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Album Of The Day: Crooked by Propaganda

Album Art of Propaganda's Crooked album - A photo of a black man with dreadlocks, a mustache and goatee, in the middle. The edges of the image are a bit glitchy, with some parts moved horizontally. The background is a patchwork of textures, boxes and things interconnected, some of them made up of the photo of the man's face or another similar photo. Below his face, the album title 'Crooked' is printed in a dark green with each letter's top part a bit off-center from the bottom part.

"I don't hate America, just demand she keeps her promises." Released 8 years ago today, this is my favorite album from rapper Propaganda and one of my favorite rap albums ever. I first heard Propaganda in the LA crew Tunnel Rats back in the early 2000s, and "Slow Cook" and "Do Know Wrong" definitely incorporate some of the vibes from the underground rap that was Propaganda's start. Still, the poet and rapper known as Propaganda has done so much more than that since then, and the musical styles on this album reflects that. "Crooked Ways", "Cynical" and "Gentrify" are some of my favorites here. "It's Complicated" and "I Hate Cats" are more spoken word interludes than rap, but fit really well into the album, in my opinion. Propaganda clearly shares his worldview as a black man throughout and digging into his lyrics has definitely helped educate me on the life of black people in today's culture. I might not fully understand everything he's saying yet or the communities he comes from, but I love the sounds and his wordplay, plus the excellent music his team put together for this album. Thanks, Propaganda, for reaching out to so many communities and coming to Minneapolis and AudioFeed to perform live, and I hope we continue to get new music from you as the world spins on.

Release Year: 2017
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Album Of The Day: Travel III by Future Of Forestry

Album Art of Future Of Forestry's Travel III album - A colorful art piece of a blond-haired young woman sitting against the front of a classic sedan car from probably 50 years ago or so. Her dress is orange, and the car is blue, and the sky behind is various shades of yellow and orange in a somewhat simple line drawing style. At the top, the band name is printed with a decorative chevron in grey below it. At the bottom, over the art is printed the album title in a gold and dark blue bubble.

Released 15 years ago today, this was the third of three EPs released by Future Of Forestry on the theme of "travel", and it's one of their best releases in my opinion. The band gets going with the rockin' "Bold & Underlined", and definitely gets more electronic with "Protection". "Did You Lose Yourself?" is probably the best song on the EP, with a beautiful pop sound and strings that are a foretaste of the band's sound on their later independent releases. Eric Owyoung, the songwriter and musician who is the heart of Future Of Forestry, its a very talented writer and these Travel I, Travel II, and Travel III EPs were fun explorations of his talents and the many types of songs he can create. This EP is maybe the most rock 'n' roll the band ever gets, which is unfortunate in my opinion, but I continue to love the music put out by Future Of Forestry for almost 20 years now.

Release Year: 2010
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Album Of The Day: If In Case You Feel The Same by Thad Cockrell

Album Art of Thad Cockrell's If In Case You Feel The Same album - A collage of various photos and art, all cut together in random shapes. In the middle, the majority of it seems to be a bush and some flowers that are mostly pink/red and may have some sort of double-exposure or mis-printed colors involved. In the top right and across the top, there's what looks like hand-made, simple graphics of line and color that could be made in Microsoft Paint or something. Along the left edge, an orange/purple sunset sky gradient with a silhouette of a palm tree in front of it. And at the bottom, a different picture of a far-off pink sunset with many palm trees in front of it, and some cars lined up an street in the foreground. Above all these, in big letters the album title is printed in white.

"If I'm gonna go down, I'm gonna go down swingin'." Released 5 years ago earlier this week, this is the fourth album released under Thad's name, among albums recorded with other friends and the band Leagues. It's a fun collection of indie rock, though the musical influences in these songs are clearly include pop, electronic, gospel and country. Thad Cockrell has been a singer-songwriter for over 25 years and has co-written with many different artists across many genres. This album is a solid 10 tracks about love found and lost. I think my favorite part is the middle tracks: "Slow And Steady", "Love Moves In" and "Fill My Cup", though the it's a great listen all the way through.

Release Year: 2020
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Album Of The Day: Starflyer 59 by Starflyer 59

Album Art of Starflyer 59's Starflyer 59 album - A solid gold color; not yellow and not brown but gold. Nothing else to distinguish it on the cover like a band name or title.

