Blog Archive for January 2025

Album Of The Day: The Narrative by Sho Baraka

Album Art of Sho Baraka's The Narrative album - On a grey background, a photo of a black man with longer, curly hair on the top and very short hair on the face and sides, looking to the left of the camera with a neutral face, not smiling nor frowning. The man is wearing a black suit with a white shirt and black bow tie. Around the edge is a black border with some extra flourishes around the corners, and indents at the top and bottom in the center. On the top, the black indent has the album name in larger letters, while the bottom has the artist name in smaller letters.

"Love over hate / I'm here for that" is a lyric from "Here". On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I think it's a good idea to listen to what our black brothers and sisters have to say on life, Christianity and America. I've got a lot to learn in these areas and I like this album from Sho Baraka as the artist shares his views through engaging hip-hop. In "Maybe Both", Baraka and crew talk about America's and Christianity's shortcomings with lyrics like, "Are they killing with a pistol or a vote? / Or, maybe, it is both?" as well as "So, are there two Christs totally unrelated / Or, maybe there's one Christ, and he's pretty complicated / Huh? Pretty complicated / Or, maybe it is both?" Beautiful instrumentation is beneath the fast-paced rap that encourages us to love our neighbor and be aware of our differences while embracing our similarities. I've gotta check out more of Sho Baraka's music as I'm really only familiar with this album, which I like a lot.

Release Year: 2016
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Album Of The Day: Alive & Breathing by Matt Maher

many multicolored pieces of light with black barriers between them. At the top is a purple sky with orange and red land below it. And in the foreground is five grey figures, all in cloaks and some holding staffs. Around theme are red flames and between the flames and the land are large aqua blue waves of water.

I'll be honest: Many of my friends said that they liked Matt Maher for years, but I could not really get into him. His albums were a bit too soft and didn't have enough of a rock edge to them for me, despite him being an experienced songwriter with good, spiritually-focused lyrics. But in the last few years, I gave him another chance. This album was my entry into his work, really. It's half new studio tracks and half new live recordings of Maher playing some of his most successful songs (often co-written with other artists) in an energetic night of music. This music is definitely modern worship for today's churches and it's also engaging, well-sung contemporary pop with a bit of a rock edge.

Release Year: 2020
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Album Of The Day: Tales Of The Knife by Lucerin Blue

Album Art of Lucerin Blue's Tales Of The Knife album - On a white background, the left side is a black-and-white drawing of brutalist building about 6 stories tall with a tree-lined street and cars moving up and down it. To the right, there's a drawing of a man in a jacket with no head and holding a large knife in his left hand. Behind the man, is orange and red circles, with the orange circle fully surrounding the red circle. In the middle of the red circle is where the head should be is the center of the red circle and it has the band name in white print in a fairly large font, with the album title in smaller font below.

This album came out when I was in college and I remember listening to this a lot when working out at the gym back then. Lucerin Blue was one of my favorite new bands in 2003-2004, and this album is still a fun listen. Lyrics are sometimes sung, sometimes more like spoken word/rap, and sometimes screamed over a bed of guitars, bass and drums that critics describe as "nu-metal" or "post-grunge". In a number of these songs, it's hard to tell if they're speaking to a lover or God or something, but there's definitely a bit of spiritual language here. I really liked this album and hoped for more albums from this Canadian band, but they broke up before they could release a second album, unfortunately.

Release Year: 2003
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Album Of The Day: Until This Shakes Apart by Five Iron Frenzy

four vertical scribbles with one across. These were scribbled over and over. The majority is very large print that says the album title, 'Until This Shakes Apart'. This print is revealing a photo consisting of orange and red colors, which seems to be a photo of some sort of large structure burning down with a raging fire. It looks like standing in front of the fire, looking at the burning structure, is a person.

This year, Five Iron Frenzy celebrates 30 years as a band, though there is at least one major hiatus in that time. Still, that's an impressive amount of time for a band to be together. Released 4 years ago this week, this is their latest studio album, Until This Shakes Apart. Five Iron Frenzy has always been a member of the punk/ska scene, and in that great tradition, this music has got lots of guitars and at least a bit of horns, although maybe a bit less than their earlier albums. Also, the lyrics are definitely pointing out hypocrisy and corruption in many of today's institutions: capitalism, American government and patriotism, and even Christianity and the music industry as well. I like to listen to music that challenges me in my thinking, at least sometimes, and Five Iron Frenzy delivers on that promise with a lot of style, a bit of humor, and a unique turn of phrase throughout. I'll be honest, I've never really listened to Five iron Frenzy much even though a number of friends were big fans, but maybe I need to listen to them more.

Release Year: 2021
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Album Of The Day: Winter by Jon Foreman

Album Art of Jon Foremans's Winter EP - On what looks like crumpled up notebook paper that has been folder in half vertically and in one spot horizontally is a sketch of a tree trunk and branches with no leaves, just snow and ice on its branches. At the foot of the tree is also some ground covered in snow and ice.

Released on this day 17 years ago, this is the second of Jon Foreman's four EPs titled after the four seasons. It is slower, mostly acoustic guitar-based songs that go well with a cold, winter evening. The first half has a few songs about death ("Learning How To Die" and "Somebody's Baby"), but then the latter half goes to themes of redemption in God and God's love for us. Jon also explores various musical styles, as the last song "In Love" has an east Asian feel. Give it a listen to celebrate it's release.

