Minus One for the Contemporary Christian Music Industry
Written: Jan 25 '01 (Updated Jun 30 '03)
Product Rating:
Pros: These guys can sing.
Cons: Lyrics are almost unforgivably full of cliches; very little of the music is memorable.
The Bottom Line: This will appease Christian parents looking for "healthy alternatives" to mainstream teen pop, but there is little here that is lyrically challenging or musically interesting.
divad23's Full Review: The Promise by Plus One (Christian)
Anyone who knows what my usual tastes are like regarding music would probably not be surprised to find out that I violently rejected the arrival of Plus One onto the Christian music scene midway through 2000. It was little more than a carefully-calculated marketing scheme doomed to succeed from the outset - hotshot mainstream producer gets together five wholesome looking guys with great voices, hires some stock songwriters, slaps together an album while the advertising machine is out there promoting the new Christian alternative to the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, forcing a radio single down our throats and ensuring that the boys appear on magazine covers before their album is even out. Plus One, or should I say their promoters, took the Christian market by force. Parents and young teens snapped it up. I was pretty much determined to avoid the group's music at all costs, but finally, the desire to be an objective reviewer got the best of me. If something makes this many waves in Christian music, I just have to give it a chance, even if I hate the musical style. I thought I'd share with everybody what I've found by writing one of my usual song-by-song reviews, and then see who believes me and who believes the 7 or so other reviews on this site that just ooze with admiration for Plus One but don't really say much about their songs.
Written on My Heart starts things off as you would with any pop album destined to be wildly popular - with the group's biggest single. It's an upbeat but not too in-your-face number which clunks along on its programmed beat (remember, the focus here is the guys' voices, and we can't ruin that with too many real musicians). It's a cheery happy song about once being lost but having found God and being able to see forever into a bright, cheery future. Sure, 'cause that's what the Christian life is really like... no more suffering or any of that stuff.
God Is in This Place is slower but not really a ballad - it can't make up it's mind what it wants to be, other than another chance for the boys to show off their smooth voices and harmonies. It does have a slight Latin feel due to the guitars in the background, but remember, those guitar players aren't allowed to do anything too cool, because this is a vocal record. Naturally, it was the follow-up single for the group, which is why it got placed second on the album even though it ruined the pacing completely.
The Promise is a guitar-driven R&B ballad that tries to show us a more intimate side of the group, and sounds "promising" at first due to a slightly moodier tune, but in the end, it's an incredibly superficial attempt to comfort a friend who is down and out. The bridge, however, is actually quite nice, with some rapid vocal exchanges between the guys, but it can't rescue the song as a whole.
My Life is a half-hearted attempt to replicate one of the Backstreet Boys' feistier numbers and establish the boys' coolness while keeping focus on the reason for their success - God. I appreciate that focus, but frankly it gets a little muddled at first, because the guys just seem to be singing about money and limos and having a good time, and the audience cheering near the end doesn't exactly drive the point home. Really, it's quite pompous of the boys' songwriters to give them this song - assuming ahead of time that they were gonna be so huge.
Soul Tattoo is definitely one of the more musically interesting songs on the album, with a slightly bluesy guitar opening and a more complex beat. However, the idea behind this song is so recycled that it's not even funny (Margaret Becker wrote an excellent song by the same title almost eight years ago). Not only do they use an old metaphor, they don't really explain well the idea behind it - that once God is in your life, He will never leave and you won't be able to wash the traces of His love away, no matter what. A good theme to explore - let's think about it some more, songwriters!
I Will Rescue You is aptly summed up by its title, and musically, is one of the worst offenders on this album, with cheesy keyboards and half-hearted beat (most of this album is fairly mellow when compared to some of the more sizzling and sensual offerings by their "secular" counterparts). Nothing is said here that wasn't already said in "The Promise".
