Rich Mullins: Never Picture Perfect (1989)

Tracks:

1. I Will Sing
2. Hope to Carry On
3. While the Nations Rage
4. First Family
5. Alrightokuhhuhamen
6. Higher Education and the Book of Love
7. Bound to Come Some Trouble
8. The Love of God
9. My One Thing
10. Somewhere
11. The Love of God (Reprise)

Winds of Heaven may have established him as one of CCM's best new artists and songwriters, but its on Never Picture Perfect that the Mullins legacy really finds its step and takes off.  And what is so different about this album that makes it just a bit deeper than its predecessors?  We could start with the album cover: No self-promoting sweatshirts, no golden retrievers, but a grainy picture of a slightly weary-looking artist looking cock-eyed and away from us, like he sees something Big Out There that we haven't caught onto yet.  Or maybe its the title: Perhaps its a subtle, maturer sequel to the younger Pictures in the Sky, a status update of sorts, like, "I saw pictures in the sky, but two years on, I've learned that nothing on earth is picture perfect."  (BTW, a little retroactive research on my part revealed that Pictures actually had not two but three Top 10 singles: "Verge" (#5) as well as "Screen Door" (#2) and the title track (#4).  I guess I was a little rough on the old thing, but I still believe, as many fans do, that as an album, it was not as strong as his later stuff--J.D.)

But in the end, it comes down to the songs, and for the most part, Rich has continued to progress both in his words and his arrangements.  The album kicks off with an old-fashioned a capella gospel sing, "I Will Sing," in which Rich sings with a female (Margaret Becker?) and male singer in three-part country harmony on behalf of all of the suffering believers of the world.  He then follows this with a stridently-strummed guitar leading the band through the driving gospel-inflected "Hope to Carry On."  Seven years later, the group Caedmon's Call would reproduce these two songs in concert and on their debut album, and the effect was just as powerful.

The global scope of Winds continues on this album, as the next song, "While the Nations Rage,"  based on Psalm 2, builds on the idea of the evil leaders of worldly governments facing judgment from the Righteous King of Kings.  It features on of his most moving themes, a Native American-inspired line generated on a pipe-like synth.  On this song, and others, Arvin has maximized the capabilities of the digital instruments, and while it's still got that plastic 80s sound to it, the arrangements are so good that it doesn't diminish the effectiveness of the songs.

Then he goes back home to Indiana with the autobiographical "First Family," a powerful portrait of his rural childhood.   The gobbledygook-titled but easily-sung "Alrightokuhhuhamen" picks up the gospel train with country flourishes, and is just what it sounds like: an affirmation of obedience by God's people, complete with a "Shur'nuff."  It, like "Nations," became a hit single, and has to hold some kind of record for longest one-word title ever--at least on the Christian charts.  

The biggest hit off of the album--and of Rich's career--was the penultimate song, "My One Thing."  It topped the chart for six weeks, and has a nice quote of Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."  It's the perfect song to close out the material decade, as it challenges listeners to make their relationship to God the priority in their lives.  It's also significant because it the first track to prominently feature the hammer dulcimer, which would become, besides piano, Rich's signature instrument.  Again, how appropriate to throw an ancient mountain instrument into a chart-topping 80s pop song.  

It's also appropriate that an album entitled Never Picture Perfect should have one duffer to break the streak of excellence, and that's "Higher Education and the Book of Love," aka "It Still Don't Do, Part 2."  After finally accepting his light melanin and inner hillbilly on the last album, Rich takes another shot at an urban soul number.  With a long and strange snippet of a sermon that's great on its own but weird to start a song with, Rich goes into one of his 1-4-5 "blues raps" with a creepy gutter voice, complete with wailing sax and the same backup girls from before.  Maybe I'm just missing something: Are these kind of "wannabe soul/gospel" numbers just part of his artistic persona or is he trying to appeal to a different audience?  I know he liked to listen to black preachers, and he had a heart for the city, but his earnestness for this type of stuff just never translated well on record.

Aside from that, Never is where Rich began to shake off a lot of the pop glitter that had inadvertently started sticking to his music and head back to the heart and soul of what his music was about: simple songs of faith, done in a timeless, urgent style, yet winsome and singable enough that it not only sold records but also influenced the worship of millions.  It also was where he began to turn on the very consumer culture that generates those sales.  Talk about your grainy images...