I'm learning to get used to disappointment when it comes to Leeland's music. It's not like my expectations for this group were ever all that high - when I first read the press on their debut album, I fully expected a lame, unimaginative ripoff of Coldplay and Keane and the other "piano rock" bands cited as their influence, with stereotypical "modern worship" lyrics to boot. And I got some of that. But I also found that debut disc, Sound of Melodies to be a fairly pleasant listen, only truly disappointing when I paid very close attention to some of the cliched, plodding slower songs, and the attempts to drum up emotion by invoking some of the more genuinely emotional phrases in their songs a few too many times in a row. Nonetheless, this band had potential. They knew how to write a robust worship anthem that rang out loud and clear when they really tried to (most notably that album's title track), they knew how to mix musical drama with genuine love and compassion for those harmed by the Church ("Tears of the Saints"), and they even managed to make it easy to ignore some of their more trite lyrics by just plain recording a fun, bouncy pop song ("Hey", "Reaching", "Lift Your Eyes"). I still consider it to be a barely above average album, to be honest, but it's grown on me over time. I can put it on without grumbling and wanting to skip certain tracks outright. They were young and earnest without being overly annoying, and they had a few memorable album higlights. That was worth three stars in my book.

And now, in 2008, they've put out another album that also earns them a three-star rating. But due to how renowned this band is for their live sound, and due to how how potential the best tracks from their previous album showed, I honestly expected more. It's weird, because a lot of critics who have covered their new disc, entitled Opposite Way, have praised it as showing solid growth for the band. I just can't hop on that bandwagon, despite how they've become one of the biggest "buzz bands" in Christian music and are touring with the likes of Casting Crowns (a band for whom I think a three-star album, their latest one for example, is actually an improvement). All that really improved was the production - they've got a thicker, zippier, more arena-ready sound this time out, and really, that wasn't a huge step to make from their first album. So the rockers are a bit more amped up and there's a bit less reliance on piano in the upbeat songs. That might be a good way to downplay the ubiquitous Coldplay comparisons that plague any band with a piano these days, but then, we've also got ten million modern worship bands on Christian radio doing the electric guitar-driven pop/rock thing. There's still a bit of a Britpop stamp to their sound, but I don't know... most of this disc doesn't strike me as terribly original. What's most troubling is that the highlights on Opposite Way aren't as strong as the best moments on Sound of Melodies. The fast songs are fun and catchy on a superficial level, and there are a few praise anthems with really soaring choruses, but the new sheen that Leeland's sound carries seemed to have also compacted their previous ability to really let a song stretch out and find its wings over the course of several minutes. I'm all for less repetition, but the crescendoes achieved on this album often feel like they haven't been earned.

What Opposite Way has working for it is a pretty decent lyrical theme. I think we've all heard Christian bands rallying the fans to not think the way that the rest of the world thinks, to take pride in the fact that being Christian makes them different in ways that are often baffling to the rest of society. And I think Leeland handles that theme fairly well here, given that it's such a familiar one. There's also a conscious move towards lyrics that encourage and perhaps slightly challenge the believer here, with fewer strictly "vertical" praise songs, which kind of blurs the "modern worship" definition that is so easy to place on the band. (Comparisons to Delirious? and their attempts to straddle that fence aren't out of line, though Delirious? has been a bit more daring with their musical experimentation, and Leeland Mooring is a bit too straightforward of a writer to come up with some of the oddball metaphors that Martin Smith can occasionally throw into some of his band's most serious, worshipful moments.) The band's last album followed a simple, well-trodden theme as well - essentially the experience of God's grace and the need to extend that grace to others - and it worked well when played with simple, straightforward passion. But the one problem with this "going against the flow" theme (as reflected visually in the arrow pointing the wrong way on the album cover, and the listing of the track titles in reverse order on the back) is that it really needs to be reflected in the music to make it count. There's something that strikes me as a bit weird about singing of the need to be the unique people God made us to be when the music is pretty much riding the Middle-of-the-Road Express. Leeland's sound is essentially the default sound of Christian Hit Radio nowadays - give Chris Tomlin a higher dose of Gen-Y cool factor, or transplant Casting Crowns to England and tell them they're not allowed to bluntly lecture people, and that's essentially what Leeland sounds like. It's a serviceable sound, but dude, if you're gonna tell me that God wants me to go against the grain, then you might want to put your music where your mouth is. Otherwise, you're just following the musical trends by default, and not that this is inherently sinful or anything, but it doesn't really help you to get your point across to anyone other than perhaps the youth group set who gets to hear you before they manage to get exposed to most of the influences who came before you, and therefore thinks you're fresh and original.

