Music Video Monday: Hope In The Bounce House

Welcome back to an all new edition of Music Video Monday. The Nomination Process of the Platinum Vinyl Award (#PlatVnyl4 Officially) is underway. Plus there is the NHL Playoffs, and this is Bruins Territory (of course Youppi of the Law firm Youppi, Snoopy and Cow is a BIG Habs Fan, so things are a bit tense in the office). Still, we manage to get things done. 

We have three videos for you today. We begin with a video from +Holly Spears , with a little help from the movie Virtuous. This is Where'd You Go.
Next up is a favorite "band" of mine. +Salt Of The Sound is the best thing to come out of Sweden since Jerusalem and Leviticus (what, did you think I was going to say ABBA?). This is the Lyric and Music video for It must be hope.
We finish things off with +Heath McNease . He recently made a video called Bounce House. The video has gone viral and been noticed by the likes of Time Magazine. Let's keep it going here.
Well that wraps things up for this edition of Music Video Monday. We will return with an all new edition next week. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Spring Songs: The 2013 Third Quarter - Rap

On to Rap and Hip Hop. A very well represented genre this quarter with ten entries. A nice mix of newcomers and veterans too. I wont spend too much time with introductions, so on to the entries.

Hip Hop & Rap

• Shai Linne - Lyrical Theology, Part 1: Theology
• Heath McNease - The Weight of Glory: Second Edition
• Andy Mineo - Heroes For Sale
• Mr. Del - Faith Walka
• JSon - Braille
• R-Swift - Apply Pressure
• Still Trill Christians - Kings
• Tony Tillman - The Tillman EP
• Whosoever South - Goin Home
• Young Chozen - G.L.O.W.

Some may remember that I was less than impressed one time with Mr. McNease. That was a different album. I treat each release separately.These songs inspired by the works of C.S. Lewis worked wonderfully. Newcomer Whosoever South was the star of the quarter. They mix it up. Hip Hop, Rap, R&B. A totally fresh sound in the genre. And staple JSon scored a perfect album this time around. Rock and Metal await. And I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Night Beat Rewind: June 2013

Three down one to go. June closes out the third quarter of eligibility for the 4th Platinum Vinyl Awards. This has been an interesting quarter. During April's rewind I said that no releases missed the mark. Well that was before I discovered I misplaced almost three dozen entries for April, about a dozen for May, and about the same for June. June was privileged to be completed in its entirely, but April and May and the entire first and second quarters, had to be re-evaluated. It is the aim of the Platinum Vinyl Awards to "Leave no Album Behind", and to be as perfect as possible, and that means having as complete an entry pool as possible.

Missing The Mark

• Brandy Allison - Walking on Faith 3.75 Emeralds
• Brad and Rebekah - When We Gather 3.75 Emeralds
• Maria Cederholm - Megaphones 3.75 Emeralds
• Creations - Unworthy / Humility 3.75 Emeralds
• Keisha Cory - Still Standing 3.75 Emeralds
• Hour 6 - This Is Life 3.75 Emeralds
• Graham Kendrick - Worship Duets 3.75 Emeralds
• Justin McRoberts - K 3.75 Emeralds

Thank God for Amazon and iTunes. I really never heard of any of these, and probably neither did a lot of people. I think the standard Christian outlets wouldn't have either. Sometimes I was testing the big boys as well.

Perfect Platinum

• August Burns Red - Rescue & Restore 5 Emeralds
• Caroline Cobb - The Blood + the Breath: Songs That Tell the Story of Redemption 5 Emeralds
• JSon - Braille 5 Emeralds
• Skillet - Rise 5 Emeralds

ABR and Skillet were on the initial list. Cobb and JSon made the revised list. Of the four, Caroline Cobb "knocked my socks off" the most. This was an amazing album for the folk genre.

Semi-Precious Metal

• Abandon Kansas - A Midwest Summer 4.75 Emeralds
• The Almost - Fear Inside Our Bones 4.75 Emeralds
• Audio Adrenaline - Big House to Ocean Floor 4.75 Emeralds
• Building 429 - We Won't Be Shaken 4.75 Emeralds
• Isaac Carree - Reset 4.50 Emeralds  
• Colossus - Time & Eternal 4.50 Emeralds
• Extol - Extol 4.75 Emeralds
• Family Force Five - Reanimated 4.75 Emeralds
• Ghost Ship - The Good King 4.50 Emeralds
• Heath McNease - The Weight of Glory: Second Edition 4.75 Emeralds
• Mr. Del - Faith Walka 4.75 Emeralds
• Tim Neufeld - Trees 4.50 Emeralds
• R-Swift - Apply Pressure 4.75 Emeralds
• Remedy Drive - Resuscitate: Acoustic Sessions 4.50 Emeralds
• Sleeping At Last - Atlas: Light 4.75 Emeralds
• Still Trill Christians - Kings 4.50 Emeralds
• Tim Timmons - Cast My Cares 4.50 Emeralds
• Tony Tilman - The Tillman EP 4.50 Emeralds
• Unspoken - The World Is Waking 4.50 Emeralds
• Various Artists - In Christ Alone: 25 Of Today's Most Powerful Modern Hymns 4.50 Emeralds
• Hezekiah Walker - Azusa The Next Generation [+digital booklet] 4.50 Emeralds
• We As Human - We As Human 4.75 Emeralds

Seems like the new trend in music is the Self Titled album. Seems to be a lot of them these days. Most of the 4.75's are nitpicks, as I can't hand out 5's like candy. 4.5 is where I start to really deduct points. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

The Wait of Glory

Here at The Night Beat we pride ourselves at calling it as we hear it. We're not going to fawn over an artist or bands release just because everybody is doing it, and, as you already may know, we pretty much adhere to a once saved always saved doctrine, musically speaking as well, where the industry is known for purges over various indiscretions.

