My Top 40 Albums - #4

#4
All Star United - "All Star United"

Year: 1997
Label: Reunion
Favorite songs: La La Land, Lullaby, Smash Hit, Torn, Dive, Savior of My Universe
Lyric sample: "I got my prayer cloth collection in a Jesus jar / I got the Holy Ghost ridin' in the back of my car / Sometimes He gives a little tickle, I go "hardee har har" / Ain't it grand when you're living in la la land // My Jesus decal does quite a trick / Right above my dashboard I stick it / A good luck charm / It keeps me from harm / And saves me from speeding tickets"

One of my great regrets in life - somewhere in between killing that innocent little bird with a BB gun and wasting 75 cents + 2 1/2 hours of my life watching "The New World" - is that I never got to see All Star United live in concert during their glory days. From what I've heard it was a sight to behold, a crazy show with a lot of energy. It wouldn't be out of character. This debut record is still the band's greatest achievement, a lean 10 songs with nothing poor and nothing wasted. It's a tightly packed and well-groomed album containing the essence of everything that endears All Star to their fans. When they released their premature greatest hits collection after only two records, the lion's share of the material came from their self-titled debut. Of course, predictably, most of my favorite songs weren't their favorites, but I suppose it doesn't matter. That's why I am happy to own the CD so I can listen to their favorites and mine.

All Star United isn't an ambitious recording. It doesn't have any lofty expectations. It's just one band doing what they do best. It's their uniqueness and purity that makes it all so worthwhile. I've said it before - no one does "happy" as well as All Star United. Happy is hard to pull off without coming across trite and cheesy. People don't take you seriously when you're too happy. It seems fake. Fortunately, All Star United is quite genuine; at least as far as they intend to be. Lead singer and lyricist Ian Eskelin is one of the best satirists in the music business and he comes out of the gate with his tongue in his cheek. "La La Land" lights up with bright distorted guitars and quirky, almost circus-like keyboards bouncing along in the back while the lyrics speak of such things as "marshmallow skies and custardy pies." This sugary language describes in some ways All Star's approach to sarcasm. They are not really confrontational, but if you listen they are calling out the failings of modern Christianity - in this case a feel-good, prosperity Gospel that uses Jesus as a get-out-of-jail-free card. The song is pretty funny, and it has a good rock quotient and smart chord progression as well.

This trend continues with "Smash Hit," sending up the business of all things contemporary Christian. The truth sometimes gets lost in our attempts to market it, but at the end of the day Jesus doesn't need our promotions or ad campaigns. He's the biggest hit of all, a sensation in His own right, affecting the whole world. That's what you get if you think about the song. If you just feel it, you might merely headband to the infectious bridge riff - but that's okay too. "Bright Red Carpet" takes a clandestine approach to a serious subject: fame and wealth on earth don't give you any special credentials in the afterlife. When the band says "Will you be there when they roll out / Bright red carpet / Will I see you by my side," what they mean is, will you be in heaven? Or is your worth found in clothes, popularity, and money?

I guess happy is less the word for All Star than upbeat. This they are consistently, but I don't want to sell them short. I've already established that their lyrical content takes them much deeper than simple fluffiness, and they also have plenty of sincere sentiments. "Savior of My Universe" is a well-realized worshipful acoustic track. "Torn" expresses the uncertainty that we have all felt when wondering how (or perhaps even if) to proceed in a relationship. "Drive" offers a listening ear to a friend in distress. While pain is touched upon, it is never wallowed in. The band has hope and they are eager to share it. There are plenty of bands that do dark and do it well, but so few have mastered the lava-lamp exuberance that All Star exudes so effortlessly.

This breakout disc is also the strongest musical outing for All Star United. They are good musicians, and they give their guitars and keys time to play the songs to their conclusions. "Drive" and "Torn" are particularly great in this respect, but even "Lullaby" breaks out in the middle for a little jam. The trebly guitar tones, retro keys and background "woo-hoos" give the record a familiar congenial sensibility that recalls a simpler time. It's one of those discs that is just good clean fun. Listening to it lifts my spirits and reminds me what I love about music. Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest band in the world.

I looked far and wide (but mostly wide) and discovered this video for Bright Red Carpet, apparently made when the band had so little cash that they couldn't even afford to decorate the walls. Pretty straightforward, and hey, you don't even have to navigate away from this page so you might as well play the video.

