Third Day: Offerings: A Worship Album (2000)

Tracks:

1.  King of Glory
2.  These Thousand Hills
3.  Your Love Oh Lord
4.  Agnus Dei/Worthy
5.  Saved
6.  My Hope is You
7.  You're Everywhere
8.  Thief
9.  Consuming Fire
10.  All The Heavens
11.  Love Song

I recently saw Third Day in concert promoting their new album Miracle, and it was one of the best concert experiences I've had in a long time.  Having seen the band twice before (in '97 and '03), it gave me a chance to reflect on the history of the band, which the guys were also keen on doing, reminding us several times that they had been around for twenty years (which made me feel slightly geezerish).  I realized two things during this concert/worship service/nostalgia trip.  First, Third Day's history can basically be divided into three epochs: The Early Years (1996-1999), The Worship Years (2000-2004), and the Radio Years (2005-Present).  And second, I have been a faithful fan through Epochs 1 and 2 but sadly absent for the third.  More on that later.

Getting back to this review, Offerings gives the band the opportunity to pick off several peaches with one shake of the tree: First, it satisfies the obligatory need for a live record.  Second, it affords an opportunity to cover songs from other artists they normally would not on a proper studio album.  Most importantly, the band is able to express their new passion for worship music both in studio and live.  (Sorry for the proliferation of lists in this review.  It's starting to read like a Buddhist sutra!)

The project is divided between new studio cuts and live versions of songs from previous albums.  The studio tracks are a mixed bag of originals and covers.  The big new song is "King of Glory," a song that stylistically follows in the footsteps of "I've Always Loved You" in that it's a quiet acoustic ballad with minimal bass and percussion and long, sliding electric guitar flourishes--at least at the beginning.  The song builds up in energy and intensity until Mac is crying out and a grave Southern gospel choir echoes him in the background, before it goes back to quiet again in the coda.  "You're Everywhere" is a gentle meditation on God's omnipresence, and "All the Heavens" is a decent attempt at writing an honest to God text-and-tune hymn.  The covers include a majestic version of "These Thousand Hills" from fellow Georgians Jacob's Trouble, and a rousing take on the title track from Bob Dylan's Saved, complete with a holy ghost choir and the soulful gal who wailed in the background on "Mama" back in the day.  

Of the live tracks, the only new song is a cover version of Michael W. Smith's "Agnus Dei."  The boys do a fairly good job of carrying the anthem's sense of grandeur, mostly on the legs of Anderson's stately bass lines.  Their commitment to worship shines through, even if its "high church" quality rides a little heavy on the band's rock saddle.  Just as they head into a mighty crescendo, they drop out and Mac leads the audience in a few rounds of the chorus "Worthy."  It's a powerful moment.

Two other standout performances are "My Hope is You" and "Thief."  The former is a superior version to the overproduced one from Conspiracy.  It's proof that you can't keep a good song down, even if you drown it in clanging mandolin noises.  The latter makes a rare appearance and also gains fresh energy from the live setting.  "Love Song" is also brought out from the debut album, as a fitting "God bless y'all" for the audience of thousands and the Audience of One.

Offerings is successful in its objective of drawing listeners into the softer sides of the band, and carrying a spirit of worship into a rock concert, something that is not automatic.  But with Mac Powell and the boys keeping the focus on Jesus and bringing the "church" around the warm glow of their music, they are able to do what a great worship team should do--lead us into the presence of God.

