Music Spectrum

Pastor: Jesus Christ is the Light of the world.
People: The Light no darkness can overcome.

Today the Light of the world is born. Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And now that the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day worship services are over, now that we’ve sung “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing,” “Silent Night,” and “Joy to the World,” now I’m ready to rock.

This Christmas Day afternoon I’ve gone back to a release from earlier in 2011, Switchfoot’s Vice Verses. As to be expected, Switchfoot delivers crunchy Guitar Rock that wails, wavers, waggles, and weaves its way through to your soul. Singing of the hope that they know in Jesus, the band is able to maintain that critical stance, the questioning glance, the yearning dance that we all find in ourselves as we seek the spiritual. Rather than acting as if knowing Jesus means meaning knowing all the answer, I have always appreciated that Switchfoot invites listeners to go on the journey with them.

I am particularly listening to “Blinding Light” today as we celebrate the coming of Jesus as the Light of the World. A staggering laidback track with a bit of backbeat, the first stanza speaks to my need for confidence in the face of the challenges of life.

Hey boy, don’t believe ‘em
The old lies never could come through
Hey boy, don’t believe ‘em
Everything that they told you to
Hey boy, don’t believe ‘em
We’re the nation that eats our youth
Hey boy, don’t believe ‘em
None of us are bulletproof.

I could’ve used those words from Jon Foreman back in junior high, and there’s plenty of times that I still need those words. I need to know that there’s a lot of lies out there, and as much as I can, I can turn away from those lies. Yet, in the end, “none of us are bulletproof.” We need something more than what we can find in ourselves. Enter Christmas. Enter God into our world. Enter the divine into human flesh.

Still looking for the blinding light
Still looking for the reason why
Still looking for the sun to shine
Take me higher and higher
All my life I’ve been living in the darkest night
Still looking for the blinding light to take me higher and higher.

May the Lord blind you with His Light today. May you be lifted up out of the darkness, protected from the lies, encouraged as a beautiful child of God, and graced with the presence of Jesus in your life.

And let that blessing rock your world. Bring it, Switchfoot!

Switchfoot
Atlantic Records
Credential Recordings

“The Rent” begins in a fragile, almost mournful place, despite the high-toned waa-waa of the lead guitar line. Like an overture that clears the palate and sets aside life’s clutter, “Rent” prepares the way for the Trophy Fire’s Modern Hearts.

Track 2: eerie keys scrape away the fragility of “The Rent,” and then the guitar riff begins in earnest. Ben Flanagan chimes in, singing against the world sounding very much like the earnest Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World. In fact, the whole scene of the Trophy Hearts’ Modern Hearts has touches of Jimmy Eat World. And that’s a good thing.

The Trophy Hearts deliver charged Emo that nonetheless keeps forming new textures out of the sonic fury. “Comrades” threatens to break out of its Railway Children-like skin, British-like brush strokes and hushed cries stretched across a gray sky. The late 90’s melodic rock that opens “Sameside” is paired with a driving chorus. Acoustics return for “Further Than We Know,” made right for the movie scene with the friends around a beach campfire and melancholy smoke hanging in the air. “Chaos/Control” gets carried along by hints of a disco ball beat, muscly guitar riffs (chaos) and bright picked guitar (control) combine.

The Trophy Fire
Greyday Records

Speaking of Jimmy Eat World. . .Going Back into 2011
The acoustic guitars that open Hey Rosetta!’s Seeds on the title track do not immediately make you think of Jimmy Eat World, but as the drums kick in, the band picks up electric guitars, Tim Baker lets his voice cry out against the world, you start to see how this is Folk-influenced Emo. The song spins and grows, and falls apart in a mess of drums on the bridge, until landing on an urgent, spurning anthem. Seeds will entrance the listener, enhancing your world with that textured folk-influenced rock that rails against the world’s ills like any good Emo should. “Yer Spring” starts off tentative before giving away to a backbeat, wordless chorus, a blooming sound bursting with oranges and red of wildflowers on hillsides. A subdued dance sway and graceful guitars paint the scene for “Young Glass.” “New Sum (Nous Sommes)” bounces along on piano with flashes of angst in the dance-against-the-grain choruses. Things come most clearly in a Jimmy Eat World vein on the straight-ahead rocker “Welcome,” written about a new child but being far from a lullaby.

