Better Than The Book's 2nd full-length album Hopes and Dreams is OUT! Patreon rewards have been sent out, "The Hardest Part" is streaming, The Ska Show re-run is here, TONNES of good press to share + Happy 50th Anniversary to the Moon landing!

Hello everyone and hope you've all had a fantastic week so far! It's been a boiling hot and busy as heck time here at JabunAudio with the launch of Better Than The Book's 2nd studio album "Hopes and Dreams" which released last Friday 19th July, and man oh man is there a lot to share in this scorcher of a blog post! TONNES of exciting news today so let's not delay and get straight to the big news: Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album!
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The time has finally come and I cannot tell you how excited I am to announce that Better Than The Book's 2nd full-length album "Hopes and Dreams" has finally been released! You can check out the teaser / launch video below (featuring track 01 "The Hardest Part") as well as listen to the full Hopes and Dreams album, pick up a copy, and see the full album credits and special thanks on Bandcamp via the link below! I hope you enjoy it all! 

  
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams

I'm also super happy to announce that Hopes and Dreams has been approved for worldwide distribution and can now additionally be found on iTunes, Amazon, Google, Spotify and all the other places you'd expect digital music to be found in this day and age! Horray!

With the new album comes a new set of rewards on Patreon too, and boy is there a lot to share this time! With such a huge and special event as an album launch, all patrons will be receiving:

1) A full download of the brand new Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album in mp3 and WAV format as well as high resolution album art ($1 Patrons will only receive the mp3s and artwork, not the WAVs) 

2) A selection of high resolution photos from the press shoot for the album, including photos used for the album's press releases and marketing campaign

3) High resolution lyric sheets for the album

4) A behind the scenes studio photo and story from the Hopes and Dreams album production

And all that for as little as $1 a month when you sign up! Not only that, but I'm once again hosting a Patreon exclusive Ask Me Anything / Q & A session to celebrate the album's launch! Hope to hear some interesting questions from you all!

And remember that on top of all that when you sign up, you'll gain access to the entire history of rewards for your tier including the complete Better Than The Book discography (including the One Small Step EP and Two Years On albums) + many Patreon exclusive bonus tracks and more! If you're a $10+ patron too, then you'll have access to the entire series of monthly behind the scenes and demo posts too! There's never been a better time to sign up to Patreon than today!  
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

With the Hopes and Dreams album finally out, I think it's time for a well earned break, so the next Patreon reward posts will be on the final Wednesday of August (the 28th) for the $5+ patrons, and first Wednesday of September (the 4th) for the $1+ / $2+ patrons when I start releasing the Jabun back catalog of music on the new Patreon rewards schedule. There will undoubtedly be more posts and things to share in the mean time though I'm sure! Until then I hope you enjoy all the new music and extra rewards and I want to express my biggest thanks to all the patrons and readers for supporting Better Than The Book and the Hopes and Dreams album, and my various other music projects on Patreon! Hope to see you over on the Q & A post!

Next this week, I've also uploaded the first of the non-single tracks to YouTube, SoundCloud and Newgrounds! There'll be a new track coming out each Wednesday until mid September and the first of the bunch is the opening track of the album "The Hardest Part"! Get ready for a motivational ska punk anthem to get you pumped for the rest of the new music, and hope you enjoy it:

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Onto the next piece of news, some more exciting times as the podcast re-run for the radio show which featured BTTB on it a few weeks ago is here! Thanks so much to Beefy for giving "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)" its Australian FM radio premier playing along side some HUGE ska and punk names such as Madness (first half of the show), The Clash, The Jam, and my personal ska punk heroes the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (first half of the show as well), as well as for the amazing shout out for the "Hopes and Dreams" album! Check out the July 9th Ska Show's podcast re-run (second half of the show) via the Facebook post below for some great ska covers, new and old tunes, and a tonne of skankin' fun! "(The Travelling To see Eva Song)" is on -20:37 before the end and there's a shoutout to BTTB at -15:33 too! Amazing stuff, and I hope you enjoy the show!

Beefy tells me that "Artificial Ignorance" made it onto the show this week too, so expect another re-run to be shared up here in the coming weeks! Thanks again Beefy!

A quick stop to catch my breath before I share even MORE press news for the Hopes and Dreams album, and it's honestly felt non-stop this week! First of all some amazing and kind words from my musical colleague and great friend Vlad from World Beyond about the Hopes and Dreams album! Thanks so much Vlad! Next Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams has been featured on Pete's Rock News And Views, thanks so much to Pete for featuring the project! And lastly (for now at least), Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams (the title track of the album) has been featured on Spinning Thoughts' "Bands People Tweet At Me" Spotify playlist! Amazing, and thanks to Spinning Thoughts and whoever tweeted BTTB to them for having me on the list! Check out all these press featured in more detail via the links below and I hope you enjoy reading and listening:

Vladimir Kuznetsov of World Beyond on Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album (Release announcement)

Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album featured on Pete's Rock News And Views

Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams featured on Spinning Thoughts' Bands People Tweet At Me Spotify playlist

Finally this week, as the new Hopes and Dreams album comes out, it's nice to reflect on where Better Than The Book started, and on Saturday 20th this week, I had the perfect reason to go back and look at my very first EP One Small Step, and the historical events which inspired not just the title, but much of the imagery in the first 2 songs of the album (as well as the sample in the intro). I'm talking of course about the first moon landing which happened 50 years ago this week: 3 brave souls taking the meaning of "Leaving Home" to the next level, and taking that One Small Step where no human had ever gone before! Truly inspiring! A huge celebration for 50 years since the first humans walked on the moon, and I wish and wonder for what the next 50 years will bring for human space exploration! Only our Hopes and Dreams can tell!

Check out the One Small Step EP on Bandcamp and all those other streaming places or pick it up when you become a patron! I think it was the first Patreon reward I ever gave!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

And that just about wraps things up for this post! It's looking to be a hectic week ahead keeping up with all the press features that have been coming in, and next Wednesday I'll be sharing around track 03 from Hopes and Dreams "And I Fear"! Not sure what else the week has in store, but I hope it starts to cool down soon at least! Until next time, thanks so much for supporting Better Than The Book, JabunAudio and my various projects, and I hope you enjoy Hopes and Dreams and all the exciting news that comes with it! Take care!