Blog Archive for August 2026

Album Of The Day: Young Love by Mat Kearney

Album Art of Mat Kearney's Young Love album - On a solid, neon green background, a black-and-white photo of a young man in a black-and-white striped shirt, black pants and old-time cap with a short beard. He's looking down towards something in front of him and holding some sort of old boombox or something in his right arm. In the top left, in black is printed the artist's name in large black letters. The album title is printed below it in the same size but in white. There's a thick black border around the edge.

Released 15 years ago today, this is the fourth album from pop/rock singer-songwriter Mat Kearney. I think it's probably his best album, and that's at least partially because he seems to have written many songs, but he picked only 10 songs that are the best, they're upbeat and show his versatility, to some extent. His previous album was great though a bit on the slow side, and this album is definitely not that. Almost all of these songs have a very heavy beat, maybe inspired by some of his hip-hop influences. It's an excellent 40 minutes of well-crafted pop songs. Lyrically, Mat Kearney is mostly writing love songs to his wife—he just got married the year before—as well as struggles to love those in his life. The first three songs, "Hey Mama", "Ships In The Night" and "Count On Me" are the best, but don't miss the rest either. "Rochester" is the closing song and it definitely slows things down, telling the story of his grandfather in a very simple, acoustic folk style and it's such a fitting ending to the album. If you want to hear me talk more about it, there's a recent episode of The Album Anniversary Podcast where Caleb and i talk about this album for over an hour.

Release Year: 2011
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Age Of Reptiles by Showbread

Album Art of Showbread's Age Of Reptiles album - A drawing of a green lizard looking at and reaching out to a small, pink baby of some sort in a clear glass orb. The orb seems to be held by a large human and we only see its hands. The drawing has decorative black corners, and around that is a brown marble color. At the top, in large black letters it says the band's name, with the album art in a light brown smaller type inside a bright pink box.

Released 20 years ago today, this is the second album on a major label from post-hardcore/screamo band Showbread. Lyrically, this band mixes horror tropes with religious language and scripture, and as the album's title suggests, a lot of talk of various types of reptiles and other animals as a metaphor for our primal nature. Musically, it's a mix of very loud guitars, a good amount of synthesizers, and a lot of screaming amid some singing, though there are also some quiet moments as well. The epic, 10-minute closing track even ends with a soft singing of a modern praise chorus. This is one of my favorite records from the band, as the band has a lot to say about society and religion and such a unique style that they do it in. It's probably not going to be appreciated by everyone, but I really like this album when I'm looking for something harder.

Release Year: 2006
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Music

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