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Album Of The Day: Summer by Jon Foreman

Album Art of Jon Foreman's Summer album - A photo of a blue napkin that looks like it was crumpled up and then flattened out again. On it is what looks like a simple drawing of a tree on the right side with branches full of leaves, and to the left a line of grasses of various heights.

Released on this day 17 years ago, this is the fourth of Jon Foreman's solo EPs named after the four seasons that we have in Minnesota, though I'm not sure they have them in San Diego where he lives. Songs like "A Mirror Is Harder To Hold" and "Deep In Your Eyes" are songs wrestling with love and relationships. I love the song "Resurrect Me", probably the most upbeat and rock 'n' roll song on any of his solo releases. "Instead Of A Show" uses Biblical prophet Amos's words to challenge those who use religion for their own purposes. And Sarah Masen joins Jon for "The House Of God, Forever", a version of Psalm 23. On this EP, Jon Foreman mixes ancient texts and his own thoughts and it all sounds like very fresh, acoustic pop that is relevant to our lives today. It's quick and beautiful, so give it a listen.

Release Year: 2008
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Album Of The Day: Dry Bones Dance by Mark Heard

Album Art of Mark Heard's Dry Bones Dance album - A man in a black cowboy hat and a black jacket is on the left side, playing a guitar. The man is in motion so the photo of him is a bit blurry, He has a brown beard and long brown hair and small circular, wire-rimmed glasses on his nose. Behind him can be seen a blue sky and a landscape of the western US, maybe Devil's Tower being visible off to the right over the top of his guitar neck. Handwriten in the top corner is the artist name in smaller yellow letters and the album title in slightly bigger letters.

Until a few years ago, honestly, I'd only heard of Mark Heard as one of those old-time artists of Christian music, since I only really started listening to music in earnest in 1998 and Heard passed away in 1992. And I'd heard a few covers of his songs by other artists such as Rich Mullins and a recent cover by Chagall Guevara. But a few years ago, I was able to get a copy of the remastered vinyl of this album and give it a listen. From a few listens, it's clear that Mark Heard was a classic folk-rocker. Though his sound is not exactly my favorite; it's a bit too country with lots of fiddle and maybe a bit too zydeco with a lot of accordion as well. But obviously he was a very talented musician and songwriter, mixing his thoughts on life with his beliefs and doing it all with a lot of energy. No wonder CCM Magazine listed this album number 29 in their Top 100 albums of all time list. It's not exactly my favorite album, but it's full of talent and passion and I should listen to more of Mark Heard's albums.

Release Year: 1990
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Buy the remastered digital version with bonus tracks

Album Art of Mark Heard's Dry Bones Dance original album artwork - Much like the original photo shown previously, this version has a more bright aqua blue sky. The handwritten artist name and title is more of a gold color and harder to make out.

Album Of The Day: Living With A Fire by Jesus Culture

Album Art of Jesus Culture's Living With A Fire album - On a bright orange background, in the middle of the cover there's a white matchbook opened on the left side which is full of matches. Six matches are sitting haphazardly to the left of the matchbook.

I'm definitely a bit conflicted about the state of modern worship today. Ideally, the music made by churches would be easy to be sung by congregations. However, much of today's modern worship music is made by mega-churches with huge music teams making arena pop/rock anthems that maybe could be performed by ambitious church music teams, but are not simple hymns or melodies that can be easily be picked up by a congregation or a lone worship leader. Still, I do somewhat find them fun and engaging to listen to, I guess. As an example, this recording of live worship from Jesus Culture church in Sacramento, California, is maybe the group's magnum opus; a sprawling 100-minute session of anthems of prayer and praise to God. And as the album title suggests, many of these songs are aspiring to living with the guidance of God's Holy Spirit. The music is meticulously crafted and rehearsed, but there's also a level of spontaneity as the worship leader and band riff on a song for sometimes upwards of 10 minutes. And having a large bench of worship leaders throughout keeps the sound fresh but still pretty consistent. This album is maybe a bit too long for even my tastes, or maybe it's just right for a long play for a Sunday afternoon or evening of reflection. It's definitely not a collection or hymns, though you may find that a good or bad thing depending on your point of view.

Release Year: 2018
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Album Of The Day: X&Y by Coldplay

Album Art of Coldplay's X&Y album - On a dark blue background, in the middle is a series of squares, sometimes connected to each other, with black at the top, gray below that, then white, then a series of thin red dashes of various length. Below that are squares in red, orange, then yellow, green and blue, with some purple mixed in throughout. Inside the album liner notes, this is shown to be a graphical representation of the album title 'X&Y'.

