Pieces of a Real Heart
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Sanctus Real Since releasing Say It Loud on Sparrow records Sanctus Real has been a consistent voice is CCM. Hits like "Things Like You (Everyone's Everything)," "I'm Not Alright," and "We Need Each Other" have...
Breaking The Silence EP
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The Letter Black Known as Breaking The Silence, The Letter Black or a Flyleaf/Fireflight re-make, one Tooth and Nail’s newest artists have now provided fans with their first project, Breaking The Silence EP. The band is...
Forget And Not Slow Down
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Relient K Forget And Not Slow Down sis not a Relient K album. Yes, on the side of an album is says ‘Relient K’, but comparing this release to Relient K’s career is difficult. This Relient K uses five new weapons...
A breakthrough fo the band | Posted November-30-2008
Falling Up’s first CD Crashing was a very sound rock album but it failed to break new ground. Their sophomore album, Dawn Escapes, used a more alternative approach to the rock and creative song complex songs that suffered as a whole for the lack of diversity overall. So what might be one of the best remix albums ever Exit Lights is a key album for Falling Up is discovering their identity in throwing new songs into the mixer and adding new ones.
The distinct alternative sound (which would be echoed later in Captiva) is unleashed immediately with the spooky sounding “Islander” which sound incredibly natural and is one of Falling Up’s greatest songs. In revamping “Fearless (250 And Dark Stars)” there was little left from the old rock tune, but the change was genius. The piano is brilliant and the intensity of the song is maximized guest vocalist Troma whose soft vocals are wonderful. The only drawback is Trevor McNevan’s (Thousand Foot Krutch) vocal which doesn’t align with the soft music or the light alternative chorus.
The star singers don’t stop there as Solomon olds lends his hardcore voice to “moonlit (Neon Predator)” which is very heavy. Rachel Lampa’s appearance on “Exhibition (Epoison)” is far more impressive as her intense vocals just shine after a long intro. What breaks up the album is the interludes which don’t last very long but are a odd touch considering their solemn music. Of the two interludes “Third Lake” beats out “circlewinds”.
Both of the singles “bittersweet” and “escalates” sound better in their non-remixed state as they are more messed around electronically than actually improved. The techno style added to the alternative rock “Searchlights (Indoor Soccer)” actually creates a more interesting atmosphere than most of the other remixes; the tune stays intact and the intensity stays the same but the base plays a bigger role. The creepy sounding “broken heart” took a big change from it’s solid rock seat to a more alternative organic song which is more complex and more artistic.
The lyrics are not so much an issue on remixes records since most of the songs keep their original meanings, even though Falling Up is known for their cryptic lyrics. But a look at “Islander” and the majorly tweaked “fearless” is interesting. “Islander” seems to say that admits lost friend ships, abandoned purposes and the everyday strangeness of life that we should not ‘half live’. The lyrics seem strange on “Fearless” but on the bit that Troma sings on it would seem that the message points to God and standing strong ‘Don't take my picture because I wont be there standing alone/Im living fearless, so fearless, like every day's my own’
Exit Lights is a breakthrough for Falling Up, as they sound more refined and added more verity to their style. The next step is watching them do the same with new songs like they did with their previous ones. A terrific Remix album which only hints at the potential greatness.
A letdown | Posted August-24-2007
The much anticipated (at the time) The Beautiful Letdown from Switchfoot is a rock CD, with a lot of disappointing songs.
Switchfoot's songs on The Beautiful Letdown are very raw from start to finish. The tunes don't flow well, and Jon Forman's vocal does not help things either. The "new" sound of the music becomes more disjointed than original and fun. The two songs that has an okay beat are "ammunition" and "adding to the noise". However even the hits "dare you to move", "this is your life", and the singles "gone", "more than fine", and "meant to live" and not very impressive musically, except for the opening of "meant to live". The title track is worse.
