New Music Update

Just because it has turned out to be a slow August doesn't mean we at the Night Beat can't be pleasantly surprised. This week is one of those surprises. Three full Album Previews to check out, two of them from the folks at NRT. I am going to try to have a full review on all three. We'll see how that goes.

Of the trio, I am most impressed with Destiny by Beckah Shae. I was anticipating the release of this album after listening to #putyourloveglasseson which was released as a free download a few months ago. Now that the album is here, needless to say, I am not disappointed. You can check out the album this week at New Release Tuesday. If you are looking for some excellent Dance Grooves for yourself, this is definitely the CD for you, though it doesn't come out until next Tuesday. I've already listened to it twice, and I am strongly leaning toward awarding it the coveted 5 Emerald Rating. I would always hope that you would click through the title link and buy through it at Amazon. The Night Beat thanks you.

Another good album to add to your library comes from King Midas (a.k.a. Brandon Ebel, Founder/President of Tooth & Nail Records). Monoculture by Sainthood Reps is out now, and is currently a Full Album Listening Party at AOL Music. I think it is safe to say that this is not Dance Music. This is Alternative Rock, with emphasis on alternative. The folks at AOL describe it as "scary rhythms and Spooky guitars", and that gives it a "spacey" feel to it. While I'm not blown away with it like Beckah Shae, even on its initial listening I feel safe to say my final rating will be in the High fours, giving it an easy pass to the first round of the Platinum Vinyl Awards. Since it is not marketed as a Christian Release, despite being a Tooth & Nail release, it may qualify for a CROSS/over nomination as well.

Finally, an album, which while very good, will probably not be in the Platinum Vinyl Pool, though not due to content or quality. Re:Creation by Steven Curtis Chapman is sort of a Hybrid new release/best of compilation. It has some new songs, but some of the songs are new recordings of old hits. That is something done on a lot of the Best Of albums, and even though I have rated some Best-of releases, and given them ratings which would qualify them for a Platinum Vinyl Award, in the end I have dropped them in favor of a new studio release or live recording. What do you guys think. Does a best of album deserve to be honored? Should it have its own category? I encourage your thought on the matter. Oh, before I close, I should say that Re:Creation is also streaming in its entirety at NRT.

That does it for this installment. You can use the comments below to give me your thoughts on the best of issue. As always, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Young Love

The Summer Slump is in full evidence this Tuesday, as only five named CD's (at least according to NRT) came out this week. There was also a various artist multi-CD release, but for the moment we wont consider them in the mix. They will make the rewind, however.

The only release to get a full album preview is Young Love, the sophmore release by Mat Kearney (Pronounced CAR-nee), and no I didn't type the first name wrong. That's how it is spelled. There are ten tracks, most of them of the pop variety, and the album is pretty good. My only gripe is the last track. Entitled Rochester, there is a brief introduction at the beginning by Kearney saying that it is a song about his father, who grew up in Rochester, New York. In my opinion, it is one of the most depressing songs I've ever heard, and I would not picked it as the final cut. People tend to remember the last thing they heard, so I would have picked one of the upbeat songs to finish up and buried this one somewhere in the middle.

Now, to the rest of the album. The album kicks off with the pop-reggae Hey Mama, and pretty much  is the tempo for the rest of the album, with the exception of the aformentioned Rochester and the slow but still somewhat upbeat Ships in the Night.

Young Love is one of those albums that is enjoyable, yet doesn't blow you away as you listen to it. There are ten songs in all.

1. Hey Mama
2. Ships in the Night
3. Count on Me
4. Sooner or Later
5. Chasing the Light
6. Learning to Love Again
7. Down
8. She Got the Honey
9. Young, Dumb and in Love
10. Rochester

Count on Me is pretty cute (HEY!). It has a Jackson 5 vibe.  Seems like a lot of people remember that ABC 123 song. This would be a great album if it weren't for Rochester, in my opinion. Even the slow ballads (Chasing the Light, Ships in the Night, Learning to Love Again) have enough pop to keep you toe tapping throughout the album. I'm sorry, that last cut is a real downer.

