Man, is it really 2005 already? It seems like just yesterday, the teen pop wave was crashing over us and the Christian music industry, mimicking the mainstream, was flooded with a glut of new artists vying for the teenage dollar with dumbed-down, over-processed, nasal pop songs. I resented it all at the time, not because I didn't like teenagers or think that they deserved to have music they could relate to. I just felt that there was no excuse to dumb down lyrics for them and turn singers their age into pretty young figureheads to paste on album covers and hide the fact that Nashville's hired-gun songwriters weren't doing such a hot job. At that time, I would have been happy if one of those artists dared to rock or venture off into more organic instrumentation or put pen to paper and write some more personal songs.

Lo and behold, when the trend began to die in the mainstream, a few of its notable teen acts attempted to do just this, and of course the CCM artists followed suit. In some cases, I liked the results - see ZOEgirl and Plus One, both of whom I had to grudgingly admit to liking after initially being vocally opposed to their generic brand of saccharine, vaguely R&P. But as time wore on and one teen-oriented act after another started doing less of the Britney Spears thing and more of the Michelle Branch thing, I started to realize that I shouldn't have been so easily impressed. I mean, it's not that unusual. To my ears, it may have been a nice change of pace, but come on, I'm not dumb enough to believe that just because you added some guitars and live drums and co-wrote a few lyrics, that you've had some sort of an amazing epiphany and that your music is now "mature". But for better or for worse, that's how this stuff gets sold these days.

Enter the latest iteration of teen pop's maturation - Joy Williams. After starting off as a rather unremarkable teen diva in 2001, she managed to get off the ground a little more with the decidedly more organic By Surprise in 2003, which was an interesting detour but still not enough to really retain my attention. She struck me as pleasant in a live band setting when I caught her as the opening act on ZOEgirl's Different Kind of FREE Tour with Superchic[k] last year, but for whatever reason, I've never been gung ho about a single one of her songs. Now she's back for another go-round in 2005, with yet another album that is being hailed as a sudden maturation. Shoot, the album is even called Genesis - she really wants us to believe she's starting over this time. The thing is, it's not that dissimilar from By Surprise, so while I enjoy the live guitars and drums and the generally savvy production, I'm still having trouble fully getting excited about Joy's music. I don't know; maybe it's a bit of an identity crisis?

I'm honestly having trouble figuring out what she's going for here. Upbeat hit-making machine? Well, some songs approach a rocking intensity but the vibe is way too bright for it to come off as anything but slightly more caffienated upbeat pop. A few songs involve personal confession, but they seem to pull back just when they hit upon an idea that might really give us a window into the songwriter's soul. The pop/rock confection on several songs is quite tasty, actually, but I can't escape the feeling that Joy is over singing a bit. I mean, you can be breathy or you can be intense, but trying to be both at the same time just makes you come across as nasal and too perky for your own good. I suppose it's not as grating as listening to a Stacie Orrico record, and in a few instances this record is quite beautiful and even thematically satisfying. Heck, there aren't even any bad songs on this record. Just a lot of halfway decent ones that don't quite hit their potential, and two or three that do strike me as something special. That's enough to make Joy slightly above average in the CCM industry, but a fresh new beginning this is not.

Stay
Lay your weary head down in the fields of green
Soak your soul now in the quiet streams...
I'll definitely admit to liking how this album starts. A fast cascading piano riff, kind of like something lifted out of a Coldplay song, meets up with semi-cluttered drum programming to produce a fast-paced song that fits well with Joy's depiction of someone frantically trying to run away: "Where are you going as fast as you can?" Maybe it's a bit too obvious in its resolution by the time the chorus arrives, full blast, and Joy is begging the person to stay and not run away and you know, easy things that rhyme with "-ay". (I feel like I've heard the hook before in Abra Moore's "Big Sky", too, but that's likely a coincidence since I'm comparing two fairly obscure singers here.) I guess I simultaneously love and dislike the bludgeoning pop hook here - on the one hand, the frantic mood seems out of place when Joy is begging us to rest during the bridge, because it seems like that should be a calm point to counterbalance the rest of it (the beat does fall away, but it's still rather noisy and busy). On the other hand, it sticks in my head and it's got good replay value, right up until its cold ending, which is unfortunately wasted on a lousy transition into the next song.

We
She's independent and beautiful
Wish I could be like her
She's got the girls and the boys
So wrapped around her finger...
I have a tendency to not like songs that fade in right after the previous one suddenly cuts off, so that explains why I feel that this is a weak transition. This one sounds like it should be a track 3 or 4. Anyway, I'll attempt not to judge it based on position. Basically Joy's given us one of those songs about how everyone wants to be like the cool kids, but the cool kids are really insecure too, therefore we should all get along because we're all a lot like each other. Hey, that's not a bad message. I just think it's delivered a little too obviously - "Show, not tell" might be good advice on this one so that it doesn't sound like a youth group lecture. Joy takes the more mid-tempo approach here, which I don't mind, but this time I feel a little less exhilarated by the hook that comes slamming in so obviously. Joy does that a lot on this album and I just don't think that going full-throttle on every chorus is necessarily the best way to make a hook sink in. The melodies themselves are fairly standard, so it's like she's depending on volume to drive the point home. Her enunciation could also use a little work here - when she says "Who we really are when we drop our guard", it sounds like she's saying "drop our God", which is unintentionally amusing - "Whoops, sorry about that, God!"

