Album Of The Day: Drummer Boy by Jars Of Clay

Album Art of Jars of Clay's Drummer Boy EP - A somewhat blurry black-and-white photo of a child of maybe 5 years old playing a small drum that is sitting in front of him on the ground. The drum looks pretty basic and handmade, maybe, and the whole image is tinted a golden yellow. Towards the top it has the band's name and the EP title 'Drummer Boy' on one line with a red vertical line between them. Around the edges, it seems to be a bunch of fake wear to the edges.

Released 30 years ago in the past few months and less than 6 months after their acclaimed self-titled debut album, this EP contains two Christmas songs and a few other recordings from one of my all-time favorite bands. "The Little Drummer Boy" is of course the focus of this EP, with a quiet, keyboard-heavy bed, some strings with acoustic guitar and vocals, then later a drum loop joins in. A "Grinch Mix" version of the title track is also included as Track 4, with a bit more of a dance beat and some unexpected elements. And a beautiful though unremarkable version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is also here. Finally, there's an acoustic version of the song "He" from their first album, which is beautiful and the lyrics heartbreaking. This EP was re-released in 1997 and instead of "God Rest Ye" and "He", there's a remix of the song "Blind" and a 3-minute instrumental called "Wicker Baskets", which is why I have two versions of this on CD. And in 2019, it was released on vinyl. This is a short EP that captures the earliest days of Jars of Clay and gives them a bit of Christmas material. Over the years, they added much more Christmas music to their repertoire with a full album and a few more EPs.

Release Year: 1995
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A photo of a rotund white man sitting in a room with shelves of CDs and records behind him. He's smiling and wearing a colorful 'Jars of Clay' T-shirt. He's holding a vinyl package of the EP as well as two CD versions in his right hand.

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

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