Blog Archive for June 2025

Album Of The Day: The Boy Vs. The Cynic by John Reuben

Album Art of John Reuben's The Boy Vs. The Cynic album - A photo of a white man with dark, curly hair sitting on the edge of a precipice and looking down with a bit of a blank stare. The precipice looks like it's a prop set up in a studio, as the dirt/stone of it sticks out comically far to where the person is sitting, like it was designed by a cartoonist. There's also a blank wooden sign next to the precipice but without any text on it. Behind it is a blue background, with white fluffy clouds suspended in front of it, with thin white strings showing that the clouds are hanging from above Above the person's head is the artist's name in a yellow, handwritten script, and the album title in smaller white text below that.

Released 20 years ago later this week (June 21), this is the fourth album from John Reuben, and a bit of a departure from his previous albums. His previous albums were mostly "just plain fun and crazy" (as he says on one of them) and straight hip-hop, while this album gets a bit more variety of sounds with more pop/rock and rap/rock styles present. On songs like "Follow Your Leader", "Sales Pitch" and "What About Them?", John Reuben questions politics and the lines the church leaders are giving American Christianity today. There's still lots of fun, though; "So Glad" is a favorite dance/party song for me to get pumped up to and "Out Of Control" brings the rock 'n' roll to kick off the album. "Nuisance" is probably the most well-known song from this album, and it features Matthew Thiessen of Relient K on the chorus as John Reuben lays out his thesis on this album: He doesn't ask these questions to be a nuisance, "I just think we can do better than this." Thanks, John, for leading the fun and giving us some thoughts to ruminate on. It's not the most cohesive album ever, but I love all of it.

Release Year: 2005
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Kaleidoscope Superior by Earthsuit

Album Art of Earthsuit's Kaleidoscope Superior album - A photo of blue plastic man parts just after they came out of a mold on a blue background, such that they are still in the square bits with the small bits of plastic connecting each piece to the others. They are blue on a blue background. Printed above the photo on the top is the band name in LED-style blocks making up the words, with random blocks lit up on each side of the word in a deep pink. At the bottom, more blocks in an off-white over the photo with the album title name printed in small letters next to them.

"Do you enjoy the distortion?" Released 25 years ago this Friday (June 20th), this is the only label release by Earthsuit. This unique rock band incorporated elements of hip-hop, electronica, soul and reggae into their music. This album has lots of fun musical experimentation and is definitely more about fun jamming than any sort of message, although a few songs definitely do have religious references. This was one of those albums that definitely broadened my horizons of what music could be and made me realize I liked a lot more than just what was played on the radio or what most considered "normal" music. Some of the members of this band went on to form the band Mutemath 3-4 years later, which became one of my favorite bands ever. This album is a great collection of songs that is worth a listen for rock fans.

Release Year: 2000
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: The Legend Of Chin by Switchfoot

Album Art of Switchfoot's The Legend Of Chin album - The cover's background is a bunch of rectangles of various shades of white black, yellow-gold, orange and brown. The top quarter is mostly yellow-gold background with the word 'Switch-' in black. In the top right is a photo of a person who has glasses on and his tongue stuck out, and almost everything including his glasses and his tongue has a sticky note on it. The next quarter is extra tall, but the left half is a bright orange, and the right a light brown with 'Foot', the rest of the band's name, in black uppercase letters. On the third quarter which is also taller than normal, the left bit is black, while the majority is white and has the album title in orange, brown and black in smaller, thin letters. The last little bit is solid orange.

Released 28 years ago today, this is the first album from one of my favorite bands of all time, Switchfoot. Honestly, this is not in my top Switchfoot albums, but it's still a very good debut album. It has more of an indie-rock, garage rock or even punk vibe than most of their other albums, though many of the slower songs are in the pop-rock genre still. Like many albums from Switchfoot and lead singer-songwriter Jon Foreman's solo work, the songs wrestle with the meaning of life and striving to be the the best man he can be. Maybe it's the rawness of the three-piece band that makes this sound a bit different, because they have to keep it fairly basic with just guitars, bass, drums and vocals. On later albums/tours the band added more members for a more nuanced sound. Still, even if it's not their best work, it's some good songs and the band's potential to make engaging music that asks the big questions and challenges the listener is clearly visible. Jon is one of the best songwriters in my opinion, and this is the earliest available documentation of this fact.

