Hey, remember that girl group that I admitted to liking some time last year? Well, they're back for more. Allow me to reintroduce you to ZOEgirl, one of Christian music's premiere rock... er, I mean pop groups.

Now I don't know if you've paid much attention to the trends among the music that the younger crowd has been listening to these days, but I'm noticing a definite pattern among some of the supposed "teen pop" acts that have become well-known in Christian music circles. They're all slowly morphing into rock acts. Call it a response to cynical critics like myself who have insisted in the past that most pop music aimed at Christian kids and teenagers is pre-manufactured, with stock Nashville songwriters and producers and choreographers determining what most of the content will be before the pretty faces and voices are even auditioned, but whatever the cause, it seems like teen pop has been yearning to have a little more bite these days. Plus One, minus a few members, purports to be a rock band now. Phat Chance has undergone an even more drastic metamorphosis, changing their name to Stereo Motion in the process. Stacie Orrico and Rachael Lampa have, to a smaller extent, put out some edgier tunes, and even chipped in on the songwriting a little bit. Overall, this has resulted in a slight shift towards music that at least tries a little harder to be interesting instead of being the same old giddy sugar rush. And after being exposed to ZOEgirl's music last year, I quickly and eagerly declared that they were at the head of this movement.

ZOEgirl is comprised of three young adult women - Alisa Girard, Chrissy Conway, and Kristin Swinford - who debuted in 2000 with an altogether normal collection of dance/pop tunes. What set them apart in those early days wasn't really their music - it was their heart for young listeners, particularly the ladies. ZOEgirl was one of those groups that leaned more towards the "ministry" end of the "scale" than the "artistry" end - not that the two are mutually exclusive, but generally Christian performers will focus on one or the other as they develop over the years. I could respect them at the time, but I passed on the music until 2001's Life rolled around. That album showed a healthy dose of R&B influence, as well as a stronger presence of real guitars and other live instruments. I listened to it out of skepticism, and for the most part, I ended up loving it. Sure, it was still a sugar rush, but I could tell the ladies had improved in their ability to write songs that communicated effectively with the audience, and even if the music still had shades of Britney Spears and whatever else they felt was necessary to catch young girls' attention, it was done in a tasteful sort of way that only occasionaly slipped into bland pop territory.

Following a remix album in late 2002, word started to spread that the women of ZOEgirl were ready to spread their wings artistically. They hinted at wanting to be a little less Britney and a little more rock, and after hearing their remix of an older song called "I Believe", as well as a morsel of their new single "You Get Me", I was fully prepared to believe that they were on the road to becoming a female version of dc Talk (who had a cheesy but fun hybrid of pop and hip-hop going on before they became the stylistically unpredictable juggernaut that they are known for being today). Darn those expectations, huh?

And so it has come to pass that Different Kind of Free, the group's third album, will release on September 16, 2003. Having been over an advance copy of the album several times, I have to say that I'm simultaneously delighted and disappointed. Why such a contradictory reaction? Well, I'm delighted, because hearing ZOEgirl with a little bit of guitar crunch here and there is like discovering for the first time that your sushi goes down better with a dab of wasabi. But I'm also disappointed, because the R&B influence seems to have been diminished in order to make room for the rockier stuff. And the rockier stuff kind of backs off after the first few tracks on the album. To be sure, there are other tricks employed that work well for ZOEgirl, but in the midst of it all, I think the girls let a few things sag in the lyrical department. Overall, the disc doesn't have as much sass to it as previous tunes like "Dismissed" and "R U Sure About That?" possessed. There also isn't anything that makes me think "Every teenage girl in America needs to hear this!" the way "Plain" did, nor is there a dance track that excites me as much as "Even If". What we've got here is an enjoyable pop/rock record that sometimes places ZOEgirl in interesting musical settings and manages to be satisfyingly topical as their last record was, and that sometimes just sounds like a revved-up version of Point of Grace.

