OK, so as I explained in my last review, the big news about singer/songwriter Derek Webb these days is that he's rejoined Caedmon's Call. And while that honestly did help to spur a bit of a renaissance for the group that he parted ways with in 2003, I realized while reviewing that album that it was easy to give his contribution as a group member all the attention and allow his solo work to slip by as an afterthought. And honestly, that would be a misrepresentation of how I feel about Webb's solo stuff - I've had my differences with the ways he's chosen to record several of his songs, but I've been listening to his latest disc, The Ringing Bell, since its release half a year ago, and despite its astonishingly brief length, I can definitely say I've been enjoying it.

Webb has definitely established himself as a challenging solo artist in the four years that he's been pursuing a solo career. He got the most press for challenging the church to practice what it preached on 2003's She Must and Shall Go Free, while also challenging the notion of what words were appropriate for use in "Christian music", and challenging the country-phobes in a Nashville-based industry (ironic, isn't it?) with his love of Americana and all things twangy. 2004's I See Things Upside Down challenged us sonically with a good amount of Wilco-esque knob twiddling and some uncomfortably raw vocals here and there, while daring to ask American Christians if they were putting their love for their country, for convenience, and for comfort above their love for God. 2005's Mockingbird took a tough look at legalism, and took the musical challenge in the other direction, being very stripped back, simple, and meditative at times, to the point where I wondered if Derek was worried that making the music too entertaining would cause us to miss the message. And now we have 2007's The Ringing Bell, which is perhaps the first time Derek hasn't challenged us musically. He finally went and make a rock album of sorts (it's a bit of a stretch because there are still several laid-back and folksy tunes here), keeping the lyrics as bluntly confrontational as ever, but allowing the performance to feel much more free and spirited. I think it works well, but I'm still faced with one challenging question - is ten songs, two of which clock in at two minutes or less, for a grand total of thirty minutes of music, really enough to constitute a full-length album?

That last question's really the only thing that gives me pause regarding how good of a grade to give Derek's latest. To his credit, he's worked hard to give us a new album roughly every year and a half since his first one, and that's not even taking into account a live album, a disc of acoustic takes, and another one of remixes. So it may be that his objective is to get a new batch of songs out while the issues are still fresh in his mind, and strike while the iron is hot with his audience. And honestly, he's got more to say that is worth saying in a scant 30 minutes here than most of your popular contemporary Christian artists have to say in three or four full albums. The album flows well - for the first time on a record by Webb, none of the songs seem to drag on longer than they need to, and Derek no longer sounds as haggard as he did on some of the tracks on ISTUD and Mockingbird that required a lot of patience. At last, the music seems to match the sense of urgency found in the lyrics once again. So maybe there's no need to draw out to 45 minutes what can be summed up well in 30. Then again, the guy's a regular wellspring when it comes to song ideas, and it's not like every song here fits such a precise theme that to add any would ruin the flow. So I'm thinking that The Ringing Bell is a pretty good piece of work that could have been made better with just a few more well-written songs.

But what makes the songs that actually are on this album so well-written? For the most part, the same things that have worked for Derek in the past. He examines hypocrisies that the Church doesn't want to admit to, often pointing himself out as being among the worst of the bunch in the process. He pokes and prods at our politics and our sense of identity and asks us if we're giving that top billing over the label of "Christian" in terms of how we describe ourselves. And just like clockwork, he throws in the little love songs to his wife, even if they have precious little to do with the rest of the album. Somehow all of this is a lot easier to swallow with more of a rock base to it than in some of his mellower offerings - he's kind of channeling the whole 1960's "protest song" vibe in a few of these songs, while showing that he's still got his sensitive side. And this all works really well for me. It's the first time that I feel I can tell people one of his albums is a must-hear, not just that the liner notes are a must-read.

The End
Here's another story about the invisible knives
An elephant in the room, trumpeting these lies...
The album actually starts with vague, muffled noise that apparently comes from the ultrasound of Derek's child, still in the womb of his wife Sandra. It's a nice personal touch, even if it has nothing to do with the fraternal twin songs that follow (I say this because both songs are fairly short, and one blends right into the other.) The first piece is mostly just Derek's voice and a driving acoustic guitar, as he sets up the theme of the album by talking about the two-faced mentality that Christians sometimes have (amusingly expressed in visible form by the album cover, which appears to be an innocuous sketch of two men shaking hands, but fold the CD booklet out on either side and you'll notice they've both got weapons behind their backs), acknowledging that "We've really got to stop talking and thinking like kids", and worrying that perhaps "This is the end".

