Blog Archive for December 2025

Album Of The Day: Professional Rapper by John Reuben

Album Art of John Reuben's Professional Rapper album - A black and white photo of a young white man's face cut out on a red and black background. On the top half, it's a red cityscape with black buildings, and on the bottom half it's red and black thick lines emanating out from his face. Around his face is a circle that has the artist name and album name printed in a white font with stars separating them.

"I have no opinion, I don't / I could but I won't / I'm tired of arguing." Released 22 years ago this week, this is John Reuben's fourth studio album and the first album where he really started to find his definitive sound that is a amalgam of rap with rock beds. John Reuben makes albums that acknowledge Christian values, but also ask the hard questions and have a healthy dose of humor as well. Some of my favorite rock vocalists show up on this album for background vocals, both Adrienne Camp of The Benjamin Gate and Tim Skipper of House of Heroes. Sure, he's a middle-aged white man co-opting the world of hip-hop created by black Americans, but he creates rap that speaks to me, so I love it. Thanks for continuing to speak truth and ask the questions, John. I'll keep buying the albums. "It's been 20 years, no wonder the '80s are in."

Release Year: 2003
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Never Picture Perfect by Rich Mullins

Album Art of Rich Mullins's Never Picture Perfect album - On a creamy white background, a color photo of a middle-aged man sitting on a chair in shorts and a black shirt. He's looking to the right of the camera with a very serious stare. The photo is very grainy and has a rough, kinda painted edge. Above the photo, written in a dark red pen is the artist's name. And below in a dark red italics serif font in all lowercase is the album title.

If you read my Album Of The Day posts often, you know I'm a big fan of Rich Mullins by now. He wrote great songs that talked about life's struggles but also found lots of solace and joy in Jesus. Released 36 years ago yesterday, this is Rich's fourth studio album and it includes a bit of his humorous side along with his normal Christian pop. "Alrightokuhhuhamen" is a funny way to encourage us to remember to listen when God is calling us to do something. "Hope To Carry On" was a song I first heard on WOW 1998 when it was covered by Caedmon's Call and is an all-time favorite song, even better when it's got the short "I Will Sing" right before it. "Higher Education And The Book Of Love" decides to condemn our Educational institutions because they are anti-God or something, and I don't know if I fully agree with that, but it's certainly a hot take that I didn't really expect from Rich. But wow, I love the rest of the B side of this album; "Bound To Come Some Trouble", "My One Thing" and "Somewhere" are all great, and with "The Love Of God" right in the middle, it's just a great lineup. This is only just over 37 minutes, but it's a great album of late '80s Christian music.

Release Year: 1989
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Then Came The Morning by The Lone Bellow

Album Art of The Lone Bellow's Then Came The Morning album - A photo of an older woman with white, permed hair sitting on the other end of a small table at a restaurant is sipping on a cup of coffee. She seems to be sitting by herself and have mostly finished a plate of food as it looks mostly empty. On the table are a couple empty side platters, a large jar with straws and a few other small bowls or trays with various condiments. Behind the woman is a brown wall with a small, square window. Up towards the ceiling on the wall is the band's name printed in an orange, with the album title printed in white in smaller text below it.

It's a cold, dark winter evening here in Minnesota, and after trying to decide what to listen to, I realized this is a perfect vibe for a night like this. Released 10 years ago this past January, this is the second album by alternative country band The Lone Bellow. Produced by Aaron Dessner of The National who later went on to produce albums for Taylor Swift and others, this is a solid set of songs that proves they had more than just a debut album in them. This three-piece has great vocals and lots of energy, though I found this album a bit more sleepy than their first album. Most of the time Zach Williams is the lead singer, but on occasion Kanene Donehey Pipkin leads instead. Zach, Karen and Brian Elmquist have great harmonies which is a great element of their sound as well. To call The Lone Bellow a "country" band is to put a label on them, though, as the music of the New York-based band draws as much from rock, folk and even a bit of Gospel elements as it does country. This group is a lot of fun to see live and continues to write new music and tour, though I have not listened to their last few releases as much as their earlier albums.

Release Year: 2015
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Album Of The Day
Music

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