Music Day

Monday night.

I'm on the Old Christian Music blog, downloading the otherwise-unavailable Vector album Please Stand By (I got Mannequin Virtue a couple weeks ago and was absolutely blown away by it). In scrolling through the sidebar, looking for other artists I like, I saw an entry labeled Painted Orange. I thought that was a cool name, so I clicked the post.

The album artwork was cool too, and an album from 1991 is probably not-irredeemable. I looked them up on YouTube (because I won't even download stuff for free unless I know I'll like it).

The first thirty seconds of the album opener alone sold me on this band. They call it 'electronic,' but it's good electronic. There's melodies and dynamics and, yes, nuances. Plus, the drumming is fantastic -- it just captivated me.

It was so good, I was actually kind of hoping it wouldn't be on the iTunes Store, so I could get the free download with a clear conscience. But it is, so I can't. So now I'm stuck waiting until somebody who loves me very much (there has to be someone...) gets me an iTunes card because all the money in my music budget is now in lockdown on the off-chance White Heart actually comes to Canada in October... but I digress. This album really is one of the best I've heard of the era.

Title: Standing Still
Artist: Painted Orange
Album: Painted Orange
Year: 1991
Label: Star Song
iTunes here; YouTube here.

This particular song is catchy as heck. That quick high-end keyboard motif alone is worth it, and the ethereal vocal layer in the pre-chorus just makes the song. And probably once I own it and have listened to it seven hundred times, I'll have a billion other things I love about it and be disappointed in myself for featuring it now while the beauty of it in my ears was still mostly untapped.

Ah well. We shall learn to love it together, I suppose.

Music Day

While poking around the iTunes Store for  eighties Christian music that 1. is actually worth buying, and 2. I don't already have on a cassette or record somewhere; I stumbled across this.
The preview sounded good, so I looked it up on YouTube. And I've developed yet another favourite song.
This is from the band's earlier days, before they seized on the 80's keyboard/synth techno craze. Their sound was much simpler in the seventies and early eighties -- even though they use a pretty decent electric guitar in this song, it sounds almost acoustic to me for some reason. I have no idea why.
Anyway, here you are.

Title: Angel Of Light
Artist: Petra
Album: Never Say Die
Year: 1981
Label: Star Song Records.
iTunes here; YouTube here.