divad23's Full Review: Caedmon's Call by Caedmon's Call
Time for another classic review, in which I discuss a record that I fell in love with during my "formative years" as a music fan, and which I still think holds up well today. In this installment, I'll be examining the self-titled major label debut by the band Caedmon's Call, who I've talked about in many other reviews concerning their more recent work, but despite how often I've revered their first disc, I've never gone back and reviewed it until now.
The year was 1997. I was just finishing up my sophomore year of college, and because it had been a difficult semester due to my first real struggle with depression and my inability to find a summer job, I was starting to shy away from some of the Christian bands who offered easy answers and summed up my problems with platitudes. Plenty of those still remained in my CD (er, cassette) collection, but ever since I had discovered Jars of Clay and started to pursue songwriting as a hobby, I found that my soul cried out for deeper, more poetic lyrics in the music that I was digesting.
A big part of it was the bohemian college kid side of me, the one who wanted to live and work within a community of creative free-thinkers who could offer up a thoughtful rumination on any subject at any unexpected time, trying to reconcile with the evangelical Christian, "Must have the right answers at any time one could possibly be confronted" side. Being in college turned me onto the whole "coffeehouse" appeal of more acoustic, folk-influenced bands, and the kid in me still liked to crank up a good rocker from time to time, but I was also becoming more intrigued by the concept of song lyrics that were snapshots of everyday people's lives, or that took more wrestling with what I thought I knew to be true, in order for me to understand them. That's where Caedmon's Call came in - arriving with a high amount of critical acclaim and radio success in a Christian music market that, over the years to come, would be gradually less accepting of their creative songwriting and try to mold them into more of a generic praise band. Maybe I'm just over-idealizing the mid-90's, but it seemed like that was when Christian radio was willing to give "weird" and "poetic" bands a chance.
From the start, this band was blessed with a two-pronged attack that hit me on both sides of where I lived. Songwriter and "ghost member" Aaron Tate penned thoughtful and theologically solid ruminations on a lot of the more spiritual issues, while Derek Webb was more like the journal writer of the group, writing about random slices of life that he'd observed, difficult relationships, dark nights of the soul, that sort of thing. Webb and two other vocalists, Cliff Young and his bride-to-be Danielle Glenn, provided a lot of variety in the personality of each individual song, while Derek and Cliff were joined by no less than four other band members who gave the group a remarkably fresh, crisp, and clean folk/rock sound without being afraid to turn up the electric guitars every now and then. Every now and then, a humorously unexpected instrument would crop up, or a song would take a more whimsical tone, in keeping with the "anything goes" attitude of college rock, but never losing focus on the fact that each song had something important to say. You just had to dig for it at times. As a kid pushing twenty, who was still expecting immediate answers to some rather short-sighted "why"s in my life, this was one of those bands who could put a smile on my face while not carrying the pretense of solving all of my problems. I needed to just observe the world around me, take stock of my own attitude, and let things "be" instead of wanting to fix it all right away. And this album sort of became the soundtrack for a difficult, but ultimately redemptive season of my life.
It's not just sentimentality that causes me to rate Caedmon's Call so highly, though. It's simply the fact that such a young band, brand new faces on the Christian music scene who could have been asked to bend over backwards if signed by the wrong label, were able to sell such a diverse cornucopia of songs, have the audience accept it to the point where they became one of CCM's flagship bands, and have it all fit together as a cohesive album. In a sense, this album is like a collection of short stories - some personal to the point of being almost insular, and some general enough to avoid naming specific places or characters, but instead make you feel like it's about you and it takes place right where you live. The diversity of talent within this band was its true calling card in those days. While they would eventually come up with an album that would top this one on my personal list of favorites (2004's Share the Well), the self-titled record still stands out in my mind - and the minds of a vast number of their fans - as one of their finest works. So, let's go back to where it all began and give some of these classic songs a deeper look.
Lead of Love Looking back, it is clear to me
That a man is more than the sum of his deeds
And how You've made good of this mess I've made
Is a profound mystery...
