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Album Review
A descriptive phrase
like “Christian rock” has certain shortcomings that come
into sharp focus when the label is applied to the work of
a group like Jars of Clay. It isn’t a completely
incorrect term, but neither is it comprehensive enough to
address the contents of the band’s recorded output.
Perhaps because the group became ensnared in a somewhat
absurd controversy between secular and Christian fans
almost from the beginning, Jars of Clay has grown gifted
at musical shape-shifting, presumably to avoid being
tagged as either a Christian or a mainstream act. They
can legitimately lay claim to both descriptions. The
band’s ability to morph is perhaps the centerpiece of
their new album, Good Monsters, which contains a
diverse blend of musical influences that finds them
creating modern rock, rustic-tinged sounds and
atmospheric offerings with equal skill. The downside of
their stylistic flexibility is the lack of a distinct and
recognizable thumbprint on their work, while the upside
is the subtlety, artistic reach and experimental freedom
that can be heard across the record’s dozen tracks.
After much
experimentation with acoustic textures in recent years,
Jars of Clay confounds expectations out of the gate with
a trilogy of straightforward rockers. Their aggressive
remake of Julie Miller’s Appalachian-styled ballad, “All
My Tears,” is especially surprising, given that the band
could also have done the tune justice in its original,
far more subdued version. The lead-off single, “Dead
Man,” is a two-pronged sampling of late ‘70s-era rock
that successfully mashes up the plastic neo-soul of Roxy
Music with hooky, synth-fueled pop-rock reminiscent of
The Cars. The band’s underrated guitar prowess is
especially evident here and on “Take Me Higher,” a chunk
of loping mid-tempo rock with bluesy female backing
vocals that invoke The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.”
Vocalist Dan Haseltine, who has never possessed the oomph
of a card-carrying rock ‘n’ roll shouter, lends these
numbers—and indeed, the entire album—a mysterious air
that suits his probing, intellectually-slanted lyrics.
The Jars’ creative
adventurism finds payoff in the ambitious musical
landscape of “Oh My God,” a three-part acoustic
composition that explores a phrase common to believers
and non-believers alike, and one the song implies is
misused perhaps equally by both camps. The appearance of
a children’s choir and a foreign language vocal cameo on
the moody and cinematic “Light Gives Heat” is also
indicative of the broad palette of colors the band has
become comfortable using. Both “Light Gives Heat” and the
title tune, “Good Monsters,” challenge the assumption
that the good works of Christians actually accomplish the
will of God, particularly if the doers in question are
intent on maintaining sanitary veneers of religiosity:
“All the good monsters rattle their chains/ And dance
around the open flames/ They make a lot of empty noise/
If good won't show its ugly face/ Evil, won't you take
your place?”
While it might seem
that primary lyricist Haseltine is talking aim at his
brethren, his present thoughts were spurred by a
reappraisal of his own inner condition, which he says he
found to be inauthentic and inclined toward isolation.
The “Good Monsters” conceit, then, is Haseltine’s catch
phrase for his own flawed attempt to live out his
Christian beliefs and his intention to integrate both the
fallen and the higher parts of himself. On the brisk,
R.E.M.-like folk-rocker, “There Is a River,” Haseltine
returns to the topic of isolation and self-management,
offering a balm for himself and all who relate to the
spiritual illness he endeavors to describe: “And all of
those nights/ Spent alone in the darkness of your mind/
Give it up, Let go/ These are things you were never meant
to shoulder/ There is a river that washes you clean/
There is a tree that marks the places you've been/ Blood
that was spilled, although not your own/ For all of these
things, love will atone.” In expressions like these, the
moan of soured hopes and misguided motives is eclipsed by
the heart and warmth that put the “good” into Good
Monsters.
~
Steve Morley
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