Beautiful Name
It's worth the cost to take up my cross
As You take back what's been lost
Until all who doubt know You are God...
A fairly clean electric guitar intro gets the first song going in no time - it has an easygoing but danceable beat that gives the false impression of starting in the middle of the album rather than at the beginning. (Perhaps I was expecting a cheesy intro like they had on their last CD?) All three of the ladies collaborated with Lynn Nichols and Tedd T. to come up with a song that basically serves as their mission statement. Once the chorus kicks in, it ends up being a satisfying dance/rock concoction with a bit more distortion on the guitars that you might expect from the ultra-clean verses. Don't get me wrong, it ain't heavy metal or anything, but sometimes an aggressive, in-your-face declaration of a lifetime that will be spent serving God and singing about Him needs to have some slicing power chords to give it a little more clout. The girls have definitely delivered on this one. The outro might be a little drawn out, but it's a nice alternative to the predictable slow-and-stop ending that most pop/rock acts would go for.

You Get Me
No more tears, it's a silent night
You've broken down all fear, 'cause You've invaded all of me...
Hey, wait... didn't Michelle Branch have a song called "You Get Me" as track #2 on an album? I'll just assume that was a coincidence. Anyway, the album's lead single starts off as a medium-paced, R&B-laced, beat-driven ballad, almost like a slightly darker version of "Plain", but in almost no time, it turns a sharp corner and ends up in full-on rock territory. This track would serve as the best example of ZOEgirl's intended transformation - the guitars are just wailing away at some points, and while the resulting mix of styles may not be as shocking as "Jesus Freak" was back in the day, it's still going to surprise a lot of the group's existing fans (and hopefully in a pleasant way). While it's got a strong chorus that deals with God knowing us better than we know ourselves and understanding us when the world is unable to, the verses are somewhat disappointing, cutting the first verse short all too soon: "Wonderful is what I perceived this life would be/Pain and problem free/But over time, I found reality/And through it all I see That you're the only One who gets me." Chorus. It just feels a bit vague to fully relate to it. I want to know what happened to lead from finding reality and finding God. The song also borders on cliché when the bridge ends in the phrase "There's nothing else I would rather do than just worship You, Lord", which is followed by the repeated phrase "I'm okay". It's still an excellent song to crank up in the car, but I think that Chrissy Conway and James Katina (is he one of The Katinas, by any chance?) could have worked a little harder on the lyrics here.

Inside Out
Fairytales come and go, they ebb and flow
But everybody knows ashes don't turn to gold...
This one's got a much bouncier, poppier feel to it, scaling the guitars back to more of a supporting role as they bounce in time to the verses, along with some playful record scratching. It seems to build off of the message of "Plain" by describing an inner struggle for a young woman to believe that there's more to her than what people see on the outside. It's good to realize that God doesn't judge by the outer package, though they don't really go into depth on that beyond simply stating that "You have shown me what beauty's about". It's frustrating - a great message is being married to a lyric that's merely okay the overall melody is a bit too perky for my tastes, and this is where I think some of the R&B flavor from the last album would've helped a bit. Oh well, they still give us a slick transition into track #4... kinda like they did on the last album.

Love Me for Me
So the music plays, and the trapeze sways
And my heart is beating faster
But all I hear is laughter from the crowd...
From the title, I was expecting another sassy, tell-off-your-loser-boyfriend song like "Dismissed". Maybe I need to stop comparing these songs to the old ones! This time around, the girls tackle their favorite topic of acceptance by their fellow human beings vs. acceptance by God with a pinch of humor rather than a dose of attitude. Kristin Swinford, the one member of the group who contributed to the song, likely came up with the concept after a particularly difficult evening on stage... the lyrics about stumbling and looking like an idiot in front of a bunch of people seem to apply very specifically to a career spent on the stage, but it's easy to take it in metaphorical way that applies to us all and the pressure we face to measure up. Inside, we all want someone to love us for who we are, not how well we perform. This song drives home the message that God's love is constant and free a little better than "Inside Out" did, and the girls do a good job of sounding purposefully flustered when they ask their rhetorical questions during the chorus - "So just tell me what I gotta be/For you to want me, for you to want me?/'Cause I am just trying to understand/Why you don't love me, why you don't love me for me?" Of course it's hopeless to try to make other people love us. This song is a reminder that we're supposed to have been set free from playing that losing hand.

