The Night Beat Best Albums of 2011

This isn't a Ten Best List, if only because I came up with thirteen entries. No, I'm not giving up on the Platinum Vinyl Awards. Most of the albums on this list are among the nominees for the PVA's (I say most because the PVA's extend Oct 1, 2010-Sept 30, 2011 and this is straight up Jan 1-December X, 2011 - Yes, I'm cheating a bit, but not as much as the others. I am sure regular readers of The Night Beat will figure out number one before I get to it.

Just Missing the Top 10

• 13 - Stryper - The Covering
• 12 - Thousand Foot Krutch - Welcome to The Masquerade, Fan Edition
• 11 - Chevelle - Hats off to The Bull

The Top 10 Albums of 2011

• 10 - Red - Until We Have Faces - The third release by the Masters of Melodic Metal prove that this band has reached that upper echelon of "Super Group", where you can turn out a Grammy Nominee in your sleep. I had heard a few tunes from their debut, enough to be impressed and want to hear more. Innocence and Instinct knocked my socks off. That was a Career Defining CD, and not many bands can put out two of them in their career. As I said in my review
  

  The album is an almost non stop adrenaline rush. Wisely though there are two rest stops. Red has always been know for awesome ballads and here there are two. Not Alone, which is the string heavy sixth track, could almost be interpreted as a modern worship song, but it doesn't quite fit that mold. It really is a plea from Father God for the Prodigal to return, no matter what he has done, that God still loves them

  
    9 - The Rocket Summer - Bryce Avery: His Instruments, Your Voices - This is the Way Live Albums were meant to be. Audience Participation was excellent, perhaps we even had rabid fans. Though the recording was helped by a small venue, all live recordings, except this one, suffer from "Dead Air" whenever they want you to hear the audience sing along. Sometimes they even drown out Bryce. That is quite an accomplishment.
•   8 - Denver & The Mile High Orchestra - Groovy - On their first Children's Album, Denver and the band simply cut loose. The energy is contagious and you can feel that they are having as much fun as the children who are the target audience of this album. Grab Your Fedora and Swing along with your kids.
•   7 - Jackie Evancho - Dream With Me - One of four Possible CROSS/over artists on the list (The other three being The Civil Wars, Switchfoot and Evanescence). Children's voices aren't supposed to sound this good. I'm not much of a fan of Opera, but this girl puts Sandi Patti To shame.
•   6 - Mandisa - What if We Were Real - The American Idol misses again. Mandisa was one of CCMs Many signings of AI castoffs, and her early work had me scratching my head at their decision. (She was no Chris Sligh, but there was plenty of room for improvement. What if We Were Real is What we were looking for. This is a gospel/dance album that is sure to compete with Beckah Shae for the Platinum Vinyl Award
•   5 - The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow - The first 5 Emerald ratings awarded this year, and it's a folk album. There really isn't much more that can be said from my perspective.
•   4 - Various - Music Inspired by The Story - I can count on one finger the number of times a"Various Artists" album would make a 10 Best List, but that would be before this one came out. Top Notch Artists, Production Par Excellence, and a soundtrack worthy of Cecil B. DeMille himself are brought together in this exquisite package.
•   3 - Switchfoot - Vice Verses - No Dark Horse in this music race. A Show still wins you some good money at the track. A lot of CCM Ten Best lists this year have this album number 1. While we at the night beat are somewhat less impressed, even we have it in the top 3.
•   2 - Beckah Shae - Destiny - Come on Give Us Good Music. If the rest of the industry doesn't want to, Beckah Shae has no problem picking up the slack. For the squeamish CCM fan, be warned. This is UN-apologetically a DANCE Album, however it is combined with the same epic composition and strings, and Beckah's both haunting and soaring vocals. While I had the same feeling listening to Music Inspired By The Story, the fact that this comes from ONE ARTIST and not many is testament enough to its higher rating.

The Number One Album of 2011

• 1 - Evanescence - Evanescence

I say again, was this the worst kept secret. Every regular reader must know by now what a big Amy Lee fan this blogger is, and it's much earned. Most bands, after a six year hiatus would be quite a bit rusty with their return. There was no rust evident here. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Grammy Nominee in the cards for Amy for this album. (Fat Chance on a Dove). In the three albums they have produced (for a moment I am ignoring the Live Album, only going with the studio albums) of course Fallen is far and away Number one, but Evanescence (Self Titled) I consider a strong number two, pushing The Open Door to third place. I have my Top 10 Cross Linked to the original reviews, so check them out as well to get my initial opinions. If you think I snubbed your band, mention it in the comments. As always, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Heating It Up: Platinum Vinyl Awards 4th Quarter Nominees

We have finally come to the end of the Second Nominating Year for the Platinum Vinyl Awards. Wow. Who would have thought I would have been able to make this work once much less as a regular occurrence. In the course of the second year a few changes have come about which may make the blogging of the second year slightly more challenging. One of those things is that I am now part of a group called Triberr, which agrees to tweet each others posts. Inherit in that agreement is an agreement not to overload the system with posts, and therein lies the rub. Last Year's awards were held as a series of blog posts spaced 15 minutes apart. There were 16 posts in all over a space of 4 hours. I tried to replicate an awards ceremony. So, to my Tribe mates in Blog Boldly, any suggestions. How should I handle this. I really don't want to spread it out over multiple weeks. It's not like you have to answer right now. The Awards wont be handed out until next year. The First was in April. Now to the nominees.