Released 20 years ago today in the United States, this is the third album from rock/pop band Coldplay and may be still one of their best albums. Lyrically, the band asks some of the deep questions of life here and it seems like the band was grappling with their new-found success and status as an arena rock band. Musically, it's a great mix of keyboard-based and guitar-based sounds with top-notch bass and drums as well for a nice full-band sound. This album is a great hour of music if you play it right through, and all these songs are well-written and fun to listen to. It was the biggest-selling album of 2005 and Coldplay was everywhere back then, so maybe you have already listened to it, but if it's been a while, maybe you want to give it a listen again.

Release Year: 2005
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Album Of The Day: Winning Streak by Andy Gullahorn

Album Art of Andy Gullahorn's Winning Streak album - A black-and-white photo of an empty flat spot of dirt with some hill and a kind of retaining wall behind it, and woods behind that. In the middle of the center is a man standing in front of a lone slot machine. The top half of the photo is all the white sky, and printed on top of the sky is the album title in large, bold black letters, with the artist's name in thinner, red letters below.

"There are some weird people out there." Released today, this is the 8th album from Nashville-based independent singer-songwriter Andy Gullahorn. I love his music because often his lyrics mix the humorous, the events of daily life, and the profound—usually all in one song. For example, on the song "Weird People", he says that there's lots of weird people, gives some fun examples, and sings that maybe believing in God isn't the weirdest thing. Musically, this album is just pretty simple acoustic pop with a tinge of country, but these simple songs do hold some worthwhile insights on the nature of life and spirituality. I really like his man-next-door vibe and his talent of tying a somewhat mundane moment of his life to some simple truth. It's been 7 years since his last album, and it's great to have new songs finally from this excellent songwriter and performer.

Release Year: 2025
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Buy from Andy on CD or Vinyl

A photo of a middle-aged white man in a home office shelves on the left and back on the right. He was thick glasses, a beard and moustache, and is smiling. He is wearing an off-white shirt that has the words 'I See Weird People' in big letters and 'like Andy Gullahorn' in very small letters below it. In his right hand is a vinyl and CD copy of the Andy Gullahorn Winning Streak album. The vinyl packaging is autographed.

Album Of The Day: Speechless by Steven Curtis Chapman

Album Art of Steven Curtis Chapman's Speechless album - On the left side, the background is a blurry green and gold, maybe a blurry shot of some bush or something, fading to black at the bottom. On the right two thirds is a somewhat desaturated photo of a middle-aged man with short, light hair wearing a turtleneck with the collar covering up his mouth. The photo is just from his shoulders up, and he has his fingers in a praying pose in front of his covered mouth and is looking directly at the camera. Across the top, it has the artist's name, with his first name in black over the green background, and his 2nd and last names in white above the photo. In the bottom left corner, in white on the black is written '[ Speechless ]'.

Released 26 years ago today, this is the 9th studio album from Christian pop artist Steven Curtis Chapman, and I think it's possibly his best album. Steven Curtis Chapman creates a bunch of fun pop songs and even gets a bit rock 'n' roll in moments on this album, while lyrically bringing Christian ideas and values. Despite being a king of Christian pop, he often makes it clear that he's struggling to find God and live his life as a Christian, which I definitely can identify with. Songs like "Dive", "Whatever" and "Next 5 Minutes" are the fun, upbeat highlights, but the quieter songs also are great. The title track ruminates on the beauty and majesty of God, and the album ends with slower ballads like "With Hope", "Be Still And Know" and a cinematic orchestral interlude between the songs that tugs on the heartstrings too. It's definitely one of my favorite Christian pop albums because it is fun, honest and made from the heart. Thanks, Mr. Chapman, for continuing to create music all these years.

Release Year: 1999
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Album Of The Day: Tension by Anchor & Braille

Album Art of Anchor and Braille's Tension album - The cover is split in two halves down the diagonal from bottom-left to top-right corners. The top-left half has a gray background, and the bottom-right has a bright red background. Inside each colors is a drawing of a hand with the index finger pointing to the middle and/or the other hand. The illustration of the hand stops just at the end of the fingers, so they are just fingers floating in air.

Released 5 years ago last month, this is the fourth album from Anchor & Braille, the solo pop pseudonym of Stephen Christian. Christian has been doing music for about 25 years, most notably the lead singer of alternative rock band Anberlin for many years. But this is his 2nd-most prolific outlet for songwriting, and this time Anchor & Braille has a 10-song album of rhythmic synth-pop. Lyrically, these lyrics seem to be about love and personal relationships. Each Anchor & Braille album is a bit different in style as Stephen Christian works with different producers, but I think this might be the most catchy, poppy release of this artist so far. I might have just been dancing a bit in my chair while listening to this album. Give it a listen if you're looking for something you haven't checked out yet.

