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Album Of The Day: Great River Road by Jason Upton

Album Art of Jason Upton's Great River Road album - A nearly black-and-white photo of a winter landscape, mostly snow-covered pine trees in the background. Also what looks like a house can be seen in the background to the left. The center of the photo is a snow-covered bridge going over an unseen river with railings on the sides and a large series of cables holding the bridge up. On the far end of the bridge, in the center of the photo, are large stone towers connected by a stone arch over the roadway. The cables extend from the top of the tower and the cap of the tower and the stone that connects them have stones that go up and down, like a medieval castle. Above the snowy roadway in the photo is printed in gray the artist's name and in black the album title below it.

Released 20 years ago yesterday, this was only one of three albums recorded by Jason Upton that was released through a record label; another 16 albums have been only released independently. Jason Upton's music is a type of worship music, though it's definitely a bit different from most modern worship bands. Upton plays the keyboard and sings, and often has a cello or violin as well as other mostly acoustic instruments in his band, though there's some electric guitar on occasion. Upton's songs mix personal stories with scripture and are often fairly spontaneous is nature. The songwriting is good, his passion for God is palpable, and his team of musicians are excellent. On this album, a number of tracks, especially "Great River Road" and "Chop Down The Tree", contain flute, drumming, and vocals from Native American musician Bill Miller. The album ends with a beautiful cover of the Keith Green song "You Are The One". It's a great album and you should check out Jason Upton if you haven't heard his unique brand of music. Unfortunately, this album seems to be not currently on streaming services, so you might have to find a CD copy to give it a listen, or check out some of his other albums.

Release Year: 2005

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Album Of The Day
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Album Of The Day: House Of Heroes by House Of Heroes

Album Art of House Of Heroes's self-titled album - A photo from below of a partly-cloudy sky with sunlight in the center, and what looks like two small airplanes or gliders silhouetting against the background. Above the middle of the photo is a semi-transparent red square with the band name printed in white.

Released 20 years ago today, this was the first major-label album from House Of Heroes, one of my all-time favorite bands. House Of Heroes made indie rock with excellent musicianship and the vocals from Tim Skipper are so energetic and passionate. As soon as I listened to this album a few times back in 2005, I became a huge fan of the band and their later albums got even better, though this one is still a solid album. A lot of the lyrics are about personal relationships and love. Though the lyrics are very catchy, they're a bit hard to parse sometimes, like the epic album closer, "Angels In Top Hats, Cups Full Of Blood", which seems to be about death of a friend, maybe in a car accident or something. For some reason, a year later their label re-released this album with a few new tracks and a new title, Say No More, and so it's only available on streaming in that incarnation. But this is the album that I got first on CD and continue to listen to from this highly underrated band.

Release Year: 2005
This album's 2006 re-release with a few new tracks, Say No More, is on streaming:
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Consume Like A Moth What Is Dear by Ronnie Martin

Album Art of Ronnie Martin's Consume Like A Moth What Is Dear album - On a beige background, a thin black border surrounds an illustration of two black mountains on a beige background. The mountains are black, and there's a thin beige border between the tops of the mountains and a black sun in the beige sky above the mountains, with the bottom of the sun behind the tops of the mountains. Coming from the tops of the mountains and streaming out across the front of the sun and the sky beyond are pink moths or butterflies of various sizes and shapes. Above the song is the artist name on two lines in a thin font. And below the illustration is the title in a smaller size.

Released just a week ago, this is an album of original songs and sounds made by Ronnie Martin's synthesizers and drum machines, along with his unique vocals that mix really well with these sounds. Sometimes it sounds like industrial rock, sometimes like a cinematic instrumental, and sometimes robotic beeps and bloops. Like his 2022 album, the lyrics contain some references to mythic beings and epic tales, and I think it's cool that the tracks on this album have an epic-ness to match, as each song is about five and a half minutes on average. This electronic synth-pop might not be for everybody, but I enjoy Ronnie and his distinctive style of music from time to time.

Release Year: 2025
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Album Of The Day: Adventures Of The O.C. Supertones

Album Art of The O.C. Supertones's Adventures Of The O.C. Supertones album - A cartoon drawing of a Superman-like figure with a very large, toothy smile and a body smaller than the smile. He's got his cape opened and is showing off a large yellow 'S'. Behind him, a blue-and-white sky gradient with blue buildings along the sides and bottom, for a cityscape feel. At the top, in small red letters is printed in an arching 'Adventures Of The O.C.' and then below that in a much bigger black-and-white square 'Supertones', with the 'super' being black text on white background, and 'tones' white text on black.

Released on this day 29 years ago, this is the first album from The Orange County Supertones, one of the first Christian ska bands. Vocalist and guitarist Matt "Mojo" Morginsky provides a mix of singing and some fast-paced, rap-ish verses, and the band provides drums, bass and horns/sax to fill out the sound. The sound is definitely very basic and unpolished, but it adds a bit of an underground feel to the album. They definitely do a good job of bringing the message of Jesus on these lyrics, and it's not to the detriment of the music either. I got this album on CD in 1998 from a friend and it was one of the first albums I owned, so songs like "Adonai", "Who Can Be Against Me", "Unknown" and "Never Wanna Fall" bring back memories of that time when I listened to this a lot. I think it's my 2nd favorite Supertones album still, despite their later albums having a bit more polished sound. Plus, any album with a sample of Stan Laurel deserves a listen!

Release Year: 1996
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Album Of The Day: Pages by Future Of Forestry

Album Art of Future Of Forestry's Pages album - A very blurry photo of a woman's profile, from the shoulders up we can see her neck and mouth and right eye, plus brown hair put up behind her head. The photo is very blurry and has a kinda cloth-like pattern over it, like it's printed on some cloth. Printed in very faint green in small letters is the band name, below an intricately printed, gold with lots of flair, a flowing word 'Pages' that takes up the middle of the cover.

