I discovered a group early in my college tenure that I was convinced was one of the coolest Christian rock bands alive. It was just before the beginning of my sophomore year, a time filled with great anticipation as I looked forward to my first year as a "returning" student who actually felt like he knew what he was doing, and the wealth of friends that I was looking forward to seeing again. Having just come back from a fairly isolated summer working at a camp, I needed to catch up on some of the new music that I had missed during the summer of 1996, and this new band called Third Day fit the bill rather nicely. Their debut album was joyous, simple, and summery - and full of Southern charm. Those were the days when everyone else and their brother seemed to be into Hootie and the Blowfish, whose lead vocalist was frequently cited as an influence on Third Day's Mac Powell. I hadn't been able to escape Hootie despite my aversion to "secular" music back then, but I hadn't yet been exposed to Pearl Jam, who represented the other end of the spectrum in terms of bands that Third Day got compared to when they attempted to sound a little more gritty. Looking back, I can see the striking similarities, but at the time, I didn't know and didn't want to know.

It's funny how time can change your perception of a band. I thought these guys were pretty cutting-edge back then, and after the turn of the century, I lamented their slow downward spiral into the land of more adult-contemporary Christian music with big, obvious worship ballads tearing up the charts and whatnot. But really, they've always been pretty simplistic - they're just one of those bands that happened to sound better with a lower budget. The difference between then and now is that these straightforward Georgia boys who wore their love for Jesus on their sleeves could also take a left turn every now and then and really surprise you - most notably on their under-appreciated second album, Conspiracy No. 5, which was sandwiched in between the more widely-accepted self-titled album and the career-defining Time. Those three albums really defined their best work as a band, and it's a bit of relief to me, a more old-school Third Day fan, that it's those three albums plus the fan gift Offerings: A Worship Album that serve as the sources for the first half of their greatest hits project, Chronology, Vol. 1.

Why was 2007 the right year to release dual greatest hits projects for Third Day? I suppose it sort of ties in with the band's 10-year anniversary (even though they started out as a small-time local act in 1992), since the first project is dated 1996-2000 and the second is dated 2001-2006. Realistically speaking, it's probably the same reason record labels usually put out such projects - to make additional profit off of a popular artist. To be honest, I have no complaints about such practices, when the label really makes an effort to choose the songs that are best-loved among fans in addition to just the radio hits, and when some extra effort is made to give worthwhile goodies to those of us who already know the songs backwards and forwards. In terms of song selection, Chronology, Vol. 1 is a pretty good overview of the band's rise to CCM stardom. Not surprisingly, the self-titled album gets most of the attention here, while Conspiracy No. 5 sort of gets the shaft, which is really my biggest complaint about the project. I'm also mildly perturbed by the presence of a few inferior live versions, re-recordings of old songs, and more obscure non-album tracks that occupy space which could have been filled by a few more fan favorites. You know how it goes - there's always that drive to give the diehard fan, who is glancing at the back of the CD wondering if they should buy all of these songs again, something that they don't already own. It seems like a nice gesture until you realize that the album version you've known and loved for years is just plain better. (I wonder if the fact that Third Day switched labels, from Reunion to Essential, in 1999 has something to do with this, but nope, there are alternate versions of a few tracks from Time as well.)

Ultimately, I am impressed that Essential managed to put together a tribute to early Third Day that I'd actually consider worth buying, but I still can't resist the urge to go through and point out where some tweaks to the track listing could have made it much better.

Nothing at All
On and on and on and on he goes
Now look who's the one playin' the fool
Criticizing, telling lies, putting down
Ain't you got nothin' better to do?
The now-familiar wail of guitar feedback that started off the self-titled album is what we hear at the beginning of this project as well - this was an early mainstream single for Third Day, which isn't an opportunity that I believe they were afforded again until 2004's "I Believe" (which was a terrible choice for a single in any format). Here, they knew how to bang out a good rock song with enough of an acoustic element to make it feel "earthy", and they knew how to cop a little righteous attitude with a song offering a well-timed rebuke to whiners and gossipers within the church: "If you can't say nothing' good, don't say nothing' at all." This track is actually the radio version, which is much shorter due to the omission of the bridge, in which Mac recites a verse from the book of James that backs up his point. As much as I normally don't like that sort of thing in the middle of a song, I kind of miss it in this version. I'm generally not a fan of editing things out for radio.

