Jars of ClayThe Long Fall Back to Earth
[2009, Gray Matters/ Essential Records]
# of spins (out of 5):
Jars of Clay is a band that regularly has strokes of genius, but is also a band that often buys in to their own ego. Thus resulting, a band with a spotty catalog that is sometimes brilliant and sometimes un-listenable (not to mention they relented to the pressure that gets put on "Contemporary Christian Rock" bands and put out an album of hymns/praise music as well as a Christmas album).
I don't hold their CCR genre against them, I love many artists that fit that mold, Caedmon's Call, Third Day, Derek Webb, and Jars of Clay among them. But when Jars broke in the mid-nineties it was obvious this was a band on the edge of a lot. They crossed over from CCR radio to Alternative Rock and were without questions on the forefront (with contemporaries Counting Crows and Toad the Wet Sprocket) of the Acoustic-Alternative Rock scene that followed shortly after, a scene which included artists like: Days of the New, Shawn Mullins, Paula Cole, & Lisa Loeb. Jars' stunning debut was co-produced by the band and King Crimson's Adrian Belew (who also worked closely with Nine Inch Nails at the time), and video director Ken Fox who worked with bands like Blues Traveler and The Wallflowers.
No, no, this band was not at all like the others.
However, Long Fall Back to Earth is a far cry from the urgency that rang through the band's debut as well as many of their later albums Much Afraid, If I Left the Zoo, or Good Monsters. Long Fall Back to Earth sounds like middle age men trying to care about the same things they did when they were twenty-five. The lyrics mostly feel disingenuous while the band sticks with a familiar sound that didn't work previously, on their weaker albums The Elventh Hour and Who We Are Instead either. It's a thick, polished sound that muddles the band's strengths, mostly Dan Hasseltine's vocals and lyrics (although the lyrics throughout most of this record are fairly forgettable) with electric guitars and suped-up keyboards.
The content of the music are topics the band worked out in their first few albums, disenchantment, divorce, and the struggle for real love in a world that's becoming increasingly indifferent to the concept.
Every song sounds like it was written to be used over the pivotal scene in a generic chick-flick. The stand-out songs that are admittedly fantastic are "Weapons" and "Two Hands". With "Weapons" I can actually picture the scene in a movie where the male protagonist drives home in the rain after the quintessential lover's quarrel. And as the song progresses you see as he begins to realize that he just let the best thing to ever happen to him slip through his hands.
If you're a fan of Jars of Clay, you might like hearing this album just to see what the boys are up to nowadays. But don't expect the passion and vigor that you remember from the olden days.
Previous Albums:
Jars of Clay
Much Afraid
If I Left the Zoo
The Eleventh Hour
Who We Are Instead
Redemption Songs
Good Monsters
Christmas Songs
[2009, Gray Matters/ Essential Records]
# of spins (out of 5):
Jars of Clay is a band that regularly has strokes of genius, but is also a band that often buys in to their own ego. Thus resulting, a band with a spotty catalog that is sometimes brilliant and sometimes un-listenable (not to mention they relented to the pressure that gets put on "Contemporary Christian Rock" bands and put out an album of hymns/praise music as well as a Christmas album).
I don't hold their CCR genre against them, I love many artists that fit that mold, Caedmon's Call, Third Day, Derek Webb, and Jars of Clay among them. But when Jars broke in the mid-nineties it was obvious this was a band on the edge of a lot. They crossed over from CCR radio to Alternative Rock and were without questions on the forefront (with contemporaries Counting Crows and Toad the Wet Sprocket) of the Acoustic-Alternative Rock scene that followed shortly after, a scene which included artists like: Days of the New, Shawn Mullins, Paula Cole, & Lisa Loeb. Jars' stunning debut was co-produced by the band and King Crimson's Adrian Belew (who also worked closely with Nine Inch Nails at the time), and video director Ken Fox who worked with bands like Blues Traveler and The Wallflowers.
No, no, this band was not at all like the others.
However, Long Fall Back to Earth is a far cry from the urgency that rang through the band's debut as well as many of their later albums Much Afraid, If I Left the Zoo, or Good Monsters. Long Fall Back to Earth sounds like middle age men trying to care about the same things they did when they were twenty-five. The lyrics mostly feel disingenuous while the band sticks with a familiar sound that didn't work previously, on their weaker albums The Elventh Hour and Who We Are Instead either. It's a thick, polished sound that muddles the band's strengths, mostly Dan Hasseltine's vocals and lyrics (although the lyrics throughout most of this record are fairly forgettable) with electric guitars and suped-up keyboards.
The content of the music are topics the band worked out in their first few albums, disenchantment, divorce, and the struggle for real love in a world that's becoming increasingly indifferent to the concept.
Every song sounds like it was written to be used over the pivotal scene in a generic chick-flick. The stand-out songs that are admittedly fantastic are "Weapons" and "Two Hands". With "Weapons" I can actually picture the scene in a movie where the male protagonist drives home in the rain after the quintessential lover's quarrel. And as the song progresses you see as he begins to realize that he just let the best thing to ever happen to him slip through his hands.
If you're a fan of Jars of Clay, you might like hearing this album just to see what the boys are up to nowadays. But don't expect the passion and vigor that you remember from the olden days.
Previous Albums:
Jars of Clay
Much Afraid
If I Left the Zoo
The Eleventh Hour
Who We Are Instead
Redemption Songs
Good Monsters
Christmas Songs
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