OK, time to write a review that I've been starting and stopping intermittently, putting it off because I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to do it. Hey, if a record label's gonna send me free stuff from time to time, the least I can do is give it some coverage, right? On the other hand, that coverage can't always be timed with the release of an album, because some albums take a while to digest. And some cause me to have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, and I'll realize that I need to put them away for a while before coming back and trying to form a more objective opinion.
The self-titled debut from teenage rocker Krystal Meyers is something like that. In principle, I like the idea of young musicians making rock music, especially female ones. Rock is a youthful genre by nature, and the world can never have enough good chick-fronted rock. So I was pretty intrigued to read the particulars on this girl's music, and maybe I didn't expect anything terribly profound from a scant 10-song disc on a major CCM label, but I figured, hey, it should be good ear candy. Right?
Well, the hopeful smile on my face quickly turned to a grimace within the first few seconds of whining that greeted me within the first track. "Just great", I thought, "The Christian music industry has finally gone and found itself an Avril Lavigne clone". It was all right there, from the bratty vocal inflections to the slightly out-of-key lead-in to a crunchy chorus that screamed "Carefully groomed rebellion." Hearing this sort of thing on a CD by the undeniably non-punk Avril was one thing (and I'm not even a big fan of straight-up punk, but advertise yourself truthfully, please). Hearing it on an album of Christian music made it worse - not that we're not allowed to draw inspiration from popular mainstream artists, but sheesh, was anyone thinking about how the bratty whining actually fit with what was being said? I man, there's desperate and passionate, and then there's just plain obnoxious all the way. Songs of worship, surrender, and devotion can often work well in an intense rock setting, or even sometimes a playful power pop setting, but when you're copping vocal riffs from a well-known mainstream whiner, it just rings extremely false. And then when you turn around and try to pass along some message of individuality, not allowing the crowd to control who you are and all that? Um, yeah. Doesn't exactly ring true.
So, I was prepared to slap one star on this thing and give Krystal a scathing review. Then I put the album aside for a while, what with "real life" getting busy and all that, and when I popped it in again later, I realized - You know what? This isn't that bad. I mean, it's still bad. But it's not bad in the sense of shamelessly marketing an innocent teenage face just to put a figurehead on songs written by adults in an attempt to mimic something popular and package it safely for Christian teens and there parents. I suppose a little bit of that might be going on. But for the most part, it's bad music in the sense of a talent being signed and given the leeway to put out an album without being allowed the time to really develop as an artist or figure out how to say and do what she wants to say and do on behalf of her generation without ripping off another artist so obviously.
There are traces of melodies and lyrics here that are actually fairly solid - maybe even a song or two that rises above the norm to establish Krystal as a promising voice that I wouldn't mind hearing on the radio in the years to come. She had a hand in writing every song, so even if the lyrics are atrocious in places, there's at least a sense of genuineness to it, when she's not busy idolizing Avril (and a few of these tracks admittedly wouldn't fit in on an Avril album). It's just unfortunate that the time wasn't taken to teach Krystal how to let her music match her message. That's the biggest problem in Christian music today, when we have horrid bands like Kutless playing rote covers of worship standards that show little to no thought about the actual meaning of the words, or adding dinosaur-like screams to songs that are supposed to express passionate praise for God, and when we have a lot of aimlessly perky pop groups turning the Gospel into bite-size ads for a vaguely good feeling that God will give you if you say nice things about Him. This sort of problem is not unique to Krystal's music. But I have to regard it as being as serious of a problem here as I do everywhere else. So, while I've spared her the worst possible rating I can assign, I think it would be foolish to give her too much leeway beyond that.
The Way to Begin
Frustrated, irritated, disconnected from it all
The weight of the world has pushed me to the wall...
I'll admit that the album's first single isn't too bad of a way to begin. A little bit of guitar feedback leads unexpectedly into an acoustic verse where Krystal's voice immediately pops in, which caused my initial disgusted reaction at realized that she sounded a lot like Avril. But in all fairness, the complaining does have a bit of a context here, since she's "frustrated, irritated" over feeling disconnected from God. The chorus, while having an obnoxious hook to It that seems to be trying a bit too hard to get jaded kids to go, "Kewl!", works well enough as a plea of surrender, and I'll admit that the slick key change and forceful melody do manage to lodge themselves in my head. If you can look past the dreadful over-singing during the bridge (think Evanescence's Amy Lee trying rather uncomfortably to force words out while running around the stage in concert), and the rather pedestrian songwriting which observes that "I've reached the end, and You are the way to begin", it's a fairly acceptable tune.