Forever
I see a world
Looking for an answer, but I don't know what for
When will we realize
That we are sinners in the hands of a loving God who came and died?
Starting with the first two tracks from the first album is kind of boring, but whatever, I guess they wanted to go chronologically. This one was the first taste of Third Day that CHR (Christian Hit Radio) fans got, and it was a great one - Southern-fried guitar licks and a sort of ramshackle presentation make it the perfect organic pop song for the mid-90's, so long as you don't mind the heavy dose of spiritual fire. As with most of Third Day's early stuff, the lyrics are plain as day but heartfelt - Mac goes over his failures with all of the rural enunciation he can muster, and declares excitedly in the chorus, "Your love is the same yesterday, today, and forever." it's the delivery that gives it that special zing. Once again, there's a slight edit from the original version - the goofy random bass licks and Mac's comment that "I'm not much of a guitar man" are no longer present.

Consuming Fire
Did you realize that inside you there is a flame?
Did you ever try to let it burn?
"One, two, three, four, five, six..." KA-BLAM! This is Third Day's signature song, so beloved by fans that the fans at any concert will generally go nuts before Mac's count-off even gets to "four". It's an early example of a memorable worship song by the band, but not because it was designed to be a sung as a praise chorus - they just played their blend of gritty alternative rock (including Brad Avery's smoking' guitar solo, which will go down as one of the most memorable solos in Christian rock history) and Georgia twang to the hilt and sang passionately about God, and realized later that it worked well in a group setting. Thankfully, this one appears to be structurally untouched when compared to its original version - remastering it probably just made it louder. It's funny how I've never been bothered by the extreme simplicity of this song's lyrics - they didn't even come up with a second verse. It's all about the vocal delivery once again, as well as the brooding shifts in the melody.

Thief 2006
My time has come, I'm slowly fading
I deserve what I receive
Jesus, when You are in Your kingdom
Could You please, please remember me?
Of all of the songs from Third Day's first album that screamed, "Record me!", this absolutely should not have been the one that they chose to redo. When Mac's lone voice called out, "I am a thief, I am a murderer" against a lone piano, it was a perfect intro to a captivating song that drew you in immediately, keeping you transfixed for a tale of Christ's final hours on the cross, told from the point of view of one of the thieves hanging beside Him. That version knew when to let the piano bring the chills all by itself, and when the bring in the whole band for a dramatic crescendo. This version gets it all wrong, with a ponderous and downright cheesy string intro, and a bit too much electric guitar and layers added just for the sake of having layers throughout most of the song. It's an insult to a bona fide Third Day classic that didn't need all of the extra studio trickery. About the worst thing that you can do to a Third Day song from 1996 is to try to make it sound like Third Day in 2006 - if anything, I wish they'd take some of the songs from more recent years that had potential, and strip them back a bit just to show that the core of the song is much more important than all of the rough-edge-shaving that's been done on recent albums for the sake of an audience who only wants them to be a worship band.

Love Song
I've heard it said that a man would swim the ocean
Just to be with the one he loves
How may times has he broken that promise?
It can never be done...
This song and thief were the two tracks on the self-titled disc that could really put a lump in my throat, in a good way. Since "Thief" has now been robbed of its ability to nearly bring me to tears, it's "Love Song" to the rescue, presented almost untouched (there might be some slight remastering, and perhaps a tiny bit of unnecessary synth ambience in the background) as the delicate acoustic ballad that it always was, sung from the point of view of Jesus himself. We've heard various members of the Trinity reduced to sappy "I want you, I love you, I'll make you feel good" sort of sentiments too many times, so it says a lot that this track still holds power, comparing the empty and unfulfillable promises of human love to the ultimate sacrifice that was made by God. It's hard to be both bluntly simplistic and commendably imaginative at the same time, but Third Day pulled it off due to how they reversed the point of view in this song.

