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Album Of The Day: The Chess Hotel by The Elms
"Who puts rock 'n' roll in your blood?" Released on this day 19 years ago, this is the third album from midwestern rock band The Elms. Possibly inspired by The Black Keys, this album has a rougher, blues rock edge to it than their previous albums and Thom Daugherty's excellent guitar work defines the sound of this band. This album keeps the energy and passion up at a 10 throughout and the music and the lyrics work as a soundtrack to middle-class Americans in small towns across the midwest. A favorite track of mine is the epic "The Towers And The Trains" which rocks out for over 5½ minutes. This may be their best album overall, though the lyrical content is a bit dark in spots, and I'm totally looking forward to this fall's reunion concert. "We put rock 'n' roll in your blood!"
Release Year: 2006
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Buy the 4-LP set and/or final concert DVD from the band
Album Of The Day: The Ringing Bell by Derek Webb
Released on this day 18 years ago, this is the fourth solo album from Derek Webb, who also is a member of the folk/rock super-group Caedmon's Call. I like this because it's a short but fun rock album. Maybe I like Derek because he's a bit of a rebel, but I find it a bit fun and honest to question our politicians and our human leaders. But I'm also a sucker for some guitar and piano-based rock, and this album delivers that in spades. I loved seeing Derek and his wife at that time, Sandra McCracken, at my local live music venue shortly after this album came out on tour. It was like my tribe came to my town and put on a rock show just for me, though there were others there too.
Release Year: 2007
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Album Of The Day: Adventures In Technicolour by Imperial & Kinetik
Released 9 years ago earlier this month, this is an album from two British hip-hop heads: DJ/Producer Imperial and rapper Kinetik. I'll be honest, I partially checked out this album because the album cover art was so cool. And when I gave it a listen, I found the music was just as cool. Imperial's beats are high-quality and so fun to listen to. And Kinetik's raps are excellent; I love that British accent. Maybe I haven't been listening to enough Conscious Hip-Hop for the past decade, but much of the genre feels a bit underground and an acquired taste. However, I feel like Adventures In Technicolour sounds as good as and just like mainstream hip-hop. I don't know; maybe I just need to listen to more hip-hop. If you like some stylish rap that has more to say than just bragging about money and girls, give this album a listen and let me know what you think.
Release Year: 2016
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Album Of The Day: Live The Life by Michael W. Smith
Released on this day 27 years ago, this is my favorite album Michael W. Smith has released and it was the first one I owned on CD. By this time of being about 15 years into his music career, Michael W. Smith had finally grown out of his '80s pop phase and delivered a quality album of Christian pop songs. "Love Me Good" is fun pop tune with fairly silly lyrics. "Live The Life" and "Missing Person" show that this normally keyboard-focused artist had a bit of a guitar-based pop side to him. "In My Arms Again" was originally written for the "Titanic" movie soundtrack but didn't make it, and it's a good love song that finds its place here. And "Song For Rich" is a brief woodwind instrumental that honors the passing of label-mate Rich Mullins. This album is full of great songs like "I Believe In You Now" and "Don't Give Up", and it's a good album to listen through if you've never heard Michael W. Smith's pop music before or just haven't listened to it for a number of years.
Release Year: 1998
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Album Of The Day: Great River Road by Jason Upton
Released 20 years ago yesterday, this was only one of three albums recorded by Jason Upton that was released through a record label; another 16 albums have been only released independently. Jason Upton's music is a type of worship music, though it's definitely a bit different from most modern worship bands. Upton plays the keyboard and sings, and often has a cello or violin as well as other mostly acoustic instruments in his band, though there's some electric guitar on occasion. Upton's songs mix personal stories with scripture and are often fairly spontaneous is nature. The songwriting is good, his passion for God is palpable, and his team of musicians are excellent. On this album, a number of tracks, especially "Great River Road" and "Chop Down The Tree", contain flute, drumming, and vocals from Native American musician Bill Miller. The album ends with a beautiful cover of the Keith Green song "You Are The One". It's a great album and you should check out Jason Upton if you haven't heard his unique brand of music. Unfortunately, this album seems to be not currently on streaming services, so you might have to find a CD copy to give it a listen, or check out some of his other albums.