Released 10 years ago last month, this is the third full-length album by Future Of Forestry, although they released a large number of EPs as well. Future Of Forestry started out as a band, but for much of the 20 years or so the band has been active now, it's mostly been lead singer, songwriter and main musician Eric Owyoung doing many of the instruments in the studio and having musicians play with him on the occasional show. This album, Pages is beautiful, mostly acoustic love songs that work well when looking for a quiet collection of music. Eric is a great songwriter and has been releasing both lyric-based and instrumental music independently. It's always a joy to listen to his compositions and the beautiful and simple production, plus his calming and heartfelt vocals. Give Future of Forestry's music a listen.

Release Year: 2015
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Album Of The Day: Lincoln Brewster by Lincoln Brewster

Album Art of Lincoln Brewster's self-titled album - A black-and-white photo of a young white man with short hair sitting with an electric guitar on his lap and playing it, looking down towards the floor with his eyes mostly closed. The white parts of the photo are a metallic gold, like the photo is printed on some sort of bronze or copper or something. A few of the dark spots in the photo have a golden-bronze hole, like the printing process onto metal didn't go perfectly. In the golden area to the right of the person's head above the guitar's neck, it says the artist's name in a very retro, '50s style font that kinda looks like cursive.

Released on this day 26 years ago, this was the first solo album from Lincoln Brewster, a very talented guitarist who has mostly led worship at churches in his 30-plus years making music, though he was lead guitarist for Steve Perry of Journey's solo tours and an album about 30 years ago. Most of his albums follow a very standard modern worship formula, but this one is different and it is my favorite album of all his albums. This is an all-out, guitar-based rock album from start to finish. "Spin" and "Everybody Praise The Lord" bring some level of guitar-based pop with lots of energy and Gospel-focused lyrics. Slightly more moody songs like "Hey God", "On My Way" and "Walk On" bring a bit of blues to this rock album and are less praise and worship and more personal reflection on life and faith. Throughout, Brewster's guitar licks and the drums, keys and bass from his studio band are top-notch, and his voice is great for a rock album. Personally, I wish he would have made a few more albums like this, and maybe one of these years Lincoln Brewster would make a rock album like this again.

Release Year: 1999
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Album Of The Day: Psalms by Sandra McCracken

Album Art of Sandra McCracken's Psalms album - A close-up photo of a middle-aged woman from the shoulders up, with her hands clasped together to the left of her chin. Her blone-brown hair goes down past her shoulders. She is leaning in and staring straight into the camera with a fairly blank expression. The shoulders are out of focus. The background is a dark gray, nearly black. In the top left, printed in a serif font is the artist name on two lines in a milky white, with the album name just below it in a pastel pink.

Released 10 years ago this past week (April 14), this album finds this talented singer-songwriter setting the Psalms to new melodies. The Psalms are ancient Hebrew songs and prayers and Sanda McCracken sets some of them to new folk/pop melodies. On previous albums, McCracken wrote folk/rock songs from personal experience, but with Psalms and her more recent releases, she has moved to scripture-based songs of encouragement and praise to God. Recorded live in a living room in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City, this album has a simple beauty to it and you might feel like the musicians could almost be playing in your living room right now if you close your eyes. It's an intimate, beautiful album with lyrics based on ancient texts and it's well worth a listen.

Release Year: 2015
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Album Of The Day: Farewell Show by delirious?

Album Art of delirious?'s Farewell Show album - Five middle-aged white men, in alternating clothes of white and black, standing shoulder to shoulder on a large stage with their arms on each other's shoulders. Above the band is printed in a worn blue type the album title, 'Farewell Show', with the words 'Live In London' printed in smaller text in the top right. Below the title in a smaller rounded box is the band word mark: the band name with a question mark, then a vertical bar, then a 'd:' as well.

Released on this day 15 years ago, this is a recording of their final concert performance as a band. On November 29, 2009, delirious? finished their last world tour with this epic final show at London's Hammersmith Apollo. Captured on audio and video, the double CD audio version presents nearly two hours of this final show with songs spanning their entire career. The second disc, tracks 15-21 on streaming, is actually the prelude of the show, where the band opened for themselves as "The Cutting Edge Band" and played some of their earliest songs on a smaller stage setup. The main album brings the rock with sings old and new. I was not there for the show, but I'm sure for those who were there, it was an amazing night. It’s a blessing they were able to capture it so beautifully for everyone to hear. The concert film with a few more songs than the CD was also released on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Release Year: 2010
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Album Of The Day: Songs For Lent by New York Hymns

Album Art of New York Hymns's Songs For Lent album - With a beige border around it, a black-and-white photo of the East River of New York City, with what looks to be docks in the foreground on the left, and larger buildings behind those. A few bridges are spanning the river, and on the right side in the distance is the skyscrapers of lower Manhattan. The top half and a bit more is just clouds over the cityscape. In the clouds, it has the album title in red and the artist collective name in a smaller gray font just below.

About 13 years ago, I downloaded this album for free from the NoiseTrade site (RIP). Over the last decade or so, it has become my personal tradition to listen to this album on Good Friday every year. New York Hymns seems to be a collective of musicians from New York, mostly, but some in other parts of the United States. This album has a bunch of new and old melodies set with mostly older hymn or prayer texts, each song somewhat related to the traditional "Stations Of The Cross" progression following Jesus's torture and death that many churches remember today. The music is definitely structured as hymns, but the sound is mostly a simple, modern folk style, I think I would call it. It's a beautiful way to reflect on the day of Jesus's sacrifice. The album isn't on streaming, but it's easy to buy independently and provides a good hour of thought and reflection.

Release Year: 2011
Buy on Bandcamp

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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
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