Greyscale
You get cool music recommendations, while I get to test my understanding of colours. Feels like a fair deal right?
Hi Pal,
It’s been a little while since I wrote a 10-point list and I’m excited to return to this style. I need to take a while to fine-tune the ideas twirling around in my head to come up with something worthwhile. As always, links are embedded in titles. Before we get into it, I’d love to welcome all who subscribed recently. I hope you stick around.
I am fascinated by album or song art; most times, they are my gateway into exploring and discovering new sounds. When you listen to as much music as I do, you find interesting patterns and themes that can make for fascinating content — or at least, a new way of introducing folks to music. Today, our theme is colour-based and I hope you enjoy checking out our list of grey.
Good Omens by Mudhouse
Indie Rock, Indie Folk
Starting this list, we have Good Omens by Mudhouse. I have said a lot about this album already in my review. Still, I have always been intrigued by the album art — the old haggard man sitting with a noose around his neck and what seems to be two people sitting in front of him. Before the album dropped, I was already sold on it because I loved the singles. The album art only helped increase my curiosity and I wasn’t disappointed.
Song Recommendations: Haunted House, Sinking Ship
Other Side by Zach Winters
Indie Folk
Originally released as two separate EPs back in 2021, these songs were inspired by Zach Winters’ inner musings during the COVID-19 pandemic. After a few production reworks on some of the songs, he dropped Other Side as a complete project in 2022 and it floored me. The album art is a simple picture of the waterside with a few protruding rocks. It feels like the calm after a storm and fits the narrative of most of the songs aptly.
Song Recommendations: SLO (Coastal Song), Time of Unknowns
Luna, Vol I: Reflection by Asaph’s Arrows
lofi hip-hop, instrumentals
Asaph’s Arrows is a musical project from the Philippines and is one of the most prolific lofi artists on the Christian scene. Luna, Vol I: Reflection has a simplistic album art: a blurry image of the artist’s face in motion. The album, however, is far from generic or simplistic. Even with the lofi hip-hop foundations, there are various musical elements and influences from various genres scattered across the 17-track project.
Song Recommendations: escapism, maru
Valitus by The Ember Days
soft indie
The Ember Days is currently defunct but back in the early 2010s, they were one of the most promising indie worship bands on the scene. Valitus (2015) is their last album and it is a black silhouetted image of lead singer, Janell Belcher, on a grey background. Here, they opted for a more storylike lyrical approach as opposed to the congregational worship sensibilities of previous albums. The result of this is a visceral album that focuses on the fragility of human experience and the relationships within.
Song Recommendations: Fire, This World
Zechariah by For Tuesday
Experimental Indie
For an album that I have crowned as my best album of 2023, it is a little ridiculous to me that I have not written a review for this one. Zechariah’s album art is a pictural representation of the biblical prophet kneeling and lifting his hands to the sky in front of a body of water with camels on a plain behind him. It is a concept album about the book of the Bible with the same name and when speaking about creative eclectic alternative music, there aren’t many that top this.
Song Recommendations: Carry Me Away, Red Horse
Upright Session by Christopher Galovan
Piano, Instrumentals
Admittedly, this is a bit of a cheat entry, but how else am I going to get you to listen to awesome stuff? I feel no guilt about this. The reason it is a cheat is because this album is a collection of reinterpreted tunes from other projects. Christopher Galovan tends to blend piano instrumentals with ambient sensibilities and it is always fantastic. However, on this album, it is just him and his upright piano and that’s exactly what the album art shows you. It is a beautiful listening experience.
Song Recommendations: Soar (Upright Session), Through Tribulations (Upright Session)
Shapeshifter by Dustin Ruth
Indie Folk, Indie Rock
There are albums that I usually call “happy accidents” because I never remember how or why I discovered them, but then they end up being some of my favourite records to listen to. Shapeshifter is firmly in that category and it remains one of the gems from 2020. The album art is a man standing in front of an old plane on a snowy surface. You should give this one a chance if you haven’t.
Song Recommendations: Anxious, Lost Art
Jubilee by Muntjac
Singer-songwriter, Alternative Rock, Soft Indie
Muntjac’s music reflects the weight of the life experiences that Mark Hutchinson and there is a maturity to his sound that is quite rare. I have loved all his albums - so far - but none of them has connected with me the way Jubilee did. Every song on this album moved me and the string and horn sections on some of these songs are simply incredible. The album art is simple enough and feels like something right out of the war journals of old: soldiers who seem to inspecting goods at a train station.
Song Recommendations: Jubilee Day, Ypres Train
Somehow I Know It’s Love by Young Oceans
Experimental Indie, Art Rock, Worship
Young Oceans is probably going to spend time on a lot of lists this year so it may feel a tad repetitive speaking about them. It just so happens that Somehow I Know It’s Love fits into this oddly specific category and so here we are. The album art is a desert landscape with scattered dots of what seems to be light — I can’t be sure honestly. It’s an odd yet soothing album art, which probably reflects the creative choices on the album. Eric Marshall seems refreshed and bolder with his approach and the album benefits from this.
Song Recommendations: Go With Me, Savages In Gold
No Creature Is Hidden by Former Ruins
Indie Rock, Post Punk Revival, Folk Rock
Ending this list is, No Creature Is Hidden, an album that I have also written a review on. The album art is a blurry image of a woman and I have grown quite fond of this simplistic art that represents one of the best post-punk-infused indie rock offerings I have heard in Christian music. Levi Sikes’ baritone is a powerful weapon that is capable of communicating a wide variety of emotions depending on the structure of the song and composition style; as I may have said before, I will be listening to this one for years.
Song Recommendations: False Infinities, Sparrow Eyes
That’s it for today.
Catch you at the next one!
Feel free to leave a comment. Also, I am always open to hearing from you so feel free to send an email to me at
stismavo@gmail.com