The Very End
You are the anti-curse
Death going in reverse...
But no, wait... this is the end. (Actually, it's the beginning, but I'm kind of amused by that.) Derek's short protest song melts into this laidback tune, played on an upright piano with some pretty string accompaniment (OK, it's actually Mellotron), in which he reminds himself that despite all of the petty backbiting he's been party to, he still trust Christ as His Savior and knows that'll be his defense in this "murder trial". There are actually very few lyrics to this one, so it wouldn't make much sense to approach either of these first two tracks as an individual song on its own. You really need both pieces to complete the thought.

A Love that's Stronger than Our Fear
What would you do if someone would tell you the truth
But only if you tortured them half to death
Tell me, since when do the means justify the ends
And you build the kingdom using the devil's tools...
This electrified rocker has been a long time coming for Derek - it's got a sharp, punchy guitar riff that accompanies the pointed lyrics perfectly. He puts Christians on both sides of the gun here, first asking what we would do if admitting our faith to someone would mean execution, and then turning it around in the second verse and asking if violence and torture are justifiable actions for Christians/America/fill-in-the-blank to use in order to achieve what they presume to be justice. (I'll give you a hint: His answer seems to be "no". Derek's not a 24 fan, I take it.) His premise is that we tend to make excuses based on fear, and that if we truly lived what we believe regarding God's love, we'd see a way around that fear, and find solutions to our problems that didn't involve violence, deception, or recanting the things that we truly believed. He's written many other songs where the lyrics hit as powerfully, but the willingness to go all-out electric this time around goes a long way to help the words make their intended impact.

I Wanna Marry You All Over Again
I wanna buy you an old upright
I wanna accidentally stay all night
I wanna read the Bible, and I wanna make out...
Derek's always gotta slip a little bit of romance into his albums, and I've gotta say that this is one of his better songs on the subject. For the most part, it's a simple laundry list of memorable moments from his courtship with Sandra - he playfully suggests that she take back her heart so that he can propose and she can give it to him one more time, just for the sake of nostalgia. I know that feeling - as a married man, I've lost count of the times when I've thought, "Gee, too bad I already asked you to marry me, 'cause this would be the perfect time for it." It's a fun, bass-driven romp with some peppy electric guitar licks and cute little interventions like a splash of piano here and a few handclaps here. What truly makes it stand out is how Derek doesn't shy away from admitting times when he wanted to "make out" or spend the night before it really would have been appropriate - those incidents are right alongside all of the "holy" stuff like reading the Bible and all that, and while some might cock an eyebrow and read that as Derek condoning a lack of control, I think it's just an honest admission that when God causes two people to fall in love, of course they're gonna have hormones, and be sexually attracted to one another (if they weren't, I'd honestly question their decision to get married). It's just something that you have to deal with. Honestly admitting that you want to do something doesn't mean that you don't have the discipline to wait for the appropriate time for it. And hey, remembering that there used to be a time when you hated having to restrain yourself might just help you to not take it for granted now that you can get it on all you want, so uh... go Derek!

I Don't Want to Fight
You never asked me to save anyone
Not in whole or in part
Like I was some kind of Holy Ghost
Come to change their hearts...
Here Derek follows up a song about what he wants very much with a song about what he doesn't want at all. Obviously this is a pacifist appeal - kind of a 60's-inspired tune like much of the album is. It's a bit more of a mellow song, with a lovely violin adding a peaceful air to it, but this isn't a bunch of empty sentiments - Derek's words actually fly in the face of what your average militant evangelical might assume to be true when he puts the need to love a person and interact with them peacefully above the need to "save" them. What makes this true? Isn't it of tantamount importance that the Gospel be preached? Derek seems to be indicating that if he's pushy about his beliefs, the very point of Christ's character may be missed in the whole conversation. So he states with unbridled sincerity that "Brother, I'm not joking about peace". He knows there's not much point talking the talk if he can't actually treat people the way Jesus did.

Name
Oh my darlin', you must be
A moving target just like me
They'll call you right, they'll call you left
They'll call you names of all your friends...
Here's another solid rocker, and if the electric guitar intro and the free-spirited chorus which declares, "Baby, don't let 'em put a name on you!" sound familiar, then you must be a fan of Grey's Anatomy (which, bafflingly, featured this song in a post-coital scene during a recent episode, at least according to derekwebb.net - I personally don't watch the show.) This one's about all of the names that get hurled at any Christian (or any person, really) who is trying to make a difference - the conservatives think you're too liberal, the liberals think you're too conservative, etc. In this sound-bite culture, you're going to get labeled based on the last noticeable thing you did, because folks often can't comprehend that your views and your identity are a sum of complex and sometimes conflicting ideals. Derek is encouraging a person not to let this stop them from speaking up, and pointing out that he himself is a bearer of many names, and deserving of some of them due to his own shortcomings and inconsistencies, but the name-calling isn't about to shut him up or anything.