Say Goodbye
Face to face, the present and past collide
And it's no mistake, I see the future in your eyes...
Another medium-paced song follows here, and this time around I kind of like the combination of glossy pop with live guitars, drums, and the tinkling piano riff that flavors the verses. Here, Joy is celebrating a change in someone's life - what change that is isn't entirely clear, since she only alludes to them having a past that they wouldn't want to return to. Since the album's title is invoked in the chorus - "This is your Genesis" - I'm left to assume that it's a conversion experience. There's definitely a lot of beauty inherent in the breathy line "You're different now" when the song is taken in that context, though Joy doesn't really expound on this very much. The song definitely has one of the more solid hooks - not as full-force, but definitely solid in the excited way that she encourages the person to "Say goodbye, say goodbye to the you I knew before". I'm willing to bet this was born out of a very joyful experience with someone she cared about very deeply, so she'd have a real winner on her hands if she dug deeper in trying to express that. As it is - well, it's a song that wouldn't annoy me if I heard it on Christian radio a lot. Not the worst of places to start, I guess.

Hide
So come out, come out, come out wherever you are
Anyone who's trying to cover up their scars
To anyone who's ever made a big mistake
We all been there, so don't be ashamed...
Speaking of songs that are all over Christian radio - this one's currently in heavy (read: about twice an hour) rotation on your local Air1 Radio station. Vocally, it's definitely one of Joy's more processed and flat moments - I think they're trying to make her sound coy when she compares God's grace to a game of hide and seek and she slyly sings, "Come out, come out, wherever you are". The theme is very similar to "Stay", in that whoever she's talking to shouldn't feel ashamed of their sins, but instead should just come to God as they are. OK, great message that even established Christians need to hear. However, saying "And if you feel like no one understands, come to the one with scars in His hands" doesn't really expound on that idea of grace much. It assumes that we get the Jesus reference and we know why God understands us, but to someone feeling like God doesn't understand them and has no reason to love them, this doesn't really drive the point home. Again, having a more specific sense of what was done wrong or what kind of a past this person is trying to turn away from would help. Instead we get a repetitive chorus blasting away at us - Joy, I love your enthusiasm, but you're kind of hurting my ears here. Oh, and we get another abrupt ending with a fade-in opening the next track. Stop doing that!

Beautiful Redemption
I'm a doubting Thomas needing to believe
I'm a perfumed sinner just like Magdalene
I am Judas kissing on Your cheek, eager to deceive
I am all of these...
After a weird fade-in, which sounds like the faint, distorted echo of some sort of electronic choral piece, the best song on the album gets going, with a sweet synthesized melody eventually un-digitizing itself and turning into a sweetly rhythmic piano riff, which carries us through much of the song and sets us up nicely for a stumbling drum beat that ironically proves to be more of a driving force than most of the in-your-face chorus hooks that the album has to offer. This is actually a really pretty song which finds Joy in more of a reflective mode, thinking about the ways that she's pushed God away and how she can relate to Biblical characters who have done the same. Specificity looks good on you, Joy! The chorus, with its cascading vocal and percussion approach, is probably the most memorable hook on the album, and here Joy nicely sums up her interaction with a God whom she expects judgment from, "I cry 'Father, Father, forgive me'/You say 'Child, I already have'." The bridge consists of the overlapping lines "Hallelujah" and "We all fall down", and I love how brokenness and celebration are mixed together here. That collision is what grace is the catalyst for, and she explores it well here, with this song stretching out to a generous five minutes as it gently winds down.

Unafraid
You say I'm Your own, an orphan found
You say I am home, those lies are lonely now
You're proud of me, and I am safe
And my fears begin to fade...
This song might as well be another "Hide", since it's yet another song about not being embarrassed and allowing who you really are to show through, and it's got another obnoxiously brash chorus bringing out the not-quite-best in Joy's voice. You know, as much as I like it when teen-oriented singers try to rock out, it's painfully clear that Joy's just not meant to be comfortable in this mode. She's better in sweet crooning mode than full-blast mode. Anyway, this is a song about Joy not worrying about being despised for her youthful age, because she knows she serves a purpose despite people's skepticism about her due to that. It gives us a slight peek at something which has undoubtedly been a struggle for her - I've blasted my share of teen singers in the past (though not specifically because they were young, but that's another story) and I realize that it always hurts to get criticized. Again, I'd feel something more if Joy were more specific about exactly what forces were trying to stop a young person from doing her thing, but oh well. There are moments here when I'd swear she sounds exactly like Michelle Branch, and other moments when I'm reminded of Kelly Clarkson's recent makeover, and neither of those are necessarily bad things, but still, this is kind of the prototypical teen-pop-gone-rock song.

Silence
Why do I question Your intentions for me
When Your affection is a proven legacy...
A more ominous bass line creeps along with another contemplative song that finds Joy doing the right thing by taking a more subtle approach. The electronics are still in abundance and make no mistake, this is still heavy pop territory, but it's more progressive, with the beat shuffling around and moving from fast to slow as the mood rises and falls, instead of jerking us back and forth every time there's a chorus. Here joy joins wise songwriters like Andrew Peterson and Jars of Clay who have meditated on the silence of God and reminded us that God is still there even when we can't really sense it. As Joy expresses it, she's learning to take comfort in the silence and say that it's OK, God doesn't have to speak audibly for her to know her prayers have been heard. The way she meekly sings "It's OK" again and again makes it sound like we're peeking in on a quiet moment, getting a glimpse of how she interacts with God. She knows that she's being tested, and she knows she doesn't just want to be a fair-weather friend who follows when everything is blatantly obvious to her, but instead someone who can trust God in times when it's hard for humans to understand what's going on.

I'm in Love with You
Love is joy and love is pain
It's kissing in the rain
It's doing dishes when it's late
Isn't it, baby?
These days I don't tend to be as big a fan of obviously sappy love songs as I used to be, but I'll admit it, this one totally bowled me over. I can't help it - that rhythmic piano had me from the get-go as the backwards synth noises swirled around its methodical but gentle high notes. And then the plucking of the classical guitar, and her hushed words: "I've been waiting all my life for this moment, just to wake up next to you holding me". And that's it, I'm a pile of mush on the floor. I can't help it; I'm getting married in August and it seems forever from now and she's essentially describing the life I want my fiancee to have after we tie the knot. It's not a perfect life and it's not a fantasy life - there are still chores and mundane things to do. Those real-world things give the song a bit more of a Sara Groves feel, though the vocal approach is much more of a Jaci Velasquez thing. Maybe the chorus is a bit of a bunt where Joy could have hit a home run, simply repeating "I'm in love with you", "So glad I found you", etc. OK, so a lot of folks are going to barf. But the verses and the delicate production (thankfully not cluttered by needless programmed percussion) are enough to rope me in and make me fall head over heels with this one.

God Only Knows
You've had your fill of questions
There's so much that you need to know
I don't blame you for asking
But it's time to let go of control...
Well, we've gotta have one last brash upbeat song at this point, right? This might be the most rocking song on the album, with mostly clean guitars, but the drums definitely go into hyperdrive. Not a bad thing, but again, for someone who's trying to be a comfort, Joy's kind of undermining herself by being so annoyingly perky. Not to mention, she's got a bit of a hackneyed lyric to work with here. It's usually cute when a songwriter can work with a common phrase such as "God Only Knows" or "So Help Me God" or whatever and turn it into a double meaning. Here, it sounds like the phrase was chosen because it was a catch phrase, even though it doesn't make much sense in context. "God only knows all your broken pieces; only He knows what you're going through." Well, it's true that God does know those things, but it's not the only thing God knows, nor is God the only one who knows a lot of that stuff. And just knowing that God is aware of stuff doesn't seem to me to make much of a comforting connection to how God's going to get you out of the mess you're in. It's just kind of a "duh" statement that makes Joy come off like she's saying "Well, I don't have a clue, so uh, God'll help you; see you later!" It's like, why do we need her to tell us that? I know she had something more encouraging and exciting in mind; I guess I just missed the revelation here.

Child of Eden
I've had Eve's eyes of jealousy and shame
And Adam's disposition to worry and to blame...
The album ends decently with an interesting little music-box of a song that grows from quiet, dinky programming with an odd flute trilling in the background to more of a grandiose ballad with majestic (and thankfully not overbearing) strings holding it up quite nicely. Here, Joy finally brings the Genesis metaphor into play by describing herself as having tendencies like both Adam and Eve. Again, the specific references seem to lead to more profound realizations about herself, and I like the parallel of starting over, even though there's a sense of that loss of innocence that her proverbial Eden had. She sings with the assurance of someone who knows that life's gonna be tough knowing she lost that, but at the same time, she knows she'll get it back in the end. The chorus is a bit clunky, unfortunately, going for repetition of the title where a little more filling out of the metaphor might have made it stronger, but it's a pleasant way to close and it helps us to feel like the songs - a few of 'em, at least - are intentionally connected.

At the end of the day, I have to say that I've marginally enjoyed this album, and it's one that I'd re-spin from time to time to enjoy the different sonic colors and the few songs that reached a little deeper. As far as convincing makeovers of teen pop artists go, Rachael Lampa's self-titled record still reigns in that department, but this ain't bad. It's probably best recommended for existing fans of Joy and similar teen-friendly artists, or for those who like female pop vocalists that don't have absolutely everything canned and written for them. Genesis is a good start in the right direction, but Joy's still got a ways to go.

ALBUM WORTH:
Stay $1.50
We $.50
Say Goodbye $1
Hide $1
Beautiful Redemption $1.50
Unafraid $.50
Silence $1.50
I'm in Love with You $1.50
God Only Knows $.50
Child of Eden $1
TOTAL: $10.50

Website: http://www.joywilliams.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Cleaning the House