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Album Of The Day: Men And Angels Say by Ashley Cleveland

Album Art of Ashley Cleveland's Men And Angels Say album - In the middle is what looks to be a photo of a white woman sitting on a wood floor taken from above. She is looking off to the left. Above this is a painted a brown, jagged line that kinda builds a roof over her or something. On the right edge of that line is painted black and the album title is printed there. And around the whole thing is a painted circle, making it look like some sort of porthole or spyglass or something. Above the photo of the woman's lower body is a black painted line and the artist name is printed there.

Released 20 years ago last month, one of my favorite vocalists of all time released this album of all hymns. It's hymns that most Americans are familiar with, but done in a beautiful Gospel rock style. I like her original songs a bit more than this, but it's fun to hear her amazing vocals shine on these hymns. Her husband Kenny Greenberg also does great work on guitar and as co-producer plus Steve Winwood joins Ashley on "I Need Thee Every Hour". A few of Ashley Cleveland's albums have had a hymn or Gospel song on them, and it is a treat to hear her sing more of the great hymns.

Release Year: 2005
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Album Of The Day: The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd

Album Art of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon album - Most of it is a black background. In the middle, is a black triangle with an inner glow coming from the edges. On the left side, a thin line of white cuts through the black. Inside the triangle, the white spreads out to be about 10x wider on the right side. And once it hits the edge of the triange, it's now larger lines of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

I'll admit, I've not listened to all the classics in modern music. About 20 years ago, I think I first heard a reggae cover of this album called Dub Side Of The Moon with a friend before I heard this album. But I found the cover album so interesting, I had to hear the original, so I bought a CD of Pink Floyd's album shortly thereafter. Released on this day 52 years ago, this is one of the most well-known albums from a legendary English rock band, Pink Floyd. Many of the songs such as "Time" and "Money" talk about universal themes and sound like pretty standard rock music. Other tracks, like the opening parts of "Speak To Me/Breathe" and "On The Run", are more experimental, more instrumental and using synthesizers and other things not-so-standard for rock bands to use. The band even performed the whole album on tour before the album came out. This album is definitely a part of rock music history, and is designed to be listened to the whole way through as the songs work really well together.

Release Year: 1973
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Album Of The Day: Lay It Down by Jennifer Knapp

Album Art of Jennifer Knapp's Lay It Down album - A photo of a young woman taken pretty close, where we can see her right shoulder, her face, and some bright sunlight over her shoulder. Her long, brown hair is partially covering her face on the right side of the photo, and covering her shirt that seems red on her shoulders and more gray in the front. her expression is fairly neutral with only a possible hint of a smile. Below her face and to the left is her name, first name in white and last name in red, and then the album title in smaller, light gray below. All of the text is in lowercase and a very thin sans-serif font.

Released on leap day 25 years ago, this is Jennifer Knapp's second album, and a worthy successor to her label debut. It's a short but sweet album, with the 9 originals and a Shawn Colvin cover running only 36 minutes in total. Jennifer Knapp's lyrics speak of God's love and redemption along with life's daily challenges. Though this album shows her country influences, the album brings the rock 'n' roll even more than her first album, and that's what I love. And I'm just now reading in the credits that Chris Thile of Nickel Creek plays the banjo on a few tracks—that's why it sounds so good! This album has been a regular listen for all of the last 25 years.

Release Year: 2000
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Album Of The Day: Hold Still by Taylor Leonhardt

Album Art of Taylor Leonhardt's Hold Still album - A woman sitting in a room on a wooden loveseat with leather seating, it looks to me. The wall behind is light green, and on both sides of the loveseat is endtables with 3 books under a small potted plant on the left, and one book in front of a larger potted plant, with a mug and some decorative glass jars on top of the book. The young white woman is sitting on the loveseat in leather boots and a long flower-print green dress. She's looking at the camera with a bit of a hesitant expression and has her hands resting on her lap. There is the edge of a dark red carpet in front of the loveseat and the rest of the floor is wood. In the blank space above the woman on the wall, the artist name is hand-written in a simple script and the album title is printed in a light brown below that.