   

Audio Adrenaline: Bloom (1996)

Tracks:

1.  Secret
2.  Never Gonna Be As Big As Jesus
3.  Good People
4.  I'm Not the King
5.  Walk on Water
6.  See Through
7.  Free Ride
8.  Man of God
9.  Gloryland
10.  Bag Lady
11.  I Hear Jesus Calling
12.  Memoir

On Bloom, Audio A finally got all of their pistons firing in sequence as they made the transition from hip-hoppers who play rock to a full-on rock band.  On this set of songs, they leave behind the dance beats and samples and just play straight-on 90s roots rock, which means Stuart growls out his earthiest vocals, Herdman mostly plays organ and guitar (with a little help from Eddie DeGarmo) rather than a synth , and McGinniss gets a fat, groovy tone out of his bass.  But the stars of the show are Blair and drummer du jour Greg Herrington.  Blair, with Herdman kicking in, finally drives the band's sound full throttle with his dirty southern rock riffs, fashioning great licks and solos and creating a sweet grungy sound that's more organic than anything the band had come up with before.  And Herrington pounds brilliant modern rock beats with excellent timing and flourishes without becoming flashy or robotic.

The songs have also improved, moving away from the slogans and youth group themes and developing hooks and melodies that stick.  The opener, "Secret" continues their evangelistic aspirations, and Blair's squealing riffs and Herrington's thrashing drums set the tone for the rest of the album: this is a rock album played by a rock band.  "Never Gonna Be as Big as Jesus" was the first single, and it features a nice groove with a great guitar solo, gospel organ fills, and a neat stop-and-start lead-in to the final chorus.  They actually sound a lot like a young version of Third Day, who made their debut the same year.

"Good People" and "Gloryland" are fast groove-based rockers in the same vein, with catchy choruses and similar rhythmic breaks.  "Free Ride," the old Edgar Winter hit, is played even faster and features Blair echoing Stuart on the chorus through a voice box.  It also is the first of their covers of classic rock songs remade in a gospel context.
  
But they also slow it down, as on "I'm Not the King," which has a quiet opening with a screaming chorus.  They also had a major hit with "Man of God," featuring an emotional Stuart vocal.  Both songs are confessional statements of a believer trying to humble themselves and give the glory to Jesus.

The band have their usual fun and games with "Jazz Oddysey," a send-up of cappacino-sipping hipsters.  But "I Hear Jesus Calling" is little more than a demo of a rather lifeless song that is recorded so poorly, I have to wonder if it was meant as a joke.  "Hey Mark, I hear Jesus calling, and He's saying, 'Leave this one in the can, Bro.'"

Many people have put Bloom on the top of the band's all-time list, and the reason is simple:  The band's evangelistic messages mesh with a living, breathing rock band sound, and where the guitars carry the songs.  It also showed that they needed to find a full-time drummer, an issue they resolved immediately by bringing in Ben Cissel as an official band member for their next album. 

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...

Daniel Amos: Horrendous Disc (1979/1981)

Tracks:

1. I Love You #19
2. Hound of Heaven
3. Near Sighted Girl With Approaching Tidal Wave
4. Sky King (Out Across the Sky)
5. On The Line
6. I Believe In You
7. Man In The Moon
8. Never Leave You
9. Horrendous Disc 

The trials and tribulations of Horrendous Disc and it's long and troubled path to release and public acclaim is one of the stranger tales in the history of Christian music.  In brief, the album was turned down by a label, bought by another and leased to a third which shelved it for two years before releasing it a few months before the band's new album on yet another label.  Then, after being out of circulation for nearly two decades, was finally released in a CD-R format.  What the--?  Was there a special "cowboy demon" (with ten-gallon hat pulled over his devil horns, no doubt) assigned by the Evil One whose lone assignment was to interfere with Daniel Amos' transition from country to rock band?

So what was so "horrendous" about the album, anyway?  And is the disc in question that creepy green-and-orange thing sailing towards our skinny-tie-wearing heroes on the cover?  There's more than just the New Wave threads to indicate the change in the early evening sky:  There's six hombres in the Amos Gang now, as Alex MacDougal (on the far right) has joined with his conga drums, shakers, and various other percussion instruments.  The title is taken from Jerry Chamberlain's song that closes the album, a three-act play of sorts that laments the protagonist's attempts to hide his shameful behavior towards his wife, only to be played out on God's quadrophonic sound system.  It's a great song, but a terrible (and terribly ironic) title for a great record.