Hey Rosetta!
Sonic Records

Take Jimmy Eat World-style Emo, but make sure to keep the reins pulled back tight so that it’s mainly acoustic guitars, atmospheric electronics, and a clear vocal focus. Do that and you get the Sky Life on their latest release, Roots and Wings. The title track is perhaps the most driving song whereas many other draw out their colors. In fact, today’s snowy day here in Chicago makes for a perfect backdrop as the Sky Life hums with electronic noise over a rock that pulls a grey sheen over all angles.

The Sky Life
Deep Elm Records

Head over to Deep Elm Records to download four free Christmas songs from the band the Sky Life. The tracks on the Lights and Electricity EP are acoustic and atmospheric with just enough electronics to peak your interest in a beat. “The First Noel,” despite a marching beat that comes and goes, maintains a sweet tenderness. “Deck the Halls” moves along at a clip while still being foggy and snowy. The band lets the piano lead into “Silent Night,” with the vocal staying fairly straight except for a few deliberate pauses thrown in to give the track an original flair even before the drum machine beats add another dimension. Finally, “Oh, Come All Ye Faithful” works like a folk rocker. Overall, the Sky Life is reminiscent of a toned-down Switchfoot, Remedy Drive, Mute Math, Future of Forestry, or Jimmy Eat World—keys, synths, acoustics, and some bigger sounds ready to break out.

The Sky Life
Deep Elm Records (Lights and Electricity download page)

Anthemic power rock. Runaway City’s Armored Heart comes equipped with glimpses of something big that could happen, but for the most part its wings seem clipped. “Daybreak” opens the album with a guitar culled from the Church’s Starfish before erupting into that 80’s power rock thing. “Scars” carries some nice guitar riffs, but I’m wondering if the angst would come through better live because here it becomes a bit too much like Third Day’s power pop. That Third Day thing comes through again loud and clear on “Fade,” with the guitars ready to break out but kept back by the production.

While the Christian lyrics come through clearly, Runaway City’s defining sound doesn’t, in that, they sound much like a lot of the other power rock band’s in the Contemporary Christian scene—especially bands like Day of Fire.

All that said, I keep listening to Armored Heart, because it does contain those nuggets of guitar riffs, Christian rock with some hope of finding its own sound. I listen to the album in hopes that it’s only the beginning of the band discovering its edge for future concerts and recordings.

Runaway City
Vertusent

The bluesy, acoustic jangle of “Heart is Hard to Find” opens Jimmy Eat World’s Invented with a Jars of Clay-like air. It’s a song of searching for one’s own heart, one’s own soul, akin to the territory of XTC’s “The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul.” Listening to the track while on a spiritual retreat recently, I found myself resonating with the search and the ache.

The retreat I was on focused on how pastors can care for people spiritually in the midst of great troubles. Most pastors are not equipped for clinical counseling or therapy. Instead, they are specifically called to lead people to the spiritual hope found in Jesus Christ and His Good Word.

Yet, as “Heart is Hard to Find” wrestles with what truths work, it’s a reminder of how difficult it is for us to rest in the Good News of Jesus.

I can’t compete with your new-found religion
The Good Word seems everywhere
But good words only

Speculating here on the backstory of the song, perhaps the speaker has begun the search for the heart of a loved one who has recently become a believer in Jesus (“new found religion”). While the Bible is everywhere now in their conversations, the speaker feels as if the Bible is just “good words” and not some definitive “Good Word.” The speaker, then, is searching for his loved one’s heart—hard to find now in this new religious landscape.

However, in the process, and in the sound of the song, it seems the speaker is also acutely aware of his own search for his heart. “The heart is hard to find.” Where is his heart? What does his heart need from the spiritual realm? Where does his heart find solace?

This is why I love listening to Jimmy Eat World—heart-searching, soul-stirring questions armed with muscle guitars. Invented has some hiccups (the 80’s pop flash in the chorus of “Higher Devotion”), but overall it’s another album replete with spiritual hooks—questions that lead me to see where Jesus answers the heart’s search and ache.

Jimmy Eat World
Interscope