All Star United - Bright Red Carpet
urbnmix music video codes

My Top 40 Albums - #5

#5
Steven Curtis Chapman - "Signs of Life"

Year: 1996
Label: Sparrow
Favorite songs: Lord of the Dance, Rubber Meets the Road, Children of the Burning Heart, Only Natural, Signs of Life
Lyric sample: "Come in base I've landed my ship on a planet here in space / This is the one they say is inhabited by the human race / And I'm going out to look around and see what's here / And I'll tell you what I find / Confirmation on the inhabitants, they're running everywhere / Their technology is beyond what I've seen anywhere / But I'm trying to communicate and they don't hear me / Seems like for all I'm finding I can't find the most important thing"

As a person who enjoys lists, I've made quite a few of them in my life. Favorite fast food restaurants, best rollercoasters at King's Island, top 100 albums, etc. I gleefully engage in conversation about how one thing stacks up against other, similar things. Maybe it's a little bit of OCD in wanting to see neat, organized lists. Maybe it's the control freak in me trying to control my world by reducing complex questions to simple matters of better and best. Or maybe it's just an attempt to know myself and what I like. I have a favorite food, a favorite color, a favorite animal, a favorite day of the week; but the one list I could never make was that of my favorite songs. I've always found it too daunting a task. Aside from the fact that I will be singing something different every day of the week, there are just so many songs! Millions have been written and I've probably heard tens of thousands of them in my lifetime. Usually, I pass on the question.

However... if a maniac burst into my house and held one of my family members or my cat at gunpoint and asked me to choose a favorite song (I've heard this kind of thing happens every so often), I have little doubt that my answer would be "Lord of the Dance." The lead track from Signs of Life, Steven Curtis Chapman's spectacular follow-up to the hugely popular Heaven in the Real World, "Lord of the Dance" is a consummate recording. I compliment the recording and not just the song  because I can hardly imagine it being any more finely tuned than it is. When Steven rerecorded "Lord of the Dance" (as well as "The Walk") live in Abbey Road studio for his Greatest Hits record, it was a fun little experiment. But it wasn't the masterpiece found on Signs of Life. This album is somewhat of a departure from the reverb-soaked pop rock of the last album. It adopts more of a down-to-earth folk rock approach. Steven and the band blend crisp, percussive acoustic guitars with wailing electric leads, distinctive Dobros, fiddles, pianos and more into a mix that is musically literate but not lacking in Chapman's radio-friendly charm. Signs of Life won a Grammy for best gospel album, and at least four of its songs were nominated for song of the year at the Dove Awards; and it's no accident. From beginning to end, excellence pervades. If you want to hear great musicians jamming out on high quality Christian pop rock songs, this is your album. And "Lord of the Dance" represents the best it has to offer.

What a song it is. It pains my trying to come up with ways to adequately describe it. The first tones grab your attention, mysterious, suspenseful. The guitars, tuned to open D, slide and bend with mournful anticipation. Underneath, percussion: light, but with purpose. A whine and a slide, and then on either side, far left and right, the acoustic undercurrent begins with a snappy but somewhat dark run down the strings, ending in the low D string ringing warmly in its sound space. The riff goes back and forth, a dancer in its own right, just shuffling, biding its time until it's time for the real choreography. The vocals come in, but no lyrics yet. Just "da dums." The tone is measured, ambiguous. It's clear that something is happening, but we don't yet know how to feel about it. All we know is we want to hear more. The instruments mellow and find their place, keeping the pulsing rhythm as the verse starts, and when Steven sings about his birth on the Tennessee river, we are already there. The feeling of those foggy shores on a humid southern morning with a slightly chilly breeze; the dark green of the foliage on the bank still casting shadows in the newly-risen sun; you can just about feel the flies buzzing around the back of your neck. It's an almost Deliverance-like moment. There are no dueling banjos, but these are modern times. Our musical tour guides are playing Taylors now.

Halfway through the story, the first cymbal sounds, and we begin our journey upriver. The rapids are approaching, and the pensive folk instruments are leading us to a crash-course with rock n roll when we go over the waterfall and into the chorus. At this point, it's useless to identify the parts of the song . They have solidified into a whole so unified, that there is no one playing the song; there simply is the song.

Basically, "Lord of the Dance" is as perfect a song as I have ever heard and I love everything about it, even though I don't care for Riverdance or even dancing in general. I've listened to it probably 6 times while writing the last two paragraphs and I'm not sick of it yet. When Speechless came out I listened to "Dive" until I drove it into the ground. I'm not sure I can do that with "Lord of the Dance." But I should talk about the rest of the record. "Signs of Life" is a nice mellow song and has some cool bass in it. "Children of the Burning Heart" has an inspiring melody and it invokes imagery of mountains and fields and wind in your face - of freedom and determination. It also has some great fiddling. "Rubber Meets the Road" has a solo that is straight up crunk as anything in the dirty south. "Only Natural" is a great jam song. "Let Us Pray" and "The Walk" are the really popular, Dove-nominated songs, which means they are good, but as usual, not really the album highlights. Both are excellent in their use of Scripture, however. "Free" concludes the first half of the album with a tender emotional ballad.