My Savior
I feel guilty sometimes when I pray
Stealing time from needs that are great...
Other than the excitable onslaught of drums that gets things revved up at the beginning of this song, I can definitely say that there is nothing exciting or remotely original about this one. Krystal Meyers, working with the normally witty Ian Eskelin of All Star United fame (who contributes to several of these songs in rather disappointing ways), manages to come up with a lyric that attempts use every Christian rock cliche in the book. If one can manage to completely shut the lyrics out and just concentrate on the lively drumming and buzzing power chords, it's decent enough listening, but only the most staunch CCM radio fanatics will be able to get past "My Savior, You've given me all I need, Your grace and Your mercy" without having their triteness alarm go off. Nothing in this song attempts to go beyond the usual catch-phrases to get at the real meaning of things like grace or mercy or salvation, so if you look at it as having an evangelistic focus, it's rendered impotent by its failure to do anything more than speaking jargon, and if you look at it as encouragement to those who are already Christians, it fails by not offering much insight into the relationship between the Savior and the saved. So it falls squarely into the category of "catchy but utterly boring".
Fire
Let your fire feed on all my disbelief
'Cause You are all I need...
A synth-drenched opening and some tweaked guitar chords set an unabashedly poppy mood for another onslaught of CCM cliches about making light from dark, being a city on a hill, being consumed, etc. I think this might have been one of the moments where I actually looked over at my CD player and told it to shut up the first time I was listening to this CD, because I just couldn't believe I was hearing such a high concentration of cliches all at once. As the song goes on, it gets more promising with a rocking chorus that breaks into double time, but still, the song suffers from a metaphor that's never really explained in any depth. It's just taken for granted that we know what the "fire" is - passion for God, presumably. Krystal just gives us nice happy cheerleading thoughts about letting the flame burn higher and brighter, without bothering to say how she was set on fire or what it even means for her to be on fire. It's a little better In the music department than "My Savior", but still nothing of any real value beyond its superficial catchiness.
Fall to Pieces
All my hopes and dreams
And all my selfish plans that crumbled in my hands
Made me realize that I've gotta trust
In something bigger than I am...
Krystal's flat, slightly nasal vocal tone is already wearing thin at this point, especially when her melodies insist on being rather monotonous during the verse, but I'll admit that this is one of the more convincing rock songs on the disc. A playful keyboard riff hangs around behind the drum and guitar attack that thankfully just goes for a big, fun rock sound without trying to be punk or even pop-punk in any way. There's a little more variation to the drum beat than the usual 2/4 of a pop-punk song, and that gives the song some real momentum. Unfortunately, the vocals really try my patience when they get filtered through some sort of an effect in the middle of the song that makes her sound simultaneously more perky and whiny than she already is. And we've still got a big lyrical problem here - it's the usual puzzle piece metaphor that CCM songwriters seem to fall back on all the time, talking about being broken and being put back together - I'm actually shocked that the phrase "come undone" doesn't show up anywhere. Krystal does seem to have a good handle on her own need for grace and humility, which is a refreshing change when compared to a lot of other young CCM singers who just chirp on and on about how they're going to be so well-behaved and well-mannered for God, etc. Now, those sentiments just need to be translated into something a little more transparent than vague allusions to compromise and twisted lies and other obvious rhymes like that. In other words, what's Krystal's testimony? What's the unique story that she has to tell, that she wants to convey through music that will get the attention of her peers? Or does being on a big CCM label require her to keep quiet about anything specific?
Reflections of You
You watched me make all my mistakes
And You always took me back
Time and time again, You were my friend
Show me how to be like that...