All of that said, sometimes it's possible to write memorable pop/rock songs entirely within the mold of what's been done before and what's totally expected to pass the radio litmus test with flying colors. Leeland pulls off a few of these. I'll give 'em credit for that much.

Count Me In
Your love makes me like David with a stone and sling
Nothing else could bring my life so much meaning...
Just like Sound of Melodies, this album has its strongest track right upfront, in the form of this jubilant rocker that effectively showcases the more guitar-heavy side of Leeland's sound, even if it is a bit too "Beautiful Day"-ish for comfort. There are some fun little touches to help set this one apart, like the spacy, bass-driven intro, or Leeland Mooring's sweet "Ooh-ooh"s that punctuate the end of each chorus. Lyrically, it's simple stuff - a man who is making the decision to become a Christian is expressing amazement at how the heck he was able to go so long without realizing how generous and compelling the love of God actually was. Yeah, it's basically a cheerleading song, but as those songs go, it's a pretty good one.

Let It Out Now
It's like you gotta walk like him, gotta talk like her, gotta be like them
Everybody knows you follow the crowd or get singled out...
The first track bleeds nicely into this one, which has a mellow piano intro that totally fools you about what type of song it's gonna be. The song's rhythm almost comes stumbling in unexpectedly at the first verse, and for a little bit, this approach helps to support Leeland's message of being different and making your sound, but then they go and drop a truly hackneyed line on us like, "God says who you are, not the world or movie stars", and that's when you realize the whole thing is headed downhill. Musically, this one's a success, with what appears to be a mid-tempo song getting bigger and louder until its chorus seems to just explode forth from the speakers. It would definitely be a concert highlight. But it's hard to swallow the central thesis that "Everyone has their own sound", when in the end, they're building off of a lot of predictable musical and lyrical cliches. A sentiment like this needs to be expressed more artistically to truly sink in.

Enter This Temple
We are searching for Your presence
We are knocking on Your door
Let Your wings cover us with promise
For communion, for communion...
You just know this one's gonna be the "big worship ballad" as soon as the mellow, even-tempered piano intro starts up. For what it is, I will say that the song's pretty effective - it's essentially an invocation inviting the presence of God into a place of worship, declaring a thirst for communion and all of that good stuff. The big chorus and the earnest declaration that "We want to be like You are" is something that's ridiculously easy to recognize and sing along with, without sounding inherently thoughtless or dumbed down. But I feel like the band doesn't quite have the build-up to justify the big payoff here - they dive into that chorus too quickly, and the song is over too soon. This sort of a song really needs more space for the genuine emotion of it to be more fully explored.

Opposite Way
The Father sent His own Son, the light of men
The cross He chose was crippling
Rejected in His own town
They couldn't see the sun shining...
The title track is about as "Coldplay 101" as songs come - and I hate to say that when I just finished poking fun at critics who make the obvious Coldplay comparison to any mid-tempo song with a piano in it. But it's not just the piano here that makes the comparison obvious. It's that stubborn insistence on evenly strumming every quarter note on the acoustic guitar, and the guitar solo that lets one note ring out over and over - classic Jonny Buckland right there. Fortunately, this is one spot where Leeland probes a little deeper with the lyrics, really giving a foundation to their belief that Christians are called to be different by pointing out that Jesus Himself had to choose the hard way, even to the point of dying for the salvation of man, and from that point of view, it really doesn't seem that extreme to say that Christians who are really living life the way God designed them to will probably be looked at a little funny by the rest of society. The band's thoughts are expressed well here, and they manage to escape the repetition trap by changing up the chorus a little bit to match the subject being addressed in each verse, so while it doesn't have that "instant sing-along" quality of the previous tracks, it still turns out to be one of the higher quality songs on the album.

Wake Up
I know it's sad that the gift we have
We keep it for ourselves most of the time
The world is looking for a love that's locked up
Inside these four walls, break the door down and shine...
This "call to action" rocker, which urges us to "wake up, wake up, live like God, pour out love", should be compelling, but makes the huge mistake of sounding far too similar to "Count Me In" to really be useful on its own. Sure, there are subtle differences - that song had no piano and this one has a little bit, for example - but it honestly feels like the same musical idea got reiterated for two different sets of lyrics. The chorus is also too simple, and gets repeated far too many times. That makes this track rather unconvincing as a "big rock anthem", which is clearly what it wants to be.

