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Album Of The Day: Psalms by Sandra McCracken

Album Art of Sandra McCracken's Psalms album - A close-up photo of a middle-aged woman from the shoulders up, with her hands clasped together to the left of her chin. Her blone-brown hair goes down past her shoulders. She is leaning in and staring straight into the camera with a fairly blank expression. The shoulders are out of focus. The background is a dark gray, nearly black. In the top left, printed in a serif font is the artist name on two lines in a milky white, with the album name just below it in a pastel pink.

Released 10 years ago this past week (April 14), this album finds this talented singer-songwriter setting the Psalms to new melodies. The Psalms are ancient Hebrew songs and prayers and Sanda McCracken sets some of them to new folk/pop melodies. On previous albums, McCracken wrote folk/rock songs from personal experience, but with Psalms and her more recent releases, she has moved to scripture-based songs of encouragement and praise to God. Recorded live in a living room in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City, this album has a simple beauty to it and you might feel like the musicians could almost be playing in your living room right now if you close your eyes. It's an intimate, beautiful album with lyrics based on ancient texts and it's well worth a listen.

Release Year: 2015
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Album Of The Day: Farewell Show by delirious?

Album Art of delirious?'s Farewell Show album - Five middle-aged white men, in alternating clothes of white and black, standing shoulder to shoulder on a large stage with their arms on each other's shoulders. Above the band is printed in a worn blue type the album title, 'Farewell Show', with the words 'Live In London' printed in smaller text in the top right. Below the title in a smaller rounded box is the band word mark: the band name with a question mark, then a vertical bar, then a 'd:' as well.

Released on this day 15 years ago, this is a recording of their final concert performance as a band. On November 29, 2009, delirious? finished their last world tour with this epic final show at London's Hammersmith Apollo. Captured on audio and video, the double CD audio version presents nearly two hours of this final show with songs spanning their entire career. The second disc, tracks 15-21 on streaming, is actually the prelude of the show, where the band opened for themselves as "The Cutting Edge Band" and played some of their earliest songs on a smaller stage setup. The main album brings the rock with sings old and new. I was not there for the show, but I'm sure for those who were there, it was an amazing night. It’s a blessing they were able to capture it so beautifully for everyone to hear. The concert film with a few more songs than the CD was also released on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Release Year: 2010
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Album Of The Day: Songs For Lent by New York Hymns

Album Art of New York Hymns's Songs For Lent album - With a beige border around it, a black-and-white photo of the East River of New York City, with what looks to be docks in the foreground on the left, and larger buildings behind those. A few bridges are spanning the river, and on the right side in the distance is the skyscrapers of lower Manhattan. The top half and a bit more is just clouds over the cityscape. In the clouds, it has the album title in red and the artist collective name in a smaller gray font just below.

About 13 years ago, I downloaded this album for free from the NoiseTrade site (RIP). Over the last decade or so, it has become my personal tradition to listen to this album on Good Friday every year. New York Hymns seems to be a collective of musicians from New York, mostly, but some in other parts of the United States. This album has a bunch of new and old melodies set with mostly older hymn or prayer texts, each song somewhat related to the traditional "Stations Of The Cross" progression following Jesus's torture and death that many churches remember today. The music is definitely structured as hymns, but the sound is mostly a simple, modern folk style, I think I would call it. It's a beautiful way to reflect on the day of Jesus's sacrifice. The album isn't on streaming, but it's easy to buy independently and provides a good hour of thought and reflection.

Release Year: 2011
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Album Of The Day: This Beautiful Mess by Sixpence None The Richer

Album Art of Sixpence None The Richer's This Beautiful Mess album - A painting that is mostly a red background with a bit darker red on the left side. To the right 3/5ths of the artwork, a rough black square is painted and inside is a very modern painting of a person with hair down to the neck on the sides. The person is all a light yellow and has black lines outlining the eyes, nose and mouth. The features are a bit out of proportion and the lines connect in unexpected ways. Above the person in a box, it has the band's name in white in two lines of a very handwritten-style font. At the bottom in a smaller, dark yellow, it has the album title.

