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Album Of The Day: Joy by Martin Smith
Martin Smith has been leading worship at churches, clubs and stadiums for most of the last 30 years, and has also been in a few pop/rock bands as well. Released on Friday, Joy is Martin Smith's latest album, and it does certainly center on God and the joy that He provides us, even in hard times. Like many other worship releases especially in this digital era, these 10 tracks are expansive, averaging nearly 6 minutes per song. Two of the songs are songs previously recorded by Martin's band delirious? over 25 years ago, and "I've Found Jesus" is especially fun because it is a much more pop/Gospel/funk sound than the original band version. The old songs fit well with the new songs too, telling Martin's story and pointing to Jesus as the source of our joy and the maker of all things. I look forward to listening to this album more in the coming weeks, and as usual, Martin Smith writes beautiful songs that speak to me, even if they're not the ones that churches are singing.
Release Year: 2024
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Album Of The Day: A Liturgy, A Legacy & A Ragamuffin Band by Rich Mullins
This is one of my favorite albums of all time. Released on this day 31 years ago, this album is the most timeless Rich Mullins ever sounded, thanks to a talented band of Nashville session players and engineers. While other albums from Rich are a bit more '80s pop that feels dated or a bit more country than my favorite, this feels to me like a great pop/rock album which sounds great even decades later. Rich Mullins was a great songwriter, making beautiful melodies and writing lyrics that are sacred but also exposed his flawed humanity. From the opening of "Here In America" to the closing of "Land Of My Sojourn", this album is great to play right through. Though you might know "Creed" or "Hold Me Jesus" the best if you've listened to Rich Mullins before, the album has some great musical moments that are not as well-known.
Release Year: 1993
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Album Of The Day: Contact by The Benjamin Gate
This South African rock band was short-lived, but it was a very quick and energetic few albums. This second album, Contact, was not as revolutionary as their first album, but it's still a good set of songs, in my opinion. "Do What You Say" is pure rock, and "The Calling" was a good pop/rock tune for Christian radio. The Men At Work cover "Overkill" fits perfectly on this album and the band makes it their own. I love the guitars on this album and all the fuzzy audio effects. The lead singer, Adrienne Liesching (now known as Adrienne Camp) was an energetic front woman, jumping all over the stage and forcefully singing over the music. It's sad this band did not stick around for a few more albums.
Release Year: 2002
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Album Of The Day: Light In The Canyon by Sandra McCracken
Sandra McCracken started out doing folk music a few decades ago, but more recently has been recording new hymns, arrangements of Biblical psalms, or arrangements of old hymn texts. Her studio albums are beautiful, but this album is extra special. Recorded live (though with no audience) in a studio, this is 10 great songs from Sandra's recent albums with a more jazz-y sound. The musicianship is top-notch and breathes new life into these songs if you've heard these songs before. If you've not heard any of Sandra's recent music, this is a great album to start with.
Release Year: 2022
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Album Of The Day: Brace Yourself For The Mediocre by Roper
Reese Roper is best known as the lead singer of ska/punk band Five Iron Frenzy, but he has also had a few other bands over the years. Only releasing this one album, Roper was a witty pop-punk band. Brace Yourself For the Mediocre was released on this day 20 years ago, so it's a fun occasion to look back on it. Songs like "Hello Lamewads" and "You're With Stupid" champion the underdog and outcast of society. And there's references to Back To The Future and G.I. Joe in a few other songs, as well as a cover of Shania Twain's "You're Still The One". Like some other smaller, independent releases, this one is not available on streaming services, so you may have to get a bit creative or find a used CD to listen to this one. Also, it looks like there are a few other artists/bands that go by the name "Roper", but they are not related to this band and album.
Release Year: 2004
Album Of The Day: Practice by Jackie Hill Perry
Jackie Hill Perry started doing fast-paced rap with her 2014 album The Art Of Joy. Today, she's back for her first music release since 2018, this new Practice EP. It's a fast-paced barrage of raps, with 8 tracks totaling only 20 minutes. There's some good beats and rhymes, though, and I think I'll have to listen to it a few more times to get all the phrases and references. The theme of "Practice" is throughout and it seems to evoke a sports mindset. It's good to hear from her again, and I hope this means more from Jackie in the future.
Release Year: 2024
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Album Of The Day: West Coast Diaries, Vol. 2 by Charlie Peacock
Charlie Peacock has been creating music since the late '70s, I believe. In the '80s, he was bringing his blend of pop, Gospel, jazz and funk to the world, or at least the Christian music market. I love his songs and the fusion of styles. In this album, Charlie Peacock, Jimmy A. and Vince Ebo perform his songs in very stripped back acoustic guitar, piano and vocals only arrangements. Without a band and fancy production, these passionate songs still shine through. And the songs even sound a bit more timeless than the fully-produced '80s studio albums. I'm actually listening to a 2008 Remastered CD released independently by Charlie Peacock, which is not on streaming but is fairly similar to the regular version.
Release Year: 1988
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What Is The Album Of The Day?
You might have noticed that the last few months, I've been regularly posting an "Album Of The Day". You might ask, "Why is Dan doing that? What does it mean?" Well, here's my thoughts on that.
For my whole life, I've enjoyed music a lot. All kinds of music. I grew up on '70s and '80s Christian praise music and the occasional Christian pop, plus the Oldies station, and some classical music. When I got into high school, I started discovering the wider world of popular music. I like to listen to all kinds of music, but I did find I liked most the artists that were Christians trying to make good, true art. They're not always the ones that are popular, but their music and lyrics speak to me. And then, there's also some artists that are not Christian but I still enjoy listening to their music.
I have a large music collection. It's at least 1,500 CDs and about 50 vinyl LPs now, since some new music just doesn't get released on CD anymore. i rarely actually pull out the CDs and play, but I certainly like having the lyrics, liner notes and credits to refer to occasionally, especially since it's hard to find this data online, especially for obscure music. I have all the CDs and much more digitally on my devices too. So it's a few months of 24/7 music if I really listened to it all. Then there's the streaming services with endless amounts of new (to me) music to discover as well. But I love listening to music, so it's fun to fill the workday and the evenings and weekends with something new, something old, something rockin', or something to chill out to.
Because I grew up the era of albums, I enjoy the album format, even though it's a bit old school now in this digital age. Albums allow artists to tell a story and build a mood in the sequencing of their own songs. Even in this era of playlists and singles, most of the time I still listen to the full EP or album in order.
So the Album Of The Day is literally an album or EP that I listened to that day; usually I am listening to at the time I'm writing the post. (You can see everything I'm listening to on my Last.fm account.) Sometimes I'm inspired to pick an album that was just released or was released on this day in years past (and some friends sometimes clue me into these), Sometimes I'm wearing a band's T-shirt that day and want to listen to them. I do like to mix it up, so if the last few days were rock, maybe it'll pick something lighter or more electronic. If the recent albums were old, maybe I'll do something newer. But most often it's just something I randomly decided to listen to today.
I thought it would be fun to highlight what I'm listening to and share those on my blog and social media, so I'm doing it. It's not my top albums. It's just something I'm enjoying and listening to today. Maybe you won't love everything I feature every day. Hopefully what I write will inspire you to check it out, or if you've given it a listen, I would love to hear your thoughts. Otherwise, just enjoy the album artwork if you want. I just thought it would be fun and maybe it will inspire you to listen to new music and share what inspires you. Thanks for reading.
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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