When this was released, it ended up near the top of best album lists of the year of a number of Christian music fans, including mine (if I made a list). Taylor Leonhardt sometimes writes hymns and worship songs, but that's not what she's doing as a solo artist here. She's instead being a singer-songwriter, writing honest and introspective songs on her struggles with relationships with friends and family, understanding the nature of God, and more. It's a lot of ideas that many of us can identify with, though maybe it's a bit too honest for some listeners who want to hear only encouraging, positive music that glosses over life's hardships. The music is beautifully recorded with a full band pop/rock and maybe a bit country sound. Taylor's lyrics and heartfelt vocals are the focus, though, and this album is deserving of all the praise it got. I was happy to support this artist's Kickstarter campaign to make this album, and I'm so happy with the album she released.

Release Year: 2021
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Album Of The Day: Stereotype Be by Kevin Max

Album Art of Kevin Max's Stereotype Be album - A photo of a man looking at the camera and lit from the front, with a shadow of a building and a blue sky behind them. A bit of the green grass can be seen from the lighting as well, but much of the middle background is in the shadow of the building. The man is wearing a large-brimmed hat that is not lit, and it shades his eyes and forehead from view. We can see his nose, lips and goatee, They are wearing a stylish striped coat of mostly a beige color with black and red stripes. His right hand is reaching towards the camera. The artist name is in large, decorative letters in white. Below that is the album title in a smaller, simpler font. Below that in smaller letters is the track titles and the label catalog number in an oval printed over the photo in white.

If you've been reading my Album Of The Day posts for a while, you may have picked up that I'm a fan of the bit offbeat, artsy music along with some of the normal standards. So when Christian pop/rock/rap band DC Talk broke up, it's not too surprising that my favorite release was from Kevin Max, the member with the crazy harmonies and the poems. Max's first solo album, co-produced with Adrian Belew (King Crimson), is definitely an artsy rock record. Kevin Max's powerhouse vocals take center stage along with lots of musical sounds including some Middle Eastern styles and other world music. With songs like "Be" and "I Don't Belong", it's an album about individuality and universal themes more than the spirituality that was front and center in DC Talk. It's still a great listen and one of my favorite albums from Toby, Mike and Kevin in the last 25 years.

Release Year: 2001
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Album Of The Day: Songs by Rich Mullins

Album Art of Rich Mullins's Songs album - A photo of a man standing in front of an old stone doorway with a wooden door that has a red hue and some ornate black metalwork coming from its hinges. The man has shoulder-length brown hair and is wearing black. He's facing towards the camera, but has his hands completely covering his face. The outline of the word 'songs' is printed over the image, and in a smaller white font the artist name is printed to the right of that.

Throughout the '80s and '90s, Rich Mullins was writing the best songs in Christian music, first for Amy Grant and then for his own albums. After 8 studio albums in 10 years and just over a year before he would pass away in a tragic car accident, Rich Mullins and his label released this best-of compilation. It is some of the best of the previous albums, including the songs that became modern worship choruses, "Awesome God" and "Sometimes By Step", plus other favorites like "Calling Out Your Name", "Creed" and "Hold Me Jesus". Included is a re-recording of his first album hit, "Elijah", and a new song, "We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are". And I love Rich's version of "Sing Your Praise To The Lord", originally recorded by Amy Grant, with its extended instrumental intro as the opening song. I definitely love to listen to his entire discography despite all it's '80s production cheese, but this is some of his best and at least the most popular all on one album.

Release Year: 1996
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Album Of The Day: Just Kids by Mat Kearney

Album Art of Mat Kearney's Just Kids album - A black and white photo of a man standing next to a woman. The man is on the left, wearing a black letter jacket with the letters 'JUST' on the front and his hands at his sides. He's looking at the camera with a bit of a blank expression. The woman has long, dark hair and has her back to the camera and is looking off behind the man. Her arm is interlocked with the arm of the man. She's wearing a black shirt with the letters 'KIDS' in the same letter style as the letter jacket. The background is gray and mottled, and there's a thick, light gray border around the edge.