Release Year: 1997
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: They're Only Chasing Safety by Underoath

Album Art of Underoath's They're Only Chasing Safety album - A close up photo of a woman's face, it looks like in front of a black background. There are no hairs in front of her face, and it's so close we cannot really see her scalp. The lighting is very bright and sterile from the front, though her eyes are in shadow a bit. Her mouth and nose are covered by a clear plastic mask held on her head by aqua green elastic straps going behind her head on both sides. Her facial expression is blank and her eyes are a very light green/gray color.

Released 21 years ago yesterday, this is the album that moved Underoath out of the Christian metal genre and into the spotlight as a post-hardcore, emo-rock band. One vocalist screams while another sings, and not only are guitars used heavily, but also electronic elements and other sounds to differentiate their sound from other bands. Lyrically, the band is telling stories of love and passion, relationships, and at least at the end of the album, a bit of acknowledgement of a higher power and forgiveness. It's loud, well-made, and full of energy on this 36-minute, 9-song album. This is probably the best album Underoath has made, though they've made a number of albums since, and honestly, the only album of theirs I listen to somewhat regularly.

Release Year: 2004
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Album Of The Day
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Album Of The Day: The Father's Song by Matt Redman

Album Art of Matt Redman's The Father's Song album - The bottom three-quarters is a photo of a reddish-orange wall and a young white man with black hair is wearing blue jeans and sitting in a red chair off to the left, such that most of his left side is out of frame. Printed in the bottom right is vertical black lines above the photo. The top quarter of the cover is a black background with the artist's first name in white in fairly large text, with their last name in red in even larger text to the right. Above the first name in smaller text is the album title in white.

Released 25 years ago later this week (in the US, if I have my info correct), this is Matt Redman's fifth studio album and the first released nearly simultaneously in the US and UK, I believe. By this time, Matt Redman was already a well-known name in the modern church music movement with the success of "Better Is One Day" and "The Heart of Worship" along with many other songs. On this album, Matt Redman delivers 14 new tracks of studio worship songs, including the track "Holy Moment" which had rock/worship band Sonicflood as guest performers with Matt. But I think the songs that have the most staying power from this album are "Let My Words Be Few", "Light Of The World" and "King Of This Heart". The production sounds a bit dated, maybe, but it's a fairly good pop/rock album from the worship leader. Matt Redman has now written and performed quality modern worship for 30 years now, and this album is a good example of his early career, where some songs (many of which are very good) were not sung that widely in churches but a few were adopted by many churches as songs for the congregation to sing together during services.

Release Year: 2000
Listen on Apple Music (The first 14 tracks; only available on Apple Music with another album, for some reason.)
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: You Are There by Ashley Cleveland

Album Art of Ashley Cleveland's You Are There album - On a black background, a black-and-white photo of a woman with long, brown-blond hair who is holding in her left hand a metal tin of some sort and ruffling through it with her right hand. The right of her is printed her name in large, uppercase gray letters. Below that, in smaller lowercase letters, the album title.

This was the first Ashley Cleveland album I got about 20-some years ago, and I think it's still my favorite of hers. Half of this album is recorded live on the road, and half is recorded live to tape in studio. This lack of heavy studio production makes it a bit more stripped-down and raw and shows the passion and talent of Ashley and her band. The album starts out with a great live cover of The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter", and includes live recordings of some of her songs from her first few albums like "Big Town" and "He Is". The in-studio recordings of new songs like the title track and "Your Saving Grace" are also great songs by Cleveland and her husband and guitarist/producer Kenny Greenberg. It's great music with a classic rock style, dynamite vocals from Ashley, and a bit of a Gospel flair throughout as well. I love rockin' out to this album.

Release Year: 1998
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Fractioned Heart by Gable Price & Friends

Album Art of Gable Price & Friends's Fractioned Heart album - On a brown background, a photo of five men. Four are standing behind a man sitting in a wheeled brown leather office chair. The man in the seat is wearing a golden yellow sweater, has a nice moustache and brown hair. Two of the four men behind have their eyes closed, the others are looking off to the side. On top of the photo in the middle is printed the album title in all lowercase in a beige font. And just below that, in all uppercase in a smaller font, the band's name.

