It usually doesn't bode well for a band when they sound similar to several other popular bands. I've torn apart many a band for patterning their sound too closely after existing trends. It's often the easy way to success for a few lucky Christian bands, because you can pick up an acoustic guitar, mix comforting Sunday-morning-church-service phrases with several variations on your favorite chord progression, get an electric guitarist who sounds like The Edge and/or a vocalist who sounds like Scott Stapp, and you're good to go. I was all ready to level some of these criticisms (definitely not the Scott Stapp thing, but certainly everything else) against the young Canadian band Starfield. But then I gave their debut album a few more spins and I started to think that these guys actually weren't bad. Funny how a band with a simple approach can grab my attention sometimes, isn't it?

I'll give you the rundown on Starfield's similarities to other bands, and you can tell me whether you think that would be a good mixture. Of course there has to be U2 - in this case, by way of early SonicFlood, for the straight-ahead, glistening guitar anthems. Jars of Clay is an influence that the band has cited, and this is clearly apparent in the basic construction of their mellower songs around acoustic guitars and occasionally quirky melodies or chord progressions. Downhere, a lesser-known band, may not be an intentional influence, but they certainly come to mind since they're also from Canada, they have two lead vocalists and an acoustic-driven sound, and the vocalists sound a bit alike to my ears. The name MercyMe gets conjured up when Starfield plays it a bit too mid-tempo and straight-faced. And finally there's Switchfoot... nah, they don't really sound like Switchfoot, but it's funny that that band is also fronted by brothers named Jon and Tim. In any case, that's the basic roundup. It doesn't make for a bad sound, but it's not a particularly innovative one, either, and it occasionally approaches the dull side of things.

Of course, there's the lyrical side of things too, which you probably know not to expect too much from if you've been listening to modern worship music (I mean really listening, not just having it on in the background to give you warm fuzzies) for more than a few years. Starfield is mostly a direct album, and while the Neuman brothers can occasionally turn an honest and gripping phrase, they tend to fall back on cliches quite a bit. What saves the band from mediocrity is two things, I think. First of all, there's a fragility to the lyrics which seems to communicate a deeper huger that reminds us of what the cliches actually mean. (After all, cliches meant something when they were coined, and if a song can expound on the meaning of one in a thoughtful way, then I guess it's legitimate grounds to use the cliche.) Second, there's a subtle texture to a lot of the songs that causes them to not always spend their time on an immediate guitar or drum hook, opting instead to unfold into something modestly beautiful on several occasions rather than bluntly smacking listeners over the head. (There are a few rockers, and one strikingly gorgeous slow piece, but quiet beauty lurks underneath for most of the remainder of the record.) It's this that keeps me returning to Starfield more than anything else.

To put it succinctly, these guys are good at what they do. It's just that what they do could use a little more awe and wonder in order to truly live up to the expansiveness of the band's name (which was derived from a song by fellow Canadian Bruce Cockburn, by the way). In any event, I'll delve into the particulars of each song now and see what comes out memorable. (It kind of changes each time I listen.)

Prelude
I wouldn't consider this to be a waste of space since it's a nice way to intro the song, but it's a waste of a track number. This brief fade in, during which the guitars swell as Tim Neufeld sings snippets of the chorus to the upcoming song, would sound a lot like the beginning of a SonicFlood CD if a spoken prayer were overdubbed on top of it. It would have made sense to keep this as part of the song instead of its own separate track, but I'm guessing they did this to help a potential radio single by making sure it would start with the action instead of a slow intro (Christian radio programmers apparently think their audiences are the most impatient people on the planet).

Filled with Your Glory
From the depths of the sea
To the mountain's summit
Your power, Lord, it knows no bounds
A higher love cannot be found...
Slamming in with anthemia electric guitars and a danceable beat that Jeff Deyo would likely be proud of, this song is the prototypical modern worship song, stringing together innumerable worship band cliches ("May you be honored and glorified, exalted and lifted high, here at Your feet I lay my life", etc.) for a simple but fun song about God's omnipresence. It's a totally logical way to start off such an album, but it's also not one of Starfield's strongest moments since it echoes their musical influences far too closely. Any number of CCM bands could have done a song like this with their eyes closed.

Love Break Me
Show me how to wait
Teach me how to listen
Be in me the strength
To let go...
If the constant eighth-note acoustic strumming, the more laid-back rhythm, and the little piano interludes remind you of something, you're not imagining things. Go back and pull those old Jars of Clay CD's out of the closet that you never listen to any more (you know, every one except for their first). See that one called The Eleventh Hour? Yeah, this song sounds an awful lot like that album's title track. Not that this is a horrible thing - it's certainly a more obscure song to imitate as far as paying homage to your musical heroes goes. The blending of instruments and the steady stream of guitar playing actually gives the song more momentum than the song it's borrowing from. The guys use I Corinthians 13 as their inspiration here, asking God to reconstruct them as people who live the essence of love instead of seeing it superficially. Tim and his brother Jon Neufeld harmonize and play their different vocal parts nicely here, so the song is overall pleasant, and not the type of song I'd expect to hear so early on when listening to a highly accessible worship album.

Revolution
When the world is at war
When the grace is gone
When the hungry lay dead
While the rich live on...
This quirky rocker is about as loud as the band gets - the jumpy guitar lines remind me a little of a more restrained Switchfoot, but there's some heavier, one-chord thrashing at certain points that shows a surprising amount of energy for a generally more low-key band. Starfield deviates from the typical "vertical" lyrics and addresses an apathetic generation here, basically saying that they will sacrifice whatever they need to sacrifice to make a difference for God. The chorus - "I'm a fire, I'm a flood, I'm a revolution" - will strike you as either inspiring or just really cheesy, depending on your mood - it's a bit of both, in my opinion. The song remains strong overall, and I like that the guys have included more of an action-oriented song as if to imply that true worship is more than just standing around and singing nice words to God. But they might have been able to dig a little deeper and make this song truly awesome, instead of merely pretty good.

Alive in This Moment
It's been so long since I have met You here
Since I have heard You speak or let You near
And like a wayward son, I've come with nothing left to hide
Here in this moment, I have come to offer up my life...
Some nice interplay between the acoustic guitar and warm synthesizers make the album's first ballad (there will be many of these) a nice change of pace amidst some of the more aggressive songs. The music portrays beauty and vulnerability quite well without overdoing either, and that's the sort of subtlety I mentioned earlier - a song like this probably won't "wow" most people, but it'll sink in subconsciously and become a memorable moment. Here the guys are singing about humbly approaching God and not quite knowing what to say, perhaps due to a period of feeling distant from God. There's a peace and acceptance in that moment, an offering of one's life (however unimaginative some of the wording may be) that thankfully doesn't come attached with false promises of everything immediately being made "okay" like a lot of CCM songs do these days.

Tumbling After
The other day while I was driving home my world was shaken
It occurred to me that I had left too many risks untaken
I'm always sitting here just waiting for a revelation
Is it ever gonna come?
I don't know why, but the guitars on this song strike me as having more of a playful vibe - it's probably due to the upbeat nature of the riffs - they're less heavy-duty and much brighter in tone. This is another song which is a little more confessional and personal, not a traditional "worship song" in the sense of something you'd sing in a group. It's basically a song about the things we expect of God - the big booming voices and amazing revelations we seem to think God must communicate through, that end up causing us to miss the simplistic little ways in which God is constantly changing us. Again, there's a sense of humility and not really having all the answers, just trying to feel one's way along and look to God instead of one's own strength. Light-hearted works better than a somber mood for a song like this - it's just one of those moments where you have to smile and close your eyes and say, "OK, God, you win. I don't know jack squat. But I want to know."

Outstretched Hands
I am numb today, everything's a blur
I've seen too much to deny, too little to be sure...
The second slower song on the album has a much more ominous chord progression - the delicate acoustic strumming and the subtle, meandering electric guitar work provide a wonderful backdrop for a song about going through life's valleys. Clearly Starfield has been through some of those dark periods in life when, despite one's die-hard belief in God, it's hard to believe He's actually there and He's actually listening. Building in electric intensity as it goes, this song is one of the album's most vulnerable moments because you can tell that a man with a good heart is on the brink of becoming hardened and cynical - the enemy that seeks to destroy his faith is his own mind playing tricks on him. I always relate to songs like these because I think one has to go through these scary periods - perhaps even several times over - to really start to "get it" regarding what faith is all about. It's a process of knowing by learning how much you do not know for certain, and I think Starfield has treated it well - perhaps with more generalized words than I'd like, but still with a bit of class.

Ordinary Life
Move me and disturb me, interrupt my peace
Tear open my heart and pull me to my knees...
The moodier sound carries over into one last aggressive rocker (yeah, it's early in the album, but don't worry, we're not quite out of steam yet) that takes a Skillet-like approach to the lyrics as it asks God to come along and use whatever force is necessary to shake the singer out of his complacency. That's apparently a big theme for Starfield - change seems to be the constantly desired aspect of faith that causes one to grow, and yet we humans fear it as much as we desire it. "I'm not alive to live this ordinary life", Tim insists during the chorus. By Starfield's standards, this was a harder-rocking and more challenging song than usual, and while it's not one of the songs that immediately grabs you at first, it comes in the middle of a really good song cycle that comes to a crescendo in the next track.

