Is "more of the same" always a bad thing?

Hard to say in the case of Florida band Anberlin. These guys released a slick collection of punchy power pop/rock songs in 2003 entitled Blueprints for the Black Market, and it was one of those albums that, for all of its straightforward, danged-if-I'm-gonna-slow-down-for-a-sappy-ballad tenacity, revealed a great deal of talent in its enigmatic lyrics and obscure, faux-literary song titles. Ther ewas just the right amount of classic 80's influence pitted against the Jimmy Eat World-esque, four-on-the-floor modern rock attitude, and aside from one embarrassing little foray into pop-punk, it really worked. That was one of my favorite albums that year, and my interest in it hasn't faded with time.

I bought the band's follow-up, Never Take Friendship Personal, sight unseen, without having heard a note or having read so much as a single review or promotional quip about the album. I trusted Anberlin and I wanted to be surprised. And while I think their second disc is mostly "more of the same", I don't think that's a bad thing in this case. Experimenting with your sound is a good thing for a developing band, and I guess there's a little bit of that on a song or two, but for the most part, if you liked Blueprints, you know what you're gonna get here. Perhaps the 80's influence is a bit less pronounced, and Stephen Christian's intensely melodic vocals border on screams at times, and perhaps the band is a little edgier here or a little softer there (there's actually a ballad this time, as well as a random instrumental track), but nothing on this album will make you drop your jaw and blurt out, "This is Anberlin?" You could probably mix songs from the first and second albums and not feel at all disoriented with the jumping back and forth - for all we know, these songs could have all been written at around the same time.

One noticeable shift in focus, though, is that the metaphors aren't piled on as thickly this time. While the lyrics are still confounding in certain places (in terms of trying to figure out what the heck Stephen is going on about), there appears to be one less layer veiling the overall concept, which basically boils down to a bunch of songs about love and lust. The last album wrapped these stories in the language of spies and travelers, whereas this record is more direct in its pining and crooning over that special someone who is situated far, far away for some unknown reason. Occasionally it turns angry, and I think that actually accounts for some of Anberlin's moments. Occasionally, it offers hints of the band's Christian beliefs, though this is even more subtle (if you read lyrics superficially, anyway) than it was on the last album's "Change Your World" and "Cadence". I've seen the disc criticized in Christian media outlets for this very reason, but you know what, not every album by a group of professing Christians needs to be detached from real-life issues and spell out the exact same answers in the exact same jargon. Not everyone is "inspired" by the same stuff, and just like anyone else, Christians suffer heartbreak and temptation and what have you. For the people who are gifted with the ability to make keen observations about these things, it's good to have an outlet for those observations. So that's my take on that whole issue.

Because of the de-emphasis on religious jargon, this will be a very easy record for those who are not Christians to get into as well, and I think that's a good thing - probably not a contrived thing on Anberlin's part, but just a natural result of the way they write about their experiences. I basically view Never Take Friendship Personal as a strong mainstream rock record that deserves a little more attention. And with that said, let's dig in.

Never Take Friendship Personal
Once a skeptic, now the critic
And you think that you finally found a place of your own.
Amongst the cold and timid souls
Where only failure knows your name...
A cold, mechanical riff gets the album cranked up, stopping and starting as drums and another guitar are soon laid on top of it, giving the song more of an animated feel than the jerky motion you might expect from the intro. The band has chosen to put one of their harsher songs at the front, with Stephen's strangely melodic grunts punctuating the verses as he describes a friendship that appears to have deteriorated into a cold, calculated determination to no longer speak to one another. His voice actually overlaps itself in several places - a common trick used on this album to pack in lyrics without cutting off any of the words (it'll be interesting to see how this is handled in a live setting), and it adds an urgency to this song, as if he's insistent on this person hearing him out. A hrsah, rhetorical question is asked in the chorus - "If you can't hold yourself together, why should I hold you now?", and it seems like this is a statement that was made to Stephen rather than something he is saying to another person. It's as if he just got out of a relationship and the girl is telling him that he shouldn't be all torn up about it because it was no big deal, and he can't quite detach himself from it in favor of stone cold logic. There are a few random interjections where Stephen is either speaking or shouting, and during the bridge, we get a brief guest spot from Ryan Clark, lead singer of Demon Hunter, who gets the dubious honor of being the first person to full-on scream in an Anberlin song (hey, it beats hearing him scream in a Kutless song... or a Demon Hunter song, for that matter).

