Concept Albums About Times & Seasons
Happy new year, I'd like to get back to the music recs, if you don't mind.
Hi Pal,
Welcome to 2024!
It’s a new week and many folks are back to work already so we can’t afford to take a break here. I’d also like to use this opportunity to welcome all those who subscribed to the newsletter in recent weeks. I’m really glad you are here and I hope you stick around.
Concepts albums are a common reoccurring theme in this newsletter and I’m always fascinated by the interesting patterns that you can discover across many Christian alternative music projects — if you keep your eyes peeled for them. The links are embedded across the write-up highlighted in purple.
The Seasons EPs by Jonathan Ogden
Kicking off this list with perhaps the most popular entry — at least in recent years. Between 2017 and 2018, Jonathan Ogden released four concept EPs inspired by the four seasons of the year — Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. At the time, his collaborative indie worship band project, Rivers & Robots, had already established themselves on the scene.
These unique EPs helped make Jonathan Odgen stand out as an individual artist and they would form the building blocks for his — now established — solo career. Musically, they also allowed him to express himself in new ways, experimenting with pop, R&B, rock and electronic sounds across the four releases.
The Seasonal Lofi Tapes by Isaac Wheadon
Isaac Wheadon is a songwriter and music producer who has established himself in the Christian Lofi and electronic scene over the last five to six years. His Seasonal Lofi Tapes — Autm Tape, Wntr Tape, Sprng Tape and Sumr Tape — released between 2019 and 2020 went a long way in establishing him as one of the people to look out for in the new generation of musicians, particularly in electronic music.
These Beat Tapes featured some prominent artists on the scene and had a good balance between lo-fi-infused hip-hop and alternative R&B sounds.
The Seasons EPs by Jon Foreman
A decade before any of the previous artists released any other of these wonderful projects, Jon Foreman did it first. In 2007, Jon Foreman was already an established artist as the lead singer of the alternative rock band, Switchfoot.
Switchfoot has gone through a lot of sonic evolutions over the years but at the time, they were very much in their groovy alternative rock era with the release of their most energetic album, Oh! Gravity back in 2006. So it came as a bit of a surprise to hear Jon Foreman switch gears dramatically on his solo EP projects — Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer — to a stripped-down acoustic folk approach.
In my opinion, these EPs, released between 2007 and 2008, are still some of the best music Jon Foreman has ever created.
Dawn, Dusk, Night (or The Psalms Project) by The Jonah Project
A double entendre of concept EPs is how I would describe these projects because they fit into two distinct categories. On one hand, all the songs are inspired by different chapters of the book of Psalms — which falls into the category of a future newsletter I would be sending out. On the other hand, it fits into this list because each release — titled Dawn, Dusk and Night — has its Psalms carefully selected to reflect the moods and lyrical themes that fit these times of the day.
The musicianship, although firmly rooted in indie alternative rock, also shifts slightly with each release. For example, Dawn has a lot of soothing compositions while Night has many visceral songs that sometimes borrow elements from Post-Hardcore sounds. It’s a wonderful collection of songs that everyone should hear and they made my 2022 worthwhile.
Twenty Four by Jonathan Ogden
If the previous entry by Ogden introduced me to his creative soundscape, this one took things to an entirely new level. Twenty Four is a Beat Tape project containing 24 tracks that cover the 24 hours of the day, starting at 7:00 and ending at 6:00. Each tune is thematically unique while still existing within the Lofi electronic sonic pocket as he explores different concepts that can be associated with those hours. For example, the 9:00 theme is New Beginnings, the 13:00 theme is Walk in the Park and the 2:00 theme is Rain on the Hillside.
All in all, it’s a unique project that has stuck with me since it was released into the world.
That’s it for today.
Catch you at the next one!
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