Over My Head
Beauty for ashes, joy for pain
Mercy instead of my blame
Ruins me for more
I'm lost in Your presence, Lord...
If there's a song on this record that captures the expansive grandeur that a name like "Starfield" would conjure up, this would be it. The dark, but glistening chord progression, backed by gentle strings (one of few times that I don't mind their usage in such an obvious place), gives the bright day glow of the band's usual sound a rest in order to show off a dazzling night sky. It is here that Starfield presents their most humble and compelling piece of work. Here, the questions are not presented so much as pressing issues that need answers (i.e. the way we humans usually tend to approach God), but rather, as profound mysteries that instill reverence for God within us. The physical wonders of our planet, the supernatural spectacles yet to come that we only see hints of in our mortal lives, and even the trials that we go through are all presented here as things to carefully admire - bigger pieces of a puzzle that God has assembled. In this song, over a slow, sweeping 6/8 rhythm, God is worshipped for just being an amazing and huge and mysterious entity - an aspect we forget when listening to most Christian music because it tends to over-familiarize God. Sometimes we have to accept that certain things are unfamiliar, and just take a deep breath, and respond to all that we can't understand with a timid "Hallelujah". The band does that here, with Jon's constant "Hallelujah"s weaving in and out of Tim's rather spontaneous-sounding coda, where the intro chords are played again and again and he rattles off various lines from the song along with other descriptions of the overwhelmed state of mind he is in as he considers it all. It's a delicious musical climax that kind of makes this song Starfield's version of the classic Jars of Clay song "Worlds Apart" - it has a similar feel without copying that song in any way. The band stretches this one out to a leisurely seven and a half minutes, but I don't think a single second of it is wasted, because this is a musical and lyrical triumph for the band that deserves to be savored slowly.

Can I Stay Here Forever?
I've been chasing after emptiness
Trying to tidy up this mess
I swear I've been down this road before...
Whew... after that last track, just about everything is bound to feel like a disappointment. The album ends with three relatively downbeat song, and this one is more acoustic and open-sounding than most of the album, revolving mostly around lilting guitars, the gentle tapping and brushing of drums, and a cello. The band has said that it's a little closer to the way that they first conceived most of their songs - jus two guitars and voices hammering it all out. This creates an intimate mood for the song, an almost childlike wonder that fits with the chorus - "Like a child, I'll take You at Your word, as these mountains of doubt, they fade away." There's a feeling of longing to return to a more innocent sort of faith here - it's a nice moment of clarity that we know can't last forever, but that we'll relish while we can.

All for You
What is it in me that hangs on for so long
Why do I fight the tears that come?
I work so hard to keep in control
When all that I want is to let go...
Unfortunately, the album has all but lost its momentum at this point, languishing in a dull mid-tempo song that does very well to distinguish itself from the average CCM studio fare. This one stretches past the five-minute mark, and manages to wear out its welcome in one or two, mulling over a slow and predictable chord progression and tossing out more and more cliches in an attempt to revisit themes of surrender that were better expressed earlier in the album. I like it when an album has themes, but the band needs to build on them and not keep coming up with permutations of the same stuff if they want all of their songs to be memorable.

Cry in My Heart
For what do I have if I don't have You, Jesus?
What in this life could mean any more?
You are my rock, You are my glory
You are the lifter of my head...
The album closes predictably with another acoustic tune - it's a little better than the last song, but it's nothing terribly exciting. A more basic approach may have made sense after the more intricately constructed "Over My Head", but we've been doing that for three songs now and it's not nearly as interesting as the band's sound was midway through the album. This song is basically about recognizing that we have nothing but Jesus, and learning to open our hearts to Him - I'm not as compelled by the words here because they don't really give me much of a sense of what I'm letting go of or what I'm gaining like some of the other songs did.

Basically, instead of being plagued by the usual problem of having an album that is front-loaded with great songs and that becomes completely uninteresting about halfway through, Starfield starts off decently, brings out its best material in the middle, and then proceeds to fizzle out near the end. That middle section, and a few other stray tunes, are promising enough to make me look forward to a live show and especially a second album by these guys. They seem to have their hearts in a place of joy and wonder without ignoring the tensions intrinsic to faith and spiritual growth, and a worship band clearly aware of those things is usually a blessing in a genre where the most superficial stuff is usually what sells. These album isn't the work of brilliant artists, but very few freshman albums are. Give 'em a few years and the company of intelligent worship bands such as Something Like Silas and the David Crowder Band, and I betcha Starfield will become a cosmic force to be reckoned with.

ALBUM WORTH:
Prelude $0
Filled with Your Glory $.50
Love Break Me $1
Revolution $1.50
Alive in This Moment $1
Tumbling After $1
Outstretched Hands $1.50
Ordinary Life $1.50
Over My Head $2
Can I Stay Here Forever? $1
All for You $0
Cry in My Heart $.50
TOTAL: $11.50

Band Members:
Tim Neufeld: Vocals, guitars
Jon Neufeld: Vocals, guitars
John Andrews: Drums
Shaun Huberts: Bass

Website: http://www.starfieldonline.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Reading or Studying