The lyrics definitely have a mainstream flavor to the album as there are only vague references to God. But there are positive messages here, about not wasting time (gone), living for something more than we are (meant to live) among others. However the focus is not on God.
This Switchfoot CD could have been a mainstream album easily, as there were songs that were released on non-Christian stations. Over all though poor music, vocals, and lacking lyrics makes this album an unbeautiful letdown.
Great! | Posted August-22-2007
The follow up from the outstanding Casting Crowns self titled debut, comes their second album, powered by good music and the best lyrics in the Christian music community.
Life song's music is light rock, praise and worship, and contemporary, with the gripping rock song "set me free". The music isn't always spectacular, but it's good. The hit "life song" is a great sounding song for the beginning of the album that may sound just a bit to much like their last CD. Mark Hall has very good vocals as he carry's his tunes well. But like their first one, the final tracks don't make as much of an impact as the first half of the CD does.
Casting Crowns tells a story rather than sings a song, as their lyrics are some of the best on today's Christian music. "Life song" is probably the weakest song in terms of depth. The hits "praise you in the storm" and "does anybody hear her" are wonderful songs, if not overplayed. "Stain Glass masquerade" and "while you were sleeping" are fantastic songs that are very thoughtful.
If not as good as their first CD than it's really close, because Life Song lacks nothing on its lyrics and still has good music.
Needs work. | Posted August-24-2007
Regeneration is a remix CD from Superchic[k], as they give us another fun up-beat album.
Superchic[k] really has their act down when it comes to making snappy music, as most of their songs sound great. They have some rock with a punky sound mixed in, but some of the songs are a little raw yet, and not yet refined. The single "me against the world", "one girl revolution" and "stand up" are very fun and have a good beat, "one and lonely" does not sound impressive, but the remixed song "Barlow girls" sounds better than the original. The hit song "Hero" is fantastic, with a good piece of rap thrown in.
Lyrics are standard for superchick[k], as they talk about making a difference, stopping suicide, and having self respect. All of that is fine but their songs have little to do with God and some songs are pointless. Even the best messages on their songs are shallow.
A enjoyable album to listen to, but Regeneration is a an empty CD that won't impact anything but the radio charts.
John Ruben still doesn't have control | Posted October-09-2007
John Ruben's The Boy vs. the Cynic is an album that has loose rap tunes and very thoughtful lyrics.
The Boy vs. the Cynic has a mix of par songs that are hard to listen to and easy to forget, and then he has his up-beat rap fused rock songs which really are the bright spots for the album. However there are too many songs that don't have much of a tune (no surprise) or almost none at all ("there's only forgiveness", "sales pitch" and "chapter one").
The single "all I have" is a nice sounding song, as is the title track which could have been better than it was. The best on the album is the up-beat songs like "sunshine", the single "out of control" and the hit "nuisance" with Mathew Thiessen (of Relient K).
After getting past the opening song "out of control" John Ruben wrote the lyrics on The Boy vs. the cynic very well. His lyrics are terrific; His songs contain wisdom, as he tackles some of today's tough issues through a Christian world view. The shallowest of his songs are his singles.
John Ruben's lyrics are great, but his rap is really a drag to listen to. His best is his singles which are not that deep, if he could just mold those to things together, and then we could have a spectacular album.
another fun album | Posted August-17-2007
Two lefts don't make a right... but three do is arguably the best album from Relient K, and it's not hard to see why. Creative music and great good lyrics power a punk/pop album to high heights.
The third CD from Relient K is great when it comes to music; their pop/punk sound is the best in Christian music. No to tracks sound the same on the 15 track album, as it seems that Relient K can put out great, creative music without trying. Even when they do worship songs (getting into you, and others) they are terrific. Picking out distinct sounding songs are hard to find because of the overall quality of all the tracks on the CD. "Chap stick and chap lips and things like chemistry" and "forward motion" are the best punk, while "I am understood" is the lone rock song on the album.