This is the song that introduced Caedmon's Call to most of the world, with its dancing, descending acoustic guitar line at the beginning, joined by the other instruments in the band one by one - electric guitar, organ, drums and bongos, and finally the clear voice of Cliff Young. With all of its lyrics about "Looking back", you'd expect such a song to appear on a band's career retrospective project instead of their first "real" album, but it works as an introduction to Aaron Tate's wise and clever songwriting style, which would grace Caedmon's albums repeatedly for the next three years or so. It's a song about the struggle that is required to get to a beautiful place in life - we humans are stubborn and we want to be immediately transported to the beautiful vistas without having to do the sweaty, grueling climb over rough terrain. As the song says when pondering the trials God has brought a person through, "Had to walk the rocks to see the mountain view, but looking back, I see the lead of love." It's one of the most lasting songs in the band's catalogue, and one thing that I didn't realize about it at first is how clearly you can clearly hear every band member. Cliff sings lead, while Danielle takes an entirely different vocal line that effectively splits the second verse into two verses with different melodies, and Derek echoes Cliff's words during the chorus. On an instrumental level, you've got Cliff on acoustic, Derek on electric (including a brief but tasty solo), Randy Holsapple on organ, Aric Nitzberg on bass, Todd Bragg on drums, and Garrett Buell on bongos (particularly noticeable towards the end) - it's all very crisp and clear while still sounding very organic and spirited. This is the Caedmon's Call sound that I fell in love with, and that proved difficult for them to duplicate while trying to meet the dumbed-down requests of their record label in later years.
Close of Autumn All the time I'm thinking
Wondering how would it be, to breathe in deep
I guess I need to be careful when I ask for a drink
Just might get what I ask for...
Our first taste of Derek Webb's songwriting is actually voiced by Danielle, in what is unfortunately the only song on the album where her voice remains front and center. The rich fanfare of acoustic guitars at the beginning (tuned to Drop D - I love it when folk musicians play around with tunings more commonly used in rock music!) help to paint a picture of a brisk stream sprinkled with fallen leaves, as Danielle's voice hits just the right notes to give the melody a lot of tension, describing a season of the soul where she's almost afraid to get what she prayed for - she wanted a little rain and God might just have sent a flood. The lyrics take a bit more work to decipher than Aaron's stuff does - Derek's style in those days was either very cryptic or very relational - but it's so beautifully performed, with the beat giving it just the right amount of "rush" to feel like the motion can't be stopped, even though this isn't what you'd consider a "fast song". Part of it has to do with the tricky changes between 6/4 and 4/4 time, but it's more how the pounding percussion and the guitars work together to whip up a maelstrom of emotion. I get caught up in it every time. This is probably some of the best acoustic guitar playing I've ever heard Derek do.
Not the Land It seems I've misplaced my faith
'Cause it's 11:12, nothing's changed
Well, nothing except the channel, I'm afraid
And the number there - no, it's the same...
Now we get to hear Derek front and center, on a rather frustrated, crunchy rock song describing a bout with laziness and a lack of spiritual growth. This one's got just enough "fuzz" to it that it allowed Caedmon's Call, in my mind, to ride the tail end of that nebulous list of "alternative Christian rock" bands that I was all excited about before I finally realized that the term "alternative" was becoming increasingly useless. Nowadays, I just see as the hardest rocking song that they'll possible ever do - and even then, you have the strong, clean strumming of the acoustic guitars breaking through all of the haze, along with Aric's bass - it's a thrilling mixture, especially when the drums go crazy during the bridge and Derek's voice goes into wail mode. He's clearly frustrated, likening his faith to an aimless road trip where he's lost the map and can't be bothered to pull over and dig under the seats for it, for fear of having to admit he doesn't know where he's going. The metaphors for you to unravel come mile a minute - just listening to this one again makes me even more eager with anticipation to hear Derek performing with the full band again this year. He might be more thought-provoking and personal without them, but his solo sound tends to be a little too "bare bones" for my tastes.
This World And the least of these look like criminals to me
So I leave Christ on the street...
Here's another easily recognizable classic - a strong "Christian anthem" with a declarative chorus that's easy to learn ("This world has nothing for me, and this world has everything - all that I could want and nothing that I need"), but with verses that really get under the listeners' skin due to their admissions of falling in love with the world and being ruled by fear, despite knowing better. It's got one of those simple four-chord progressions, made about ten times as lovely by the interplay between the acoustic guitars (and later the strings) and the deft interweaving of vocalists, especially during the bridge, where Cliff, Derek, and Danielle all seem to be doing something different, yet working in unison to bring us back around to the final chorus on one killer high note. Tying it all up at the end is the unexpected stop-on-a-dime, where all three vocalists, doing their various chorus parts, all come to a halt at "This world has nothing". Chalk one up one formidable composition from Mr. Aaron Tate!
Bus Driver And then there's Charles in retail sales, and I hope they pay him well
For the work that young man does
Cause I've never seen the inside of a custom refrigerator
But I know he's the first and last one there...
Derek's quirky personality comes out a bit more in this slice-of-life tale about a guy who gets up before the crack of dawn every day to drive a Houston Metro Bus. It's become one of the most notoriously requested songs of the band's career, to the point where they've had to insist to audiences that they've retired it. As fun as it once was in concert with Derek playing the banjo, I think I still prefer this original version, in which the lead instrument is a saloon piano. This could have been any old song performed with that instrument and I would have probably thought it was friggin' awesome, but Derek's earnest salute to the everyman, who briefly deals with It's a Wonderful Life-style ponderings about what the world would be like without him, is the kind of song that puts a smile on your face and makes you proud to be doing whatever you're doing, even if it's driving a garbage truck. There's somebody in the world, like the banker and the refrigerator salesman who ride that Houston Metro Bus, whose day might be a pretty miserable one if you weren't there for them.
Standing Up for Nothing But everyday when I get up
I see folks trading in their crowns
For all these paper or plastic lives
An opiate for the masses hounds...
I hope you like Derek's voice, because it's mostly what you'll be hearing for the rest of the record. (I liked it quite a bit at this phase in his career; less so on some of his solo stuff when he started sounding all scratchy.) In this deftly woven song, played in 6/8 time, Derek gets introspective again and confronts his tendency to betray Christ with his actions. It takes a lot of effort to keep up with the literate lyrics here, but I like an intelligent song such as this where nearly every line of every stanza can be broken down and analyzed, and where tricky phrasing causes one line to collide with the next (e.g. "So I'll sit upon this rock is You.") The acoustic guitar and strings meander between each other quite nicely, and Derek manages to pull out a surprising, almost unsettling chord progression during the bridge, where he declares, "Lack of interest leads to lack of knowledge leads to lack of perspective leads to lack of concern..." and so forth, jumping one key higher each time until he's finally come all the way back around to the key he started in. Even the song's title is clever because it can be taken two ways - "I'm not standing up for nothing" could be parsed as "I'm not going to stand up no matter what happens", or it could mean, "I'm standing up and I'm not going to let this be wasted effort", or it could even mean, "I'm not spending all this effort in defense something that is useless and trivial." The intended meaning of this line appears to shift over the course of the song.
Hope to Carry On I can see love, love is all I want to see
Love can make a beggar rich, it can set a prisoner free
I know He can do it for you
And God knows He did it for me...
It's almost jarring to hear a simple and somewhat repetitive song out of Caedmon's at this point, but don't judge a book by its cover - it's a cover of a classic Rich Mullins song (which perhaps became better known after this recording, and the music video in which Mr. Mullins was seen hanging out with the band). This one deserved the full band treatment, with its strong, celebrative guitar chords and various Biblical characters coming to a greater understanding of what love means due to Jesus' death on the cross. For better or worse, this became on of Caedmon's biggest hits - it's definitely a good thing that they chose to do it while Rich Mullins was still alive, because it would only be a few months after this albums release that Rich died in a tragic car accident. At least this way no one can accuse them of capitalizing on the trend of eulogizing a dead musical icon that people didn't pay as much attention to when he was alive. Anyway, it's a great showcase for all three vocalists in unison during the chorus, and for the simple song that it is, it does it business in under three minutes and then neatly steps out of the way for the more complicated fare that is to come. (I'll always have a special memory of this song, due to the first Caedmon's concert I ever attended closing with this one, done as a collaboration with opening acts Andrew Peterson and Bebo Norman. At the end of the song, all six people playing guitar on stage threw their picks out, and I caught Danielle's pick after it bounced off of a friend's glasses. OK, end of starry-eyed fanboy aside.)
Stupid Kid And my mind wanders off to things I've never seen
Are these walls higher than the cost of opportunity?
I'm too big for my bed, and I've outgrown my shoes
But my fear of leaving is the one thing I just can't lose...
Here's a song that I, personally, find quite amusing, while it irritated some of my college friends. Randy's organ is the lead instrument here, taking off from the whistle that opens the songs and playing this repetitive, high-pitched melody line that almost sounds nasal. I think it represents the annoying, lazy kid that Derek plays the role of in this song, so I just have to chuckle at it, but I guess there's a reason why most folks don't recall it as one of the band's classics. Derek's voice is a bid rushed and muted as he describes how good he has it - a grown man, still living with his folks, getting free laundry and free meals and basically never having to go outside and face the world. Things get even more obnoxious with the backing vocalists crying, "Daddy, it's Saturday!" in the chorus - it's because the whole thing has a point that it doesn't get on my nerves. Derek really seems to be stuck on the topic of slothfulness on this album, and when you juxtapose some of those admissions with the opening track, "Lead of Love", it sort of brings up a central theme for this album - the challenging things that God puts us through so that we may grow, and the ways that we keep resisting that growth because of what's familiar and comfortable.
I Just Don't Want Coffee I still hear you telling me what a big mistake I've made
Funny, that's what I've been telling you
I can lead a horse to water, you can even make him drink
But you can't change his point of view...
