Music - Popular bands

Good Monsters - Jars Of Clay        ISBN: 083061082024

Jars Of Clay are nothing if not chimerical. Initially dubbed alt-folk, they have since wandered through alt-rock, Sgt. Pepper retro and even bluegrass. Despite their musical restlessness, or perhaps because of it, they have held on to a huge fan base both sides of the Atlantic.
Good Monsters opts for guitar driven pop, and is their catchiest album to date. The first single, Work, and the Talking Heads-like Dead Man (Carry Me) are representative of the infectious hooks that populate the album. So it’s just like this band that their most accessible album, musically speaking, is lyrically a complete departure. Good Monsters shows a band who have become uncomfortable with their perceived role as spokesmen for the church. This is a confessional album of doubt and struggle which identifies with the Psalms of David. About the album, the singer says it was "born out of many experiences and conversations between addicts, failures, lovers, loners, believers and beggars, and so the language of recovery and the honest discourse about our attempts to live apart from God and each other is a theme." This is not a band losing faith but a band triumphantly clinging to God for dear life. Nowhere is this more beautifully expressed than O My God, a song born out of a trip the band took to Rwanda. Beginning with a whispered prayer it builds relentlessly into a howl of anguish for the common man at the horrors of the world of which the psalmist would have been proud. This album has been hailed as their masterpiece and indeed it is. Managing to be both hooky, haunting, joyous, complicated and adult, this could well be the band’s legacy.

Verra Cruz - Emancipation Day     ISBN fierced23

Those who made it to Greenbelt this year may well have caught Verra Cruz playing live, though you might have missed them since they were relegated to stage 2 and not the main stage, which is surely their natural home. This is the band for whom the phrase ‘proper rock’ was invented. Imagine The Mars Volta, but less self indulgent and more focused. This, their debut album, is such an assault of sound it’s hard to believe they’re just a three piece. Marc James plays guitar and lapsteel with a blistering intensity, with aerial drumming and unshakable bass from Jimmy Cooke and Nick Bright being more than a match, while Marc James’ vocals remind you of Lemmy from Motorhead. The sound is very American blues rock, so it’s surprising to discover they come from St.Albans. Themes of struggle and redemption are mixed with political lyrics and a strong anti-war message. Producer Paul Burton has wisely decided to capture their live sound with the minimum of fuss, and the overall effect is of a firestorm of protest and an aching soul. Catch this band before they go global.

Hope This Finds You Well - Further Seems Forever        ISBN: TND49570

There is much debate as to how to box this band: are they classic emo-punk, nu emo-punk, indie-rock, progressive rock, etc?  Such quibbling over semantics is usually a good indicator of an original act or, as with this Bermuda quintet, at least a genre-busting one.  Sadly, they have now split and gone their separate ways, hence this retrospective compilation.
The first song and the title track of their much lauded debut album, "The Moon Is Down", seems almost prophetic of the band's troubled history (they have been through three vocalists and songwriters in as many albums), with lyrics like "We are the terminal cases, but we're so determined to thrive/This one is us".
Tracks like "Wearing Thin" dwell on our accountability before God and his unending patience:     "Go your own way, I'll be with you/Make mistakes and I'll forgive you". Others deal with the pain of relationships, such as the messy break-up in the "The Bradley" and a son’s memories of his alcoholic father in "Say It Ain't So". Most important are the songs that take the self-loathing and isolation of so much nu-metal and emo-rock and identifies it as God's wake-up call, together with optimism that Jesus can pierce the darkness, such as in "Light Up Ahead"( “Heart of darkness....Wake me up, there's a light up ahead”), "Someone You Know", where a broken spirit calls out “Ready when you are”, and "Hide Nothing" (which oddly also apologises for hell ; “Change is coming though it's nothing personal”). Stylistically  the music twists like a snake. Rarely is there a predictable song structure and the music is often a frothing sea of ambiguous chords and tag-team arpeggios amidst virtuoso quick-silver drumming. Tempos are stretched and genre's skipped through, often within the same track. It absolutely refuses to be pinned down, moving from brutal punk, anguished metal and System Of A Down style vocals to delicate Nick Drake-esque music box acoustic guitars, lo-fi Chillies and Smashing Pumpkins introspection. This is not showmanship (although this band is certainly capable of that), more that, as in "New Years Project", the dynamics of the music are dictated by the emotional content of the songs.
This does not make for background music; it demands far too much of your attention. It is intelligent, challenging, sometimes aggressive, often beautiful, with lyrics that draw you into the song as if it came straight from your own heart. In a CCM scene that so often follows the secular, Further Seems Forever redefined it. Brilliant!
Review by Paul Baker of re:fresh books.  First published on crossrhythms.co.uk

 Superhero - Fake Lunar Landing           

Superhero’s follow-up to their debut CD is full of guitar-driven, sonically upbeat rock-pop anthems. Stylistically it recalls switchfoot and Tim Hughes. Lyrically it covers much ground. Some songs are an honest expression of the doubts we all face, some are a call to arms for Christians to live uncompromising lives as Christian revolutionaries, but most of all Tim Cheshire seems to want to reach non-christians with words that evoke both the mystery of God and the stark reality of judgement. This is an inspiring album for believers and non-believers alike.

Switchfoot - The Beautiful Letdown

Melodic-yet-gutsy sounds that overflow with radio friendly hooks and lyrics that encourage Christians to take on the world and live the life Christ wants us to live with a song that was used in spiderman 2.

Switchfoot – Nothing is Sound

Switchfoot’s new album brings a great mix of powerful rock music, with lyrics to melt the hearts and souls of all who call God ‘Father’.

Delirious - The Mission Bell

The D boys return with what has to be their best album since Glo. There is a new freshness and raw passion to both the sound and the lyrics that show that, though they are now a decade old as a band, they are very far from running out of steam. There are plenty of stadium filling anthems here; Now Is The Time and Paint The Town Red are storming tracks full of revival and cross-bearing inspiration to the army of God; Love Is A Miracle is pure gospel, and Stronger is shot through with triumph (and also turns up on the recent cd of songs inspired by the Narnia movie). The epic scope and sound of  Smith’s vocals and Gerrard’s guitar in Miracle Maker are reminiscent of the band Muse at their best. All This Time finds Martin in breathtakingly honest confessional form. Here I Am Send Me plunders bible heroes to spur on modern Christians. Our God Reigns gets political, calling the world to account. And the musical highlight for this reviewer is Solid Rock; imagine Oasis and Ry Cooder jamming with a gospel choir. This track also features Toby Mac rapping on Guest vocals. Cool! Mission Bell is proof positive that Delirious deserve their mantle as the world's biggest Christian band.

Anberlin - Blueprints for the Black Market

More rock than the standard Christian bands this makes a good change with Melodic force and driving fluidity recalling hard-rock bands such as The Foofighters and Superdrag.

Third day - Live Wire

A collection of songs by one of the leading contemporary Christian bands. including a DVD of their gig in the Palace in Louisville.