Who I Am
Never before, no there's never been a time
That I would implore you to take what's yours and mine...
Here's one that really should have been left out. I know, it was the first CHR single released from Conspiracy No. 5 in 1997, but quite frankly, it's a boring song. It kind of awkwardly bounces along, not working as a rocker or as a notable ballad, but floating somewhere in the non-descript world between the two. Its premise is an interesting one - a man is trying to convince God that he's unforgivable due to the things he's done, and God will have none of it. Despite that, it's still the least interesting track from the album it originally appeared on (in my humble opinion, anyway). That album contained a hidden track which was essentially a continuation of this song in a more of a "fuzzed-out rock jam" sort of format, and like I'm sure a few Third Day fans have done, I thought it was cool at the time to piece the two tracks back together one a mix tape as one big long song, which has now "officially" been done in this version by the label. They even added an organ into the mix, for reasons unknown. But hearing it this way, I'm realizing that it makes the song way too long - so now it takes up the space of two more worthy tunes instead of just one.

My Hope Is You 2006
I am, O Lord, filled with your love
You are, O God, my salvation
Guard my life and rescue me
My broken spirit shouts, my mended heart cries out
Once again, when comparing a classic version of a song to a modern version, simplicity wins out. This basic, Psalm-inspired electric worship song is one of the few tracks from C#5 that's survived in the band's setlists to this day, and there's just no substituting for the recognizable guitar intro that fades and becomes the basis for what is essentially a two-chord tune. It doesn't need a big, galloping intro that plays like every other modern worship band's vain attempt to be a clean-cut U2. It doesn't need what was once an interestingly distorted guitar texture in its bridge to suddenly sound all big and clean. I don't care if the band plays it this way in concert nowadays - this disc is supposed to make me relive memories of the band's early days, not supplant them with inferior ones.

I've Always Loved You (Steel Mix)
I don't know how to explain it
But I know that words will hardly do
Miracles, signs and wonders
Aren't enough for Me to prove to you...
Wow, two tracks and we're already done with the band's second album. How sad. But it's still a pleasure to hear this definitive moment from 1999's Time - it's a mellow, breezy acoustic song with just a bit of country twang (surprisingly brought to the forefront in this version by, you guessed it, a steel guitar) that almost didn't get recorded because the band thought it was too similar to "Love Song". In some ways, it covers similar ground, but the concept of God loving us "even before there was time" served nicely to set up the theme for the album. It was the sort of track that was risky to place as the lead track on a highly anticipated rock album - as a fan, I appreciated the sensitivity back then because I hadn't yet been subjected to full album's worth of misguided bids for AC radio hits. When they did a mellower song, it was because they meant it - the song simply had to be that way to be effective amidst the louder stuff.

Sky Falls Down
I'll be found at the place where the gravity leaves the ground
I won't be comin' down...
Forsaking the other strong rockers on Time and jumping nearly to the end of the album, we get this funky little ditty about the end of the world, which was, is, and ever shall be my favorite song from my favorite Third Day album (even if the original "Thief" is my favorite Third Day song overall). The theme is simple - signs of Armageddon are appearing all around me and I won't be afraid. I needed this song in late '99, what with all of the Y2K hysteria. It helped me to not take my worries so seriously (and of course, they proved to be all for naught). I'm glad to say that this version sounds pretty much like the original, though it may have been an alternate take because the jamming after the last chorus, leading up to the intentionally abrupt ending, sounds different. One criticism that I wasn't able to make when I first heard this song was that the guitar riffs and off-key trumpets are basically a ripoff of Cake's "Sheep Go to Heaven". Seriously, go listen to the two back-to-back, it is scary If you listen carefully, there's this echoing "One (one, one one), Two (two, two, two)" in the bridge that also bears uncomfortable significance to dc Talk's "Colored People". Thankfully, Third Day didn't turn out to make too much of a habit of plagiarism.