The messages are great, but with their genre, hard core lyrics are harder to find. But still the lyrics are good, not always meaningful (which is the lone mistake) but always fun and positive.
A great album, not the deepest by Relient K, but is still a lyrically and musically sound album. Two lefts don't make a right... but three do is a fun, uplifting, creative CD that is very good.
Raw but good | Posted August-17-2007
The under the radar 38th parallel released their debut album Turn the Tides, a CD with raw rock tunes and outstanding lyrics.
38th Parallel seems to be the Christian version of the mainstream band Linkin Park, but 38th parallel has a long way to go to reach that quality of music. The duel vocals is not done very well, making it sound raw, and the music has a lot of weak tunes where their music has almost no momentum. "wither" and "Clouded" don't sound that bad, but most of the album is not very impressive. The single "horizon" is a excellent sounding rock song as both the vocals and the music perform the best on the album.
Turn the tides has a rock solid foundation. Their lyrics are amazing some even taken right out of scripture ("who am I" and "3 times denied"). All the tracks have outstanding lyrics as 38th parallel is much more mature at song writing than at writing music.
Horizon is the pinnacle of a rough sounding album, but it also shows what 38th parallel is capable of. This band's lyrics are way ahead of their music.
Good but still room for improvement | Posted August-15-2007
Welcome Diverse City, Toby Mac's second album, Is a great hybrid of rock fused hip-hop as Toby Mac moves closer to perfecting his own signature sound.
Welcome to Diverse City has a more refined sound than momentum, his first CD, and a more consistent tune. The beats are good, but Toby Macs creativity is the huge part of his success. The album is loaded with hits like "gone", "atmosphere", and "burn for you", and the title track, which all sound terrific. "The slam" is an excellent rock/rap song, but from there the 16 track CD gets less smooth. There are good fun hip-hop songs like "gotta go", "hey now", and "getaway car" but there seems to be several other half-hearted songs on the CD.
Toby Mac has some great songs on Welcome to Diverse City almost all the songs are good and meaningful, but there are songs like "the slam" that are really good. Pick almost any song on the album and there are good lyrics, and great messages.
Welcome to diverse City is an improvement from momentum, but the CD is not perfect. Toby Mac needs to make all of his songs as good as his radio singles.
Fun, but meaningless | Posted August-13-2007
Trevor McNiven (Thousand Foot Crutch) might have been bored with writing rock songs that might have been why we have FM Static, and their debut CD what are you waiting for.
FM Static does very well on their first album on the music. The punk is impressive the music flows along very cleanly, and it is very up-beat. The single "something to believe in" is the best sounding song on the album but, "defiantely maybe", "Donna" "three days later" and almost every song on the CD are good punk songs.
The one thing that isn't impressive is the lyrics. In most cases the songs are meaningless, talking about girls, school or making a commotion. When the songs do say something meaningful, the songs are pretty much useless, and there is nothing about God in there lyrics either. The song with the most depth is "something to believe in" which isn't great.
The punk is great, but it's unfortunate that Trevor McNevin doesn't put the put that much into FM Static, lyrics as he does Thousand foot Crutch.
Falling Up is still a bit rough | Posted August-13-2007
Dawn escapes is the second CD from Falling Up, an alternative rock album with a more refined style of music than their first CD, Crashing.
Falling Up drifted away from the traditional Christian rock to a more instrumental rock sound, which the vocals have also adapted. The music is well done, but like on crashing, most of their songs sound like the song you just heard. Verity is one thing falling up is still after, it's nice though that more songs stick out on this album than on Crashing. To start things off is the song "search lights", the song that made the CD.
The lyrics also drifted away from their first album as well, using a more cryptic style of song writing. It's difficult to get much out of their songs. And the chorus is, for the most part, the only thing that makes sense in their songs.
Falling Up improved their style since crashing, but they still need to add more clarity between songs.
Nathan's Music and Book Reviews 