Here comes ballad #1, and it shows up with a bit of a dark verse melody that seems a bit awkward, only because Krystal's voice sounds like it's being pitch-perfected or otherwise electronically cut apart and put back together. It's one of those slight effects that I can't quite put my finger on. I kind of like the melody, and it's too bad that it opens up into a rather uninspired and ordinary melody for the song's chorus. As far as confessional songs go, the lyrics aren't too bad here, with Krystal admitting that she's pushed God away and now saying that she wants to learn how to reflect God in everything she's done. Yeah, we've heard it a million times before from CCM singers, but at least the message fit's the mood here. There's even a nice key change after a bridge which features some strange electronic squealing in the background and which threatens to kill the song's momentum. It's a decent finish, and for once Krystal sounds like she's able to belt out her words without straining. And then the song ends in a routine fade-out. Disappointing.
Lovely Traces
I was consumed by a life that I made, destined to crash
Beat up and bruised by the flashbacks of my own past...
For the second semi-ballad in row, Krystal's producers scale things back a beat, marrying a muted acoustic strum with melancholy strings and muddy, subdued programming, which actually works with the 6/8 beat and the darker melody to make a fairly convincing song. While the chorus has a bit more oomph, it's not of those things that comes crashing in so obviously, so this track serves the function of being one of those "sleepers" that builds slowly and becomes catchy after repeated listens. It's actually Krystal's best song by far, giving her more of an alterna-pop personality that echoes some of the rock-influenced singer songwriters CCM produced in the mid-90's that I enjoyed. It's one of those memory songs, a conversation between Krystal and God in which God reminds her that despite the dark moments she's had to endure, she can look back at them all and see "lovely traces" of God's grace working through those moments. Though I sometimes want to ask, "Lovely traces of what?", because it's kind of odd to use the word "traces" without specifying what they're traces of, that's somewhat clear from the context of the line "What it took to get you to Me". In other words, the painful memories were part of a refinement process for her. While not terribly specific, these are wise words coming from someone Krystal's age, and this is the kind of song I'd like to see her work more with in the future, exploring the dichotomy of faith and how it's often experienced through pain, instead of just being a magic cure-all for pain.
Anticonformity
They conform, un-individuality
They conform, forget about variety
They conform, they don't know what they believe...
Well, the CD needed to get revved-up again at this point, so I don't mind the unabashed power-pop-punk approach here so much. At least, I wouldn't mind if it weren't Krystal's most obvious moment of mimicking Ms. Lavigne. This song has an unbelievably bratty insistence to it, with Krystal repeatedly reminding us "It's all around, it's all around, it's all around" and having the nerve to lecture us about the ubiquitous unnamed "they" and how "They conform, they conform, they conform". Yeah, we heard you the first time, Ms. Originality. It's scary how quickly she shoots herself in the foot with this one, mimicking a popular artist almost to a T while telling us all about how she's determined to be herself and not follow the crowd. Right, because the girl that you're imitating is such a convincing rebel in the first place. If you were to just listen to this song, and look at Krystal's liner note photos which show her wielding a guitar and wearing chains and chokers and, in one picture, looking like she's about to cry because the photographers hired by nice Christian management company won't let her look like the pouty wannabe punk that she so clearly wants to be like, then I could understand why you would be very scared for the state of the CCM industry. It makes me laugh, because kids are gonna listen to that one and think, "Cool! I wanna be like her so that I won't be like everyone else!", having no idea that she's peddling an extremely trendy version of non-trendiness. Not that there's anything wrong with doing something that happens to fall in line with current trends - but sheesh, if your message is ant conformity, you're gonna need to try a lot harder than that to get me to believe you.
Rescue
Swallowing this hurt, making it lie down
I'm my strongest ally, living life as I know how
I'm carrying the weight of a world that sold me out
I'm running with my eyes closed, hoping You don't see this doubt...
The muted hiss-and pop of the drum programming that propels this song's verse, along with its light guitar melody, remind me a bit of Skillet's song "Under My Skin". It's pretty unremarkable as mid-tempo songs go, with a chorus that seems to draw out for its cry of "I need to let You rescue me!" to really have much of an impact. I like the basic idea of the song, that too many times we try to take on everything on our own, refusing to rely on God for any help, and then we wonder why we end up being totally burned out. Surrender seems to be one of Krystal's favorite themes, and honest admissions like "I'm afraid to lose total control" are a good start for her as a songwriter because they hit us in the spot where what we know and what we feel don't seem to line up. That's where faith is most difficult and it does some good to say something a little more meaningful and understanding rather than, "Just believe". There are awkward moments, like where Krystal proves to us that she learned a big word from Evanescence's last CD by randomly inserting the phrase "You are my healing tourniquet", and I don't think it's that amazing of a song overall, but at least it's a tolerable one, unlike the disaster that preceded it.