Beginning and the End
Everything that I've done wrong put You there on that cross
Where nails drove in Your hands
A crown of thorns deep in Your brow
I never knew it until now, it was all Your plan...
This is a different sound for Leeland - slow, relaxed, mostly acoustic, but with a well-defined syncopated beat bumping along just to keep things moving. I suppose "Too Much" on the last album sort of hinted at this sound, but it just plain sounds cooler with an acoustic guitar and bass playing such prominent roles. It's mostly the snaky melody that makes this one stand out, and I also enjoy the personal meditation on the "bigness" of God, the fact that He's always existed and always had a plan that Leeland realizes the worst of his sins can't possibly thwart. Once they get to the bridge, and Leeland goes all falsetto on us, "Oooooooh, singin' ooooooooh...", of course Chris Martin's gonna come to mind, but they soon redeem themselves with some overlapping vocals, meshing the bridge and the chorus together as the song wraps up. It's solid radio single material that has a slightly different quality to it than the average Christian radio stuff found elsewhere on the album.

Brighter Days
Faces come and faces go
But none seem to look my way
And walls have stood and walls have fallen
But my heart seems to wait...
This delicate ballad almost shoots itself in the foot with its first few lines, "Time keeps moving on, through the sunshine and the storm". Thank you, Captain Obvious! And most of the rest of the song seems to remain in that simplistic vein - basically, times are hard, and I'm looking ahead to the future, when God will make things better. Lyrically, this is not Leeland's finest hour. The struggle's too vague for their normally genuine emoting to really resonate this time around. This one wants so badly to be the stately hope-for-better-weather anthem that every British band that ever used a piano tries to concoct at some point, but the execution of it is far too average, far too predictable.

Falling for You
You waited like a lover
Who couldn't let go of His bride
I turned my back away from You
Didn't shed a tear or cry...
I rather like the musical approach to this lovey-dovey little pop song, which uses a simple, finger-picked acoustic guitar pattern to establish a bit of forward momentum, but thankfully refrains from erupting into the big, predictable chorus. The band is careful to add layers subtly, allowing the joy to come on as a gradual realization instead of a sudden burst of energy - the electric guitar doesn't really become prominent until the bridge, and even then the band's exercising a bit of well-placed restraint. There's essentially nothing being said here that Leeland didn't already express in "Yes You Have" or "Can't Stop" - it's another song about falling head over heels in love with God. But this one does seem to dig a little deeper in terms of echoing how long it took to get to that realization of God's love - what should have been obvious all along can sometimes take a while for a man to get through his thick skull. But then, to look back and see where God was wooing you all along - well, that can bring upon a flood of emotions that can sometimes be lost on those of us who took the whole Christian thing for granted since we've been that way since childhood. (I'm speaking from personal experience, I guess.)

Don't Go Away
First comes salvation, then comes obsession
Fire starts with a flicker, and it consumes me...
The third driving rocker on the album, anchored effectively by Matt Campbell's zippy electric guitar and Mike Smith's (no relation) cymbal-heavy percussion, sounds like a lot of fun until you listen to Leeland's passionate little prayer and realize that the core request being made of God doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense. He's talking about the unbridled zeal for God that a new believer experiences, and he wants to capture that feeling and not lose it, always feeling like he's securely held in God's arms and living the life God wants him too - and I'm with him so far. But he makes the mistake of titling the song after a line the asks God "Don't You go away, please be here to stay". Um, did you guys miss the part where God said He would never leave nor forsake you? Or the part about God being omnipresent? Look, I'm sure that y'all have read your Bibles and have sound theology and all that, and I don't mean to suggest otherwise. But I think this is one of those cases where the need to write a catchy, radio-friendly song ends up overriding the need to write lyrics that actually make sense when examined more closely. Most Christian radio listeners would probably let a song like this slip past without a second thought - it sounds happy, it feels happy, it's got devotion and fervor written all over it. But what about that rare newbie to the faith who hears this and thinks, "Say what, God could go away if I don't pray hard enough?" It's a common enough mistake, I guess - how many of us pray things like, "God, please be with (insert person's name here)" without thinking about the fact that you're asking for something which will always be true by definition anyway? The problem isn't really that our theology is bad, it's that we don't really think about the colloquialisms and catch-phrases that we take for granted - and this song serves as an unfortunate example of that.