Released 30 years ago tomorrow, this is the second album from alternative rock band Sixpence None The Richer. I did not become a fan of this band until about 5 years after this release, and I think that I like their music from 1997 on more than these early albums, but it's definitely not a bad album either. Leigh Nash's ethereal vocals mix well with the band's jangly guitars. Lyrically, This Beautiful Mess talks a lot about struggling with a relationship with God and the ideas of faith, plus I think a few songs are love songs—longing for a friend. This album and their first album have less polish and more of a garage rock feel than their later works, but it's cool to hear where this band came from before they hit it big with "Kiss Me" and other hits as a pop/rock band in the late '90s and throughout the 2000s. It's also so exciting that they have resumed touring and released an EP last year, and I've heard that they even play some of these old songs on tour. Please do a headlining gig in Minneapolis sometime!

Release Year: 1995
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Album Of The Day: Chris Taylor's Worthless Pursuit Of Things On The Earth

Album Art of Chris Taylor's Worthless Pursuit Of Things On The Earth album - A photo of a wire-bound notebook with a scuffed leather cover that is even missing a bit of the bottom left part. Behind can be seen some pages and other papers sticking out of the top and bottom of the notebook on the very edges of the photo. A few coffee cup stains are also on the leather, just to the bottom right of a photo affixed to the front of the cover. The photo is of a man on a dark background with a brown leather jacket and a brown hat with a short, curved brim. He's holding the hat in his right hand like he is in the process of putting it on. He's slightly smiling and facing mostly to the left of the frame. On the leather above the photo is written in marker or something 'chris taylor's' and then directly on top of the photo is printed 'Worthless Pursuit Of Things On The Earth' by a black label maker.

Released 25 years ago on this Friday, April 18th (if my research is correct), this is an rock album from Texas-based artist Chris Taylor. Backed by The Ragamuffin Band on this album and featuring background vocals from Kevin Max on a few tracks, this is a fun album of rock that I only discovered years later, and still don't listen to too often, but when I do listen, I always remind myself I need to listen to this more (and check out Chris Taylor's other albums). The opener title track and the final track "Higher Ground" are probably my favorites, though the other songs are solid too. About 5 years ago, it was remastered and a few bonus tracks were added, and that's the version you can find online.

Release Year: 2000
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Album Of The Day: At The Foot Of The Cross, Vol. 1: Clouds, Rain, Fire

Clouds, Rain, Fire album - On a white background, a gold border is around the inside of the edges. At the top it has the text 'At The Foot' in large letters, with 'of the' below it in smaller and 'Cross' next to those words in even bigger gold script. In much smaller, to the right of a photo, it says 'volume one', and below that on the right is 'clouds', then below 'rain', and below 'fire'. On the left half below the title is a photo of a bust of an angel sitting in a sunlit corner of a room on its side with a bunch of musical equipment like a drum, a tambourine, and a neck of a guitar can be seen as well.

As we near the celebration of Easter, it's a time to reflect on the life and death of Jesus Christ, and there's a good amount of music to do that with. This album was put together by three California-based musicians: Derald Daugherty, Greg Flesch, and Steve Hindalong, as a concept album of "songs to inspire worship". It's a fun mix of styles: rock from Derald and Mike Roe, country with Buddy and Julie Miller, and a good amount of atmospheric rock mixed with even a bit of traditional church prayers in Latin. This album is the first appearance of a song that would be covered by many artists, "Beautiful Scandalous Night". I especially like Mark Heard and Kate Miner's version of "My Redeemer Lives". Like many classic compilations and special event albums, this is not available on streaming services, but it is available for purchase from The Choir's Bandcamp page starting at only $4 currently.

Release Year: 1992
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Above is the 2022 remastered cover. The original 1992 cover:
Clouds, Rain, Fire album - On a white background, a gold border is around the inside of the edges. At the top it has the text 'At The Foot' in large letters, with 'of the' below it in smaller and 'Cross' next to those words in even bigger gold script, all with a black drop shadow. In much smaller, to the right of a photo, it says 'volume one', and below that on the right is 'clouds', then below 'rain', and below 'fire'. On the left half behind the title and down is a photo of a bust of an angel sitting in on its side on a red background with a bunch of musical equipment like a drum and a violin can be seen as well. At the very bottom, in small black text, it says 'Songs To Inspire Worship'.

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Album Of The Day: Candycoatedwaterdrops by Plumb

Album Art of Plumb's Candycoatedwaterdrops album - A photo of a dark-haired woman with a fitted tee and a leather jacket has four men behind her on the sides, half looking at the camera and half looking in other directions. They photo is black-and-white with the white parts being a gold-grey hue. Printed above the middle of the photo, to the left of the woman, is the band name in big, white letters. To the right of that, the album title in much smaller letter, with the letters 'coated' in a light blue.