Sing for Me
Through everything around me, I find comfort in You
Through trials and the heartache, Your words, they speak the truth...
The only song Krystal wrote all by herself for the record is, interestingly enough, a slow song in 6/8 time, which at times reminds me of Pillar's mellower song "Rewind". It's a more intimate moment between her and God, one in which she's not asking for any needs to be met in particular; she just wants to hear God's voice. Looking up at the stars and wondering where God is can be a bit of a cliche, and there are certainly some ill-fitting lyrics like in the second verse, when she tries to fit a childhood bedtime prayer into the song by saying "Lay me down to sleep now, You'll still be on my mind/If I die before I wake, You'd still see through the lines". But for the most part, the song comes off as sweet and genuine, and it's only when she reverts back to the slightly whiney quality during a bridge that tries unconvincingly to add some rock factor to the song that she really stumbles. I can see little glimmers of hope for her as a songwriter, but I really think she's gonna need some time to develop before she can articulate what's going on in her relationship with God in a meaningful way. I do like the dead stop at the end that leads smartly into one last upbeat song, though.
Can't Stay
I'm sorry that I've been so cold
My excuses are pitiful
I've done all I can to gain control
But You are the hand I need to hold...
With a brief bit of record scratching and a dark, edgy guitar sound pounding out tasty riffs that remind me of Plumb's first album, the final song on the album actually shows a lot of promise around. Too bad it has a verse that kind of goes nowhere before breaking into a breezy pop-punk chorus. The pastiche of styles is amusing, much like how it would be on a Superchic[k] CD, but Krystal is nowhere near as offbeat and playful as Superchic[k], so the song loses momentum fast. As another song about needing to be filled and taken away from bad things, it's one too many variations on the same generic theme at this point, and once again I find myself wanting to tune out the lyrics and just rock out to the darker guitar parts. The song builds up a fair amount of energy as the final chorus gallops toward the finish line, but then it just meekly fades out. Come on, Krystal, you could have hit a home run, at least with a big musical finish if not with your lyrics, and you wasted it on that? Are you being paid to play it safe, or what?
Well, I'll admit that I'm quite underwhelmed at the end of it all, even if I did find quite a few redeeming tidbits as I listened through this album more carefully. Frankly, I don't think stuff like this is designed for an audience who listens very carefully, but nevertheless, that's no excuse for laziness in the lyrical and instrumental departments. As an edgy, teen-friendly rock artist, Krystal's going to need a lot less polish and none of those well-mannered fade-outs, as well as something that's actually worth whining about if she wants to be believable. As an alternative pop singer/songwriter, she'd do well with more songs in the vein of "Lovely Traces", or even "Sing to Me" if it were more smartly composed. Not that she couldn't rock out in that mode, but she wouldn't be confined to doing it in such an obvious, get-the-youth-group-happy sort of way.
I wholeheartedly believe that teenage artists can write meaningful songs and perform them without sounding so flavor-of-the-month. Look at Bethany Dillon, who is the same age as Krystal. Her debut record wasn't rocket science, but it achieved a smart balance between intelligent songwriting and interesting musicianship. Granted, Bethany is more folk and Krystal is more rock, and I wouldn't suggest that one artist imitate another. I'm just saying that intelligent songwriting can appeal to a younger generation. There's no reason to mess around with so many cliches - musical or lyrical. Given time, I hope that Krystal will see that, and I hope that she'll be encouraged to think a little harder before committing her next batch of songs to tape. By then, a different sound will likely be popular, so we'll see if she morphs to fit the trend or to fit the sound of her own personal journey. The latter would truly be the way to not conform.
ALBUM WORTH:
The Way to Begin $1
My Savior -$.50
Fire $.50
Fall to Pieces $1
Reflections of You $.50
Lovely Traces $1.50
Anticonformity -$.50
Rescue $.50
Sing for Me $.50
Can't Stay $.50
TOTAL: $5
Website: http://www.krystalmeyers.com
Recommended:
