Disc 002 - Newsboys - Going Public

The Disc: Since 1985, The Newsboys having been wowing Christian audiences and headlining Creation Festivals with their Aussie accents, catchy keyboard riffs, and a line-up that revolves just about as often as the rotating drum rig for which they're oh-so famous. Though they made their first mark on the CCM scene with Not Ashamed and its single of the same name, their fifth album, Going Public was where things really took off. The lead single, "Shine" is an instantly recognizable hit, and the album is generally considered to be one of the first alternative Christian records that was open and honest about its subjects, yet reverent.

My Copy's Origins: I'm pretty sure the strobe lights made me buy this CD. Our junior high youth group at church was organizing a trip to go see Steven Curtis Chapman on his "Heaven in the Real World Tour" (see what he did there?) and though I'm not sure why, I ended up tagging along. My friend Mark and I sat together in the arena seats, probably making fart jokes and laughing hysterically at nothing, while our youth group leader hyped up SCC's show. I was pretty skeptical. I'd seen Stevie's haircut.

"Shine"

Then the lights went down and the synthesizers started. It was the opening riff from "Shine." When the lights flashed back on there were several odd looking Aussie's on stage wearing grey jumpsuits, banging their bald heads, and letting loose some raucous contemporary Christian pop. At the chorus, a giant LED-style screen behind them flashed "S-H-I-N-E" in quick succession as strobe lights pounded the audience with each new letter. Mark started making ridiculous faces to coincide with each flash of the strobe. Either that, or he was having a seizure.

I don't remember much else from that night, except that I talked my parents into taking me up to Hackman's Bible Bookstore the next weekend and splitting the cost of "Going Public" with me.

To Toss: A few years ago, Blaze magazine praised the Newsboys for showing "music from a Godly perspective could sound extremely catchy, have lyrics that were honest and still glorify God." What Blaze neglected to mention was that, while those lyrics might be honest, some are also downright silly. Here's a quick sampler:

"Try as you may there is no way to explain that kind of change that would make an Eskimo renounce fur, that'd make a vegetarian barbecue a hamster."

-"Shine"

"I wanna preach the word. They want massages. I check chapter and verse. They check their watches."

-"When You Called My Name"

"It's not a family trait, it's nothing that I ate, and it didn't come from skating with holy rollers."

-"Spirit Thing"

Needless to say, this ain't Shakespeare, it ain't T.S. Eliot, it ain't even Dylan. (Of course, Dylan's Christian albums weren't exactly "Dylan," either... but, we'll get to that later.) These lyrics might have earned them some respect in the CCM community, but outside of that, they don't hold up so well.

Furthermore, those same synth sounds that thrilled my adolescent ears in that big arena can also be used for evil. When it comes to laying on the schmaltz, the Newsboys know where all the necessary buttons are on their KORG keyboards. The two major offenders here are "Let It Rain" and "Be Still."

The former track, written from the perspective of the apostle Peter during his "final hour" remembering all of the water-related elements that remind him of Christ, is quite poignant and poetic. It could probably have been salvaged as a decent ballad were it not drenched in multiple layers of synth strings and pad swells.

The latter, however, is so cheesy that its melted corners practically drape over the edge of the disc itself. I'm pretty sure I can even hear a few whispered lyrics in the background. What is this, Newsboyz II Men?

With a few other notable examples, this type of production comes off as considerably dated, keeping the listener constantly aware that this is an early-90's Christian pop album.

Not to Toss: Of course, those three adjectives are a triple-whammy to any record, especially in the area of production. We're talking about an era, a religion, AND a genre that tend to favor flowery, over-produced music. This may not excuse the Newsies for their crimes, but it certainly puts things into perspective as to what kinds of obstacles they needed to overcome to make a good record.

So, did they?

To be honest, some of these tracks hold up surprising well today. Yes, there are the aforementioned lyrical and synth-based atrocities to consider, but if you can take yourself a little less seriously (and I'd like to think I can) there actually is some brave honesty here. While the word choice may not always be impeccable, the themes and truths that they're examining still come through, and they say a lot.