I'm going to do my best to ignore Rochester, but the best I can do is mitigate it. I'll give Young Love 4 Emeralds. That will put it in the initial pool for the 4th Quarter, but I don't know if it will make it to the final 7 for Pop, it's most likely genre.

That should do it for now. I hope everyone enjoyed Soulfest last week, at least if you were in New Hampshire. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Soulfest Reminder

Just a quick reminder, folks. If you are in New England this week, get thee to Gunstock Mountain. It's soulfest time. I, unfortunately wont be able to attend, but you can. It started yesterday and is going on until Saturday. You wont be disappointed

Night Beat Rewind: July 2011

We have completed the first third of the final quarter of entries for the 2011 Platinum Vinyl Award. Boy things have gone by quickly this summer. August looks to be a little quiet. I guess when you're out on the festival circuit you can't have a CD coming out.

Not Exactly Precious Metal

The following handful of entries just missed making the Platinum Vinyl Awards initial cut. We had a very good July. It should make up for having a pretty sparse August.

• Opposition, Altars, 3.5 Emeralds
• Volition, As Hell Retreats, 3 Emeralds
• Out for Blood, Farewell Flight, 3.75 Emeralds
• Turn up the Music: The Hits of Point of Grace, Point of Grace, 3.5 Emeralds
• Kingdom Days in an Evil Age, Sleeping Giant, 3.75 Emeralds

As I have said, four emeralds is my bar. While I think Sleeping Giant and Farewell Flight have some potential, there was just something lacking with their releases. Maybe next time.

July 2011 Platinum Vinyl Nominees

This month was pretty good. We had almost two dozen possible nominees. Now remember, this is the initial list, and things will get whittled down before the finals. This is the first step.

• Brokenness Aside, No. 1, All Sons & Daughters, 4 Emeralds
• Stop the Funeral, Ambassador, 4.5 Emeralds
• A Thousand Tongues, Jeff Anderson, 4.25 Emeralds
• American Dreams, Dominic Balli, 4 Emeralds
• Burlap to Cashmere, Burlap to Cashmere, 4.75 Emeralds
• Validation, Call to Preserve, 4.5 Emeralds
• The Best of, Ricky Dillard and New G, 4.25 Emeralds
• Heavy Worship, The Great Commission, 4.5 Emeralds
• Give Me Rest, Hands, 4.25 Emeralds
• God Is Able (Live), Hillsong Live, 4.25 Emeralds
• You Got My Attention, Dara Maclean, 4.5 Emeralds
• Time And Space, Miss Angie, 4.5 Emeralds
• Broken Voice, My Epic, 4.5 Emeralds
• Come Down O Love Divine, Fernando Ortega, 4.5 Emeralds
• To Those Perishing, A Past Unknown, 4.25 Emeralds
• The God Machine, Phinehas, 4.5 Emeralds
• I'm All In, Robert Pierre, 4.25 Emeralds
• Let it Rain: The Best of Pocket Full of Rocks, Pocket Full of Rocks, 4.25 Emeralds
• 10,000 Reasons, Matt Redman, 4.25 Emeralds
• These Simple Truths (Deluxe Edition), Sidewalk Prophets, 4.25 Emeralds
• Promises, Richard Smallwood, 4.25 Emeralds
• Beautiful Monster, This'l, 4 Emeralds
• Holy Hip Hop, Volume 11, Various Artists, 4.5 Emeralds

That's it for July. It's kind of hard to believe, but in just a few short months I will be beginning the process to pick the seven final nominees in each category for the 2nd Platinum Vinyl Awards. Wow. I hope you stay with me through it all, tell your friends, and as always, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

The Night Beat Summer Reading Program: Demonic by Ann Coulter

The question could be posed, "are Liberals possessed or simply insane?". Ann Coulter has been the bane of Liberals since 2002, when she took on the Clinton administration with High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case against Clinton. Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America is her eighth book, and personally, I think it's her best. The book is a fascinating look at the mob mentality of liberals (and that's a small "m" mob, as in rioting rabble, and not a capital "M' as in Organized Crime). If you have ever wondered how Rush Limbaugh could keep coming up with a seemingly endless stream of left wing media montages of commentators saying the exact same phrase, this book attempts to explain it all.