This is one of those albums that I could listen to just about anytime, anywhere. It's Steven Curtis Chapman's finest hour and with a career as distinguished as his, that's saying a lot. It has great energy, style, and is a spectacular batch of songs. Get with the groove and join the dance with the Lord of the Dance music video. Unfortunately, this video cuts off the song before its logical conclusion. The 5 minute 20 second running time of the full track is too much of a strain for radio or music television, so what we got with this abridged, less than 4 minute version that is, of course, inferior to the full version (and is kind of a weird video to boot). Still definitely worth a watch.

My Top 40 Albums - #6

#6
dc Talk - "Supernatural"

Year: 1998
Label: Forefront
Favorite songs: Since I Met You, It's Killing Me, Supernatural, Wanna Be Loved, Dive
Lyric sample: "I've never heard a dying soul / Wish that he had taken / More time on his portfolio / I swear, I never heard a momma say / Shoulda never had that baby / As a doctor holds her newborn on display / It's a heavenly prescription / A little bit will go a long, long way / Just put yourself in their position / Don't we all wanna be loved"

I've said it before - great bands either embody the best a particular genre has to offer, or fuse genres creating something that either defies labeling, or forces new labels to be created. dc Talk is the latter type: a group so varied that trying to pin down all their influences is about enough to make your head explode. Of course it's made a bit easier by looking at the threesome as individuals, but when they were together Toby, Michael and Kevin were a musical force. I realize I'm committing heresy in the eyes of many by having this record in my top 10, 6 spots higher than the beloved Jesus Freak. That album sits on a fantastic golden pedestal replete with gems, jewels and other shiny things. It's considered untouchable by many hardcore fans. So I'm going to risk mass hysteria by awarding the prom queen tiara to the ugly-duckling younger sister, believing that some of you will be able to see the beauty here the way I do.

Supernatural is the next natural step in the progression dc Talk has been making since Nu Thang. With each record, the rap quotient has diminished a bit, the rock amped up, and the production values improved. In Jesus Freak, the trio took their funk-tinged rap project and transformed it into a full-fledged modern rock/grunge masterpiece. With Supernatural, the raw energy and melodic sensibility of Jesus Freak takes on a dense atmosphere, drops the rap altogether, and takes us on a journey into new alternative territory. Frankly, I don't think the detractors who cite overproduction as a flaw have a leg to stand on. The only thing that keeps most artists from sounding as good as they could is money. dc Talk now has the wealth and popularity to do it up right, and they have taken great care in composing what I consider to be their finest record; it's certainly their most intricate. I understand if having too much going on waters down the overall feel so that doesn't hit as hard - that would in fact be detrimental to a rock group. However I don't think that's the case here. "It's Killing Me" and "Supernatural" sound every bit as brutal as anything on Jesus Freak, and the ballads like "Consume Me" and "Red Letters" only benefit from the smoother mix. Supernatural also serves to emphasize the boys' vocal harmonies, which Michael and Kevin serve up in plentiful style.

The songwriting on Supernatural is more balanced than on its predecessor, believe it or not. Toby Mac wrote most of the songs on Jesus Freak with the help of studio personalities like Mark Heimermann. That album also featured two covers ("Day By Day" and "In the Light") in its brief 10 song roster. Supernatural has a much better mix in the writing department. It has 12 original songs (plus Kevin's poem "There Is A Treason At Sea") and no covers, with all three Talkers weighing in on nearly every song. The result is not eclectic - rather, it is a very cohesive modern alt rock outing. Instead of having many songs of varying styles, the styles are melted down and mixed evenly inside the tracks and then those tracks are flown together in a very natural progression. It's eminently listenable. And with all the odd, edgy, creative material ("My Friend (So Long)," "Fearless," "Dive"), there are moments of high energy and pleasing harmonies ("Wanna Be Loved," "Since I Met You") and the best ballads in dc Talk's catalog ("Consume Me," "Red Letters,"). Also I suppose an X-Files fan such as myself should probably mention the song "The Truth" which borrows a catchphrase from what was at the time a wildly popular television show and proclaims "The truth is out there." The haunting "There Is A Treason At Sea," following the example of "Alas My Love" but in many ways exceeding it, closes out the album on a tasteful low note. The words of Kevin's poem evoke the imagery of the album art (the ship and the dark ocean) and then slip blissfully into the same swelling ambiance from the Intro.

It's a daunting task to call your album Supernatural and then try to live up to the name, but dc Talk is up to the challenge. If on this list there exists a perfect record, this is most likely it. It's as close as I think I've ever heard. "I see the truth, and I believe."

Consume Me. I like this video more than the My Friend video, even though they cut the song down, which is annoying.