Night Beat Rewind: February 2012

Due to the time it took to get the PVA Nominations out this year this edition of Night Beat Rewind is about two weeks late. Lucky for me this week is a slow one.

Before I get on with my ratings, I want to make an announcement regarding keeping the night beat going. Due to actions by Google many months ago, the amazon affiliate widget that I previously used was disabled. I have found a minor workaround. I am inserting Amazon text links manually into my posts, and unless I specify otherwise, a link will lead to Amazon where you can buy and support The Night Beat at the same time. I would prefer image links, but manually inserting them doesn't allow the text to seamlessly wrap around the image. If any tech savvy reader knows a way to get that to happen, please contact me.

Since I am picking up new readers all the time, I will go over the basics once again. This is a quick hits column for those releases that I was not able to get a full preview for. Of course if I did have a full review, it will be linked and pointed out. We begin, as always, with releases which were:

Off The Mark

And by mark I mean the 4 Emerald Mark which allows entry into the annual pool from which the Platinum Vinyl Awards are picked. Of course, while they wouldn't make the awards pool, you shouldn't be ashamed of anything with 3 Emeralds or above.

• Christ for the Nations - 37 3.75 Emeralds
• Hillsong United - Live In Miami : Welcome to The Aftermath 3.75 Emeralds
• Mission Six - Heaven Down To Earth 3.75 Emeralds
• Carson Parks - All You Gotta Do Is Love 3.75 Emeralds
• Izzi Ray - Izzi Ray 3.75 Emeralds
• Various Artists - 30 Favorite Celtic Hymns 3.75 Emeralds

Now as I said before, a lot of these albums are good, but not spectacular. Some of them, especially the Modern Worship entries, sounded flat, like they were mailing it in. For worship, I think that qualifies as some sort of sin.

Now of course next up would be my listing of Perfect Platinum albums, those that got the coveted 5 Emerald Rating, except there weren't any in February. Maybe I was picky, but there was always just one thing that prevented me from saying "perfect". A lot just fell short, so we move on to those releases considered:

Semi-Precious Metal

These were the releases from 4-5 Emeralds, not including 5 of course. Of course the links, unless otherwise specified will go to Amazon, where you can buy. For the first list, I only included the Download Page.

• Advocate - Trial And Error 4.50 Emeralds
• Vanessa Bell Armstrong - Timeless 4.25 Emeralds
• Audrey Assad - Heart 4.75 Emeralds
• Beware the Neverending - The Next Level 4.75 Emeralds
• Matt Brouwer - Til The Sunrise 4.5 Emeralds
• Cornerstone Church Worship - The Heart Revolution 4.5 Emeralds
• Eisley - Deep Space EP 4.75 Emeralds
• For King and Country - Crave 4.5 Emeralds
• The Fray - Scars & Stories 4.5 Emeralds
• Aaron Gillespie - Echo Your Song EP 4.5 Emeralds
• I The Breather - Truth and Purpose 4.5 Emeralds
• Json - Growing Pains 4.5 Emeralds
• Kiros - Lay Your Weapons Down 4.75 Emeralds
• Kutless - Believer 4.75 Emeralds
• Nine Lashes - World We View 4.75 Emeralds
• Samestate - The Alignment 4.5 Emeralds
• Sent By Ravens - Mean What You Say 4.75 Emeralds
• Isaac Simpson and Divine Providence - The Process 4.5 Emeralds
• The Rubyz - Unchanging 4 Emeralds
• Sixteen Cities - Love is Making A Way 4.50 Emeralds
• Sons - Keep Quiet 4.75 Emeralds
• Various Artists - Awaken My Soul : Songs of Redemption 4.5 Emeralds
• Various Artists - Maranatha Music: How Great Is Our God 4 Emeralds
• Various Artists - Mission Worship: Come People of the Risen King 4 Emeralds
• Various Artists - Worship Together: 25 Favorite Worship Songs 4.25 Emeralds
• Jaci Velasquez - Diamond 4.5 Emeralds
• Vineyard Music - I Love Your Presence (Live From Phoenix) 4.5 Emeralds
• Worth Dying For -Live Riot 4.75 Emeralds

That was a lot of work. I miss the widget. In the case of Eisley, Kiros and Jaci Velasquez, clicking on the name goes to my full review of the CD. All other links go to Amazon, where I hope you will buy through the link and support The Night Beat. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Breathing Room

The release schedule in the music world can be hectic, if predictable, even in the CCM world. Small scale operations like The WENC Night Beat and the Platinum Vinyl Awards will take any respite as a Godsend. This week is one of those weeks we get to catch our breath. The only release scheduled for tomorrow is a band known as Onward To Olympus. Right now Amazon only gives the Audio CD as available, so only time will tell if there will be any audio samples up. Next week will be hectic, with Caedmon's Call (CD Release of Waking Up The Dead), Brenton Brown, newcomer Katelynne Cox, Echoing Angels, Eleventyseven and a whole lot more dropping. I will use the downtime to get this years PVA's finalized and possibly awarded. I would love to finish it before the Doves in April.

Getting back to the Platinum Vinyl Awards will give me an excuse to further ignore the Hysterical Nuclear Apocalyptic Television Soap Opera formerly known as the news. For all the attention you would think something big happened in Japan, like a winner take all battle between Godzilla, MechaGodzilla, Mothra and Gamera on the streets of Tokyo. Come to think of it, I would watch that. Seriously folks, what happened in Japan is a tragedy, and our prayers are with everyone there, but can we tone it down a little. Japan was not destroyed. No nuclear plants have melted down or probably will. Tokyo barely felt the shock, and that is where most of that nations economy is. Our looney news seems to be rooting for another Chernobyl, but they are destined to be greatly disappointed.

Back to the subject of Music. This week was somewhat of a slow week, with only Abandon Kansas and a few worship releases among the entrants. Of the three modern worship entries, the best two were Aaron Gillespie (of The Almost) Anthem Song and Chris Tomlin and Friends (aka Passion) Here For You. Pardon the snarkiness, but when you have a 12 cut album, and 6 of the cuts are from one artist (Tomlin), I think it's justified. The best parts of the CD were the "Friends" with 2 from Kristian Stanfill, 2 from David Crowder Band and 2 From Christy Nockels. Tomlin's cuts sounded like they were mailed in and lacked energy. I give it 4 Emeralds on the strength of the friends, but I am not holding out hope on it being among the final entries in modern worship. There will be better coming down the road.

Possibly among the initial entrants, but also most likely not making the final cut for 2011 is Anthem Song, the solo debut from Almost frontman Aaron Gillespie. He seems tentative in his choice of Modern Worship, and while I liked the cut with Nine O Five, overall the album did not impress. 4 Emeralds for this one as well.

Thanks for the continued following folks. It's great to know you're being checked out in places like Australia, Romania, Denmark, Russia, Canada, the USA, even Vietnam. I know I left out a few nations, but I didn't intend a full list here. I appreciate all of you. Suffice it to say that one day a possible error in the Google analytics said I had a view in Iran. That went away but Vietnam stayed, so that was real. Didn't think I'm a whack a job was reading my blog.