Your Love, Oh Lord
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains
Your justice flows like the ocean's tide...
I thought it was cool to hear Third Day with a programmed drumbeat in 1999, because they were supposed to be all Southern and organic and whatnot, so hey, they were experimenting! What I didn't realize was that this song (a decent simple praise chorus, once again inspired by a Psalm) would be a harbinger of things to come - less going on lyrically, less of a melodic punch, more of a simple, meditative sort of thing with a big chorus. I still like this song - it has sentimental value because it's one of the first ones I was able to play when I was starting to learn the acoustic guitar. It's nice enough when I come across it in the occasional church service. But it lacks that bridge that changes things up, or that X-factor that takes it to the next level. There's a passable guitar solo, but that's about it.

King of Glory
Who is this King of angels, O blessed Prince of Peace
Revealing things of Heaven and all its mysteries...
I guess that's it from Time, then. Pity - there's so much more good stuff to be mined despite it containing only 10 songs. Anyway, here we have the epic worship song which leads off the first Offerings album - a mixture of live favorites and new worship songs designed to quench fans' thirst for both a worship album and a live album. While not one of my personal favorites, I can see why it's a standout track to a lot of fans, starting with simple acoustic guitar and building to a nice crescendo with an ethereal chorus of voices in the background, and an almost Christmasy feel at times due to the shaking of bells here and there. (It sure beats any of the actual Christmas songs that the band would record in 2006, all of which were notably not present on Chronology, Vol 2 - but I'll get to that in due time.)

Agnus Dei/Worthy
Alleluia, Alleluia
For our Lord God Almighty reigns...
The first of a few live versions that ended up on this disc is actually one of the better examples of the band's live persona. This cut is presented exactly as it was on Offerings, with the band's rocked-out cover of Michael W. Smith's simple chant "Agnus Dei" coming to a loud, crashing conclusion and leading flawlessly into the soft chorus of Don Moen's "Worthy". it's a great synthesis of praise songs by different authors that tie into the same theme (though it's about the simplest theme you could possibly ask for, namely that God is holy). Personally, I still prefer the original studio version from the pioneering multi-artist worship album Exodus that Michael W. Smith himself helped to assemble, before that sort of thing was commonplace in Christian music. That would have been a good example of giving fans a non-album track from an album they may have not owned. But I can't fault them for going with the version that is likely more familiar to most of the fan base that first got into Third Day due to offerings.

Blackbird
You say you'd light your candle
But your love light doesn't shine
You say you talk to angels
Well, I say it's such a lie...
Also presented in a live format is the fan favorite "Blackbird", an almost bluesy rock song complete with some great slide guitar by Mark Lee, which tells off some sort of celebrity who claims spiritual enlightment but basically spews forth a lot of depressing and ignorant lyrics. I'm glad that the band has kept this one around for the old-school fans' sake, but I don't really see why we needed a live version of this one. At least we don't get as many of Mac's usual interjections to the audience to help them sing along, since this is more of a moody rocker and definitely not a praise song.

Alien
Keep your watch over me
Sustain the life in me
Frustrate the ways of every wicked man...
Sort of making up for lost time is this attempt to revisit the Conspiracy days in a live setting, with this rather rough version of the album's first rock single. I love the quick, dynamic, and somewhat mysterious way that the song moves, but Mac totally botches his vocal performance here. He sounds out-of-breath, off-key, and more willing to shout than sing in several places. The band did do a rather interesting version of this one on the Come Together Tour with much more pronounced techno influence in the backing rhythm, but that's from 2002 and therefore shouldn't qualify for an appearance here. They should have just gone with the album version, which is rock solid and an essential track from that era.

Have Mercy
If it's true that the wages of sin is death
Then I've earned quite enough to quit
The reward I deserve I'd surely get
Were it not for You to pay my debt...
Alright, so this is a fun enough track from Conspiracy, short and to the point, as Mac cries out for mercy with fast-paced fervor as female Gospel singers go into hysterics behind him. It's one of the moments from their second album (during which they tried to shake off the "Southern" tag for the most part and prove they weren't a Hootie clone) that most resembled the first. So why is this one tucked away as a "bonus track" and not included alongside the measly two studio recordings that got to represent C#5? And why is it remixed? It's louder and crunchier now, but it didn't really need the help.