Released 30 years ago today, this is the second studio album from shoegaze/indie rock band Starflyer 59. In the early '90s, My Bloody Valentine started the "shoegaze" genre, where the vocals were often lost in a sea of distorted guitars and other instruments. In 1995, this second self-titled album by Starflyer 59, also known as "Gold" for its solid gold-colored cover artwork, was later recognized in Pitchfork Magazine's Top 50 Shoegaze albums as developing the genre of shoegaze further in the mid-90s. It's definitely 50 minutes of heavily distorted guitars and somewhat sad or angsty love songs. Though not as accessible as much of their later indie-pop music, it still has its charms and is a good album to listen to straight through, in my opinion. I love that Tooth & Nail and now Velvet Blue Music releases the prolific, rather offbeat music of Jason Martin (Starflyer 59) for all these years. Though it's not something I listen to very regularly, Starflyer 59 is always an interesting listen.

Release Year: 1995
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Album Of The Day: We Walk This Road by Robert Randolph & The Family Band

Album Art of Robert Randolph & The Family Band's We Walk This Road album - A photo of a young, black man in a very nice metallic gray suit is standing in front of a slide guitar with a bright red housing, and his hands are just touching the strings. He's looking down at the instrument and the background seems to be a pretty standard photo studio backdrop of a marble pattern lit more in the middle. Above the photo is printed the artist's name in large white sans-serif font off to the left, with 'and the family band' below it smaller. Even smaller below that is the album title in gray.

Released 15 years ago tomorrow, this is the fourth album from R&B/gospel/rock group Robert Randolph & The Family Band, and it's one of their best in my opinion. The band and their lead singer/pedal steel guitarist got their start at church but their first three albums were much more in the "jam band" rock genre than this album, which definitely still has elements of those classic R&B/rock jams. Produced by T-Bone Burnett, this album celebrates their many musical and spiritual influences. Along with a number of original songs, covers of classic songs by Blind Willie Johnson, Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Prince are spread throughout this album and they are great new versions. It definitely celebrates their Gospel roots as well as a variety of other musical influences. As always, the band's musicianship is great and Robert Randolph's skills on the pedal steel are jaw-dropping. Sadly, it seems like the version on streaming doesn't have the brief clips of classic Gospel groups between some of the songs ("segue" tracks) which definitely contribute to the feel of the album—tying past to present—which is I guess a reason to get your own copy on CD or double LP.

Release Year: 2010
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Album Of The Day: Coming To Life by The Normals

Album Art of The Normals's Coming To Life album - A photo of what looks like a square-shaped, leather bound book cover, with a beautiful leather patina and wear on the edges of the brown cover. In the middle, affixed slightly off-axis from straight, is a photo of 5 men standing in the middle of a large grassy space in front of a classic-looking building in the background. They're standing wearing coats and not really standing right next to each other; more spread apart. Above them is the band's name in a slightly script-like font, and below the photo the album title in similar white font.

Released 25 years ago today, this is the second album from alternative rock band The Normals. These were young men who were interested in making raw, honest rock about their life and loves, and that included some thoughts on their faith in God and women they were romantically involved in. This was a favorite album of mine in the following years, and I still love to give it a listen. As I've watched Andrew Osenga and a few other members go on to do other things musically and professionally, it's clear they have matured a lot since then, but it's still fun to relive their passion and earnestness for tackling the challenges of life from The Normals era. Favorite tracks are "Every Moment", "The Best I Can", "We Are The Beggars At The Foot Of God's Door" and the title track. These songs never really made it on the radio, but it's still an album I love to listen to all these years later.

Release Year: 2000
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Album Of The Day: The Boy Vs. The Cynic by John Reuben

Album Art of John Reuben's The Boy Vs. The Cynic album - A photo of a white man with dark, curly hair sitting on the edge of a precipice and looking down with a bit of a blank stare. The precipice looks like it's a prop set up in a studio, as the dirt/stone of it sticks out comically far to where the person is sitting, like it was designed by a cartoonist. There's also a blank wooden sign next to the precipice but without any text on it. Behind it is a blue background, with white fluffy clouds suspended in front of it, with thin white strings showing that the clouds are hanging from above Above the person's head is the artist's name in a yellow, handwritten script, and the album title in smaller white text below that.

