life and death to some interpretations on the Book of Revelation. And it's not as slow as I remember. In fact, "Sister" in the middle of the album has an extended rock portion. Sometimes I'm not a fan of Sufjan's somewhat melancholic style, but his songwriting is excellent and I probably should listen to his catalog more.

Release Year: 2004
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Album Of The Day: Bright City by Bright City

Album Art of Bright City's self-titled album - On a marble gray background, a thick neon green line cuts from bottom left to top right. Above that, the band name is printed in thick white letters with a dark drop shadow and a light gray inner shadow as well. The empty space inside the uppercase 'BR' are also just white and not cut out like normal.

Released on this day 10 years ago, this is the first album from Bright City, the worship team at St. Peter's Brighton in England. More than most modern worship teams today, this album has a pop/dance feel, though the lyrics certainly are worshipful praise and conversation with God. "Force Field" and "Forever Yours" are definitely dance praise and are really fun. As the songs get a bit slower deeper into the album, it feels a bit more like a normal modern worship album, though there's a very high level of musicianship. This team has many songwriters and worship leaders, so they switch off on lead vocals, which also keeps the songs from sounding the same throughout this album. It's a solid debut from a quality new band, and I hope they are able to continue to make great new music.

Release Year: 2015
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