Album 56 Episode Titles and Summaries!

They're finally here! Well, I guess I shouldn't say "finally." I actually wasn't expecting them this soon. But I wasn't nearly as surprised to see that these were released as I was to see that Album 56 is now available for download! The time just flies by so fast. It doesn't seem like it's been very long at all since Album 55 finished. But I guess next month is September, so I must just be slow. ;)

Here are the brand new titles and descriptions for the shows on Album 56:

The Perfect Church, Parts I and II: After Matthew sees the problems and conflicts at his own church, Whit sends him on an Imagination Station adventure to witness the very first church in the book of Acts.

I think I'm looking forward to this episode more than any others. For one thing, we haven't heard from the Imagination Station at all since the relaunch (except for Matthew's short journey in "Fast As I Can"), so I'd like to see how the writers will handle it. But more importantly, I am very intrigued by a storyline involving the early church--and presumably it will be a story about all the problems it had. And especially because it's a two-part episode, I really can't wait to see where the writers are going to take this.

Great Expectations: As Emily pursues her hopes and dreams, she journeys in the Imagination Station to see Whit as a young boy.

I can't say that I'm as excited to hear this episode, namely because it involves Emily. But I'll probably get over that when she first meets Whit as a young boy. That will be very interesting. Also, I really like the title for the episode. Hopefully the episode will live up to its name, but I don't have very great expectations. :P

For Three Dollars More: When Barrett questions the value of tithing, Matthew, Connie, and Whit send him on trips in the Room of Consequence to see the results of his actions.

I'm not sure what I'll think about this episode. I have different views on tithing than do most Christians, so I doubt I'll agree with it. But I'll probably get into that more when I review the episode. Aside from that, however, I really look forward to hearing from the RoC again!

The Bible Network: Kids' Radio plays out the value of reading Scripture in three acts - a game show called "Who's the Real Sheep," a crime drama "BSI: Bible Study Investigation," and an intensive training regime called "Bible Boot Camp."

We already knew this episode title, but we hadn't received a summary for it yet. I'm very intrigued by it. It seems to me like a BTV episode, though not under that name. I'm interested to hear the "Who's the Real Sheep" game, which sounds like it could be about true and false conversion. But I won't get my hopes too high. ;)

Happy Hunting: Penny Wise embarks on a frantic search to find happiness, but in the process she makes everyone around her miserable. 

I released this one the other day, and it's still available for free download if you're interested, but I haven't gotten really excited about it. I don't really like the premise that Penny is seeking happiness. If she's a Christian, which we've been led to believe, why does she not already have happiness? And shouldn't she be looking for lasting joy, not just a shallow happiness? Anyway, I just hope this episode doesn't leave me miserable while Penny is making everyone in Odyssey miserable.

The Holy Hoopster: Ryan Cummings makes a series of seemingly miraculous last-second shots for his basketball team which makes him a celebrity - both for the hoops and for acknowledging Jesus.

Now this is more like it. Not only do we get to hear from Ryan again, but it sounds like he's going to become Odyssey's Jeremy Lin! I'm excited to hear a sports episode again, and maybe we'll get to hear from Coach Fang! This will definitely be one of my most-anticipated episodes of Album 56.

The Lost Riddle:Emily and Matthew discover a series of riddles from decades past stuck in the corner of her locker.

This episode has the potential to be pretty good. But I don't think I'll get my hopes up, just because there hasn't really been a Jones and Parker mystery that I've liked much since the relaunch. But who knows, maybe I'll be surprised. It's certainly intriguing.

Groundhog Jay:After Jay pushes Priscilla into an unexpected trip in the Room of Consequence, the two of them experience the same event over and over again.

Oooh, this one sounds really good. I'm not thrilled about an episode where Priscilla is so prominent, but I'm sure I'll get over it. Hopefully this episode will maintain a better story than "The Eternal Birthday." Whatever the show delivers, I'm sure it will become a favorite of my younger siblings, because they LOVE "The Eternal Birthday."

Home Again, Parts I and II: When Jason Whittaker finally returns to Odyssey for peace and quiet, the excitement surrounding his return makes it hard to find either.

Now this is another one where things could go either way. Hopefully the writers have a good story for this episode. I'm not sure how they'll deal with the fact that most of the town thinks Jason is dead, so that should be interesting. But I'm primarily looking forward to this episode because there's another old character returning. Yes, I was spoiled. But I don't want you to be spoiled, so I won't tell you who it is. And I would urge you not to try to find out, because I think if you don't know it's coming, you'll be very pleasantly surprised.


Well, that's The Grand Design. Hopefully it will live up to its episode summaries and be a very impressive album. I'm holding out hope that it will follow the pattern of ever-improving albums. So hopefully this album will be even better than 55!

What are your thoughts about the episodes? Are there any that you're particularly looking forward to? Tell me about it in the comments!  Thank you all for reading!

--Christian

Album 56 Cover

I had already forgotten that this was soon to be released, but this morning I saw that American Eagle had posted it on The Town of Odyssey, so here, in a very short post, is the new cover!