This post is somewhat of a second look on an artist whose work I had panned in the past. Last Spring I posted a review of Thrift Store Jesus, and due to hiss and distortion, which while explained by the artist still drove me batty, I was kind of cool on the album. Add to that a level of profanity that I was uncomfortable with in a release toted by the Christian Market, and I gave it a bad rating, though not as bad as some.

Part of the re-assessment of +Heath McNease  was due to a release by P.O.D. a few months later. It created quite a stir when, though muted, the f-bomb was pretty evident on the last song. The band got away with it by the creation of a Christian Edition which omitted the song, thus depriving some of another purge.

Which brings me to two releases, one in 2012 and one this year, entitled The Weight of Glory: Songs Inspired by the Works of C.S. Lewis. Due to a number of reasons, not excluding my previous review of TSJ, the first work fell through the cracks. That is rectified here. The titles of the songs are also the titles of Lewis works.

1. The Great Divorce
2. A Grief Observed
3. Mere Christianity
4. The Problem of Pain
5. The Four Loves
6. The Screwtape Letters
7. Edmund
8. Perelandra
9. Till We Have Faces
10. Surprised by Joy
11. The World's Last Night
12. Weight of Glory.

What, nothing from Narnia. Oh well. This is a very good album, but part of the problem with it is a certain lack of direction. The album is mostly Adult Contemporary/Inspirational, with some Alternative and some Folk or Folk Rock. In hindsight, since the Third Platinum Vinyl Awards, for which this would have been eligible, are already awarded, this would have gotten a respectable 4.50 Emeralds. Unfortunately this wouldn't have been enough to win because this was the year of the Goliath. In Folk Music there was The Vespers. In Adult Contemporary you had Moriah Peters, Michael W. Smith, and genre winner Lara Landon. Then in Alternative you had four Buzz-saws. The release would have been washed away in the Current of Sarah Macintosh, The Wild Things on the Paper Route attacked it. It was drowned out by The Loudest Sound Ever Heard, before finally succumbing to he who being dead yet singeth, Abel.

That brings us to The Weight of Glory, Second Edition: A Hip Hop Remix inspired by the works of C.S. Lewis. The content is the same, though the order is adjusted. Now while the album is advertised as hip-hop, for someone who's experience with the genre is DC Talk and Group 1 Crew, I would sort of go with Alternative here, though I'll give the artist his pick. A lot of the tracks sound like Future of Forestry, which to me is a big plus but to Mr. McNease, I don't know. Not all the songs work, but since the style is consistent throughout, the album works better as a unit, so I'm giving it a nit pick perfect score of 4.75 Emeralds, just so I don't hand out 5's as candy. One nitpick that didn't affect the score. You would think a song called The World's Last Night would have been the last song, both due to the title and it feels like a perfect ending. It's the penultimate song on both albums.

Hip Hop is a little light on entries this year, so I like TWOG's chances, but we shall see about that next year. You can get both of these for a tweet through noisetrade. Click on the album titles to get yours. You won't want to upgrade. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Wanting to Upgrade: Thrift Store Jesus by Heath McNeese

Sometimes I guess you do get what you pay for. I have been discovering missed releases recently. It happens when you are a one person operation. One of those was way back in February. Thrift Store Jesus is the title of the latest release by Heath McNease, and it is available for free download through Noisetrade (click the title to go to the download page). I went into it fresh, as I had never heard an entire album of his, so I really didn't know what to expect.

Let me add that free doesn't mean bad. Four artists got into this years Platinum Vinyl Awards doing the free download or pay what you want route (Jehaziel, The Ember Days, Miss Angie, The Rocket Summer). Not this one, however, and it has nothing to do with it not being eligible (It would be eligible for consideration for the 2012 awards, but no on that as well. Read further for why).

I saw the album as disjointed. Some songs were rock, some folk, some rap, who knew what would be next. Now a lot of artists highlight multiple styles on a single album, but at least it all comes off as a cohesive unit. I never got that feeling here.

More disturbing to me was some of the language. There were six instances of the Christian F-bomb being used (Freaking or frigging). You're not fooling anyone. Everyone knows what the substitution is for.

On the too cute by half front, there was a song that added hisses, pops and scratches to make you think it was an old vinyl song. Everything is digital these days, so we know it's a gimmick. Perhaps in the same vein almost all of the songs used a mike trick where the vocals were "fuzzed". It was very distracting. A final criticism, or nitpick, whichever you prefer. Though I am not a musician, it appeared to me that at times the instruments were either out of tune or played in the wrong key. Don't ask me why, it just appeared that way to me.

Perhaps I was a bit harsh. It's not that it was a horrible album. No that was reserved for Andrew Greer. It's obvious that Heath McNease has talent, it is just that it is marred by intentional amateur gimmicks. I was toying with the idea of titling the post Holding Out For Wal-Mart Jesus, but thought that would be too low a blow. I am giving Thrift Store Jesus by Heath McNease 3.25 Emeralds (which is still 1 full Emerald above Angel Band). I was expecting better, but I guess I did get what I paid for. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

P.S.- The Dove Awards were Thursday Night. Due to the volume of the entrants to this years Platinum Vinyl Awards I totally missed making predicitons, so there will be no official scorekeeping this year. I will do a post with some comments in the near future. More time to get it right for the PVA's.