When Your Spirit Gets Too Weak is a slower, gospel-style ballad led by a simple beat and a real piano. The verses are actually halfway interesting, often containing several lines in a row that begin with the same words and go off in different directions (such as the "we beg"s near the beginning). When the choir joins in near the end, I almost expect Kirk Franklin to start preaching. Not a great song, but more tolerable than some of the others just because it actually acknowledges that Christians still struggle.
Last Flight Out is the obligatory relationship song that the boys' management has been trying to push to mainstream pop radio (like anyone will be able to tell it apart from the glut of "secular" boy bands out there). I appreciate its attempt to be vulnerable, as a guy promises a girl that he can't be perfect but that he will do all he can for her, including taking a last-minute flight to go see her when she needs him, but it has such an awkward chorus that I just can't get into it.
Run to You is another trite answer to life's problems - the boys address God, saying all their troubles will be solved if they just run to Him. Yes, this is true, but there's more to it than that - it's not as if just existing where God exists magically zaps all of your problems away. Here we get a taste of some digitized vocals a laCher's "Believe", that can accentuate a song when done well, but here, they're way overused.
Be turns things around - now God is singing a love song to man. Once again we are stuck with that same old generic theme of being rescued from trouble - I feel like I'm listening to the same song over and over again here, especially when the guys croon lines like "You know I’ll never be too far/’Cause I wrote this promise on your heart." Gee, guys, do you even realize how bad your songwriters are, or do you even care? (Oh wait, this is the one song on the album that the boys co-wrote. My bad.)
Here in My Heart - now that's an original title... This is another human love song which has apparently gained a little mainstream exposure as well. it deals with a long distance relationship, but doesn't say much other than "I miss your kiss and your touch". Hey, I just rhymed! I could write for these guys!!! Seriously, there is almost nothing to set this song apart from 'N Sync or the Backstreet Boys - at least in the mainstream market, groups don't survive long if all they do is copy each other. In the Christian market, these guys could last forever doing this.
My Friend brings back the gospel influence one more time (which I was thankful for because it brought a little color to their otherwise inane teen pop style) for one last comforting ballad in the vein of Boyz II Men. It gets lost in more cheesy keyboard tones through most of it, but unless I was dreaming, I thought I actually heard real drums and guitars somewhere in the middle of the song, before the climax gave way to a predictable soft ending.
And that's about it. No surprises (other than the slight gospel influence here and there), no variation from typical pop song structure or that boring old 4/4 rhythm. All these guys have done that their counterparts haven't is sing directly about God and mention Jesus a few times. While that may please Christian parents, I personally think that good Christian groups have a little more on their minds that spitting out the same tired comforting cliches we've heard on Christian radio for years - they want to be bold about their faith and honest about their life experiences, and though I don't see Plus One doing anything that most Christians would object to, they also aren't doing much of anything innovative here. I've heard the guys can actually play instruments and some of them can write - even if it sucks, I'd rather hear that on their next album than hearing a bunch of songs someone else manufactured to make them fit into the landscape.
Flame me if you want, but I'm not gonna jump on the Plus One bandwagon. This album is terrible, and I'm not just saying that because I hate the musical style. They could have been a rock band, and have a bunch of "modern rock" songs written for them to perform, and the result would have been just as inane and pale in comparison to the true "artists" out there. And they exist in the teen pop/R&B genre - I can't give you examples, but I bet true art exists there. If Plus One wants to gain credibility and not just popularity, they need to go after the art and stop simply being "Christian alternatives".
TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY Excellent: NONE
Good: NONE
Decent: The Promise
Weak: My Life, Soul Tattoo, When Your Spirit Gets Too Weak, My Friend
Skippable: Written on My Heart, God Is in This Place, I Will Rescue You, Last Flight Out, Run to You, Be
Group Members:
Gabe Combs
Nathan Walters
Nate Cole
Jeremy Mhire
Jason Perry
Website: http://www.plusoneonline.com
Great Music to Play While: Torturing prisoners of war
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