Released 26 years ago yesterday, this is the second album from the band Plumb. In the late 1990s, Plumb was an alternative rock band and Tiffany Arbuckle was the lead singer and face of the band. This album, Candycoatedwaterdrops, is a bit more pop than their first album, and even gets a bit country at the end. Still, this album's sound is mostly rock with a good amount of electronic programming and it is Arbuckle's powerful vocals that anchors the music. Lyrically, Plumb talks about some darker topics with songs like "Phobic", "Damaged" and "Drugstore Jesus", but still weaves in the message of God's love and grace that was expected of most Christian rock. The whole album is good, but the first 3 tracks are some of the best songs ever released by Plumb, in my opinion. Tiffany Arbuckle has performed as a solo artist under the name Plumb for nearly 25 years now, and her sound has often been more subdued or pop/dance and much less rock in those years.

Release Year: 1999
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Album Of The Day: In The Morning by Carolyn Arends

Album Art of Carolyn Arends's In The Morning EP - A black-and-white photo of a white woman standing against a wooden railing and holding an acoustic guitar in some sort of small, rustic chapel with wooden walls and a small, simple glass window. She has blond hair down past her shoulders and is looking off to her left, while she has her hands on the guitar like she might start playing any moment. In the bottom left, printed in white is the artist's name and then the album title in gold below it.

Carolyn Arends is a Canadian-based singer-songwriter who has been making music for 30 years or more. This, her latest release, is an EP of hymns. Some of the tracks are beautiful, acoustic takes on classic hymns like "Holy, Holy, Holy" and "All Hail The Power Of Jesus' Name", while others are less well-known but not less beautiful. Arends also pens "To Whom Shall We Go" and invites some other Canadian musician friends to join her on this EP. It's a solid set of songs with a folk/acoustic vibe that leads the listener to worship and prayer.

Release Year: 2021
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Album Of The Day: Look Up Child by Lauren Daigle

Album Art of Lauren Daigle's Look Up Child album - On a mottled gray background, a black and white photo of a woman from the shoulders up looking to the right an slightly up. The photo is mostly a profile angle, with just a bit of her left eyelash showing behind her nose. Her hair is up inside a cloth that is wrapped around the top and back of her head, covering most of her ears as well. What is visible from her ear has a long earring hanging from it, and her hair covering also has some braided strings hanging from it. At the very top, on the left in a gray-black is the artist name in small print, and on the top right is the album title.

This album made New Orleans-based pop singer Lauren Daigle a star, and it's a very beautiful album. Some complain that she sounds a lot like Adele, and there's certainly many similarities in their vocal style and musical genre. Daigle's songs are mostly slow-to-mid-tempo ballads and her backing musicians are hitting all the right notes. But Lauren Daigle's songs bring more of a reggae and Gospel feel to the music than you would find on an Adele album, for sure. Lyrically, much of the album is Ms. Daigle talking about her personal struggles with life, faith and religion. And the album closes with the hymn "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" with a reggae beat. I find this album full of very memorable, inspiring songs and it's a joy to listen to even if it doesn't rock.

Release Year: 2018
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Album Of The Day: Mercury by The Prayer Chain

Album Art of They Prayer Chain's Mercury album - On the bottom quarter of the area, an image of a blue/silver nature, maybe of some shiny rocks over water or just water in glass. On the top three quarters, the top half of some sort of blue-green sphere inside some orange fluid, with some large orange bubbles right next to the sphere, and smaller clear bubbles inside the orange fluid. The two images are separated by a thick black line, and on that is listed the band's name in bright blue script-like font with a thin white and then a black border. Below the band's name is the album title in a smaller font and a golden orange color. Behind that, over the top of the two photos, are red scribbles or maybe red paint strokes.

Growing up as the oldest of five kids, my parents were very busy, and didn't spend much time at home listening to music. Music listening became a past-time of mine in 1997 or 1998 in earnest, so I'm still only now catching up on what I missed for the decades before. So, for example, today is the first time I've ever listened to alternative rock band The Prayer Chain, who were most active in the early to mid '90s. Released on this day 30 years ago, I believe, this is their final studio album before the band members went on to other separate projects. It's definitely my kind of album, with 10 tracks totaling 57 minutes, so some of these are long, meandering jams. There's squealing guitars and the vocals are so deeply mixed into the music that it's really hard to hear what they're singing. But it's a great underground vibe from that era and fun to hear for the first time today.

Release Year: 1995
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