The 2011 Platinum Vinyl Awards 4th Quarter Nominees

Children's Music

• Denver and The Mile High Orchestra - Groovy (5)
• Veggie Tales (feat Moriah Peters) - Songs for a Princess
• Worship Together Kids - From The Inside Out

Traditional Folk/Folk Rock

• All Sons and Daughters - Brokenness Aside
• Dominic Balli - American Dreams
• Burlap to Cashmere - Burlap to Cashmere
• Andrew Peterson - Above These City Lights (Live)

Inspirational

• Matt Hammitt - Every Falling Tear
• Geoff Moore - Saying Grace
• Fernando Ortega B - Come Down O Love Divine
• Matt Papa - This Changes Everything
• Selah - Hope for the Broken World

Just a few additional notes before closing things out. First of all, if you see a (5) next to an entry, that is a 5 Emerald Rating Entry. It will definitely be among the final group of entries that may win an award. The others have to go past judging to get in.

The Inspirational Music Genre had to be created this year in order to find a place for Jackie Evancho, then I had to find some more entries to justify the category. I still can't bear to call it Adult Contemporary or Contemporary Gospel. Such is the case.

That starts the final group of genre-based nominees. Once we get through this the fun part starts. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

The Heat is On: PVA 2011 3rd Qtr Nominees - Introduction

The Third Quarter Releases are completed and tabulated, and are now ready to be announced. This time around there were no eligible releases in the Folk/Folk Rock category, and only two in the Children's Music category. All the others had a good showing, with at least four releases in each of the remaining nine categories. (On a editorial note, we may go to eleven categories from now on. As I am archiving the PVA's to their own page on this site, we may split Traditional Folk and Folk Rock apart for good.)

This time I am appealing to the readers of The Night Beat to help me out with a dilemma. As you may have read in a previous post, I am impressed with the vocal abilities of the young Jackie Evancho, and I awarded her album Dream With Me a perfect 5 Emerald rating. She's in to the final round, no questions about that. I need a category please. The General Field is obvious. I can think of four nominations for her there (The Night Beat DJ's Choice Award, Female Vocalist of the Year, New Artist of the Year, Artist of the Year). It's the genre based Album of the Year categories where I am stumped. She comes across to me as Opera, and, if that's so, she would be the only nominee in the category. Children's Music is a stretch. We're talking about music by a child, not for children. Pop?, Create an Inspirational Category (I hate those, it sounds so weaselly, but it may be my best option. A little help would be appreciated. Please comment your opinion.

I will start with the roll out tomorrow with Children's music and Dance, but that will be all for today, as I say all the time in closing, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Welcome Jackie Evancho Fans

Sometimes you just stumble into things. Yesterday I posted my rewind for June, and little did I know what awaited me. While today will be a little light, mainly because I forgot my notes, yesterday was quite a day. Logging in I discovered I had picked up 196 new visitors because of my June Rewind post. All I can say is thank you JackieJunkies! Blog.

I think that my time as a DJ has given me the ability to recognize talent. I mean, you listen to enough music and you can pick out things that the average listener never will. From the reputed 8 octave voice of Greg X. Volz, to the operatic range of Sandi Patty, certain voices rise above the fray. The downside in this modern age is two-fold. First, with an abundance of shows out there (American Idol, The Voice, America's Got Talent, etc) who knows how long America's "fascination" (and I mean that in a good way) with Jackie Evancho will last. It could be infinitessimally short. That would be a shame. This in turn would lead to the second pitfall. She would either be persuaded to get all she can upfront and cash out, say, by the time she's fifteen, or, for the sake of logevity, abandon "opera" for pop music. That would expose her to a bigger audienc, but the reason people initially loved her ("the voice") would be gone. Both should be avoided. All the J.E. fan has to do is look at the case of Katy Hudson (aka Katy Perry). If you check out her self-titled (as Hudson) release, you will hear a mature sounding, resonant voiced teenager. Katy Perry? Lots of success, but I think the term pop princess and all it entails describes her perfectly. The resonant voice is gone, the common pop-shrill replaced it. A shame. Gospel or Mainstream has nothing to do with it. She changed her voice for success. I would advise Jackie Evancho not to do the same.

I could rant on that for a while, but I will refrain. All I will say is check out my two previous posts for more on that with Brought To You By the Letter K and One Girl named Katy, Take Two.

Well, the second year of the Night Beat is off to a roaring start. I'm ready, and thanks for making it fun. As always, I am Awaiting Your Reply.