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September, '05 Update

© Paul Landkamer

Our youth pastor (Dan) loaned me a bunch of CDs a couple weeks ago. I heard some not-so-good, ordinary --too many of this kind, and quite a bit of good stuff.

Not in the Collection

• Olivia: Melodic Punk, but not quite as intense as lots of it. Similar to Relient K, but with more emphasis on the music instead of the sneered vocals. Strong lyrics and obviously Christian. [3]
• John David Webster: After the first few seconds of the CD, I thought, "I'm gonna like this guy!" Retro piano-driven laid back rock. Some U-2 flavor. Big Tent Revival, Three Crosses also came to mind. Ethereal guitar from time to time. Individually good songs, but the whole album is a bit monotonous. [4]
• Stellar Kart: Melodic punk was my first impression. Also alternative and acoustic rock. Fairly wide style range. Hard instrumentals are pretty decent. After the whole CD, I say it's punk flavored modern rock. [4]
• Yellow Second: Alternative. Some artsy, spacey ethereal stuff. Nice heavy flavorings. Almost sleepy shoegazer ("trance," as my son calls it) lyrics at times. Similar to Starflyer 59. [4]
• Subseven: Heavy alternative with a screamer. The vocals make the sound also fit emo. There's a little much yelling/emo-pouting in the vocals to rate a 4. [3]
• Forever Changed: Heavy alternative with almost-emo vocals. [4]
• Kids in the Way: Punk/emo rock. Good instrumentals but too much whine/yell/"screamo" in the vocal. I could see the next wave of "alternative" replacing emo-screamo. The instrumentals kept my rating up at a [3].
• House of Heroes: Good instrumentals with punk-emo flavored vocals, but not so intense as Kids in the Way. Artsy retro flavors, with some neat falsetto harmonies. [4]

From the Collection

• Chronos: Wow! Orchestral jazz rock, or is it orchestral americana? Strong gimmick-free male vocal. Very acoustic, and lots of sax. Ethereal flavorings seeped in quite a bit, too. Jethro Tull, and songs like Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" came to mind while listening. [5]
• The Clumsy Lovers: These guys rate another "Wow!", but with some qualifiers. Imagine Celtic bluegrass rock. I imagined, then ordered. This is a great blend of foot-stompin, hand-clapping music --and no, I don't like country music. The caution comes in that their songs, for the most part, aren't necessarily "Christian," but they deal with life-issues and offer moral solutions. And in one song, they cussed once on the CD I got. I had to ask (with distinct disappointment in my voice), "Why'd they have to go and do that?!?" I'll still give it a musical [5], but be cautious if you're going to give it as a gift.

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