Released on this day 10 years ago, this is Mat Kearney's final album created for a major label though he continues to create excellent singer-songwriter music more independently. This is possibly his most straightforward pop album. The hip-hop influences that appear on some of his albums are here, with some loops and big drum sounds. The title track has the most hip-hop vibe with spoken-word verses and a great backing track with some programming. Upbeat pop is the style of the album, though, with only a few of the later songs foregoing the heavy drumbeat and bass for an acoustic guitar. Many of the songs are love songs, like "Billion", "One Heart" and "Air I Breathe", plus a love letter to "Los Angeles". Many songs speak to life's hardships and relationships, like "Moving On", "The Conversation" and "One Black Sheep". Listening to this today reminds me that this album is even better than I remembered and I should listen to it more often!

Release Year: 2015
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Album Of The Day: Sonicflood by Sonicflood

Album Art of Sonicflood's self-titled album - A photo of a man swimming in the ocean, where no shore or other things can be seen except the sky. The man is facing away from the camera and their head is below the water. The photo is black, white and various shades of neon pink. Above the vast ocean is printed the band's name, once in white and a few more times in smaller gray print, first forwards then backwards, mirrored.

Released on this day 26 years ago, this was the first and by far most successful album from this pop/rock group. Modern worship was not really that prevalent in the U.S. when this came out, and most worship sold was made by Vineyard and Maranatha label recording live at churches. Sonicflood took some of the most popular worship songs, added a few original songs, and made a very tight, highly-produced studio recording with a radio-friendly sound. Christian music fans and Christian radio loved it, though some thought it was cashing in on a religious trend. 26 years later, this album has some nostalgia for me, but mostly feels more dated than other worship albums from this era. Also, the prayer and preaching interludes were annoying back then and now are even more cringe-worthy. Note that the version on streaming is some sort of "deluxe" version; only the first 12 tracks are the original album.

Release Year: 1999
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Album Of The Day: Charlie Peacock by Charlie Peacock

Album Art of Charlie Peacock's self-titled album - At the top and the bottom, a light purple strip has the artist name printed in both places, as one is probably the artist name and the other the album name. On the top, the first name is darker, and the last name is lighter, and it's reversed on the bottom. In the middle is a picture of a white man with short hair and a slight smile in front of a purple background. The whole photo is only white and various shades of purple.

I'm currently reading Charlie Peacock's new book, an autobiography of sorts. So I've also been interested in the music from his 45 years or so making music and collaborating with so many other musicians. This is his second major-label record, and it's '80s pop that includes elements of jazz, funk, and more. His lyrics contain somewhat religious language, but they're not preachy and speak to his personal experiences as a man struggling with understanding his faith. It definitely sounds very dated as many albums from the '80s do, but it's good songwriting and quality production. I think my favorites were songs I was already familiar with, "Down In The Lowlands" and "Lie Down In The Grass", but the whole album is a good listen. More recently, Charlie Peacock wrote hits for Amy Grant and helped start careers of bands like Switchfoot, The Civil Wars, and many more, as well as he continues to record new jazz piano and pop albums.

Release Year: 1986
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Album Of The Day: U R Loved by Andy Hunter

For about 10 years now, the albums released by Andy Hunter have been more chill electronic music. But released today, U R Loved is the first album in years that feels like his old, EDM releases from the 2000s. It's a mix of songs with and without vocals, but it's all about the dance music. These songs are energetic beats and electronic sounds that would be welcome at a dance club or in a cool movie action scene. I am not one for dancing much myself, but I do enjoy some solid dance music like this. And it's always great to hear great new music from a long-time favorite artist, as I've been listening to Andy Hunter for over 20 years.

Release Year: 2025
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