Crowd Control

Ann's jumping off point is Gustave Le Bon's 1895 Book The Crowd: Study of the Popular Mind, which was written barely one hundred years after the French Revolution. Le Bon (and Coulter) show how key characteristics present in the French Revolution are actually present in every mob, from anti-war protesters and the 60's college uprisings. Also quite revealing is how mob behavior seems to be a trait uniquely Liberal Left (it seems that Conservatism has a robust disagreement within itself that inhibits mob behavior and also, conservatives, who are mostly religious, never seem to be in the "in-crowd" that form the mobs). The Leftist Mobs turn out to be a bloodthirsty bunch: The French Revolution (600,000 Guillotined + 145,000 Exiled/Fled); Russia (15 Million+, and that's just the Ukrainians). Mao's Revolution (78 Million); Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam (1 Million after the Vietnam War); Pol Pot's Cambodia (1.7 Million after the Vietnam War). On the last two, those only happened after we pulled out of those countries, abandoning them. If we had had the courage to win the Vietnam War, they would not have been slaughtered). Liberals always like to point to Adolf Hitler (12 Million+) as an example of Right-Wing atrocities, but sorry folks, Nazi is a contraction of National Socialist. All socialists are Leftists. Hitler may have been right of Stalin, but he was still a Leftist.

Revolution 2.0

The Euro-Asian mob revolutions above all killed adults that they deemed a threat to an imaginary "general will". The American Left has never been that barbaric, yet. No, the Left prefers to work on eliminating future generations from existing.  Since Roe approximately 53 Million Children have been aborted. If only half would now be of working age, that would be 26 Million additional workers in the workforce paying taxes. Currently we have Over 40% of Working Age Americans who PAY NO INCOME TAX. I don't think we would be having a budget crisis or social security crisis now. THANKS LIBERALS!

The Other French Revolution

If the above numbers didn't get you depressed, here's another thought. Read Chapter Six and Seven for the French Revolution you didn't learn about in schools. Chapter Eight for the American Revolution by way of contrast. To my good friend Sara Louise in Provence, sorry Mon Amie, but if they taught the truth in France Bastille Day wouldn't be a time of celebration and a National Holiday. After going over the chapters again and again I still can't find a passage that I feel comfortable putting into print, at least regarding the human carnage. It's hard to pretty up over a half-million innocents slaughtered. Suffice it to say, on the property side, the word Vandalisme (vandalism) didn't enter the French language until the French Revolution.

The Historical Contrast between the American and French Revolutions (Chapters 6-8) are worth the price of the book. I give Demonic 4.5 Emeralds. As always, I hope you purchase the book, ebook, CD or whatever you read about in this blog through the links to Amazon and help support the Night Beat. Thank You, and as I know say at the end of every post. I am Awaiting Your Reply.

We are here, We are here

During the latter half of the 1990's Christian Music was about to come full circle. Though most of the "pop" music of the Jesus Music era would be classified as Folk (or even Folk Rock) by today's standards, beginning with the 80's, CCM focused on the emerging Rock genre, purging Folk from its repertoire. The biggest "folk star" of the early CCM era was Amy Grant. In the beginning it was One Girl and her guitar playing "My Father's Eyes". As the industry changed, Amy became the first bonafide Pop-Rock Star that CCM had. Except for the Messianic Music sub genre (Lamb), folk was dead.

Frail Jars from Kansas Revive Folk

The resurrection began in 1995 with the release of "frail", the debut release by Jars of Clay. (#22 on CCM Magazine's 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music) "Was it an acoustic based alternative band or a cleverly disguised folk act?" they asked. The answer was folk, but then it alternative, and now, with the release of The Shelter (2010), it's folk again.