Unbroken
I tasted bitter, tasted sweet I found the beauty in the place they meet...
The record's first ballad takes an interesting perspective on the problem of pain... and it does it in a vague sort of way that young listeners will probably be able to relate to. The breathy vocals that open the song briefly describe a broken relationship in which one person purposefully used the other and left them hurting. Rather than take the usual perspective than Christian songwriters take when dealing with difficult relationships, where the nice person is being set free from the cruel person, this song is more of a healthy realization that the pain we all go through is actually used by God to shape us and help us mature. Being "unbroken" would cause us to remain immature and superficial. It's one of the more subtle messages on the record, and since it's encased in a fairly normal-sounding pop ballad, I don't know how many in the group's target audience will catch it, but I'm glad that the group doesn't mind making us think a little bit from time to time.

Wait
You're beat up and bitter, face down in the cold
Lying on the ground with footprints on your back...
A little bit of the "attitude" factor creeps back in when this song's piano intro gets going... it's bouncy, but the sequence of chords is rather ominous, and the whole mood seems to fit with the lyrics, which are basically the girls' plea with a suicidal friend to hang on and not put an end to a life that God is able to heal and make new again. This is a new topic to the girls, but definitely a relevant one to young listeners (and perhaps even a few older ones) who may be feeling dejected and worthless because of superficial standards by which they've been judged. It's all too easy for a song about suicide to sound about as helpful as your average inspirational Email forward in terms of convincing someone about to take their life to think twice... but the work that the girls have done so far helps to back this up. They've been there. They've been rejected and misunderstood, and they've caught a glimpse of the ironic beauty that pain can take on in hindsight. They handle it tactfully, simply trying to help the person take step one on the road to recovery instead of lying to them and saying everything will be all better in the morning if they just say a prayer. Healing takes time, but knowing someone understands helps you get to that point. I respect ZOEgirl for reminding us of this.

Feel Alright
Selling antiques like they are new ideas
Making you pay to feed the thoughts they steal...
With a title like that, you'd expect a shiny, upbeat pop song, right? Well, half right. ZOEgirl pulls a slick one here and manages to give us another workout-styled pop/rock number (less guitar grit this time around) that sounds happy on the outside, but actually has a slight tone of sarcasm to it when you examine it more closely. It's a song about false happiness, taking the stuff that the world tells us we need in order to be whole and tossing it out the window, defiantly replying back that God is all we need. The musical approach here really reminds me of an underappreciated Cindy Morgan song called "Walk in the Rain" (I'm sure the ten or twenty people who actually bought Elementary will notice the similarity), which was a breakup song disguised as a bubbly pop tune. Once again, there are points where the lyrics could be stronger (the line about the mathematician in the second verse is a bit of a desperate grasp for a witty analogy), and some folks will find this song to be perky and annoying, but I appreciate what they were trying to do with it.

She
They put her out on display, showcasing all her mistakes
She's worn out and she's afraid, why does it always happen this way?
Another "issue" song pops up here, bumping along on a slinky groove, keeping the same sort of tense feel that "Wait" had. The story of a girl's life is roughly outlined here, and while the group uses some rather tired language to vaguely describe her making a few mistakes and getting pregnant, I like that the song focuses on how she gets judged by the supposed followers of Christ around her, rather than being welcomed in and cared for when she needs it most. Let's face real life here - Christians fall. They make mistakes that have major repercussions. And this song doesn't bring any happy resolution to the girl's life - it serves as a solemn warning that "That's how it goes when we throw stones." Not a pretty picture. Perhaps I prefer songs like these to have more specificity to add to the realism and grit, but I'm happy that they had the nerve to broach the subject.

Contagious
I got a new motivation, I never knew how good it could be
It's better than a standing ovation, and nothing's gonna take it from me...
Another obnoxiously upbeat and catchy song follows... this is probably the most carefree, dance-party type song on the album. Fortunately it manages to do so with a fair amount of real instrumentation, using sparse guitar licks and real drums to avoid being your average dance/pop song. It's got an insistent backbeat and a fun little drum-and-bass breakdown in the middle, as well as the quintessential "Na na na" vocal tag, but the lyrics are a bit of a letdown, basically God's love is contagious and everyone's catching it and we're leaving our troubles behind. I know that the group can do a fun dance track with a little more lyrical meat to it (see "Even If" - I'm not asking for that much here), so I guess this ultimately ends up being one of the disappointing tracks on the record - though still not a bad song.

