Night Beat Rewind: January 2014

Happy New Year everyone. Welcome to the first edition of Night Beat Rewind for 2014. The year has kicked off with a bang, with three perfect albums in this months total. We begin, however, with those albums which will not get an award in the 5th Platinum Vinyl Awards (The fourth is being tabulated for nominees as we write).

Missing The Mark

• Casting Crowns - Thrive 3.75 Emeralds 
• Copperlilly - Love Is A Legend 3.75 Emeralds
• Keno Camp - Riot 3.75 Emeralds
• Maranatha Music - Top 25 Praise Songs 2014 3.75 Emeralds
• Saving Grace - The Urgency 3.75 Emeralds

Now all these releases are pretty good, but pretty good just won't cut it at the PVA's. The only release that disappointed me was Casting Crowns. The only way to describe it is flat.

From Flat to Perfect. We now announce the January releases deemed to be

Pure Platinum

• David Ian - Valentine's Day 5 Emeralds
• Charlie Peacock - Lemonade 5 Emeralds
• Switchfoot - Fading West 5 Emeralds
• Jonathan Thulin - The White Room (Deluxe Edition) CD Re-release 5 Emeralds

Ian and Peacock put out two outstanding Jazz records this past month. Switchfoot? Far from Fading away, they, in my opinion at least, put out their best album ever.

Now to the releases in the middle. Not perfect, but in the pool nonetheless.

Semi-Precious Metal

• Dave Barnes - Golden Days 4.50 Emeralds
• Latice Crawford - Latice Crawford 4.75 Emeralds
• Colton Dixon - A Messenger (Expanded Edition) 4.50 Emeralds
• Elevation Worship - Only King Forever 4.50 Emeralds
• Israel and New Breed - Playlist: The Very Best of Israel & New Breed 4.75 Emeralds
• Jamie Grace - Ready To Fly [+video] 4.75 Emeralds
• Jake Hamilton - Beautiful Rider   4.75 Emeralds
• Maranatha Music - Heart Of Worship - 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord) 4.75 Emeralds
• Andy Mineo - Never Land EP 4.50 Emeralds
• J Moss - The Very Best of J Moss 4.25 Emeralds
• Nine Lashes - From Water to War 4.75 Emeralds
• Number One Gun - This Is All We Know 4.75 Emeralds
• Papa San - One Blood 4.75 Emeralds
• Triplicity - Triplicity 4.75 Emeralds
• Shout Praises Kids - We Belong To Jesus 4.50 Emeralds
• David Thulin - Reconstruction (Vol. 2.1) 4.75 Emeralds
• Various Artists - iWorship Now/Next 2014 4.50 Emeralds

That does it for January. Yeah, I know there are four among the perfect and I said three. Three originals. This is a re-release from November for Jonathan Thulin. They all want an additional entry to the pool. Also, due to the possible snowstorm around these parts, I have only included limited links. Don't worry, they will be fully updated. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Happy New Year from The Night Beat

Welcome Back Everyone. I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable new year. Here at The Night Beat things are fairly quiet. Nothing on the horizon for releases until the 8th of the month. So here are the plans. I may get out a few housekeeping posts this week, but then I may not. Regular posting will begin next week.

• Music Video Monday: Monday January 7 Return
• Flashback Friday: Friday January 11 Return

That should do it for now. We will return in force next Monday. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Everything Old Is New Again

Happy New Year everyone. How time does fly. Just yesterday we were ringing out the year 20101 and today we get to ring in 2002.

No that isn't a typo. Confused? Let me explain. A big part of the NYE festivities is the ridiculous looking glasses industry. It seems everyone in Times Square wears these glasses made with the upcoming year.

The "noughts" were easy 2000 had three zeroes and everything up to 2009 had to zeroes in the center. 2010 only required a slight shift in the center of gravity.

2011 posed a problem. A 1 fit over the right eye. A cyclops solution (a oval 0 covering both eyes) was ignored in favor of an axis shift plus another added circle between the two ones, hence the year 20101. Since the problem will re-occur until 2020, a better solution would be needed.

For 2012 they turned to recycling their largest number of stored glasses. Those of 2002. (That was only 3 months removed from 9/11). The 2012 are obviously 2002 glasses with a small block added to the top and bottom of the second zero to make it look like a one. A cyclops 0 would work, but do they listen to me. Naah.

I guess it makes perfect sense. Everything is George Bush's fault anyway. Why not this too?

Oh well. Happy 2002 er 2012 from The Night Beat.