Long Time Comin'
There are many, searching for answers
Tell me who am I, to keep it to myself?
To offer a little help to the completists who don't want to go to the trouble of getting involved in bidding wars on eBay, two songs from the Southern Tracks EP (which basically consisted of songs that didn't make the cut for Time) are included here. This one is Third Day's way of saying, in not so many words, that the times, they are a changing'. What they're changing to, I have no idea (to be fair, I didn't in Bob Dylan's song, either), but this one's got plenty of Southern grammar to fit its unabashedly rural rock style. It's not particularly profound, but they're doing their darndest to make a believer out of you and I can't help but admire them for it.

She Sings in Riddles
Words of a poet in perfect time
With questions and answers
Every verse, every line...
The first half of Third Day's history closes with a rather unusual selection of a song that is very atypical for the band, in that it leaves a bit more interpretation up to the listener, and doesn't have any sense of finality to it. (It really should have been intermingled with the other tracks if they were going to conclude it - "Your Love Oh Lord" or "Agnus Dei/Worthy" would have worked better as devotional sentiments to close the album.) I do enjoy this track, apart from its rhythmic stumble in the verses - the cryptic tale of a girl who was seemingly born to deceive is an intriguing one. You won't hear anything like this on Chronology, Vol. 2, so enjoy this side of Third Day while you can.

Now's the part where I discuss the glaring omissions. I'll try to do this in short order.

Peace: The opening track from Conspiracy No. 5, which was a rapidly-flowing river of rocking goodness, all about the peace of God, that successfully established the band's new sound at the time.

You Make Me Mad: A snarling and even slightly experimental rocker, also from C#5, that was a reasonably successful single and had a curious music video to accompany it. The lyrics, which take some analysis before you figure out that they're Mac's response to all of the various things that music makes him feel, rank among Third Day's best simply because that sort of an approach is so rare for them. In those days, they weren't afraid to give us something that took a little time to understand. It's an example of the band at their most "alternative".

Gomer's Theme: Not one of my personal favorites, actually, but this parable of an unfaithful wife should have been included, if for no other reason than its serving as the inspiration for the hardcore fans to nickname themselves "Gomers".

Took My Place: Zippy little rock single from Time with more of that Gospel fervor thanks to the background singers. It's over in about 2:15 - how could there not have been room for this?

I'm taking away a dollar apiece from what I perceive the value of this CD to be, because those songs were left out. I also greatly enjoyed the songs "Mama", "Did You Mean It?", "Praise Song" (featuring the late Rich Mullins on hammer dulcimer), "I Deserve?" (featuring veteran Christian rock vocalist Riki Michele), "This Song Was Meant for You", "Your Love Endures", "Never Bow Down", "What Good", and "These Thousand Hills" from this era, but most of those are more personal favorites than fan favorites, so I have no gripe with them being absent. But they're all compelling reasons why Third Day's first three albums should really be appreciated in full. Chronology, Vol. 1 is probably a good place to start if you're new to the band or are getting caught up after their newer stuff served as a gateway for you - but by all means, don't stop here.

And don't go on and buy Chronology, Vol. 2 - which is a barely-navigable mess in its attempt to present the best of Third Day's later years (despite there being plenty of reasonably good material to choose from). I'll be reviewing that one soon.

ALBUM WORTH:
Nothing at All $1.50
Forever $1.50
Consuming Fire $1.50
Thief 2006 $1.50
Love Song $2
Who I Am $0
My Hope Is You 2006 $.50
I've Always Loved You $2
Sky Falls Down $2
Your Love, Oh Lord $1
King of Glory $1
Agnus Dei/Worthy $1.50
Blackbird $1
Alien $.50
Have Mercy $.50
Long Time Comin' $1.50
She Sings in Riddles $.50
(Penalty for Glaring Omissions) -$4
TOTAL: $16

Band Members:
Mac Powell: Lead vocals, guitar
Mark Lee: Guitar, backing vocals
Brad Avery: Guitar
David Carr: Drums
Tai Anderson: Bass

Website: http://www.thirdday.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving