Well folks, I've got another band to add to the "Dude, What Happened?" list.

I had been waiting close to three years for Third Day to release an honest-to-goodness rock album. The Georgia band had been popular in Christian rock circles since pretty much day 1, but it was in 2000 and 2001 that their popularity really skyrocketed with the release of their first worship album, Offerings. It was something fans had wanted for a while, and the band was good enough to give it to them, but little did they know that this side project would become their best-selling album and redefine the way they were viewed by the general public. It wasn't long before Offerings II, another smattering of live worship songs and scattered new studio tracks, was released, and in between the two, they managed to squeeze out a poppier record called Come Together. While none of their records had been truly solid since 1999's Time, I did my best to stick with the band as they explored what they wanted to be, and held out hope that they wouldn't limit their lyrical subject matter solely to worship songs. My wish came true when the band announced that they had actually had a new rock album in the works that had kind of been put aside to work on Offerings II and to embark on a few worship tours with Michael W. Smith. Everything seemed to be set up for a comeback of sorts - not a return to the charts or to Christian radio since they were already dominating both, but rather, a return to credibility in the eyes of critics who had lost interest in them.

At long last, we have Wire, the sum of their efforts to rock like they used to. I wouldn't say that any Third Day album was a solid, wall-to-wall slab of southern rock, because they've always been able to capture my attention with their ballads and more country/folk-inflected songs as well as their meatier rock numbers and brief attempts to be more "alternative". Even when they incorporated keyboards and programming on Come Together, I found it to be an interesting blend. Frustratingly, I can't say the same thing about Wire. Maybe I've just heard it all before; I don't know. Something about this new record just feels especially bland. I can detect the attempts to add new elements to their music, but I still can't shake the feeling that this record is missing the heart that characterized Third Day's past studio albums. For a return to their rocking roots that supposedly takes their sound to the next level, I'm finding a lot of the album to be rather yawn-inducing.

The thing that bugs me is that I can't quite figure out what makes this album so radically different from those first three studio albums that I enjoyed so much. The southern flavor is definitely there. Anything graced by Mac Powell's voice is going to have at least a hint of that flavor. The album has its share of upbeat tracks to jam to. Surprisingly, it doesn't suffer from the obvious presence of hit-bound worship songs - as far as traditional listeners can tell, none of these tunes were written with participatory praise & worship in mind. Taking the place of that lyrical focus are songs about the trappings of celebrity, songs that attempt to tell stories of people and places in the songwriters' lives, and songs that reassure us of God's love. Not a bad spread, as far as song topics go. But all of it seems to be weighed down by a sense of vagueness that smacks of a band running out of ideas. I keep thinking, "Oh, this is kind of like that older Third Day song that I liked". That's not a good sign, folks. And while past records have benefited from the dual guitar attack of Brad Avery and Mark Lee, the two often feel blended together on this album, very rarely standing out with a guitar solo or anything of that nature. The acoustic and electric elements are balanced well, but the tempo is largely medium. And that certainly doesn't allow this album to be the blow-the-house-down rock & roll experience that the press materials promised. It feels a lot more like a once-popular band putting out an album for a reunion tour just so that they'd have something new to tell. A lot of the songs are decent, and occasionally there's even a good one, but as much as it saddens me to say this, nothing on Wire is truly great. It's a bland record overall.

'Til the Day I Die
I said "forever"
I said "forever" and I mean it...
The album starts out rather strong, using an acoustic guitar to set things up nicely for a rocking love song. It actually reminds me of the beginning of "Peace" from Conspiracy No. 5, except that it doesn't fade in. Mark and Brad offer a fairly thick guitar attack, completely with a wobbling guitar hook that gives the song a little bit of swagger. The group makes good use of background harmonies here, and Mac's throaty vocals are at their best. The only thing that really hurts the song is a vague lyric that promises undying love to an unspecified person - it seems like the person might be worried that this love will run out, so Mac is assuring them that "I'll love you 'til I die." It's hard to say whether this is the voice of a man reassuring his wife, or the voice of God reassuring a person that they will never be forsaken, though I'm leaning towards the latter. While God "died" in human form to save human souls, that happened in the past and the death being referred to here is a future event, so it sounds to me like a reiteration of someone's wedding vows. In any event, it's a fun song that cuts off abruptly, just like "Peace" did.