Paperthin Hymn
You never know what temporal days may bring
So laugh, love, live free and sing
When life is in dischord
Praise ye the Lord...
Well, shoot, you're just asking for trouble as far as Christian radio is concerned if you release a song with that title. But I think it's intentional - this is probably the most clearly faith-influenced song on the album, with its cry of "Who's gonna call you Sunday morning? Who's gonna drive you home?" Stephen is as enigmatic as he's ever been, offering us a weary account of the loneliness he's felt during his travels, and it makes me wonder if this is some sort of an admission of not fitting in with the rest of the Christian music industry, being out on tour and away from any sense of real community or much of anything that would be supportive to their faith, such as a home church. Mere speculation on my part, but that's true of my interpretation of most Anberlin songs. Not to be overshadowed by the intriguing lyrics , guitarist Joseph Milligan takes off running with a solid, compelling riff that kicks the song into the stratosphere. It's a sort of energy that radio could really use, because a lot of modern rock these days is succumbing to the "complaints of violins" that Stephen is claiming as his only friends in this song. (You could see that metaphor as a commentary on people who pretend to sympathize, but don't really care, or you could see it as a dig at the wimpy music chock full of gushy strings that passes as "Christian rock" on a lot of radio stations these days. Works for me either way.)

Stationary Stationery
Does he treat you like you want
Does he ask to take your hand
Does he believe in dreams we talked about
When with no music we danced...
Ha! A pun! I love puns. Everyone else hates them. But try to rise above that - it's actually a meaningful title, because in this poppy tune (kind of a beefier analogue to the last album's "Autobahn", minus the sunny synthesizer and acoustic guitar), Stephen is interrogating a girl about why she never writes to him (her envelopes never get sent anywhere - get it?) It's a good thing that this song has a strong guitar punch to it, because the melody is so giddy and upbeat that it might be almost too much for Anberlin to successfully pull off. As lost love songs go, it's pretty standard (other than the fact that it isn't a slow song), but since so many songs on this album seem to deal with a runaway lover, it makes me wonder if this is merely a chapter in a developing story.

(The Symphony of) Blase
Are you so naive to right and wrong
How could you watch innocence forgone
Does what we've done ever really belong
It wasted me away (I feel so wasted away...)
I'm not sure how Anberlin does it - even their slow songs are fast! With a graceful, gentle guitar line weaving about and light drums brushing along at a brisk pace, thing song makes an admirable attempt to be the aural equivalent of Godiva chocolate. It's sweet, but in a more refined and slightly darker sense, not content to just be pure sugar. Don't let the title fool you, because it's not symphonic (though there are some nice strings, and I know I just criticized modern rock for utilizing strings so much, but the effect is so dadgum beautiful here without being gratuitous), and it's not blase (I know there's supposed to be an accent on the "e", but Epinions always gets its special characters screwed up, so don't get on my case about spelling, a'ight?) The song is a calmer reflection of what it's like to be left hanging by someone who is so cool and collected and nonchalant about breaking up with you, and amidst the realization that "This is our last goodnight", there's a very honest prayer for God to take these feelings for her away from him. It's one of those moments where I really feel the guy's pain, you know? Stephen does such a stellar job of echoing himself in all the right places - this is going to be a really tough one to pull off live, but it's a hell of a solid studio piece.