I really like all of the colorful variety in the picture, and I love it that we get to see into Whit's workroom/the basement! Some people said Whit looks too childish. I disagree. He looks like he's doing what he loves: inventing. And he looks happy to see us. Sure, it's probably directed more toward younger kids, as usual, but I definitely think it's an improvement over Album 55's cover.

What are your thoughts?

P.S. Thanks very much to all of you who commented letting me know you were reading yesterday. As I said, I was feeling pretty down-in-the-dumps, so it was some much-needed encouragement.

New Blog Feature

I added a new blog feature today. I've been working on it for a couple of days now, but I worked really hard this afternoon to get it finished so I could put it out here for you guys. There is now a "Reviews" page which you can go to to get a concise archive of all of the episode and character reviews I've ever done. This will be useful to me, so I hope it will be useful and fun to you as well.

In other news, guess who's coming to my house on Friday? Josh from The AIO Fan's Life!!! He and his family are coming to America for the first time in three years, and they're making a stop at my house from Friday to Monday! I'm very excited. Maybe he'll let me post a picture or two of our meeting. :)

P.S. This is my 150th post! And I forgot to post on the blog's anniversary last month, so let's make this the belated anniversary post too. My blog has now been around for two years! I'm so thankful to God for the opportunity to have had this for as long as He's let me had it.

Yes! I Finally Posted...

...but it's still not a review. :(

However, my news does (sorta) pertain to reviewing. Although I still don't feel like I have much extra time to be spending writing reviews, I have received something that will aid me in that regard: Album 54! Now, rather than digging back into the archives (or going to FAIO [heh-heh]) to listen to previously-aired episodes, I can just pop a CD into the laptop and review as I listen.

My family celebrated Christmas today on the 24th rather than on the 25th tomorrow in order to maintain the importance of the Lord's Day. We didn't want the celebration of Christmas to conflict with our celebration with Jesus' resurrection tomorrow, so we opened presents today. As you can see in the picture below, I have much reason to be happy with the presents I received. ;)

I'd love to hear about any presents you've received--especially if they have anything to do with Odyssey. And I promise I will try my best to get a review of Forgiving More...Or Less out as soon as I can. Thank you for your patience! Have yourself a merry little Christmas celebrating Christ's birth! But don't forget to go to church on Sunday and celebrate His resurrection.

Now You Can See It

If any of you were lucky enough to see the cover of Album 55 during the few hours that Marvin (The AIO Fan's Life) and I had it posted before we were asked to remove it, congratulations! It's great to know that you follow our blogs so closely. But if you didn't see it, here it is, officially. We were asked to take it down last week because The Official Podcast wasn't going to release it until today. Now it's released, and I'm fairly certain I can give you the picture. So here it is:



I posted my thoughts about the cover last week, but since I had to delete that post, I'll review it again. I think Whit looks great; but why is he wearing his full outfit--including a thick, leather jacket--in the pool? Connie looks a little to Asian, in my opinion; her eyes get more and more stretched out and slanted with every new picture we see. Eugene looks weird in sunglasses, but it reminds me of the days when we couldn't ever see his eyes; but one thing I noticed is that he has a lot of wrinkles for a guy in his thirties. And Wooton...typical Wooton. He is what makes this cover art so great. Although I actually think AIO Wiki's mockup cover (bottom) makes it look better. It seems to add some needed depth perception, and I hope the official cover will follow suit.

But I don't really get it. Is this a scene from an episode? Or is it merely representative of the album's theme, as in the case of Days to Remember? And who's the kid cannonball-ing into the pool? Is it maybe one of the "old friends" mentioned in the album description?

I'm really looking forward to this album. I'd love to hear your opinions of the cover and the album. Tell me your thoughts in the comments!

Misinformation

A couple weeks ago when the new cover for Album 29: Signed, Sealed, and Committed was released, I relayed the information on from The Odyssey Scoop that that album, along with every new repack after it, would feature the new AIO logo. It turns out, that was a rumor from CBD that was not true. Album 29, along with all the other new repacks will, as has been reported in the past, feature the older AIO logo. I think this makes much more sense, and I'm glad AIO has chosen to take this route. Sorry for giving bad information.

Oh, and since I'm posting, I may as well post the final products of the repacks for which I've already shown the art (Albums 2, 23, 26, 29, and 34):

I think all of these look wonderful! Even the album 26 cover. The hot pink background actually totally rights the wrong of the weirdness of the art, in my opinion. And all the others look great as well. What are your thoughts? Please comment!

P.S. If you were wondering why, I have no idea why this front page ends with the previous post. I can't figure out what's wrong with the system, so just bear with me until I fix it. You can find older posts by clicking on "Older Posts" or by looking back through the blog archive.

WOW!

I was expecting these soon, because we got one of the five albums shown in the Facebook video a few months ago, but I wasn't expecting them in bulk this soon! Unlike I was thinking, all of these are exactly the same as they were shown in the video, and I think at least three out of the four look really good! Here are albums 2, 23, 26, and 34:



I'm sorry the pictures are so small. For whatever weird reason, Blogger won't let me post big pictures anymore because there's an overflow of information. You'll have to go to AIO Wiki or The Campbell County Connection to see the big versions.

I don't have time right now to give my thoughts on them, so you guys'll have to guess which one I don't like as much. Thanks for reading! I hope you were excited as I was to see these. Please comment!