Come on Back to Me
Never mind your worries
Never mind your fears
They can only take you far from Me...
Things get amped up a little more with a jaunty electric riff that leads off the second song, but despite the volume level, the band still seems to be holding back a bit. It's tough to explain - maybe it's the fact that Mark and Brad seem to be playing the same parts for most of the song, with one of them offering a brief solo in the middle, but not doing anything remarkable overall. The song is an invitation from God to a person who has gone astray, asking them to come out of hiding and learn to trust again, and while I liked that Third Day is able to write effective songs from this point of view, the song strikes me as rather predictable overall. It'll probably be fun in concert, but I find myself wishing for something a little edgier to change it up in the middle. David Carr hints at a good drum fill here and there, but nothing really stands out to me other than the intro riff once the song has ended.

Wire
Everyone roots for the winner
The others well maybe next time
Your time at the top only lasts fifteen minutes
Then they just leave you behind...
The title song starts off as one of Third Day's more enigmatic entries, crossing the more mysterious feel of a slower Conspiracy No. 5 song with the swaying 6/8 rhythm of their classic "Consuming Fire" (I can't recall them doing anything with such a rhythm since then, until now.) Celebrity has apparently become a big issue for Third Day, since this and two other songs are dedicated to the difficulties of maintaining integrity after having attained celebrity. The metaphor being used here is that of a man doing a balancing act on a wire, wondering if people will care to catch him if he falls. It's a theme that was explored better by dc Talk on their song "What If I Stumble?". Third Day's version is musically interesting until it reaches the chorus, which has a melody that just seems too easy-going, especially when the strings join in to make the song feel a lot more pretty than tense. It doesn't help that Mark Lee, who wrote the lyrics, is basically just using the chorus to regurgitate the most obvious rhymes in the dictionary for the word "wire". It's a semi-interesting song that fails to live up to its potential.

Rock Star
Seeing my face up on the TV
Hearing my songs on the radio
People waiting all day in line to see me
Doing my pose for Rolling Stone...
Mac jumps in immediately with the fast-paced chorus to this song - "I wanna be a rock star, but I ain't got what it takes". Musically, this is one of the more aggressive tunes on the record - in the classic rock sense, anyway. It backs off a bit for the verse, so once you've heard the chorus, you've heard the song at its most energetic. If you've heard any other rock band perform a song about being stars and how fake that really is, then you can safely assume that this is the Cliff's Notes version. Sure, the band can rock while they're singing about how empty the rock star life is. I'm sure they're being sarcastic when they say, "But it's alright", though to some it will sound more apathetic or angry. Overall, it just feels like an incomplete thought on an already played-out subject that was better addressed by the previous song. I guess the ability to rock out doesn't impress me as much as it used to - either that, or I cared more about what Third Day was singing about when they rocked out in the old days.

I Believe
If I had the strength to move a mountain
Would you be amazed by all of my abilities
I guess it would not mean much if I didn't have love
And this is what I really want you all to see...
By some cruel twist of fate, the record's lyrical weak point (which is saying a lot, since a number of these songs feature mediocre writing) is also the first song title featured on the sticker that came on its front cover, so I can only assume that means it's one of the first singles that Christian radio got to hear. It's got a bouncy beat and some playful keyboards and strings, but if you've heard one generic "I believe in love" song, then you've heard this one. The band tries to back up their unacceptably vague statement of belief with a few loose references to the famous passage in I Corinthians 13 which states that we are nothing without love. Without the proper context regarding what specific kind of love they're talking about, the whole thing just falls flat. I don't need another commercial for generic love, especially from a Christian band that has normally been rather specific about the source of that love. It doesn't help that the song has almost the same title as the song "Believe" from Time, and that it goes for a similar abrupt ending. I'm detecting a real lack of fresh ideas here.

