"O-H-I-O!" Released 10 years ago Wednesday, this is the eighth studio album from Ohio-born punk/pop band Relient K. Lead singer and primary songwriter Matthew Thiessen definitely has a way with words and melody, and though the band does have a sound, there's a lot of variety in the sound, from classic punk to The Beach Boys-inspired harmonies—sometimes even in the same song. This late in their career most of the music is not punk, but is more a polished alternative pop/rock. The lyrics on occasion reference a Christian faith, but are mostly reflections on life and love with the occasional witty wordplay. Though I think their best work was 10 years before this, this album is by no means one to skip. I will admit that the production or mixing didn't really grab me at first; I didn't really find these songs interesting until I saw Relient K play the songs live a bit later and thought, "Wow, those songs are better than I thought." At 16 tracks totaling 60 minutes, it's not a short album, but they did not really ever make short albums. It looks like the 2xLP vinyl release has a slightly different track order than the CD/streaming version. Relient K has played some shows in the past few years, but seem to have no plans to release new music or tour regularly at this time, so this may be their last album.

Release Year: 2016
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Released 40 years ago today, this is the first best-of compilation of songs from the first 9 years of Amy Grant's career in Christian pop. In those early years, she released 7 albums, and this collection added a few new songs but mostly highlighted the biggest hits from her first albums. These songs are pretty good, but this '80s pop/rock sound is definitely a bit dated. Religious ballads like "Thy Word" and "El Shaddai" were definitely popular among Christian music listeners at the time. Her song "Emmanuel" from her Christmas album is included here too. "Sing Your Praise To The Lord", written by Rich Mullins, has been a favorite song of mine for a very long time. But fans of Christian pop in the '80s are probably most familiar with songs like, "Stay For Awhile", "Everywhere I Go", "Angels" and more. The track listings and order on the LP, cassette and CD versions are all slightly different, with a few live tracks added to the CD version's release in 1990 that is what we have on streaming now. It ends with a medley of songs, a dance mega-mix, on the CD and cassette versions, and I remember my sisters dancing to this album as kids a lot. This collection is a fun look at the early years of Amy Grant's career and served as a jumping-off point to much greater things in the coming decades.

Release Year: 1986
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Released 42 years ago today, this is the third and final album released after Keith Green's death in a plane crash a few years earlier. Keith was a talented piano player and songwriter and had a few modestly successful hits in the '60s before becoming a Christian and, from then on, making very ministry-focused music for nearly a decade. Many of his albums he gave away for free to anyone who wanted one and took donations for his livelihood, and his concerts were often free. His style is a very '70s piano-based rock—something like Elton John or Billy Joel. Most well-known here is the closer, a cover of the traditional song "Create In Me A Clean Heart", and preceded by it is a four-minute instrumental track that leads well into it. A number of other songs retell Bible stories, and a few like the title track feature Green's controversial political and social views. All the recordings of Keith Green here were made in the years before his death, with the album put together by his wife Melody and friends, and it's all well-done studio tracks, or at least it sounds like it to me. Keith Green was a pioneer in the scene of "Jesus Music", rock music made in the '70s to spread the good news of Christianity, and this album shows his brilliance and challenges both Christians and non-Christians with his passionate singing about God.

Release Year: 1984
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Released 11 years ago today, this is the sixth EP from Jon Foreman, the lead singer of long-time rock band Switchfoot. In 2015, he released 4 EPs in The Wonderlands series, each of the 25 songs written about a certain time of day, to some extent. This EP has 6 songs from 5pm to 10pm and each song is co-produced with a different Producer. As the day closes, Jon reflects on his humanity and morbidity, but also on God's love and grace. Like most of his solo work, it's not as rock 'n' roll as a Switchfoot album, but it's by no means just an acoustic set or anything, as most songs have full band instrumentation, sometimes even unique instruments and strings. "Your Love Is Enough" is my favorite song here and "Siren's Song" is a beautiful love song to the ocean from this lifelong surfer. The rest of the songs are solid too. I'm really happy Jon keeps writing songs and releasing them for us, because they definitely make me think and bring me joy.

Release Year: 2015
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify