Phil Keaggy: Love Broke Thru (1976)

Tracks:

1. Your Love Broke Through
2. Take Me Closer
3. As the Ruin Falls
4. Wild Horse
5. Disappointment
6. Time
7. Portrait
8. Just the Same
9. Things I Will Do
10. Abraham

If What A Day was a one-man show, then Phil's 1976 album Love Broke Thru was a true "group" effort--even if it was a group of seasoned and highly professional studio musicians.   New Song (the record label) pulled together some of the biggest names in the Hollywood music scene on this one: Keyboardist Larry Knechtel, drummer Jim Gordon, and bassist Leland Sklar are among the luminaries.  The result is that Love is very much a showcase of Phil Keaggy the Guitarist and Performer, with big, glossy production values and tight but elaborate arrangements.

Phil draws from numerous outside sources for the material, most notably the almost-title track, which is probably the most famous Christian song of the late 70s.  The Keith Green/Todd Fishkind/Randy Stonehill classic is a perfect fit for Phil's bright tenor voice and smooth, resonant playing.  It's actually better than Keith's own version from his debut album the next year; The latter artist's piano-driven recording takes a somewhat heavier approach and doesn't have the light, crisp precision of Phil's version.  Still, Green can be heard singing in the background, and you really can't go wrong with that great melody on the chorus.

He also adapts a couple of poems into acoustic numbers that point towards some of the dramatic work he would display on The Master and the Musician.  C.S. Lewis' "As The Ruin Falls" is a scholarly but poignant piece by that features some nice English folk-style runs and a playful flute part, but Lewis' words don't fit comfortably with the free-flowing melody Keaggy hangs them on.  "Portrait," taken from a Beatrice Clelland work, is more successful in wedding music and verse, with a more understated guitar part and lighter feel.  Phil would continue with these adaptations throughout his career.   "Abraham" is a Buck and Annie Herring song that closes the album, and features Annie and Matthew Ward on backing vocals.  It's got a great chorus, even though it mentions something called a "sand tree," the meaning of which I still haven't figured out.  Those kids in the 70s!

There's definitely a Vegas vibe in the uptempo group numbers that dates the album at times.  "Your Love Broke Through" manages to keep things balanced between pop and big band, but "Take Me Closer" feels like Disco Dance Night, even though it's technically not a disco beat.  It's a nice melody with a message about spiritual intimacy, but has a very glitzy, cruise-ship feel to it, which may have been by design; after all, this is the Phil Keaggy Showcase.  

Phil manages to rock out a bit on two numbers:  The first, "Time," comes close to a full-blown guitar jam that unfortunately fades out just as the band starts cooking.  It's got the hardest riffs on the record, and Phil does some great playing, but he uses a weird effect on the choruses that makes his guitar sound something like a laser gun.  It actually kind of reminds me of a similar effect Steve Howe used on Tales of Topographic Oceans, which is hardly a resounding endorsement.  He would actually make a much heavier version in 1985 that would be released on the Time 1970-1995 retrospective.  "Just the Same" is tighter and shorter, but features the same big chorus with BGV's and brassy arrangements.  Still, the grandiosity of the studio band takes some of the bite out of these tunes.

For its time and place, Love Broke Thru is actually a fairly good record.  It casts the spotlight on one of the premier performers of the developing Christian Contemporary scene, and gives him some room to reflect some of that heavenly glow to the audience.  Even if the glow has a little too much sparkle.