Grace Hotel
  Overall rating: +++-

Album Review

There's a lot of cookie-cutter music out there, and a lot of CDs that don't have anything to distinguish them from one another. Many of them are even quite good in their own right, but just don't have anything to make you pick them over the next CD. Thank goodness there are bands like Mukala that break all the molds, even if it is subtly.

Mukala doesn't stand out through shock treatment, or through sheer volume, or even through ground-breaking lyrics (although lyrically the poetic atmosphere is superb). Mukala simply creates a musical style all their own, and defines an entirely new way to make music. Their music is mellow, smooth, and very listenable, but it has a gentle rhythm that will get inside your head and won't let go of you.

An infectious groove introduces the CD in the form of "Soap," a simply titled song with a similarly simple theme: "What soap can never wash away, deodorize or disinfect - the dirty hands of a derelict ... what soap can never wash away - the blood-stained hands of a guilty man - only your love can."

"Stranger Than Fiction" sounds like it fits somewhere in between "Mission: Impossible," Carman's Mission 3:16, and a James Bond movie. It quite simply relates that God's love is stranger than fiction, in an unique fashion. The wonder than an all-powerful and all-knowing God would love you and I, even when we turn away from Him. It truly is stranger than fiction!

I think the most meaningful and thoughtful song on the CD is the finale, "Jesus Shirt." Deceptively benign and unobtrusive in its feel, it cuts right to the core of any heart that claims to be in the hands of Christ, as it quite bluntly states: "I wanna wear more than just a Jesus shirt, like some kind of iron-on to cover up the dirt, to throw away when I feel ok - You're so much more than that to me." Amen. How easy it is - especially in the stressful, fast-paced, material focused world we live in today - to fall into the trap of treating Jesus as a salve when we hurt, or a hero to rescue us when we're in trouble. Christ didn't intend it to be that way, and I hope your life and mine are not that way. Christ came to give us life to the fullest - but in order to experience the life He has for us, He's got to be more than a part-time God to us. "I wanna be Your child, so come and walk with me for more than just a while. So come and talk with me - I know that's Your style. So stay with me, stay with me forever."

Hey, if you want something simple, unoriginal, and thoughtless, don't listen to Mukala. But if you've got a hankering for music unlike anything else on the market, for a mellow groove that will attach itself to the inside of your ear and play in your head for some time to come, and for something that'll get you thinking, I've got something for you. It's called Fiction, and it's available in your local Christian book store today! So what are you waiting for?

~  David Longenecker