1997 saw two radically different sounds take over folk music. First out of the gate was Christian music's original junkyard band, Caedmon's Call and their self-titled release. (I don't think they ever played old bottles or metal garbage cans, but I don't think they wouldn't have tried them). The year ended with the Amy Grant's "girl with a guitar" mantle being passed to a girl from Kansas named Jennifer Knapp. Kansas (1997) (#80 on the CCM list) was full ahead folk-rock. Though she would later be more rock than folk, and she would later be disowned by the CCM industry at large for personal issues, three of her four albums would make my greatest album list: Kansas, The Way I Am (2001) and Letting Go (2010) Which won the First Ever Platinum Vinyl Award Best Folk Rock Album, and also garnered Jennifer the Comeback Artist of the Year Award as well as the Night Beat Fallen Award. I Would encourage you all to visit my Platinum Vinyl Award Homepage for the complete list of winners and the description of the various awards. Though not marketed to the CCM industry as a "Christian Album", there is nothing objectionable in Letting Go. And, as in other Christian matters, count me as one of the "Once saved always saved" crowd, with one caveat. If you intentionally renounce Jesus, you are doomed. Unless you do that, you're still saved. I never read that Jen renounced Jesus, so she's still in the kingdom.

Basic Instructions for Musical Domination

Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (that's BIBLE f.y.i) took over the airwaves the following year and the phenomenon known as Burlap to Cashmere took the throne. 1998's Anybody Out There? was a fusion of Greek-Mediterranean-Middle Eastern influences with Folk Rock. Founders Steven Delopoulos and John Philippidis influences are most evident on the opening track entitled Digee Dime, as well as Basic Instructions, Divorce, and the martial-sounding Scenes. Then, almost as quickly as they rose to the top, they vanished.

Fast forward thirteen years. Christian Music is experiencing a period of reunion. (I would say renewal but that sounds a bit too ecumenical). Bands (or artists) who either through an official disbandment or just a long period of inactivity have disappeared from the public consciousness have orchestrated their comebacks. It is no surprise that BTC are among the returnees. Their self titled release, which came out July 19, is like a cool drink of water to a thirsty soul. Though more standard folk rock, with even some Jars like influences, the Greek sound can still be heard in cuts like Build a Wall, Orchestrated Love Song, and Santorini.

After repeated listening, I have to say this is one of the best folk albums of 2011. Where I thought that The Civil Wars would be runaway winners this year, I am not so sure now. I am giving Burlap to Cashmere a just short of perfect 4.75 Emeralds. Welcome Back Burlap to Cashmere, and, until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

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

We're back. I really need to get my computer fixed, or replaced. Relying on the library for my computer access can be trying. Of course since they have Verizon for an ISP that explains a lot of the problems getting up again. They must have the worst customer service in the world.

PVA Third Quarter Nominations

ROCK

I had planned this post for Monday, but things kind of went askew. We wont say much in introduction except that was a crowded field this quarter as well.

• Control, Abandon
• Inside These Walls, Brandon Bee
• Listen to the Sound, Building 429
• Beautiful Ashes, Eowyn
• On Fire, Peter Furler
• Freedom Calling, Jake Hamilton
• Easy for you to say, Hello Kelly
• Weights and Measures, Hyland
• Tidal Wave, Rootdown
• Live at the Masquerade, Thousand Foot Krutch
• X: 2011, Various Artists

This one was easy. All these are worthy to win, though Hyland, TFK and Eowyn could wind up being the front runners. Especially Eowyn. This "Chick" has gotten better with each album. I was blown away with Silent Screams, but this time. She is in full Amy Lee mode with Beautiful Ashes. Don't believe me? Check Out the Video for Beautiful Ashes below

What do you think. Agree? Disagree? Especially on Eowyn. Comment Below. Any that I missed?

That concludes things for this quarter. As always, I am Awaiting Your Reply