Released 20 years ago later this week (June 21), this is the fourth album from John Reuben, and a bit of a departure from his previous albums. His previous albums were mostly "just plain fun and crazy" (as he says on one of them) and straight hip-hop, while this album gets a bit more variety of sounds with more pop/rock and rap/rock styles present. On songs like "Follow Your Leader", "Sales Pitch" and "What About Them?", John Reuben questions politics and the lines the church leaders are giving American Christianity today. There's still lots of fun, though; "So Glad" is a favorite dance/party song for me to get pumped up to and "Out Of Control" brings the rock 'n' roll to kick off the album. "Nuisance" is probably the most well-known song from this album, and it features Matthew Thiessen of Relient K on the chorus as John Reuben lays out his thesis on this album: He doesn't ask these questions to be a nuisance, "I just think we can do better than this." Thanks, John, for leading the fun and giving us some thoughts to ruminate on. It's not the most cohesive album ever, but I love all of it.

Release Year: 2005
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Album Of The Day: Kaleidoscope Superior by Earthsuit

Album Art of Earthsuit's Kaleidoscope Superior album - A photo of blue plastic man parts just after they came out of a mold on a blue background, such that they are still in the square bits with the small bits of plastic connecting each piece to the others. They are blue on a blue background. Printed above the photo on the top is the band name in LED-style blocks making up the words, with random blocks lit up on each side of the word in a deep pink. At the bottom, more blocks in an off-white over the photo with the album title name printed in small letters next to them.

"Do you enjoy the distortion?" Released 25 years ago this Friday (June 20th), this is the only label release by Earthsuit. This unique rock band incorporated elements of hip-hop, electronica, soul and reggae into their music. This album has lots of fun musical experimentation and is definitely more about fun jamming than any sort of message, although a few songs definitely do have religious references. This was one of those albums that definitely broadened my horizons of what music could be and made me realize I liked a lot more than just what was played on the radio or what most considered "normal" music. Some of the members of this band went on to form the band Mutemath 3-4 years later, which became one of my favorite bands ever. This album is a great collection of songs that is worth a listen for rock fans.

Release Year: 2000
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Album Of The Day: The Legend Of Chin by Switchfoot

Album Art of Switchfoot's The Legend Of Chin album - The cover's background is a bunch of rectangles of various shades of white black, yellow-gold, orange and brown. The top quarter is mostly yellow-gold background with the word 'Switch-' in black. In the top right is a photo of a person who has glasses on and his tongue stuck out, and almost everything including his glasses and his tongue has a sticky note on it. The next quarter is extra tall, but the left half is a bright orange, and the right a light brown with 'Foot', the rest of the band's name, in black uppercase letters. On the third quarter which is also taller than normal, the left bit is black, while the majority is white and has the album title in orange, brown and black in smaller, thin letters. The last little bit is solid orange.

Released 28 years ago today, this is the first album from one of my favorite bands of all time, Switchfoot. Honestly, this is not in my top Switchfoot albums, but it's still a very good debut album. It has more of an indie-rock, garage rock or even punk vibe than most of their other albums, though many of the slower songs are in the pop-rock genre still. Like many albums from Switchfoot and lead singer-songwriter Jon Foreman's solo work, the songs wrestle with the meaning of life and striving to be the the best man he can be. Maybe it's the rawness of the three-piece band that makes this sound a bit different, because they have to keep it fairly basic with just guitars, bass, drums and vocals. On later albums/tours the band added more members for a more nuanced sound. Still, even if it's not their best work, it's some good songs and the band's potential to make engaging music that asks the big questions and challenges the listener is clearly visible. Jon is one of the best songwriters in my opinion, and this is the earliest available documentation of this fact.

Release Year: 1997
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Album Of The Day: They're Only Chasing Safety by Underoath

Album Art of Underoath's They're Only Chasing Safety album - A close up photo of a woman's face, it looks like in front of a black background. There are no hairs in front of her face, and it's so close we cannot really see her scalp. The lighting is very bright and sterile from the front, though her eyes are in shadow a bit. Her mouth and nose are covered by a clear plastic mask held on her head by aqua green elastic straps going behind her head on both sides. Her facial expression is blank and her eyes are a very light green/gray color.

Released 21 years ago yesterday, this is the album that moved Underoath out of the Christian metal genre and into the spotlight as a post-hardcore, emo-rock band. One vocalist screams while another sings, and not only are guitars used heavily, but also electronic elements and other sounds to differentiate their sound from other bands. Lyrically, the band is telling stories of love and passion, relationships, and at least at the end of the album, a bit of acknowledgement of a higher power and forgiveness. It's loud, well-made, and full of energy on this 36-minute, 9-song album. This is probably the best album Underoath has made, though they've made a number of albums since, and honestly, the only album of theirs I listen to somewhat regularly.

Release Year: 2004
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