It's a Shame
You left her without leaving
You hit her without swinging ...
I like the guitar sound that opens this song. It reminds me of the beginning of "These Thousand Hills", but it has a high-pitched, harmonic tone to it, as if it's a music box imitating a guitar. This song is the first true ballad on the project, prominently featuring both the higher-pithced guitar and a piano. The beat is rather plodding, and the chorus is rather repetitive, but the lyrics are somewhat interesting. They don't give me a lot to go on, but Mac seems to be mourning on behalf of a female friend who has sold herself out and walked away from the faith. He sense that she wants to change back to what she once was, but she's kind of complacent to stay where she is. It sounds decent until those cliché strings come along and turn it into another typical ballad. After that, I start to get bored with it quickly. Who invented the rule that we have to drench every slow CCM rock song in strings, anyway?

Blind
I have fallen once again
Evidently made the wrong decision...
This track shuffles along with a slightly moodier feel, thanks to a subdued violin part from none other than Boyd Tinsley, fiddler for the Dave Matthews Band. I rather like this one, actually. Sure, it doesn't quite have the oomph that it should, thanks to the all-too-clean electric guitar sound and the overused analogy of being blind and having God open one's eyes, but there seems to be a little more feeling behind this one. The melody also isn't 100% predictable like it is in some other songs. Boyd's guest appearance turns out to be overhyped in the end - he inserts a lovely little solo at the expected point in the middle of the song, but since I know how this guy is capable of tearing it up, I can't help but feel like he's been sanitized by the usual Nashville effect. For most of the song, he's as buried in the mix as he was on Everyday, which causes "Blind" to fall just short of musical excellence.

I Got a Feeling
I got a mission
I got a sign
Is anybody listening
I gotta make sure this time...
Fans of Time will probably get excited about this one - it's a pretty decent reprise of the fast-paced, Southern-fried groove of classics such as "Took My Place", "Sky Falls Down", and "What Good". It's your basic testimonial, "Can I get a witness up in here?" type of song, complete with soulful female backing vocals, almost to the point where the band seems to be retreading old ground without digging up anything new, but hey, it's a fun party song with a reasonably gritty guitar solo, an underlying acoustic element, and an irresistibly simple lyric that invites the listener to sing along. I can even hear Tai Anderson's bass bumping around back there, adding a slightly funky element. They probably could have turned this into a cool extended jam if they hadn't been worried about not trying the patience of an audience raised on harmless adult contemporary.

You Are Mine
It doesn't take much
For my heart to break
And you have done it
For what's seems the millionth time...
This gentle, flowing acoustic song seems awfully similar to the old-school Third Day song "Take My Life" at first, but as the drums and subdued electric guitars begin to set a pace that is simultaneously upbeat and relaxed, it begins to sound an awful lot like "I've Always Loved You". Take that song and flip around the point of view so that man is giving thanks back to God, and you've basically got this song. That's not to say that it's a total retread - this one seems to build a little more than "I've Always Loved You" does, standing on the edge of rockier territory but never fully diving in. It's actually a welcome change at this point in the record, when largely unimpressive electric guitar parts have dominated the landscape. This song has a bit more life to it, and it actually stands a decent chance of doing well on the charts. I'll take it over "I Believe", that's for sure.

Innocent
It seemed like I had run out of second chances
And they sentenced me to die
And I was just like a dead man walking
I was running out of time...
Mark Lee turns in another slower song here - actually, he's not doing too bad in terms of changing up the musical mood on this album. While this one bears the unfortunate distinction of being yet another string-drenched ballad that starts acoustic and builds to a more generic electric number, the strings actually provide a little bit of tension here that wasn't present in the song "Wire". It's a pretty similar effect to what you heard in "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls, but I could think of worse tried-and-true tricks to pull out of the bag. Mark's lyric isn't too bad - it takes on the point of view of a condemned criminal who is realizing that he stands innocent before God even though he's still aware of what he's done wrong. It's no "Thief", but it's decent.