The stetsons have been left on the dude ranch as the band comes up with a melodic, well-written series of rockers and pop numbers that take on religiosity, modern apathy, and the general spiritual malaise of America circa 1979.  The kinks that were apparent in the previous year's shows have been worked out in the studio, and from the crunchy rock chords of "I Love You #19" it's clear that DA have turned the corner and are moving into the modern age.  The song pounds along like a mid-tempo punk tune, with fast-rapped lyrics and a great Chamberlain solo.  Following that is "Hound of Heaven," with a hard pop beat driven by Mark Cook's piano and some creepy background vocals.  "Near Sighted Girl..." is a brilliant critique of man's denial of impending danger and judgment.  And "Sky King" is the first of many songs Taylor would write that explore spiritual ecstasy and experiences.   

The production on this album, shared by the band with Mike Stone, is classic late-70s rock: Big bass, close, tight and in-your-face, but with enough glamor and gloss to make it shine.  Chamberlain has developed a new persona as a street rocker with loud, grungy, and dirty riffs and solos.  He even plays a little bit with dissonance, something that would become something of a trademark on later albums.  And Taylor goes from screaming punk on "I Love You" to sweet and shimmery pop on "Sky King."  He really gets a chance to show off his melodic skills, especially on the second half of the record which tends to have more of the sweeping pop numbers.

As far as the songwriting, it all fits into Taylor's new "religion expose":  The general idea seems to be calling out the "Hollywood flash" mentality that was rapidly engulfing the still-young Christian music scene.  "On the Line" talks about taking "his" long-distance call, which can refer to televangelists and their pleas to viewers, but DA would attack that subject much more overtly later on.  "I Believe in You" is almost saccharine sweet in its production and sentiment, as Terry sings about his faith in God in romantic terms, this time like a long-lost lover.  

It's ironic that an album that takes on the Religious Establishment would, in a way, become a victim of that same machinery.  Of course, it could simply be that it wasn't meant to be released until '81, that God had a different plan.  Perhaps.  The bottom line is that Horrendous Disc is an album that's still retained its relevance and importance some 30 years on, and that its message is still just as powerful as it was then.  Its status as a "lost" album has only made its message that much more meaningful and special.

Phil Keaggy Band: Emerging (1977)

Tracks:

1. Theme
2. Where Is My Maker?
3. Another Try
4. Ryan's Song
5. Struck By The Love
6. Turned On The Light
7. Sorry
8. Take A Look Around
9. Gentle Eyes 

After the How The West tour wrapped, Phil headed back to New York State and his regular gig, as front man to his own group, The Phil Keaggy Band--a boogie band similar in style to Orleans (of "Dance With Me" and "Still The One" fame), another upstate band of note.  Featuring guitarist Lynn Nichols, keyboardist Phil Madeira, bassist Dan Cunningham and drummer Terry Andersen, the group grew out of Keaggy's residency at the Love Inn Christian community.  Later that year, they released their lone album, Emerging, a breezy set of soft rockers that gave listeners a chance to hear the guitarist in a true ensemble setting.  

What they hear is Phil finally getting to mesh with a group and do some real playing, which is probably his most exuberant of the decade.  The songs are generally uptempo light funk and the band settles into a tasty groove, with occasional help from saxophonist Ray Papai.  The rhythm section is tight, as Nichols, Cunningham, and Andersen keep the groove going through the whole album.  They give Phil a fast, smooth canvas on which to paint, and his solos are fairly hot and bright, flowing in a somewhat jazzy vain, with a cleaner and thicker tone than he flashed on West.  His vocals are also fairly wild, and for the first time he pulls out his falsetto grace notes on "Turned on the Light," the funkiest tune on the record, complete with rock scream and a capella vocal break.

The players are more than just backup ringers; Madeira has several solos on organ and piano and even sings his own "Struck by the Love."  He also wrote "Theme," a catchy instrumental that sounds just as its title suggests; indeed, it sounds like the house band's theme for a late-night talk show.  It leads into "Where is My Maker," a fast mover based on the book of Job that moves (somewhat oddly) into a blistering shuffle.  