Release Year: 2008
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Album Of The Day: At Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash

Album Art of Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison album - A photo of Johnny Cash's face from below, with a microphone in front of his mouth. You can see he's wearing a black suit coat and a white shirt underneath, and that his guitar strap is going over his shoulder. He's looking right at the camera with an expression that may be him in the middle of talking. Beads of sweat can be seen on his cheek. In the top right the artist and album name is printed in a block font.

Recorded on this day 57 years ago, this album is the first ever live recording released by Johnny Cash. Recorded at the state prison in Folsom, California, it's an interesting look into the time period and the early days of Johnny Cash's career. Cash's songs are relatively simple and his band pretty small. Cash performs some stories of blue collar men and convicts, sings some slightly dirty joke songs, and also includes a few songs with religious overtones at the end. Included in the recording are announcements for the men of the prison, which are an interesting slice of life. June Carter sings "Jackson", "Give My Love To Rose" and "Orange Blossom Special" with Cash just months before they got married. It's a time capsule of country music and a fun recording, even though it does not have the polish of a studio recording.

Release Year: 1968
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Album Of The Day: Faith & Devotions Of A Satellite Heart by The Violet Burning

Album Art of The Violet Burning's Faith & Devotions Of A Satellite Heart album - On a black background on the left, the band name is printed 5 times in gray towards the top, and one time in white above the gray ones. On the right, three pieces of artwork of hearts on fire are shown, one with a cross above the heart and another with two hearts with a crucifix between them. All the hearts have a ring of thorns around the heart. These are smaller and repeat vertically, and after the 5th repeat the album title is printed in small print.

The Violet Burning has existed since the late '80s, and over the years they've been done modern worship as well as alternative rock. This is one of their more worshipful albums that they released this year 25 years ago. Many of the songs are 5-6 minutes long, so it's an hour of lingering in praise and worship to God. It's a good collection of rock songs about Jesus with a laid-back, chill vibe played by top-notch musicians. Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, this album is not available on streaming services, so you might have to track down a used CD or hit up the band's online store to buy a download if you want to give it a listen.

Release Year: 2000

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Album Of The Day: The Golden West by Ethan Luck

Album Art of Ethan Luck's The Golden West album - A photo of a western landscape at the bottom and the clouds above. The bottom 15-20% of the photo is the ground and it's a desert landscape with lots of dirt, bushes and a few cacti, with large hills/mountains off along the skyline. Clouds take up much of the photo, though a sky can be seen through the clouds. The whole photo is tinted brown/gray, so there's very little blue in the sky. The artist's name is printed in large type semi-transparently over the sky, then a red-orange line and the album title in slightly smaller, also-transparent print.

When I'm reading a book or working on something where I need to concentrate, I sometimes put on albums I'm really familiar with as background music. But other times, I'll put on an instrumental album as sometimes the lyrics may distract me from what I'm doing. This is a more recent instrumental album I've acquired. Ethan Luck has been playing music in studios and on tour for over 25 years and has played guitars, drums, and many other instruments. On this album of original surf rock compositions with no vocals, Ethan Luck plays nearly every instrument and took the photos for the album artwork. It's a really well-done album that is sometimes rollicking and sometimes more laid back, but always a good listen.

Release Year: 2021
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Album Of The Day: All Star United by All Star United

Album Art of All Star United's self-titled album - A photo of a sea of people, nothing but their upper body and heads before the next row of people behind them. It's a sunny day at some sort of outdoor event, so many are wearing brightly-colored T-shirts and hats and sunglasses. In the middle is printed the band name in a round, circular font in white with a large black border.

All Star United was Ian Eskelin's alternative rock/Britpop band, something he worked alongside writing with and producing for other artists throughout his career. This is the band's debut album which includes some beautiful rock songs ruminating on life, plus some that are a bit more tongue-in-cheek. "La La Land" pokes fun at those who use religion as a "good luck charm" as well as those who don't want to know the truth, and "Smash Hit" lampoons the industry that commercializes religion: "It's packaged right!" The music is energetic guitar-based rock, Eskelin's vocals are excellent and the lyrics are sometimes tender and sometimes a bit silly. It's the favorite album of many of the band's fans, though I do prefer their follow-up album slightly myself.

Release Year: 1997
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Album Of The Day: Best Laid Plans by Sandra McCracken

Album Art of Sandra McCracken's Best Laid Plans album - On a white background, a young white woman with shoulder-length blonde hair is sitting in white chair wearing a black sweater and shirt and red pants. In front the photo of her is printed the album title in white, and besides that, her name in a dark red that matches the pants.

About 20 years ago, I first became aware of the work of Sandra McCracken by listening to this album, Best Laid Plans. It's a beautiful, well-produced folk-rock album and I'm told a few songs even had radio airplay around the UK 20 years ago, even though McCracken is from the United States. It's definitely a bit different than the albums Sandra is most well known for now, which are more often modern hymns or reworking of old hymns and psalms to modern folk/rock. This is original, personal lyrics on relationships, spirituality and life and a bit more of a rock edge than her newer music. I think it's still one of best albums, though I do enjoy listening to her 15+ other albums as well. Thanks, Sandra, for creating such beautiful music for all these years and I hope you keep making music for many years. It was fun to see you play live a month ago in St. Paul, too!

Release Year: 2004
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