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Album Of The Day: Rivers In The Wasteland by Needtobreathe
This is my favorite album from southern rock band Needtobreathe. It's got a bit of everything: southern rock, some gospel influences, and some real honestly about love and relationships. Brothers Bear and Bo Rinehart started this band over 15 years before, and at this time were struggling to have a good, healthy relationship. They tried to write through this struggle in songs like "Brother" and "Wasteland". This album, I think, has their best sound and the most variety of types of songs, and every song is a solid one. Most of these songs are still played at their shows regularly 10 years later, at least on occasion if not every show.
Release Year: 2014
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Album Of The Day: Mission House by Mission House
Both Jess Ray and Taylor Leonhardt have their own solo careers doing singer-songwriter music, but sometimes they perform together as Mission House, a modern praise and worship duo. While their solo works are more personal, artistic songs in nature, Mission House is more about modern music for churches. Although a bit short for an album, this 7-track studio recording has some powerful songs of praise. Personally, I found that this music speaks to me a bit more than the stuff the mega-churches are churning out, for whatever reason.
Release Year: 2019
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Album Of The Day: I See Things Upside Down by Derek Webb
Singer Derek Webb was one of the original members of Houston-based folk-rock band Caedmon's Call. But in the early 2000s, he left the band and started his own solo career. I See Things Upside Down is his second album and my favorite of his albums. Released on this day 20 years ago, it's much more rock than most of his other albums, which are more acoustic or Americana. This albums an exquisitely-produced folk-rock album with a full band sound and lengthy songs full of beautiful instrumentation. Lyrically, Derek Webb calls the American church on to higher standards and loving our neighbor better while also speaking to our imperfect nature, which are things I've tried to take to heart. More recently, Derek has personally gone to places that don't resonate with me, but I definitely enjoy this album and his earlier works regularly.
Release Year: 2004
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Album Of The Day: Backbreakanomics by Mars ILL
Mars ILL is an underground hip-hop duo from Atlanta. DJ Dust creates amazing beats and intricate soundscapes including lots of obscure samples. Manchild delivers fast-paced raps with great rhymes and rhythm to them. This is their second major album and it's over an hour of top-notch music. I find that, for this album and their other albums, no matter how many times I listen to a Mars ILL album, there's still more nuance to the track and depth to the lyrics than I heard before. There's also a few great guest verses on this album too, from folks like Pigeon John, Bigg Jus, Jax and Flux. This is one of their top two albums from one of my favorite hip-hop groups of all time.
Release Year: 2003
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Album Of The Day: Storm The Gates Of Hell by Demon Hunter
Released 17 years ago today, this is the 4th album from Christian metal band Demon Hunter. I don't listen to tons of metal, but I do like this band's sound, and this is a good album from them. Plus, they've always got cool album artwork like this cover. The most well-known songs from this album are "Fading Away" and "Carry Me Down", but it's got a lot of other songs full of screaming, lots of guitars, great drumming, and lyrics of death, hell, but also redemption and spiritual battle. Like most of the music I enjoy, it might not be for everybody, but feel free to check this album out if you feel so inclined.
Release Year: 2007
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Album Of The Day: American IV: The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash
Released 22 years ago today, this was the 67th album released by Johnny Cash and the final album released before his death. Only a few songs are written by the 70-year-old Cash, but this elder statesman of country does a great job of covering songs from many other genres and writers and making them his own. Traditional songs like "Danny Boy" and "Tear Stained Letter" join songs from The Beatles, Sting, Nirvana and Depeche Mode. Like many of Johnny Cash's albums, it's not exactly very sunny and positive, as it speaks of a hard life. But this album does also speak to love and redemption. It's great to hear an experienced musician recording in his later years and giving shout-outs to other artists by covering their work.
Release Year: 2002
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Album Of The Day: 10,000 Angels (Part One) by Jeremy Casella
Jeremy Casella is a great independent Christian folk/rock artist who has been making music for at least 25 years now. In 2003 or so, he signed a record deal and recorded a great third album, but then the record label canned it because it wasn't what they thought the market wanted to hear. (I've heard it, and it's magnificent!) Despite this terrible setback, Jeremy recorded some of the songs from that album in a more stripped-down, acoustic format and released it as this EP, 10,000 Angels (Part One). This recording shows the timeless beauty of these songs as they still work great without the strings, backing vocals, and full band accoutrements. And even after being let down by the music industry, Jeremy kept writing and has released 3 more independent albums in the years since then. I hear more music is in the works as well!
Release Year: 2004
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Album Of The Day: Home by Jami Smith
Jami Smith has been one of those lesser-known praise and worship artists for decades. Home is one of her early albums, which was released on Vertical/Integrity Music, a fairly large Christian label, though most of her more recent albums have been more independent. Jami and her band bring lots of passion and energy to this live recording at Oklahoma Baptist University. I like the guitars throughout this recording a lot. The album is produced by David Crowder. Jami Smith's voice is beautiful but has a bit more grit and depth to it than some of the more well-known female worship leaders. Most of the songs are written by Smith, and it's an album I enjoy listening to regularly.
Release Year: 2001
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Album Of The Day: Mmhmm by Relient K
Released 20 years ago today, Mmhmm is my favorite album in Relient K's discography. Matt Thiessen, Matt Hoopes and the band kept adding layers of nuance to their earlier pop-punk style, and this album adds a lot of variety to that base. It's definitely very guitar-based and band-heavy, but sometimes they slow it to just a sparse instrumentation with Matt Thiessen's vocals and keyboards going in for a tender moment or even some electronic elements. Lyrically, it's clear that the band was growing as humans, as many of the lyrics talk about relationships, growth and a break-up of some sort. But there's also hope here for future improvement and that there's "Life After Death And Taxes". This one was definitely on heavy rotation for the next few years after it came out, and I still enjoy it all the way through 20 years later.
Release Year: 2004
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Album Of The Day: You Belong Here by Leagues
This was one of my favorite finds of the early 2010s. I saw this band open for a few other artists before their album came out, and I loved their vibe. Singer Thad Cockrell has been doing country and rock for decades, and the other band members have also been playing for other bands for decades as well. On this album, they come together to create energetic and quirky independent rock. Tyler Burkum's guitars are so unique and the drums from Jeremy Lutito provide a huge low end. The songs sometimes get me dancing, for sure. Unfortunately, after the success of this album and a year or two of touring, the band ended up splitting up, though a few members did record a second album that is not as good. Sadly, this album seems to be not currently available on streaming in the US at least, so you will need to try to find a copy elsewhere.
Release Year: 2013