Phil also has a couple of mellower acoustic numbers that deal with the death of his infant son, "Ryan's Song" and "Gentle Eyes."  The former is a heart-rending number whose lyrics were written by a fellow believer, and the latter closes the album on a tender note, as the singer comforts his wife after the bitter loss.  The couple would suffer several miscarriages before the birth of their son Ian in 1981.

The best song on the album is "Take a Look Around," another funky number with a nice rock beat and fast playing from Phil.  The lyrics inspire the album title with the sketchy couplet, "There's a kingdom emerging/And to me that's very encouraging."  But what makes the song great is the two-minute jam at the end that echoes everything from the Tommy "Overture" to "Theme from Mahogany":  Phil goes everywhere on this bit, hitting all of his sweet spots and then some.  

It's a shame that PKB couldn't have made at least one more record together, as they definitely had a style of their own and probably were the funkiest bunch of musicians that Phil would ever collaborate with.   It's no surprise that Nichols and Madeira were key in producing his 1992 retro-rock masterpiece, Crimson and Blue:  They brought back the spirit of a certain time and place when boogie and gospel could dance the night away together. 

Relient K: Two Lefts Don't Make A Right...But Three Do (2003)

Tracks:

1. Chap Stick, Chapped Lips and Things Like Chemistry
2. Mood Rings
3. Falling Out
4. Forward Motion
5. In Love with the 80's (Pink Tux to the Prom)
6. College Kids
7. Trademark
8. Hoopes I Did it Again
9. Over Thinking
10. I Am Understood?
11. Getting into You
12. (untitled)
13. Gibberish
14. From End to End
15. Jefferson Aero Plane

 So...I guess four lefts go up?  In the "Forever 21"  world of Relient K, geometry is merely a metaphor for morality and/or relationships, I guess.  On their third album the band continue their fixation with pop culture, puns, and nostalgia, and also throw in a good measure of teenage drama.  "Chap Stick..." starts out as a day at the theme park, with the singer bemoaning his lack of cell phone minutes, then segues into a completely different song about the titular chemistry.  There's a witty song suggesting that girls should wear "Mood Rings" to warn their respective boys what emotional state they are in, and another that recites the struggles of "College Kids" in navigating student loan debt (tell me about it), relationships and the job market.  

At first listen, the band seems to have added an extra layer of packaging to their message, as there are no overt prayer or praise songs on Two Lefts.  Only "Getting Into You" makes any mention of God, and it's a good one: "I'm getting into you /Because I've got to be/You're essential to survive/I'm going to love you with my life."  Many songs speak to God on a personal level, and often use human relationships as a metaphor for connecting with God.  Or not: In "Trademark" the singer is speaking to an Unnamed Someone Who Is Very Important, and confessing his tendencies to run away from rather than toward that Someone.  He even goes as far as to declare: "I'll kill the thing that turns me away/Amputate the arm that will disobey."  Sounds a little emo there, Matty T.

Musically, there's not a huge progression from Anatomy, although Thiessen plays more keyboards on this one, and his vocal delivery seems a little more nuanced, with everything from breathy whispers to nasal nerdiness to a few shouts here and there.  He's piling the lyrics on, too:  Lots of cutesy sayings and wordplay.  And there's the obligatory nostalgia trip in "I'm in Love with the 80s," which reads like a script for one of those VH-1 reminiscence shows with the similar title: "Ocean Pacific shirt (insert comedian comment here)...Left ear piercing (insert celebrity comment here)..."