Thief in the Night
Many times I've run away
Forsook Your love and all Your grace
Still You call out my name
Yeah, You still care that I be saved...
Oh, man. A Fender Rhodes and an electric piano? You guys couldn't get any more Britpop if you tried! Not that this is a sound that I dislike, but sheesh, they are sure are being obvious about following the trend here. And I don't know what it is with Leeland and track 10, but that always seems to be the most dull, plodding track on their albums. ("Always" meaning it happened twice, if you want to get technical.) I don't know, I've heard plenty of songs about that whole "thief in the night" metaphor from Revelation, and it doesn't seem like there's any deep thought here about what an unusual occurrence that would actually be, for the Bride of Christ to actually be snatched away in the blink of a night, and the implications it would have for the rest of the world. The song's mostly just a declaration that Leeland will keep living righteously and spreading the good news until God chooses to sweep the faithful away to Heaven. They try to do the whole "slow burn" thing by turning the melody in more of a moody direction during the bridge, and working themselves up to another round of big, passionate declaration of the song's title repeatedly - but it just plain isn't working for me this time.

May Our Praise
Wondrous King, You are clothed in mystery
Your hands set people free, Father
All pain is over as Your love draws us closer
Your grace goes on forever, so we sing...
This closing praise anthem feels like it sneaks in backwards. It starts off immediately with its big, joyous chorus, and it's even more abrupt than "Enter This Temple" as far as those things go - sorry guys, but you gotta work up to these things! It's really too bad, because once it settles into the verse, there's some really good ambiance (the drums fall away for a while, and when they come back in, there's a good amount of echo on them, as if the song is being played in an infinite sanctuary with absolutely stellar acoustics), and the song actually follows up on "Thief in the Night" well by giving the listener a sense of having been whisked away to a heavenly place where pain and strife are things of the past. Normally I hate it when CCM songs act like knowing God means a person will never hurt again, but if a person has actually passed onto the next life, then this would actually be true. But that all hinges on how one interprets the song, and my whole "passed on to the next life" interpretation ceases to work when once again, Leeland seems to be blissfully unaware of the whole "omnipresent" thing when they tell God "We just want to be where You are". Guys, you are always where God is - the issue is that people are often unaware of that presence or don't know how to respond to it or allow their lives to be changed by it. Sorry to keep harping on that - I just grow weary of worship songs that spend their breath on asking God to make truisms true. As if God needed the permission!

Oh hey, did I mention that Leeland Mooring is like, 19 years old? Or that his brother (the band's piano player and backing vocalist) Jack Mooring is married to Michael W. Smith's daughter Whitney? Hmmm, that's right I guess I didn't. It might be because neither of those things have any bearing on what Leeland's music sounds like. You'll read about 'em in the hyped-up press on this band, of course, because (a) We tend to treat singers and songwriters who make rather ordinary pop music like they're doing something special and must be extremely gifted if they happen to still be teenagers, and (b) who wouldn't want to name-drop a personal relationship with a heavy-hitter in Christian music as a way of getting instant attention for a band? Yeah, for some strange reason, Jack's daddy-in-law's name still carries a ton of weight in this industry, even if his music ceased to relevant about, oh I don't know, seven years ago. (Now he's so out of touch that he has to get dudes like Leeland to write his songs for him. And the results aren't particularly good. See Stand. No, I didn't actually bother to review it.) And not that being hooked up to the hype machine is an automatic excuse for me to dismiss a band, but honestly, I feel like these guys could live up to it a little more. I feel like they have the talent, but they second-guess themselves and play it safe most of the time. Maybe I just need to see their reportedly jaw-dropping live show some time - that's what made MWS such a die-hard fan, after all. But that still doesn't cover up mediocre songwriting. Hopefully on the next album, Leeland will realize the cliched path they're headed down, and turn around and go the Opposite Way.

ALBUM WORTH:
Count Me In $1.50
Let It Out Now $1
Enter This Temple $1
Opposite Way $1.50
Wake Up $.50
Beginning and the End $1.50
Brighter Days $.50
Falling for You $1.50
Don't Go Away $.50
Thief in the Night $.50
May Our Praise $1
TOTAL: $11

Band Members:
Leeland Mooring: Lead vocals, guitar
Jack Mooring: Backing vocals, keyboards
Matt Campbell: Lead guitar
Jake Holtz: Bass
Mike Smith: Drums

Websites:
http://www.leelandonline.com
http://www.myspace.com/leelandmusic

Recommended: Yes