The album that practically redefined Christian rock!
Written: Nov 26 '00 (Updated Jul 01 '03)
Product Rating:
Pros: Classic Jars - the early days with programmed beats and lots of strings.
Cons: Very few live drums and electric guitars.
The Bottom Line: These guys made huge waves with their debut album, and the success was well deserved. Most Jars of Clay fans still consider this to be their best album.
divad23's Full Review: Jars of Clay by Jars of Clay
Today I popped a tape into my car stereo that I'd had in my possession for over five years, and which has worn down quite a bit, yet has never once worn on my ears. Of course, I'm talking about the first Jars of Clay album - a batch of ten songs that made history and thrust the band rapidly to the front of the Christian music crowd, a place they had never imagined they'd end up (much less prepared themselves for). As I sang along to these songs for the kabillionth time, I thought to myself that I should write up a review of it. This was the album that made everyone love these guys, long before Much Afraid and If I Left the Zoo were released, gathering a more mixed response from many fans. I love both of those albums, and I go on about how great they are so much that I often lose sight of where it all started. So I'm going to write this review as if I'd just bought this album and had yet to hear how the band had grown and changed over the course of their career - I'm going to think back to the days when this new fledgling label, Essential Records, was doing all they could to push their sparse roster of new artists, and most folks hadn't yet caught on to the breakout singles "Flood" and "Love Song for a Savior".
When I bought this album, there was a sticker on the front that read "As seen on tour with PfR", just so you'd have a reference point as to where you might have heard of them and what they might sound like. What no one knew was that these songs were going to give the band more attention than was ever given to the late, great PfR (another fine band which I will get around to writing about in due time).
Liquid starts the CD out with a bang - perhaps the most ideal representation of the band's signature sound. It packs an intense declaration of faith into a compact but poetic lyric, which is backed up by a lovely array of sounds. The song begins with a lone violin playing, accompanying a softly strummed acoustic guitar (the strumming patterns were initially the main hallmark of the Jars of Clay sound). The song then demands your attention with some echoing "yeah"s, some slamming programmed drums (remember, these guys don't have a drummer), and even a small sampling of some monks chanting. This all adds to the graphically beautiful depiction of Christ's death on the cross, even though the song doesn't directly state who it's about. It's pretty obvious. The chorus is simple - "This is the one thing that I know." What is that one thing? That "He didn't die for nothing." You will notice right away that Dan Haseltine's vocals are quirky and sometimes hard to make out, but he really has a wonderful voice, albeit not as developed here as on later recordings.
Sinking continues with a more urban-sounding rhythm, but keeps the guitar strumming just to remind you that these guys are a folk/rock band at heart. It's a song about addictions, from the point of someone who is struggling with one and trying to convince himself he doesn't need any help. Charlie Lowell's piano playing and the "whoa, whoa"s in the bridge are especially compelling. By now you will have noticed that Dan Haseltine, who handles the majority of the lyric writing, doesn't feel the need to make everything rhyme - this allows him a little more freedom in getting his point across while maintaining an aura of poetic mystery. It doesn't quite have the same level of oomph that "Liquid" did, but it's a good song in its own right. It just gets dwarfed by so many other classics.
Love Song for a Savior is one of the most direct statements of faith on the record. As you might guess, it's about falling in love with Jesus. Its simple chorus, "I want to fall in love with You", has led many to use it as a worship song, and it definitely has a worshipful spirit, but it's really more of a story song. The first verse talks about a girl who uses rather complex language to speak to her God but seems almost to be missing the point by trying too hard; the second verse portrays a group of people sitting in church and not really paying attention to the message of freedom being delivered to them in a sermon. The bridge finally turns this desire to fall in love on us: "It seems to easy to call You Savior/But not close enough to call You God." These are the words of four young men who have an intense desire to know Christ more deeply, but at times, like all of us, they don't know where to begin. Once again, the band perfectly marries their love for modern music and folk music - a beautiful recorder plays, accentuating the lovely melodies of this song, with that catchy drum beat chugging along in the background.
Like a Child picks up the pace again, opening with just Dan's voice and some quick strumming and picking courtesy of Matt Odmark. Then the chorus comes in and sweeps you off your feet with a forceful but light-hearted beat and rich layers of violin and recorder that are actually reminiscent of an Irish Spring commercial! The song does an A+ job of sticking with its theme - wanting to reach beyond frustration and confusion in order to believe and see the miracles of mountains moving and walking on water and healing people and finding a Savior that are all promised in the Bible. This has been my favorite song, period, for over four years now. It seems to sum up exactly what my faith is all about.
Art in Me is a more introspective ballad - the drum beats are scaled back considerably, and the song is led by a simple strumming pattern and some pretty strings in the background. The song is almost prophetic in its depiction of how people criticize each other's work and fail to see the beauty in a lot of art, but still God sees that beauty. After the band became hugely successful and tried to spread their wings into more artistic territory, they were misunderstood and written off by many people as a "one-hit wonder" or even as sellouts for their mainstream success. So the song is autobiographical in a way they might not have expected.
