They’re already done as a band, but Small Towns Burn a Little Slower live on in their last will and testament, So Begins the Test of a Man. It’s an album that references death (of the band) by a song that’s a letter to wife (“Last Will in Testimony”) and a postmortem lyric (“So when I die, I can survive as a melody/will these songs be enough for us to secure a legacy?” in “Rooftops Won’t Come to You”).
STBLS have the quintessential Minneapolis rock sound (latter-day Soul Asylum, the Suburbs) while also bringing back some of the country-lilt of garage rock bands such as Gin Blossoms and Goo Goo Dolls.
More than that, though, STBLS sounds like Further Seems Forever, Forever Changed, Cool Hand Luke, Mourning September, and Number One Gun. In other words, So Begins… by its production, flavor, style, and perhaps even substance could be a Christian rock album. (I know I’ve debated this before that Christian rock doesn’t have a “sound” but in this case, STBLS sound like Christian rock).
There’s just an overwhelming similarity between this album’s sound and many recent Christian rock bands. Perhaps they’re all just influenced by similar predecessors, but it’s strange to play this disc in my church office and forget that it doesn’t come from my Christian rock stacks.
A place where this all comes together is in the blue stage light, ballad-like sway of “Rooftops” with its search for ultimate meaning and spiritual answers (“but I’ll still try to search for God in my mind/so when I die, I can survive as more than memories”). Whether this search led somehow to STBLS having a Christian rock sound or it is just serendipitous, this album show that Christian rock isn’t far from bar/club rock. But what STBLS may do better is developing these themes of searching, seeking, and angst over meaningless death.
So if the whole Christian rock thing scares you, just disregard me as spending too much time inside the walls of my church. Get this disc, send the boys a farewell bouquet of flowers, (check out their new endeavors), and then rock on.
If the Christian rock thing intrigued you or ticked you off, you can always send me an email, on which you could put the subject line: “So begins the test of Ben Squires.”
Small Towns Burn a Little Slower (R.I.P.)
Dead Letter Records
Current Projects by Band Members
Wrestling with Wolves
Askeleton
To Reinvent