A Day Late
Now we both have separate lives and lovers
Insignificantly enough, we both have significant others...
A chunky, somewhat muted guitar intro would have most of us expecting another harder-edged song, and while this one rocks strong, it actually turns out to be another one of the poppier numbers on the album once Stephen's voice breaks in. Here he's rightfully frustrated, addressing a would-be lover from his past - "So let me get this straight, you say now you've loved me all along?" The song is basically one big fat "Nooooooowwwww you tell me!", complete with eye-roll, because he's got a girl and she's got some other dude, and what good could come of that revelation at this point? Still, he's thankful that she's still his "daily friend", though in the greater context of the album, I'm not sure if this is such a wise place for her to be, since he still appears to be a bit vulnerable. It's tough to resist one last flirtation with the past, especially with such a delectable chorus in which the guys echo, "We are who, we are who we were." It's one of those songs that picks you up and drops you off back in the days of invincible teenage hood, when you were darn sure that first kiss from a high school sweetheart meant forever. But as it fades out (a predictable and somewhat disappointing way to end the song, actually), we realize that the illusion just won't last.

The Runaways
Come closer now
I know your desire is to be desired
Steal a kiss, yet call us friends
Distance is the thief with which you conspire...
A processed, siren-like guitar intro leads into another fast-paced song that is honestly a bit easy to confuse with its surroundings (this happened at about the midway point with Blueprints too, since pretty much every song was a fast one). Here, Stephen is beginning to get wise to his former lover's tricks, telling her in a defiant chorus, "You'll only stand to break my heart, I can tell it by the way you run away, runaway girl". Later on he pinpoints the reason for her fleeting affection: "You're like a rare disease, I know you're in love with love, I believe". Ow. The truth hurts. The song flies by quickly, ending in a brief bit of guitar feedback which kicks effortly into another highly poppy number.

Time & Confusion
It's not about the money we make
It's about the passions that we ache for
What makes your heart beat faster
Tell me now, what does your body long after...
When this song arrives with its shameless "Whoa-oa"s and "Yeah-eah"s, only three words come to mind: Jimmy, Eat, and World. Not that JEW has cornered the market on "Whoa"s and "Yeah"s, but the stylistic similarity is hard to not notice. Anberlin has a bit more musical muscle than JEW, in my humble opinion, and they're not as doggedly methodical, so I'll consider it a slightly better iteration of an established formula, rather than a total ripoff. Anyway, this is a strangely placed song of commitment, joyfully declaring that "I hold it all when I hold you" and "When friends walk other ways, we have got each other". It's sweet, but somewhat cliche in comparison to Anberlin's usual stuff, so while it packs a solid hook, it's probably one of the album's more forgettable numbers in the end.

The Feel Good Drag
Lips that need no introduction
Now who's the greater sin
Your drab eyes seem to invite
Tell me darling, where do we begin...
Starting with an odd guitar squeal that cuts in as if it were meant to be a bridge from a song that got dropped from the tracklist, this one quickly sets itself up as the musical equivalent of Blueprints' "Glass to the Arson" with its frenetic, anthemic riffage that occasionally jumps to that high-end, scratchy muted sound that I adore so much because it just makes me want to jump around and break stuff. Lyrically, this one might as well be "Readyfuels, Pt. 2", and you won't catch me complaining about that, because we're now cross-pollinating my two favorite songs from the last album. The lust is poured on thick in this song, with the temptress disregarding all subtlety and inviting our protagonist to come up for the night because her boyfriend's nowhere to be found. The anger and overall loudness expressed here are simply one man's desperate attempt to just say "no" to this temptation, and boy, do Stephen's vocals get deliciously harsh as he barks out, "Your lips, your lies, your lust, like the devil's in your hands!" He even gets to do a little of his own screaming when the bridge hits its climax and gives way to a sweet guitar solo. Some all-around great drumming from Nathan Young only helps this song to assert itself more, slamming and swelling in all the right ways and making itself known as NTFP's standout track.