He fades in with the sounds of children playing and calling to each other (possibly even fighting!) in the background, and then a slightly more electric strumming pattern leads the song in (I'm not sure if it's an electric guitar, since those are used rarely on this album, or just an acoustic guitar filtered through some electronic effect). Again, Dan is singing from the point of view of someone in trouble - this time, a young child whose parents are abusive. I don't know if anyone in the band has dealt with child abuse first-hand, but they can definitely write some gripping lyrics, such as "Daddy, don't you love me? Then why do you hit me?", and "You take my heart away from me, and they think I fell down again." Ultimately, they recognize that Jesus feels the sorrow of these little children and that He wants to protect them, and play the role that their parents should be playing but aren't. The song fades out in a waterfall of echoing voices singing, "He wants you, He sees you, He knows you, protects you," and so forth, as those children's voices in the background. It is quite moving when you listen closely to it.
Boy on a String lightens the musical mood again, as "He" abruptly transitions into the boys' laughter (after all these years, I still can't figure out why one of them says "four" right before the song starts). The violin work in this song is fast and furious (which I guess means you should call it a fiddle), and the band issues a warning to a boy who is letting his peers manipulate him in order to keep them happy. God is portrayed as "Gepetto", who is saddened that one of His children is being controlled by someone else. It's interesting to have such a lyric backed by an addictively bouncy soundscape, I must say.
Flood comes next - it was a wise choice to bury the band's biggest hit farther back in the album, though they probably didn't know it was going to be so huge. If there's anyone out there who hasn't heard it yet, it's a dark, intense rocker that somehow manages to pull its own weight without the use of any electric guitars. It's also one of the few songs on this album with live drums. It didn't take very many listens for this to become one of my favorites. Its catchy chorus and its parallels to Noah's forty-day flood experience as it describes the desperate need to be rescued from the mire of sin still give me chills from time to time, not to mention the famous bridge in which the band gives way to a lovely string quartet. Its sound may not be as groundbreaking as some of the others on this album, but it definitely deserved to be such a huge smash on Christian and mainstream radio.
Worlds Apart is one of the deepest songs ever written, in my opinion, and a definite fan favorite. After "Flood" has come crashing to a close (or thrashing, excuse me), this one softly fades in with the sound of wind chimes, and then Dan hits you with the truth - "I am the only one to blame for this/Somehow it all ends up the same/Soaring on the wings of selfish pride, I flew too high/And like Icharus, I collide/With a world I've tried so hard to leave behind." It continues on the theme of sin that has loomed over the past few songs, but it contains a bittersweet resolution as Dan pleads for God to take his world apart and start all over. The song is backed perfectly by the strings and a mournful oboe (and probably a few other instruments I'm not recalling at the moment), and a decidedly softer rhythm. It's a sinner's prayer in the band's own words, aptly describing the crux of what the Christian faith is all about - asking for forgiveness, and allowing yourself to be broken by God and built up again. As the song builds in intensity, Dan hits you with a barrage of seemingly spontaneous lyrics (that are frustratingly not included in the lyric sheet) that are difficult to remember, but immensely enjoyable to sing along with once you get them all down. That might be part of the idea behind the song - grace is so difficult to grasp that you can't comprehend it all with just one listen.
Blind closes the album on a deceptively simple note - simple guitar picking backed by a subtle but well-orchestrated symphony. After the deeply confessional and redemptive nature of "Worlds Apart", the band appeals to a cynical, logical non-believer who just can't seem to accept the beliefs and ideas behind Christianity. Rather than accuse this person of being hard-headed, they simply acknowledge that this person's eyes have not yet been opened to the truth. And that's pretty much the end of the album - well if, you don't count the hidden track.
4:7 is the title of the hidden track, which is a percussive meditation of II Corinthians 4:7 - "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that this power is from God and not from us." That's the entire lyric to the song - after that, it breaks into a lively jam session, which then fades into about twenty minutes of soft background noise, which seems to have resulted from someone leaving the mike on during the rehearsal for "Blind". Don't ask me why they did that - it makes it kind of annoying to play the CD on repeat, but it's still worth getting the CD for the last song.
I would definitely recommend this album to anyone relatively unfamiliar with the band's work. This is what got everyone hooked, and will likely get you hooked, if you are into thoughtful folk/rock music. This album has found huge appeal far beyond the Christian subculture, and though the band has written some brilliant songs since then, they'll never quite be the exact same band you hear on this CD. Enjoy it, and then see how the band progresses through different styles on Much Afraid and If I Left the Zoo. It's a trip worth taking.
TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY Excellent: Like a Child, Worlds Apart, Flood, Love Song for a Savior, Liquid, He, Boy on a String
Good: Sinking, Art in Me, Four Seven
Decent: Blind
Weak: NONE
Skippable: The excess material at the end.
Band Members:
Dan Haseltine: Lead vocals
Charlie Lowell: Keyboards
Steve Mason: Acoustic/electric guitar, background vocals
Matt Odmark: Acoustic guitar
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