Blog
Album Of The Day: Vitals by Mutemath
Released 10 years ago today is the fourth studio album from electronic rock band Mutemath. This band is one of my favorite bands and they put on such a great show for the tours supporting this album in late 2015 and early 2016. The lyrics are sometimes love songs, sometimes reminiscing on the good times of the past or even the hurt in their lives. But even with some dark themes in the lyrics on occasion, the music is still upbeat and positive. The title track is a fun instrumental jam, and the whole album is full of even more synths and electronic elements. Their previous albums had more guitar, but I feel like the electronic vibe makes it a more dance-y than their previous albums which is cool. Many remixes of "Monument" were released around this time, and songs like "Light Up", "Joy Rides" and "Used To" are definitely highlights of this album. This is my favorite album after the band's excellent debut, I think, though I really like all their albums. I can't believe it's already been 10 years!
Release Year: 2015
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: Soundtrack To A Revolution by The Insyderz
Released 22 years ago today is my favorite release from the Christian ska band The Insyderz. I love Joe Yerke's gutteral vocals and the band has a great ska-punk sound with lots of guitars and the occasional horns. A few songs like the title track and "Call To Arms" definitely refer to the Christian life as a battle against some sort of evil forces. Other songs have more of an element of praise to God. It's definitely been a few years since I've listened to this album, but it's a lot of fun to revisit this ska-punk band and their quality music again.
Release Year: 2003
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: EP by Astronaut Pushers
Released 20 years ago this past Saturday, this is the only EP release from this rock super-group, and it's just called "EP". Sam Ashworth is the lead singer and is a producer and songwriter, Lindsay Jamieson has done drums for Ben Folds and others, Matt Slocum is the primary songwriter for Sixpence None The Richer, and John Davis was the lead singer of Superdrag. They released this 4-song EP of quality rock with lots of variety in the sound. In 2022, the EP was released on vinyl and a 5th song that was recorded in 2005 was added to the digital version. It's a quick but quality collection of songs and worth a listen.
Release Year: 2005
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: Original Soundtracks 1 by Passengers
Released 30 years ago this Thursday, this is a side project of the band U2 with Brian Eno. Many of the songs are just instrumentals, some of them a lot of electronic beeps and bloops with the band's guitars, drums and bass. The band saw this as a soundtrack to a movie that was never released, and it's definitely very diverse and experimental compared to U2's other albums. The lyrics, when there are some, are pretty random and don't really make much sense. The only single on this album was "Miss Sarajevo" with Luciano Pavarotti singing a beautiful opera part. It's definitely a unique album from a band who was finding their place in the '90s music landscape.
Release Year: 1995
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: The Mission Bell by Delirious?
Released 20 years ago this coming Friday, this is the sixth studio album from British Christian rockers Delirious?. (Yes, they have a question mark at the end of their name.) The band that started out as a modern worship band had spent a time being a rock band, and by this time, they blended a bit of both, having the sound of a rock band but the lyrics of a modern worship band for the most part. While this album wasn't as exciting as their rock band albums in my opinion, it's quality music and I still love listening to this band, no matter which album it is. "Now Is The Time", "Paint The Town Red", and "Here I Am Send Me" are excellent rock 'n' roll songs with a good message. "Our God Reigns" and "All This Time" are a bit more chill and excellent anthems of faith. And songs like "Miracle Maker" and "Take Off My Shoes" bring some of that epic worship rock like "Obsession" and "Investigate" did on previous albums. Lyrically, it's not just songs of praise to God, as some talk about social issues around the world and the imperfections of this world God gave us. I do feel like I loved and were more affected by their earlier lyrics while these seem a bit more safe and predictable, but musically, the band kept pushing themselves on albums like this. There's a reason they're one of my top bands and it's hard to believe it's already been 20 years since this was released.
Release Year: 2005
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: Feedback by Derek Webb
Released 15 years ago today, this is Derek Webb's sixth solo, studio album and his only instrumental album. This recording is 37 minutes of instrumental, electronic music built as a reflection on The Lord's Prayer from The Bible. It's sometimes slow and sometimes fast, sometimes lots of electronic elements at once, and sometimes just quiet piano or acoustic guitar. The physical CD package also includes with it modern art prints for each track by painter Scott Erickson and photographer Jeremy Cowart to make the whole album presentation much more than just an audio recording. When I'm looking for some instrumental music, I do enjoy this album and listen to it regularly.