Different Kind of Free
Broken hearts, broken homes
There's a war deep in motion...
The album's title track makes good use of a mellow guitar intro before bringing in a cut-up, hip-hop styled beat. This one feels a lot like an Out of Eden song from their No Turning Back era, and it's even got a guest rap in the middle by Mat Karney. No idea who he is - his flow is on the slower, more measured side, not too different from Toby Mac on one of his mellower numbers. The guitars remain in more of a clean, vibey sort of mode than the crunchier sounds we heard at the beginning of the album, but overall, this song is a nice melting pot of ZOEgirl's influences. The message here is a bold declaration that resonates more deeply in light of Mat's mention of "last September" (perhaps it was a coincidence, but there are so many 9/11 references in music these days) - our money and our friends and even our political freedom could one day be taken away from us, but the grace of Christ offers us a new kind of freedom that can never be stolen from us. Good words that we often forget when living in our material world. This song ends kind of strangely, fading everything out except for the guitars, and then sputtering out in a brief flurry of electronic noise.

Life to Me
Fleeting breath, frailest flesh
I'm a casualty at best...
I'd have expected a song title like that to show up on the album Life, but I guess I can't fault these ladies for being thematically consistent. From what I understand, Lynn Nichols came up with the music for this one (the group apparently collaborates with him quite a bit), and the girls thought it was such a lovely tune that they had to take it home with them and write something worshipful to match it. They did a pretty good job - this is a basic song of worship that flows much like the modern hymn "In Christ Alone" due to its slow, 6/4 beat, light percussion, and overall pensive mood. It's pop, but in more of a smooth, mature way - about as far from teen pop as this group has ventured so far (and it makes for a more satisfying ending than "The Truth" did on the last album). The song takes its time to wind down, the echoing cries of "Holy" eventually fading to a low, resolute note from the piano that repeats a few times and then falls silent.

Overall, I enjoyed this album, though as far as ratings go, I can only muster about a 3.5 on a scale of 5. The first few songs kind of give a false hope of a more radical change than what is actually contained within, and yet, paradoxically, there is a change on this record that makes the overall product less interesting than their last outing (not counting the remix album). I've heard that a lot of the Britney/teen pop influence on the first few records was what ZOEgirl thought they needed to reach their audience, and now they feel that the audience is growing, so they're trying on different musical hats in an effort to better represent who they are as a group. I can't help but respect that, and at the same time, I feel a little cheated for having gotten hooked on Life. Am I supposed to believe that record wasn't really who they were? I don't even like that genre of music and I thought it was a really good album! Sigh.

I guess time will tell how fans react to this record. I'm guesstimating that they'll gain about as many fans as they'll lose with this one. They're still a class act when it comes to Christian pop music (though their contemporaries in that arena aren't generally difficult to outdo), but I think they're going to have to shore up their lyrics and keep a bit of an "edge" to their sound instead of veering slowly towards mellow pop/rock and away from the R&B stuff like Lisa Bevill did all those years ago. (Anyone remember her?) I think ZOEgirl can pull it off - perhaps they just need a chance to express themselves more as individuals, maybe by deconstructing each of their influences and showing us what each girl can to bring to the table on her own, then bringing it all back together into a unified whole. But then, I'm probably just stuck on the whole "female dc Talk" thing. I'm still holding out for that perfect balance of intelligence and pure ear candy. Give 'em a few more albums.

(Thanks again to Sparrow Records for the pre-release and lyrics and other assorted info.)

ALBUM WORTH:
Beautiful Name $2
You Get Me $1.50
Inside Out $.50
Love Me for Me $1
Unbroken $1
Wait $1
Feel Alright $1
She $1
Contagious $1
Different Kind of FREE $2
Life to Me $1.50
TOTAL: $13.50

Group Members:
Alisa Girard
Chrissy Conway
Kristin Swinford

Website: http://www.zoegirlonline.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Exercising