Billy Brown
Do they know the reason why
You point your finger to the sky?
This song basically takes "Rock Star" and reiterates it from another point of view. It utilizes a similar classic rock style, perhaps a little more slowed down, and I could actually picture The Elms doing Third Day one better on this little ditty. (Just throw in a spirited piano plunking the same note over and over during the chorus of "It ain't easy being a star/It ain't easy to be who you are" and have Thom Daugherty unleash some guitar pyrotechnics and you're good to go.) It tries to be cynical as it addresses this "Billy Brown" character whom everyone is apparently fascinated with, but it never really tells us anything interesting about him, other than the fact that he doesn't seem to have a greater purpose in mind as he entertains people. Perhaps there's a back story to this one, a mainstream rock figure who inspired it, whose name they'd rather not divulge (kind of like the old rumor that "Blackbird" was about the Black Crowes), but once again, they haven't given me much reason to either love or hate this character. He's just kind of there.

San Angelo
Forever seems so distant
Much further than today
You turn around and in an instant
You find that you are just as far from yesterday...
Want to know a great trick that will draw more attention to a dull and generic song? Name it after a person or place. That'll make you sound more introspective and singer/songwriter-like. At least, that seems to be the effect that Mac is going for with this slow, bland song about doubt. This thing drags on for over five minutes as Mac tells us how lonely he feels and how he's having trouble keeping the faith while the road wears on him. A million rock bands have probably written this same song by now, and named it after some other city instead of San Angelo. This one fixes its vague problem without even really telling us what the problem was. Perhaps it would be less boring if the group had played up the slide guitar and organ, and basically not been so afraid to let it feel like a country song, but I suppose we can't have that on a "rock album" directed towards a crowd who runs screaming at the sight of a less popular genre, can we?

I Will Hold My Head High
I know you said it'd be okay
Sometimes I question just the same...
Third Day has typically closed out their albums with fairly memorable worship songs - "Praise Song", "Your Love Endures" and "Give" all come to mind. "Nothing Compares" from Come Together didn't really float my boat, but a lot of folks seemed to like it all the same. While I can appreciate the band not wanting to duplicate that exact formula (like I said, there are no straight-up "worship songs", in the traditional sense, on this record), I'd have preferred that approach to closing with another vaguely optimistic song about eventually being OK. This song is the second dull entry in a row, and once again I just don't care about what Mac is singing about. Who are the people that are trying to bring him down? Why are they doing it? This song is like "Never Bow Down" slowed to a crawl and stripped of its fiery guitar parts. I'm glad your faith is strong and your pride is intact, but what's the reason for it all?

Perhaps I'll warm up to some of these songs a little more when I see the band in concert this coming Friday. I'd hate to become one of those annoying fans who constantly tossed around the "Old stuff was better" complaints and ticked off the hardcore fans just like all of those fairweather Jars of Clay fans are always doing to me. I'll give Third Day credit for trying to stick with their original purpose instead of just giving us Offerings III. But they're gonna have to take some time to sharpen their songwriting pencils and throw off the weight of all of those Dove Awards before they attempt to rock out again. This time around, I'm just not convinced that Wire is anything more than a calculated balancing act to keep their two sets of fans mildly appeased. I'll recommend it for existing fans only.

ALBUM WORTH:
'Til the Day I Die $1.50
Come on Back to Me $1
Wire $1.50
Rock Star $0
I Believe $0
It's a Shame $.50
Blind $1
I Got a Feeling $1
You Are Mine $1.50
Innocent $.50
Billy Brown $0
San Angelo $0
I Will Hold My Head High $0
TOTAL: $8

CONCLUSION: Wait for some used copies to become available. I doubt they'll be in short supply.

Band Members:
Mac Powell: Vocals, acoustic guitar
Mark Lee: Guitars
Brad Avery: Guitars
David Carr: Drums
Tai Anderson: Bass

Website: http://www.thirdday.com

Great Music to Play While: Preparing to smack the next CCM band who promises a "return to their roots" on an upcoming album.

Recommended: Yes