Can't Be Without You
I'm not ashamed to tell you how I feel
That's not a crime, even in Nashville
It's dangerous to keep it all behind your eyes
'Cause we both know the truth is stronger than the lies...
Here comes love song #2, which is a mid-tempo tune that appears to be about a time when he had to win over his wife's affections while she was smitten with another guy. This one isn't as witty (besides an amusing sideswipe at Nashville, the headquarters of the Christian music industry, in which we don't sing about such ungodly things as love triangles!), but I suppose it's kind of cute, It's got a breezy melody, assisted by the bright piano, and of course it's easy to relate to that old paradoxical dilemma, "I can't be with you, but I can't be without you." Certainly U2 expressed it better, but this isn't a bad attempt.

I for an I
I was born to go to war
It comes so natural to me
Sure as a hammer finds a nail
Death is the only way to peace...
This tune has a slower, more wandering melody, akin to one of the tunes on Mockingbird, but dressed up a bit more instrumentally to make it fit in with its (relatively) more rocky surroundings. You can probably figure out what Derek's point is from the bad pun in the song's title, but there's some honest confession in here that as much as Derek likes to speak out against wars and Christians backstabbing their own and pushy evangelism, he's in touch with his own selfishness and his tendency to perpetuate these sins, and it's deeply troubling to him. I love the sarcastic irony when he caps off the bridge with this smart remark: "I've got no choice unless you tell me who Jesus would kill."

A Savior on Capitol Hill
You can always trust the devil or a politician
To be the devil or a politician
But beyond that, friends, you'd best beware
'Cause at the Pentagon bar they're an inseparable pair...
This one's about as basic of a protest song as you can ask for - it's a mere two minutes of classic rock-influenced guitar riffs, and Derek wailing away to the best of his vocal ability (he sounds a little gravelly, but this actually gives his voice a bit more of a gritty, believable touch on the angrier songs - think back to Caedmon's Call's "Not the Land"), commenting on the tendency of some Christians in this day and age to give a little bit too much reverence to the government, expecting that if we elect the guy who appears to be the most devoutly Christian, then our nation will be saved. As far as Derek's seen, Jesus Himself has yet to actually hold the highest office in the land, so we'd best be careful and recall that any guy we elect is going to fail if we expect him to walk on water (as Derek puts it, "He could walk right across the reflection pool in his combat boots and ten thousand dollar suit." LOL.) I don't think he's bashing Bush or anything - he's just rebuking those who have put Bush (or any President, really) on too high of a pedestal. We're Christians first and Americans second... right, guys?

This Too Shall Be Made Right
I don't know the sufferings of people outside my front door.
And I join the oppressors of those I choose to ignore.
I'm trading comfort for human life
And that's not just murder, it's suicide...
The last track is about as raw as they come - it's just Derek and his acoustic guitar, and it's got a demo-like quality to it, but as a simple, down-to-earth way to finish up the album, I'm actually OK with that. He takes on a sort of Ecclesiastical tone here, reminding us that there is a time for peace and joy and happiness as well as for some of the most disturbing and inhumane things that have ever been done - not that God ordains such things as babies dying and the genocide of entire races, but that God will make good of what has happened despite the dark hearts of men who carry out such horrific deeds. It's not an easy song to swallow - we'd rather believe that a God who really loved us would never let such travesties happen. It certainly flies in the face of every Christian radio hit that ever declared God's love as something equal to a big protective plastic bubble - sorry guys, but it just doesn't work that way. This fits in with a lot of the other songs on the album - despite the fact that people, even your fellow Christians may hate you or even want to kill you, are you willing to speak the truth? Are you willing to admit that you're just as guilty of treacherous thoughts and intentions as those people who commit acts of murder and treason? If not, then all that stuff we're shoving under the rug just adds to the problem. It's a thesis that, now that I've paid closer attention, I can see Derek has summed up really well in a mere 30 minutes.

I'm probably going to tick off some of the diehards who loved the Americana sound of She Must and Shall Go Free when I say this, but I think that The Ringing Bell is his best album so far. It's his first one that is completely free of skippable moments. Maybe next album he can retain his newfound ability to trim the fat while taking the time to flesh it out with 11 or 12 solid songs, and then we'll have a real winner on our hands, eh?

ALBUM WORTH:
The End $1
The Very End $1
A Love that's Stronger than Our Fear $2
I Wanna Marry You All Over Again $1.50
I Don't Want to Fight $1
Name $1.50
Can't Be Without You $1
I for an I $1
A Savior on Capitol Hill $1
This Too Shall Be Made Right $1
TOTAL: $12

Website: http://www.derekwebb.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening