Canadian Christian poprock band
Downhere deserve to be heard irrespective of your standpoint on religion in music.
'
Wide Eyed And Mystified', an encapsulation of their own Christian perspective after taking some time away for reflection, is the band's third and clearly strongest album to date.
The band's musical palette is laden with colourful shades from the present and the past, ranging from Keane's piano based, post modern pop to Jetliner's hardbodied seventies' pastiche, from Air Supply's romanticised MOR to Michael W Smith's soaring balladry.
A typically cutting edge production from big names in the CCM and secular markets, Mark (Michael W Smith, dc Talk) Heimermann and Greg (U2, Gwen Stefani) Collins, help the music sound contemporary and the sentiments current.
The band have two equally strong lead vocalists (and principal songwriters) in Marc Martel and Jason Germain, each heard to best effect when singing solo, though their harmonies aren't too shabby.
Lyrically, the song ideas are well defined and mature, allowing the band to explore their faith and belief in very straightforward and provocative terms. Where other bands are circumspect in their expression of strong opinions,
Downhere's lyrics are anything but ambiguous. If nothing else, this provides a refreshing balance to much of today's portentous heavy metal and pseudo-religious, straitjacket conservatism.
Celebratory opener,
'The More' and the soaring,
Queen like '
Surrender' are fitting introductions to this new album. '
A Better Way', sketched round a resounding piano, switches into rousing ballad mode on the chorus, thanks to a rising swell of strings and thundering rhythms, and is maybe the album's outstanding track.
From time to time, a compelling verse is let down by an unfocused hook or vice versa, but exceptional tracks like the edgy, rocking
'Stir', and at the
other end of the scale, the epic pop ballad
'Unbelievable', make these easy to forgive or at least overlook.
It may not convert the unconvinced, but '
Wide Eyed And Mystified' is as powerful and as passionate a rock album as you'll hear all year.
Written by
Brian Thursday, August 17, 2006
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