So what we're left with is the singles, and they range from the precious ("Chap Stick.."), to the anthemic ("Forward Motion") to the one with a good chorus but little else ("I Am Understood?").  "Motion" is the best song on the record, a song whose construction reminds me a lot of those classic Def Leppard songs from the 80s (specifically, "Foolin").  It's not so much a standard verse/pre-chorus/chorus progression, but a sequence of hooks: The punkish "Whoa-oa" hook, the fast "I got evicted" hook, the slight break of "When car crashes occur" hook, then the Big Hook and best lines on the album: "To experience the bittersweet/To taste defeat then brush my teeth."  We finally get to the "chorus" which mentions the title, but it's slow and sans drums, so it almost feels anti-climactic.  It's modern songwriting at its best: throw together a stack of hooky verses and bundle 'em with a big beat.  Chorus?  Who needs a chorus?

Two Lefts doesn't blaze any new trails as far as style, although it does take a step or two off the beaten path to look at the flora and fauna along the way.  And really, unless the band decided to fire a guitarist, hire a pianist, and go for a whole new sound, there isn't a whole lot of trail to be blazed.  Pop punk, like any other kind of punk, is limited in its scope and development.  So it's up to Matty T & the boyz to find new ground, and with their knowledge of melody, hooks, and the zeitgeist of the 21st Century, they've got a good shot to do just that. 

Third Day: Time (1999)

Tracks:

1. I've Always Loved You
2. Believe
3. Took My Place
4. Never Bow Down
5. Your Love Oh Lord 
6. Don't Say Goodbye
7. What Good
8. Can't Take the Pain
9. Sky Falls Down
10. Give

After the wrong turn down Grunge Street, Third Day needed a course correction.   So they hit the highway and met up with producer Monroe Jones, who took the boys down to Southern Tracks Studios in Atlanta to start recording their third album.  Rather than try to fix what had been running smoothly, Jones and the band went back to where they started, reloading the Fixible Peach Bus and riding the Southern gravy train of gospel rock.  But rather than remake Third Day, the band worked out a new batch of songs in the old mold, just with a little more hot sauce.

The resulting record, Time, is a return to the basics, made by a band with nothing to prove or conquer, but rather, being themselves, playing the style that best suits them, and writing more mature and intelligent songs in that style.  There's still gospel throw-downs like "Believe," a challenge to doubters to have faith in what God has done in their lives, and "What Good," a funky number that asks the age-old question, "What good is it a man to gain the whole world, and to forfeit his soul?"  But there's a sensitive and emotional side to the music that is coming to the surface.  The lead-off track, "I've Always Loved You," is a country-flavored, first-person Jesus ballad in the vein of "Love Song."  Mac takes a more laid-back approach on this one, to an acoustic-led track with pedal steel guitar and multiple Macs singing backup.  It's a sign that the band is starting to move in a new direction, one that is focused on more rootsy elements and Nashville-like arrangements.  

The real new direction is in what was the big radio hit off of the album, "Your Love Oh Lord," a worship song based on Psalm 36.  To a strangely mechanical beat, Mac sings one verse and chorus over three times, again with the acoustic backing and minimal arrangement.  The song became a concert staple for years and heralded the next phase of their career as the hardest-rocking worship band on the planet.

Other highlights include "Never Bow Down," a powerful song based on the biblical story of the three exiled believers in the fiery furnace; "Sky Falls Down," a sort of End Times Dixieland-ish rocker with horns and sly vocals; and the ballads "Don't Say Goodbye" and "I Can't Take the Pain," which show the band starting to bring a personal angle to their music.  They also close the record with the eight-minute "Give," another slow worship number like "Your Love", except they drag it out with a long coda that features almost a minute of feedback before going back into a driving finale.  It's a good song, but the band would find a better setting for it in the live show.  Long ambient worship numbers are not the TD strong suit.  

Like its somewhat generic title, Time is a quiet return to the basic Third Day approach of Southern rock with a strong gospel message, but with a little sweetness and humility thrown in to take the edge off.  It almost has a feeling of a long exhalation after the tension and weirdness of Conspiracy.  Things are coming back to where they should be, but that doesn't mean the band will stop moving forward and developing their sound and message.  But sometimes you gotta go back home before you go out to take on the world.