You can probably guess from the title that this is one of those "story" songs that was just meant to be played in a coffeehouse. It's probably the most laid-back song on the album - Derek still has a bit of angst as he describes a failing relationship over a more gently flowing acoustic guitar and shuffling percussion, but for the most part he seems reflective and willing to let go. Coffeeshops are merely the backdrop for heady, difficult conversations about spirituality that took place between him and (presumably) an ex-girlfriend, who parted ways because they couldn't reconcile his being a Christian and her not being one. The song doesn't appear to make any obvious judgment calls on the subject, other than to admit that it's really hard, if not altogether impossible, for one person to make the other see it their way in such circumstances. The song runs a little long and it's probably my least favorite on the album, but as weakest tracks on albums go, if this is the worst you've got, then obviously you've cranked out one awesome CD!
Not Enough So I write a book of life
Using the best words I can find
For some struggler to snuggle up
When the world becomes unkind...
Cliff and Derek do a bit of a duet on this song (Derek takes the first verse, Cliff takes the second, and they harmonize during the chorus), which is a rarity that I don't think I've heard much on any Caedmon's record since. It's a driving acoustic song that takes on an air of mock frustration when considering the subject of God's grace - "Everything I do, it's not enough for You!" While Aaron's lyrics are uniformly excellent here, I'd say that what's most memorable about the song is how what started as a duet was turned into a bit of a duel in concert, with Cliff and Derek battling it out to see who could strum the fastest and still keep the beat. (It was most likely staged, but it was still pretty cool). Due to the simple chorus, it's one of the most effortless songs on the album to sing along to, and if you're into harmonizing, it's one of those songs where it feels like there's an endless ladder of possibilities for you to jump in and pick a different harmony line than what you're hearing on the CD. I don't think I've ever sung along to this one the exact same way twice.
Center Aisle What crimes have you committed, demanding such a penance
That you couldn't wait for five more minutes, and a cry for help?
The album's slowest and most emotional song is once again led by Derek - I don't think it's much more than just him and his acoustic guitar. His moment in the solo spotlight is well-spent, describing the funeral of a friend who committed suicide, and his struggle to get up in front of everybody and say a few words or sing a sing to eulogize her. He chickened out, apparently, because he wasn't yet over his anger and confusion about why she couldn't have just reached out to someone like him for help. It may run a little long for some tastes, but I don't even mind the repetition of the chorus because of how jam-packed it is with Derek's provocative, conflicting emotions. When I first heard this, I loved the band's willingness to deal with questions that couldn't be answered easily - or perhaps at all.
Coming Home You stripped the trees of Lebanon
And now you're stripping me
Of the bark of false morality
And the bite of selfish greed...
The band closes the album on a refreshing, upbeat note, with a song that is similar in character to "Lead of Love", featuring more of Aaron's lyrics that just might stop and cause seminary students to do a double-take. (I might be exaggerating just a little. Allow me some nostalgia here.) It's vaguely tied to the prodigal son story, and once again there's that theme of being almost too stupid to realize you're lost - chaining yourself to a burning altar and swallowing the key and all that. Another simple chorus is used here - "I'm coming home, I'm coming home, but I'm still a long way off" - that one might be just repetitive enough that it's the reason why this song never ranked among my favorites, but looking at it more closely now, I don't think I have the right to complain about that when the verses are so jam-packed with good, thoughtful, theologically-grounded lyrics that also have a sense of poetry to them. (I've allowed Jars of Clay to get away with this several times - see "I Need You", "I'm Alright", "I'm in the Way", etc.)
And that's the album - one of the absolute best of 1997, which is saying a heck of a lot considering the stiff competition from within Christian music that year (particularly Jars of Clay's Much Afraid, which ranks as my favorite album of all time), and mainstream heavy-hitters I'd come to discover later on such as Radiohead's OK Computer and U2's Pop. It's an era that I know we can't really expect music to go back to, and I don't expect the latest Caedmon's lineup with Derek back in the fold to replicate this album's sound. But I have high hopes that they can put out an album this artistic and consistent and highly listenable once again. I guess we'll see when Overdressed comes out this August.
ALBUM WORTH:
Lead of Love $2
Close of Autumn $2
Not the Land $2
This World $2
Bus Driver $2
Standing Up for Nothing $1.50
Hope to Carry On $1.50
Stupid Kid $1.50
I Just Don't Want Coffee $1
Not Enough $1.50
Center Aisle $1.50
Coming Home $1.50 TOTAL: $20
Band Members:
Cliff Young: Vocals, guitars
Danielle Glenn: Vocals
Derek Webb: Vocals, guitars, saloon piano (later replaced by Andrew Osenga, but recently rejoined the band)
Randy Holsapple: Piano, organs, keyboards (later replaced by Josh Moore)
Aric Nitzberg: Bass (later replaced by Jeff Miller)
Todd Bragg: Drums, percussion
Garrett Buell: Drums, percussion
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