Release Year: 2010
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: Instruments Of Mercy by Beautiful Eulogy
Released 12 years ago this past Wednesday, this is the second album by Beautiful Eulogy, a collective of Portland, Oregon-based rap/hip-hop artists. Braille, Odd Thomas, and Courtland Urbano have decades of experience in underground/independent hip-hop, but they also are involved in their churches. Beautiful Eulogy is them mixing those worlds, creating a hip-hop album that draws heavily on the influences of folk music and hymns to be kinda a hip-hop/worship album. I love that many of the sounds in the mix of this album are sounds of nature mixed in with instruments, and I'm pretty sure some of the elements sound like beeps and bloops from programming, but they might be human voices making those noises and being sampled instead. Friends of the group like Propaganda, Jackie Hill Perry and Josh White also lend their musical talents on a few tracks. I love what the Beautiful Eulogy crew did on this album and their other two albums, and you should check it out.
Release Year: 2013
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: No Name Face by Lifehouse
Released 25 years ago today, this is the first album by Lifehouse, a moderately successful rock band from the 2000s. "Hanging By A Moment" and "Sick Cycle Carousel" from this album were often played on various radio formats around the album's release. Singer Jason Wade had a bit of an Eddie Vedder/Scott Stapp gravelly tone to his voice, which fits well with the post-grunge, alternative rock sound of the band's music. Lyrically, the songs are generally about the struggles of life with some love songs and some religious language. And well, the closing track "Everything" is a good and long closing track, but I'm not sure how I feel about churches using it for various dramatizations over the years. Lifehouse has never really been a favorite band of mine, but it's not a bad album. The band definitely had staying power, though, with singles getting Adult Contemporary or other radio play throughout the decade following this release.
Release Year: 2000
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: Westfield by Thom Daugherty
Released 5 years ago this past Sunday, this is the first full-length album from Thom Daugherty, a musician and producer best known as the guitarist for The Elms. Like The Elms, this music represents and speaks to the middle class, midwest American well and features excellent guitar and a classic rock sound, though it's definitely not exactly the same sound as The Elms. I like Thom's vocals as they are kinda deep and go really well with the rest of the rock sound. Lyrically, Westfield discusses Thom's views of social issues and how those relate to politics and religion. Some might not like that, but I find it makes me think about these issues and decide what I think, which is one of the things good music should do. It closes with a great song, "Porch Light", which is about visiting family and the places you came from. This album isn't one I have listened to much because I can't find a way to buy in lossless audio formats or physical media, but when I have access to streaming I give it a listen on occasion. It's definitely worth a listen to this independent release.
Release Year: 2020
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: Coming From Somewhere Else by Kennedy, Kirkpatrick, Madeira & Sprague
Released 25 years ago this past Friday, this is an album of four songwriters performing their own versions of the songs they wrote, many of which were popular songs by other artists. Most well-known by a wide audience is the album closer, "Change The World", which Gordon Kennedy wrote with Wayne Kirkpatrick and Tommy Sims and was a big hit for both Wynonna and Eric Clapton. Wayne Kirkpatrick gets to perform his own version of "Place In This World" which was a hit single by Michael W. Smith. Phil Madeira is a songwriter who wrote "Everywhere I Look" made popular by Phil Keaggy and "Hunger And Thirst" recorded by Susan Ashton. And Billy Sprague and Wayne Kirkpatrick wrote "Man After You Own Heart" which was recorded by Gary Chapman, and Sprague also co-wrote "Via Dolorosa" for Sandi Patty. They also recorded one new, original song, "Coming From Somewhere Else", written by all four together. While most of these were '80s and '90s Christian pop radio singles, here they find much more of a Nashville folk-country, somewhat jazz-y vibe with more acoustic guitars and the vocals of the songwriters themselves, which is cool to hear. Recording their own versions of these hits is not always something these songwriters get to do, and it's fun to give it a listen especially if you are familiar with the original recordings of some of these songs. The album cover says "Rocketown Writers Series" on it, but unfortunately, I don't believe that Rocketown Records ever released another album in this so-called series, though I certainly would have given it a listen had they done so.
Release Year: 2000
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify