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Audio: Lesson Two| | Picking up the D:Tour where I left off last night...
World Service (UK, 2003 / US, 2004)
Since most of 2002 was spent retooling and re-releasing an album that got little attention both times, the wait for their next album seemed long in comparison (they'd been averaging one a year up until this point). But World Service restored my faith in the band - and apparently a decent number of other people's. From here on out, they seemed more comfortable in their skin, OK with the fact that they were a band whose audience was primarily found within the Church, but who didn't mind recording more personal, reflective songs that weren't congregational in their scope. All of that said, in the wake of the unpredictable adventures of previous years, the first single "Majesty (Here I Am)" came as a shock to me. I thought it was slow, bland, and boring - light years behind what the band was capable of now. It wasn't until the second single, the bouncy "Rain Down", that I warmed up to the band again, and once I checked out the full album, "Majesty" played a lot better in context. (Plus it's a more beautiful recording than I gave it credit for, with the strings and electronics and stuff.) The overall tone here was more theological, more reflective, and more liberated. It did find them repeating a few of their old tricks (even recycling a few snippets of lyrics over the course of the album), and at times they nudged a little too close to the sound Coldplay had popularized on their first two albums - thus completing the trifecta of bands that Delirious? will forever be accused of copying (U2, Radiohead, and Coldplay. Hey, I could think of worse influences. And I've heard far worse Christian bands who genuinely do rip those bands off.)
Big Radio Hits: "Majesty (Here I Am)" was well-loved by Christian radio, as was "Rain Down". "Inside Outside" was a surprise hit in Germany, of all places, which led to the later release of "Every Little Thing" over there.
Recognizable Worship Songs: "Majesty" pulled double duty - it's the only D? song I can think of that made a lasting impact on both radio and Sunday services (but that's largely because they weren't releasing radio singles in the Cutting Edge days).
Personal Highlights: "Grace Like a River" is an awesome blast of energy - a celebratory anthem that knows how to throw a few sonic curveballs. Similarly, I love the "surprise moments" in both "Inside Outside" and "With You" where Stu G. suddenly cranks up the amps and lets it rip. ("Inside Outside" is not recommended listening while driving, at least not if siren-like sounds on a CD will alarm you in traffic.) I must admit that "With You" is only a heartbeat away from sounding like Coldplay's "Clocks", but I'm a sucker for that triple-pulse piano thing, so leave me be! Of course I love "Rain Down" and "Majesty" as well.
Better Off Skipped: "God in Heaven" is one of those songs that rocks, but that reveals Martin Smith's weakness as far as enunication is concerned. The attempt to pronounce "Heav'n" as a single syllable has led many people to ask me, "Is he singing 'God in Hell'?" "Everyone Knows" is a bit amateurish, and I never understood the appeal of "Every Little Thing". That song is so pedestrian and cliched (all this talk about God and freedom and spiritual hardship and His ways being higher than ours, and you come up with "Every little thing's gonna be alright" as your closing statement? Really?) that it's really a disgrace to close an otherwise powerful album that way.
Grade: B+
The Mission Bell (UK/US, 2005)
It's funny how an album that comes out during a time in your life when you're not very happy can sometimes get negative memories associated with it. I took a while to warm up to The Mission Bell because of this. I was in the middle of a period of depression and frustration in the months after I got married - which is exactly the kind of thing you don't want to feel in your honeymoon phase! But it wasn't due to dissatisfaction with the marriage itself - other circumstances in my life just kept pressing in to the point where it was hard to let go of the stress and just enjoy this new chapter, so I became a very angry and cynical person, and as a result I gave the band a pretty short leash on this one. I dismissed it early on as Delirious? doing more of the same and starting to become irrelevant. That was mostly a reaction to the first two songs, honestly. Father in, there was some more interesting and varied stuff. Still, it's perhaps more inconsistent than King of Fools, so I still regard it as the band's weakest studio album (not counting Cutting Edge, since that stuff wasn't originally intended to be a packaged deal). The sound isn't a radical departure from past albums, other than a brief foray into what I call "'The' Band Territory" (you know, sounding like all of those garage rock bands whose names start with "The" that became popular circa the middle of the decade) on their first single, "Paint the Town Red". Delirious? doesn't normally rely on guest appearances, but they gave it a go here with a Toby Mac rap on "Solid Rock" and a more subtle guest appearance from Jars of Clay's Steve Mason on pedal steel and Moya Brennan (Enya's sister, lead singer of Clannad) on the closing ode to a deceased relative, "I'll See You". I can glean a few classics from this album, but it lacks a unified personality, so it doesn't stand out to me as much, either as a straightforward D? album or as an oddball one.
Big Radio Hits: They just couldn't resist having another go at Radio One with "Paint the Town Red". Given that the paint in question was the blood of Jesus, you can imagine why that went over like a lead balloon. "Our God Reigns", which was an interesting attempt to cross challenging social commentary with a straightforward praise chorus, got some reasonable radio play on both sides of the pond (I think).
Recognizable Worship Songs: I would say "Solid Rock", but that's kind of cheating. They completely changed the music, making it a twangy, beat-driven thing with a big rocky chorus, and the words to the original hymn only show up when Toby Mac raps them in the middle of the song. (It works better than it sounds like it would.)
Personal Highlights: So sue me, I love "Solid Rock". (Toby Mac's on pretty much every other big name CCM album, why can't he be on theirs?) The minor-key meditation "Fires Burn" is a more obscure favorite of mine. "Here I Am Send Me" and "All This Time" are also worth your while.
Better Off Skipped: Starting off an album with two skippable tracks is bad news. "Stronger" might be the band's worst song of all time - it's a mid-tempo clunker, it's too vague to be useful, and too straightforward to be quirky. (Why they recycled it for the Chronicles of Narnia companion album, I have no idea. It had zip to do with the movie, as did most of the tripe on that shameless bit of cross-promotion.) For a much-anticipated collaboration with fellow UK modern worship heavyweight Matt Redman, "Now Is the Time" struck me as paint-by-numbers. "Miracle Maker" is nice once it gets going, but you can barely hear the first minute or so of the song. "Love Is a Miracle" proves that Delirious? doesn't do Gospel all that well. And did I imply that "Paint the Town Red" is kind of silly? Well, now I've done it twice.
Grade: B-
Kingdom of Comfort (UK/US, 2008)
Delirious? didn't know this would be their final album when they recorded it. But I think it makes a statement more powerful than perhaps any of their other albums. The Mission Bell showed hints of social awareness, but here the album was titled after a challenging theme song that pleaded for repentance from the very world of comfort that most Christian music seems to want to numb our senses with. Sound-wise, most of the new stuff here was vintage Delirious?, showing a band comfortable in their skin who had come full circle in a strange way. Most of the other songs weren't as daring lyrically, but themes of justice, of caring for the less fortunate, of not turning away from suffering, started to pop up again and again after venturing deeper into the album. Yet it wasn't political. It wasn't like a stadium-sized U2 song designed to be a rallying cry for some far-flung country's cause. (Not to knock U2; they have a knack for bringing global awareness to problems that exist seemingly worlds away.) It was more of a plea for reflection that leads to action locally. Singing worship songs was all well and good, and they still did plenty of that here, but this time around, it was like those songs were couched in the realization that none of these pretty, flowery praise choruses would mean much if we weren't out there getting our hands dirty and loving the least of these. This was a pretty solid comeback after a long break following an iffy previous album. And they couldn't have planned their final in-studio material to come out sounding more ethereal and eternal than the one-two punch of soul-stirring anthems right at the end of the album.
Big Radio Hits: "God Is Smiling" and "Love Will Find a Way" seem to have done OK. They could potentially work one or two more before the album's shelf life is up.
Recognizble Worship Songs: None yet. Too new, and new Delirious? material doesn't seem to carry the weight it once did with worship leaders looking for new songs.
Personal Highlights: "Kingdom of Comfort", in addition to being a totally unorthodox way to open an album on a musical level, continually asks me tough questions on how much I'm willing to sacrifice compassion for convenience's sake. It is one of the band's finest songs, and there's nothing else in their catalogue quite like it. The penultimate track, "All God's Children", nearly brings me to tears with its longing for God to bring justice where there is suffering, and the chorus of Indian children that comes in during the second refrain. "Give What You've Got" and "Stare the Monster Down" are bold, fun rockers in the tradition of songs like "Show Me Heaven" and "Bliss". And "God Is Smiling" feels like the solid call to action anthem that "Now Is the Time" was aiming to be.
Better Off Skipped: "We Give You Praise" isn't bad as low points go - a little pedestrian, but they've done worse. I could have done without a radio edit tacked onto the end, I guess.
The band decided to call it quits after 2009 only a few months after Kingdom of Comfort released. Drummer Stew Smith had already left and been replaced, and apparently Martin Smith was feeling called to devote more time to his family and other projects such as CompassionArt. The band briefly thought about continuing without Martin, and then realized this wouldn't be wise (the last thing we need is for Delirious? to turn into latter-day SonicFlood), but there's always the chance that the other three members could collaborate in the future. I'm glad they're calling it a definite break and not leaving us hanging on a decade-plus hiatus like dc Talk did. They're going out at close to the top of their game.
And that's (likely way more than) all you need to know to catch up with this imperfect, but generally dependable band and the strange history that they've made for themselves. Curious new fans should probably start with either Kingdom of Comfort or Glo, but you could really dive in almost anywhere and find enough to satisfy your curiosity.
| | | Posted 3/21/2009 5:42 PM - 5 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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