Jackie Hill Perry started doing fast-paced rap with her 2014 album The Art Of Joy. Today, she's back for her first music release since 2018, this new Practice EP. It's a fast-paced barrage of raps, with 8 tracks totaling only 20 minutes. There's some good beats and rhymes, though, and I think I'll have to listen to it a few more times to get all the phrases and references. The theme of "Practice" is throughout and it seems to evoke a sports mindset. It's good to hear from her again, and I hope this means more from Jackie in the future.

Release Year: 2024
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You might have noticed that the last few months, I've been regularly posting an "Album Of The Day". You might ask, "Why is Dan doing that? What does it mean?" Well, here's my thoughts on that.

For my whole life, I've enjoyed music a lot. All kinds of music. I grew up on '70s and '80s Christian praise music and the occasional Christian pop, plus the Oldies station, and some classical music. When I got into high school, I started discovering the wider world of popular music. I like to listen to all kinds of music, but I did find I liked most the artists that were Christians trying to make good, true art. They're not always the ones that are popular, but their music and lyrics speak to me. And then, there's also some artists that are not Christian but I still enjoy listening to their music.

I have a large music collection. It's at least 1,500 CDs and about 50 vinyl LPs now, since some new music just doesn't get released on CD anymore. i rarely actually pull out the CDs and play, but I certainly like having the lyrics, liner notes and credits to refer to occasionally, especially since it's hard to find this data online, especially for obscure music. I have all the CDs and much more digitally on my devices too. So it's a few months of 24/7 music if I really listened to it all. Then there's the streaming services with endless amounts of new (to me) music to discover as well. But I love listening to music, so it's fun to fill the workday and the evenings and weekends with something new, something old, something rockin', or something to chill out to.

Because I grew up the era of albums, I enjoy the album format, even though it's a bit old school now in this digital age. Albums allow artists to tell a story and build a mood in the sequencing of their own songs. Even in this era of playlists and singles, most of the time I still listen to the full EP or album in order.

So the Album Of The Day is literally an album or EP that I listened to that day; usually I am listening to at the time I'm writing the post. (You can see everything I'm listening to on my Last.fm account.) Sometimes I'm inspired to pick an album that was just released or was released on this day in years past (and some friends sometimes clue me into these), Sometimes I'm wearing a band's T-shirt that day and want to listen to them. I do like to mix it up, so if the last few days were rock, maybe it'll pick something lighter or more electronic. If the recent albums were old, maybe I'll do something newer. But most often it's just something I randomly decided to listen to today.

I thought it would be fun to highlight what I'm listening to and share those on my blog and social media, so I'm doing it. It's not my top albums. It's just something I'm enjoying and listening to today. Maybe you won't love everything I feature every day. Hopefully what I write will inspire you to check it out, or if you've given it a listen, I would love to hear your thoughts. Otherwise, just enjoy the album artwork if you want. I just thought it would be fun and maybe it will inspire you to listen to new music and share what inspires you. Thanks for reading.

Released on this day 43 years ago, October is U2's second album. Setting out to make punk rock with universal themes to bring the world together, U2's songs like "Gloria" did improve their sound a bit and continued to hone their songwriting prowess. The Edge makes lots of great guitar sounds and plays occasional piano, while Adam and Larry's drums and bass keep everything tight and Bono flexes his vocal muscles, sometimes a whisper and sometimes a growl. U2 would go on to have a much broader sound, but I enjoy these early years of raw, passionate rock from time to time. "October / And the trees are stripped bare / Of all they wear / What do I care?"

Release Year: 1981
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Released on this day 17 years ago, this album was a trendsetter. At that time, the only way to hear an album was to either search sketchy websites for illicit copies, or listen with a friend who bought a copy. But Radiohead offered In Rainbows for free download (or a donation of any amount) for two months on their website. It's a great exploration of experimental rock, with Thom Yorke's soaring vocals, frenetic drums, and many layers of guitars. I don't listen to this album or Radiohead too much, but they are definitely some great musicians and songwriters, and I loved checking it out for free.

Release Year: 2007
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