Audrey, Start the Revolution!
Remind your parents that we're tomorrow
Lead with morals and we'll follow
When they wake up, they'll see
That youth fades and glory days deceive...
Taking a mad dash toward the finish line, another rip-roarin' guitar riff lunges forward as the band plays their little love story to the hilt. One can detect a little bit of "Readyfuels" in the guitar soloing here, which is always a good thing. Subtitled "Amateur Youth", this song seems to be about the overall idiocy of being young and thinking that our good intentions have the power to magically fix everything. No clue who "Audrey" is - Anberlin has a habit of throwing in fictional characters out of thin air (heck, even their name is derived from a fictional female) - but she's obviously a headstrong individual who would make the perfect teen-drama heroine. Of course, Stephen's in love with her and that makes him feel invincible once again, but look closer and you'll see a hint of wisdom breaking in - their parents have been down this path before and realized that it just ain't as easy as it looks to be revolutionaries.

A Heavy Hearted Work of Staggering Genius
OK, I had to laugh at that title because it's just so self-consciously, emo-mimickingly odd. One can only wish that this song actually lived up to such a title - I'm sure it's intended as tongue-in-cheek, because this song is a slow, somewhat Western-influenced instrumental that lasts just over a minute, with clumpy programmed percussion, the gentle strumming of an acoustic guitar, and a gritty but pensive electric guitar taking the lead. It kind of repeats itself a little - like something you might find on an album by The Juliana Theory - and then it just gives up and lets a faster number take over.

Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen
She's no saint, but she'll take you to your knees
Try her boy, but she'll still do what she please
Do you believe in science? She prefers chemistry
She wanted my love, but I gave her the rest of me...
I was certain that the album was going to end with another catchy three-minute song, and that the seven-minute running time of this track meant that there was a hidden song or some sort of joke buried at the end. Nope, they've actually chosen to end with the Anberlin version of an epic, by paying a little bit of homage to The Cure and U2 and some of their other 80's influences with this delightfully danceable (though cheesily titled) ode to - what else - a girl. (It's not that I'm getting tired of the romantic theme, honestly - it's just that describing it gets a tad repetitive.) Deon Rexroat really shines on this song with a sweet, fluid bass line as this darkly cool number gallops forward, with a gently smoldering guitar slowly but surely erupting into a fantastic solo as the story unwinds. It's hard to tell whether this girl is the poison or the antidote - she gets the dubious distinction of being compared to drugs on more than one occasion, and I love that Anberlin has the balls to do such a thing on a "Christian rock" album, but at the same time it's a bit unflattering. (Hey, it beats "Foreign Language" any day.) Whatever the case may be, the song unfolds beautifully, giving the band a chance to open up into an extended, fast-paced jam just when you think that it's all run its course and the album should be ending, and then Stephen gets a few last words in, telling this girl that "If London's calling, don't you dare pick up the phone" (which can only be a reference to The Clash, I guess). His last thought is a sweet one - "If a picture's worth a thousand words, then your touch is worth them all". As the song finally winds down, we get an unexpected sound clip from a British or Australian woman who sounds oddly similar to Rebecca St. James as she cries out, "Don't leave us in the dark!" But alas, in the dark we must stay, for this all made very little sense to my ears.

And you know, I don't care so much if it doesn't make sense, because I love the sheen of mystery that Anberlin coats all of their songs with, and even when things get repetitive, I still come running back for more from this band like a dumb puppy dog who doesn't know any better. What can say, they give me the one-two punch of my favorite ingredients - strong rocking power, and intriguing lyrics that I can sing along to without feeling dumb or dirty. If you like those ingredients in your music, then listen to the man with the broken head (no, seriously, visit their website, he's creepy!) and buy this album.

ALBUM WORTH:
Never Take Friendship Personal $1
Paperthin Hymn $1.50
Stationary Stationery $1
(The Symphony of) Blase $1.50
A Day Late $1
The Runaways $1
Time & Confusion $.50
The Feel Good Drag $2
Audrey, Start the Revolution! $1
A Heavy Hearted Work of Staggering Genius $0
Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen $1.50
TOTAL: $12

Band Members:
Stephen Christian - Vocals
Joeseph Milligan - Guitar
Deon Rexroat - Bass
Nathan Young - Drums

Website: http://www.anberlin.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving