"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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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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The cassette tape of this album is some of my earliest memories of listening to modern pop music. My parents were too busy raising five kids to listen to much music, so I think I had heard of this Michael W. Smith guy and asked them to buy the tape for me, if I remember correctly. In the previous decade, Michael W. Smith had been busy, putting out 6 studio pop albums, a live album and a Christmas album. This compilation takes the best of the 6 albums, such as "Go West Young Man", "Secret Ambition", "Place In This World" and his ever-popular "Friends", plus two new songs stuck at the start to make sure the fans have a reason to buy it. It's Christian pop at its best and worst: lots of Christian culture clichés like stories about Jesus, talk of abstinence and an end times reference, but also some personal love songs, edgy power pop considered "not Christian enough" by some, and a choral hymn at the end. This was released 31 years ago today, so take a trip back in time if you want the best of '80s Christian pop from a talented musician and songwriter.

Release Year: 1993
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20 years ago today, this EP was released and it declared the start of one of my favorite bands for the next 13 years. Mutemath started out as a few friends doing remixing, producing, etc. and turned into one of the best live bands I've ever seen. And this Reset EP started it all. The title track is a 5½ minute instrumental jam with amazing drum work and a beautiful mix of guitars, bass and keyboards as well as production tricks. "Progress" and "OK" showed they could write vulnerable ballads that the masses could connect to. And "Control", "Plan B" and "Peculiar People" were such energetic songs, they should have been the next big thing in electronic pop/rock, in my opinion. Sadly, despite a good amount of success, they never became a well-known name in popular music before breaking up in 2017. This EP started it all and it's still some of their best songs, though sadly it's never been available on streaming services to this date.

Release Year: 2004