Release Year: 2020
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Album Of The Day: Divine Invitation by Something Like Silas

Album Art of Something Like Silas's Divine invitation album - A photo of a clear blue sky with a green tint and clouds along eh horizon. In the foreground, on the ground are rows of wind turbines stretching high into the sky. The closest wind turbine on the front left has digitally added white ribbon-like things extending from the ends of the turbine blades and they are looking as if they are flapping in the wind. In the bottom left, near the base of that turbine, the members of the band are standing together. In the middle of the sky just above the turbines, it has the band's name printed in a thin white print, with the album name in a bolder, yellow font.

This is one of my favorite albums from a band that only that released one album (at least on a major label) and it was released 21 years ago later this month (June 15). Musically, this album is quality alternative rock, anchored by lead singer Eric Owyoung's beautiful vocals as well as great guitars and keyboards. Lyrically, this album is very much a "modern worship" style, with lyrics of praise, worship and reflection to God using very spiritual language. It's full of heartfelt, slower ballads and faster, raucous songs and it works great as a whole album to listen through. And I will say that as a rock fan, I like the cover of modern worship staple "Better Is One Day" on this album so much, though the original songs are even better. After this album, Eric and crew changed their style a bit and moved to the band name Future Of Forestry, which was less rock but still very beautiful, heartfelt vocals and lyrics. I would have loved more albums from this band, but things went a different direction and that's OK.

Release Year: 2004
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Album Of The Day: Roaring Lambs by Various Artists

Album Art of Various Artists album titled Roaring Lambs - On a dark brown, nearly black background taking up the bottom four fifths, is the title of the album in the middle and a block of all the artists and bands involved at the bottom. In the top quarter, on the right there's a photo of a group of about 10 lambs on the right, and one lamb on the left with an orange circle printed around its head. Just above where the lambs are standing is an orange gradient, some sort of sky, assumingly.

Robert (Bob) Briner was mostly known as an experienced sports manager and TV producer, but to the Evangelical Christian world, he was also known for his writings, like the book Roaring Lambs which encouraged Christians to be "salt and light" to the world—to be in the world and a part of the culture's conversation and formation. Released 25 years ago yesterday, this album brought some of music's most prominent Christian artists who were inspired by Briner's writings to write new songs on this theme, and for at least a few years, these songs were only available on this album. The only song co-written and co-performed by Christian pop kings Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman is on here, plus excellent songs from Jars of Clay, PFR, Burlap To Cashmere, and Sixpence None The Richer. The album has a lot of variety, from the classic rock of Ashley Cleveland signing with Michael Tait, the African sounds of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and a rare song from Steve Taylor, who was much more busy running the record label that put this album out at this time to record a new album. It was also cool to see some artists not traditionally known in Christian music circles like Over The Rhine and Bill Mallonee & Vigilantes Of Love on the album as well. And one of my favorite bands, delirious?, has recorded three versions of their track "Touch" and I think this is my favorite version on this album. It's one of the best multi-artist albums I own, in my opinion, with pretty much every song being good. Like many multi-artist albums from this era, this album is not available on streaming, so you might have to find a CD or some bootleg stream or something to give this a listen.

Release Year: 2000

Album Of The Day: Bongo Chico by Bongo Chico

Album Art of Bongo Chico's self-titled album - On an off-white background, the band name is printed in black letters with a bit of a bulbous, lopsided form to them in most of the top area. Below it, taking up the bottom third, is a thin orange line that looks like a bit of a smirky smile.

"Eh, eh-la-la, Sing with me." Released today, Bongo Chico is the first album from Tim Foreman, bassist of the band Switchfoot. Tim has been clear this is a side project and mostly just an exercise in getting outside of his comfort zone and doing something new, but I like what I hear here. It's definitely different than the sound of Switchfoot, more of a fuzzy pop/rock sound, and that laid-back surfer vibe is definitely present. Lyrically, Foreman's Bongo Chico ruminates on life so far, from his young teenage days in "1995" to love in "I Don't Need You (To Be Wrong)", and touches the present and future in "Maybe We're Just Starting Something" and "What Happens Now". This music doesn't immediately require me to listen, but after a few listens today, I want to listen to it more. Good thing the vinyl is being delivered tomorrow, then, I guess.

Release Year: 2025
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