Release Year: 2005
Album Of The Day: House Of Heroes by House Of Heroes
Released 20 years ago today, this was the first major-label album from House Of Heroes, one of my all-time favorite bands. House Of Heroes made indie rock with excellent musicianship and the vocals from Tim Skipper are so energetic and passionate. As soon as I listened to this album a few times back in 2005, I became a huge fan of the band and their later albums got even better, though this one is still a solid album. A lot of the lyrics are about personal relationships and love. Though the lyrics are very catchy, they're a bit hard to parse sometimes, like the epic album closer, "Angels In Top Hats, Cups Full Of Blood", which seems to be about death of a friend, maybe in a car accident or something. For some reason, a year later their label re-released this album with a few new tracks and a new title, Say No More, and so it's only available on streaming in that incarnation. But this is the album that I got first on CD and continue to listen to from this highly underrated band.
Release Year: 2005
This album's 2006 re-release with a few new tracks, Say No More, is on streaming:
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Album Of The Day: Consume Like A Moth What Is Dear by Ronnie Martin
Released just a week ago, this is an album of original songs and sounds made by Ronnie Martin's synthesizers and drum machines, along with his unique vocals that mix really well with these sounds. Sometimes it sounds like industrial rock, sometimes like a cinematic instrumental, and sometimes robotic beeps and bloops. Like his 2022 album, the lyrics contain some references to mythic beings and epic tales, and I think it's cool that the tracks on this album have an epic-ness to match, as each song is about five and a half minutes on average. This electronic synth-pop might not be for everybody, but I enjoy Ronnie and his distinctive style of music from time to time.
Release Year: 2025
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Album Of The Day: Adventures Of The O.C. Supertones
Released on this day 29 years ago, this is the first album from The Orange County Supertones, one of the first Christian ska bands. Vocalist and guitarist Matt "Mojo" Morginsky provides a mix of singing and some fast-paced, rap-ish verses, and the band provides drums, bass and horns/sax to fill out the sound. The sound is definitely very basic and unpolished, but it adds a bit of an underground feel to the album. They definitely do a good job of bringing the message of Jesus on these lyrics, and it's not to the detriment of the music either. I got this album on CD in 1998 from a friend and it was one of the first albums I owned, so songs like "Adonai", "Who Can Be Against Me", "Unknown" and "Never Wanna Fall" bring back memories of that time when I listened to this a lot. I think it's my 2nd favorite Supertones album still, despite their later albums having a bit more polished sound. Plus, any album with a sample of Stan Laurel deserves a listen!
Release Year: 1996
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Album Of The Day: Pages by Future Of Forestry
Released 10 years ago last month, this is the third full-length album by Future Of Forestry, although they released a large number of EPs as well. Future Of Forestry started out as a band, but for much of the 20 years or so the band has been active now, it's mostly been lead singer, songwriter and main musician Eric Owyoung doing many of the instruments in the studio and having musicians play with him on the occasional show. This album, Pages is beautiful, mostly acoustic love songs that work well when looking for a quiet collection of music. Eric is a great songwriter and has been releasing both lyric-based and instrumental music independently. It's always a joy to listen to his compositions and the beautiful and simple production, plus his calming and heartfelt vocals. Give Future of Forestry's music a listen.
Release Year: 2015
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Buy on Bandcamp (with two tracks not on streaming)
Album Of The Day: Lincoln Brewster by Lincoln Brewster
Released on this day 26 years ago, this was the first solo album from Lincoln Brewster, a very talented guitarist who has mostly led worship at churches in his 30-plus years making music, though he was lead guitarist for Steve Perry of Journey's solo tours and an album about 30 years ago. Most of his albums follow a very standard modern worship formula, but this one is different and it is my favorite album of all his albums. This is an all-out, guitar-based rock album from start to finish. "Spin" and "Everybody Praise The Lord" bring some level of guitar-based pop with lots of energy and Gospel-focused lyrics. Slightly more moody songs like "Hey God", "On My Way" and "Walk On" bring a bit of blues to this rock album and are less praise and worship and more personal reflection on life and faith. Throughout, Brewster's guitar licks and the drums, keys and bass from his studio band are top-notch, and his voice is great for a rock album. Personally, I wish he would have made a few more albums like this, and maybe one of these years Lincoln Brewster would make a rock album like this again.
Release Year: 1999
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