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Album Of The Day: Beautiful People by Jason Upton
Jason Upton is a very unique, independent Christian artist. He is mostly known as a worship artist, but even though his music has a worshipful element to it, many of Jason Upton's songs have very personal and sometimes very not-worship lyrics to it, like this album's "Letter To A Petrified Sacred Society". Musically, Jason plays piano and often has violin and pipes featured heavily, though there's some guitars, bass and drums filling out the band, of course. This album, like many of his albums, seems very improvisational; four of these tracks stretch over 8 minutes. At it's core, Jason Upton is doing modern worship and artistic music performance together, which I enjoy. Some of my favorite songs on this album are "All Things Are Possible", "In Your Presence", and "Never Alone Martin", though I recommend the whole album listened in order.
Release Year: 2007
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Album Of The Day: October by U2
Released on this day 43 years ago, October is U2's second album. Setting out to make punk rock with universal themes to bring the world together, U2's songs like "Gloria" did improve their sound a bit and continued to hone their songwriting prowess. The Edge makes lots of great guitar sounds and plays occasional piano, while Adam and Larry's drums and bass keep everything tight and Bono flexes his vocal muscles, sometimes a whisper and sometimes a growl. U2 would go on to have a much broader sound, but I enjoy these early years of raw, passionate rock from time to time. "October / And the trees are stripped bare / Of all they wear / What do I care?"
Release Year: 1981
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Album Of The Day: Headwaters by Andrew Osenga
Andrew Osenga has been playing music for nearly 30 years, first as the lead singer of folk-rock band The Normals and later as one of the songwriters/singers/musicians in Caedmon's Call. Headwaters, released today, is Andrew's latest solo album. Some of the songs like "Living Water" and "Hold On To Me" are certainly rock songs that speak of life's struggles while pointing to hope. But much more of this album is praise songs to God and modern hymns, which is a bit different than some of Andrew Osenga's previous solo releases. The songs are well-written and the musicianship is top-notch. I expect this one will become a regular listen for me.
Release Year: 2024
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Album Of The Day: In Rainbows by Radiohead
Released on this day 17 years ago, this album was a trendsetter. At that time, the only way to hear an album was to either search sketchy websites for illicit copies, or listen with a friend who bought a copy. But Radiohead offered In Rainbows for free download (or a donation of any amount) for two months on their website. It's a great exploration of experimental rock, with Thom Yorke's soaring vocals, frenetic drums, and many layers of guitars. I don't listen to this album or Radiohead too much, but they are definitely some great musicians and songwriters, and I loved checking it out for free.
Release Year: 2007
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Album Of The Day: Rosemary Hill by Sixpence None The Richer
Sixpence None The Richer started making indie rock in 1992. In the late '90s, their romantic single "Kiss Me" gained a good amount of popularity and was played on MTV, the radio, and was featured in some movie soundtracks. Since then, the band has off-and-on been recording new material, though their biggest successes were often cover songs. Personally, I've always enjoyed their original songs, and this past week they released 6 new songs on Rosemary Hill EP. Leigh Nash's entrancing vocals and Matt Slocum's songwriting and music prowess make the band's albums a regular listen to me, and these songs are a great new addition to their decades of music. I hope we continue to hear more from them in the coming years.
Release Year: 2024
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Buy the EP in high-quality download and/or on vinyl at Bandcamp
Album Of The Day: All Together Separate by All Together Separate
My first exposure to this band and this album was the music video of vocalist Dex Alexander giving all of his voice to the song "Paradigm". It's a top-notch song and the music video is so good. He's a great vocalist, and it mixes well with the band's blues and jazz-infused rock. Their sound was fairly unique in Christian rock 25 years ago, and it's a shame they didn't get a few more albums to improve their songwriting. This album is a fun listen still today.
Release Year: 1999
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Album Of The Day: Me Died Blue by Steven Delopoulos
"Living in fear will drive you mad." Oh yes, this is one of my favorite albums of all time! Steven Delopoulos at times reminds me of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, among others, in his first solo album, though he also makes it completely his own sound. Each song is so beautifully crafted, from the lilting vocals, the beautiful acoustic guitar, and the strings and even a choir on the closing track, "People Come And Go". If you've never heard this album, I highly recommend giving it a spin. It's a great combination of folk, gospel, rock and so much more.
Release Year: 2003
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Album Of The Day: Deep Magic by John Mark McMillan
John Mark McMillan is another favorite soft rock artist. Though his earlier albums were a bit more guitar-focused, his new albums are more keyboard or electronic/drum focused, but still just as good of a vibe. "Roaring Thunder", "Deliver Me" and "Re-Enchanted World" are the most energetic songs on this album, but other songs such as "Has It Been You" and "Prove My Love" are good groves as well. It's helpful to hear John ruminate on his spirituality and the struggles of life through music and I would love to see him play live again one of these years, but I understand why he rarely makes it to Minnesota, especially with a full band. This is his latest album and it was just released a year ago this week.
Release Year: 2023
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Album Of The Day: John Davis by John Davis
John Davis is probably best known as the lead singer of alternative rock band Superdrag. But he's been in a few other bands and released a number of solo albums. This album, his first solo album, is a gospel rock album. Many of the songs are about redemption and a relationship with God, but there's also some more personal, introspective songs and love songs as well. This has some great rock grooves and it's a fun one to listen to again. I've heard John Davis has put out more solo albums and has reunited with his Superdrag bandmates, and I should check those out because I liked this album so much, but I haven't done so yet.
Release Year: 2005
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Album Of The Day: Cold Hard Want by House of Heroes
As you've probably noticed if you've been reading my regular "Album of the Day" posts, I have lots of music I like. And I like this music a lot, and I can keep posting these for a few more years and not repeat albums. But one artist I haven't featured yet is House of Heroes, who in my opinion is one of the most underrated rock bands of the last 20 years. They have created some great songs and epic concept albums. This album is full of anthems, from "Out My Way" to "Touch This Light" and the closer "I Am A Symbol". Tim Skipper's vocals range from a floating falsetto to a beautiful baritone and the others bring tight harmonies throughout, even while making a huge sonic landscape to go with the lyrics. I wish I got to seem them play more and it's sad that they are no longer recording albums, as far as I'm aware.
Release Year: 2012
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