I've been hearing people I respect talking about Gable Price & Friends as one of those new bands to watch. And as usual (unfortunately), I've been sleeping on it and just listening to my same old music. But today, I checked out this album and wow, it is good. Released on this day 5 years ago, this is the debut album from this rock band. It's quality rock, and with lyrics that both edify and challenge Christians in their faith, it's definitely a band I need to listen to more. They have driving rock with a bit of a poppy feel, and I really like it. I've only heard a few songs from their later albums, but they get even better, I think, on those later albums. If you're like me and haven't found this band, try giving it a listen and you might like it.

Release Year: 2020
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Album Of The Day
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Album Of The Day: Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys

Album Art of The Beach Boys's Pet Sounds album - On the bottom 3/4ths of the cover, a photo of some young men in collared shirts and jackets feeding a bunch of goats or something in what looks like a pen at a farm or something. They look like they're trying to feed them carrots and their expressions are a bit unsure on how well it is going, but the animals do seem to be trying to get the food. The top quarter has a solid green background and has the band name printed in yellow on the left, with the album title right after it as well in white. Next to the title is the list of all the songs. And on the far right, the Capitol Records oval logo in yellow.

On the event of Brian Wilson's passing, it seems only fitting to listen to the one Beach Boys album I own, Pet Sounds. It's not an album I listen to often, but it is certainly an album full of great songs and great musical talent that pushed the boundaries of modern music at the time. There's plenty of surf rock anthems and love songs, but there's lots of experimentation and introspection by Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys on this release as well. Even if you haven't listened to this album, you may have heard of songs like these: "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Sloop John B", "God Only Knows", "I Know There's An Answer" and "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times". I always enjoy listening through an album because there's a few songs you may have not heard before or don't remember liking before, and along with those hits, there are some fun other moments here, like the fun instrumental tracks. Rest in peace, Brian Wilson.

Release Year: 1966
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Album Of The Day: Summer by Jon Foreman

Album Art of Jon Foreman's Summer album - A photo of a blue napkin that looks like it was crumpled up and then flattened out again. On it is what looks like a simple drawing of a tree on the right side with branches full of leaves, and to the left a line of grasses of various heights.

Released on this day 17 years ago, this is the fourth of Jon Foreman's solo EPs named after the four seasons that we have in Minnesota, though I'm not sure they have them in San Diego where he lives. Songs like "A Mirror Is Harder To Hold" and "Deep In Your Eyes" are songs wrestling with love and relationships. I love the song "Resurrect Me", probably the most upbeat and rock 'n' roll song on any of his solo releases. "Instead Of A Show" uses Biblical prophet Amos's words to challenge those who use religion for their own purposes. And Sarah Masen joins Jon for "The House Of God, Forever", a version of Psalm 23. On this EP, Jon Foreman mixes ancient texts and his own thoughts and it all sounds like very fresh, acoustic pop that is relevant to our lives today. It's quick and beautiful, so give it a listen.

Release Year: 2008
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Dry Bones Dance by Mark Heard

Album Art of Mark Heard's Dry Bones Dance album - A man in a black cowboy hat and a black jacket is on the left side, playing a guitar. The man is in motion so the photo of him is a bit blurry, He has a brown beard and long brown hair and small circular, wire-rimmed glasses on his nose. Behind him can be seen a blue sky and a landscape of the western US, maybe Devil's Tower being visible off to the right over the top of his guitar neck. Handwriten in the top corner is the artist name in smaller yellow letters and the album title in slightly bigger letters.

Until a few years ago, honestly, I'd only heard of Mark Heard as one of those old-time artists of Christian music, since I only really started listening to music in earnest in 1998 and Heard passed away in 1992. And I'd heard a few covers of his songs by other artists such as Rich Mullins and a recent cover by Chagall Guevara. But a few years ago, I was able to get a copy of the remastered vinyl of this album and give it a listen. From a few listens, it's clear that Mark Heard was a classic folk-rocker. Though his sound is not exactly my favorite; it's a bit too country with lots of fiddle and maybe a bit too zydeco with a lot of accordion as well. But obviously he was a very talented musician and songwriter, mixing his thoughts on life with his beliefs and doing it all with a lot of energy. No wonder CCM Magazine listed this album number 29 in their Top 100 albums of all time list. It's not exactly my favorite album, but it's full of talent and passion and I should listen to more of Mark Heard's albums.

Release Year: 1990
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Buy the remastered digital version with bonus tracks

Album Art of Mark Heard's Dry Bones Dance original album artwork - Much like the original photo shown previously, this version has a more bright aqua blue sky. The handwritten artist name and title is more of a gold color and harder to make out.

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

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