The title track, for example, deals with the tendency of believers to stay closeted about their faith for fear of the persecution or stigma they'd face from others. In less capable hands, a song like this could come across as accusatory or preachy, but Davis and Furler manage to make it more of a rallying cry than a sermon: "Sign on, the time is drawing near, this surely a banner year to be a public witness."

"Truth and Consequences," while still fraught with some laughable lines and a slightly confusing spoken-word bridge, (are we meant to imply a Cyrano de Bergerac-style dialogue from the dual panned voices repeating each other?) still addresses the fact that many Christian relationships are just as vapid, self-serving, and tactical as those outside the church.

The real stand-out song is the concluding track, "Elle G.," whose title is a thinly veiled reference to the word "elegy." The song revolves around a man coping with the shocking suicide of a young girl who was obviously a close friend. Rather than sentimentalizing the subject, the lyrics explore some of the serious questions anyone in this situation would ask. Lines like, "Silence, nobody breathe. How in the world could you just leave? You swore that you would silence that evil with good," are left unanswered, adding a notable depth to the subject matter. However, the final "overcome evil" that appears to signal the denouement of the whole record takes a surprise turn by swelling back with a confident cry of "for good" and a climactic guitar solo.

The Verdict: Overall, the tracks where the production is less than intrusive are fun and somewhat thoughtful. This is by no means high art, but certainly good listening. And I don't know about anyone else, but I still smile when "Shine" starts and I hear that opening synth riff. I smile without irony.

Going Public stays.

Disc 001: 2 Minutes Hate - Let it Eat

The Disc: 2 Minutes Hate is a band you've never heard of, and after this blog review, you never will again. Named after a concept from George Orwell's 1984, this band's moment of fame lasted about 119 seconds shorter than their name. Let it Eat was the first of only two albums released by the group in 1995 before they promptly dropped off the radar. The group was replaced by several incompetent hardcore and rap-rock namesakes who have never read 1984 but figure that any band name with the word "Hate" in it qualifies as bad-ass.

My Copy's Origins: Around the time of this album's release, I had newly discovered CMJ Magazine and its lovely monthly sampler CD's. I never became a full-blown subscriber, but I would regularly scour the magazine racks at my local Borders to find a new copy I could purchase and take home for perusal. Being still a devout follower of the gods of grunge and all things distorted, I often skipped over or scoffed at tracks such as "Underground" by Ben Folds Five, or Mercury Rev's cover of some song called "Don't Let Me Down."

But, of course, the loud stuff would catch my attention. 2 Minutes Hate's "California" qualified and I placed it on a birthday wish list. Somehow... don't ask me how, because I don't know, my parents found and bought me a copy, thus making me one of six people on the planet Earth who own this record. And the ONLY one that isn't currently flogging it on eBay.

To Toss: To be completely candid, I had never listened closely to half the songs on this record. However, as per my youthful "new-CD-listening-regimen," I have sampled the first ten or twenty seconds of each track looking for "something cool." Therefore, my former knowledge of this disc is made up of about four full songs and seven recognizable intros.

Upon listening to the album from start to finish I now realize that many of these songs never get more interesting than their intros, so I hadn't been missing much. The lead singer's voice resembles an awkward cross between a mildly sedated Billy Corgan and a smirking Jack Nicholson circa 1975. When the music supporting him is memorable and the lyrics less than cringe-worthy, his timbre can be generally ignored. However, these moments are sparse throughout.

As far as the instrumentation, the bass is indistinguishable, the drums generally inconsequential, and the guitars... well, they're playing as many riffs as they can cram into the mere 43 minutes of the disc. Actually, I'm pretty sure that the solo on "Alligator" is actually an outtake from one of Pearl Jam's sessions for Ten.

The lyrics aren't much better, with choruses like "My alli! My gator! You want it! You'd never!" or "I'm not your cauliflower. It's not my darkest hour." Somehow, cliches about despair and suffering just don't mix well with vegetable metaphors.

Not to Toss: This is one of those anomalies of the pre-digital age where, despite the generally forgettable and bland music throughout, two or three stand-out moments make me hesitant to chuck this in the bin. While most of the songs start in one mode and end still flailing about in that same vein, accomplishing very little other than draining the 9-volt in a distortion pedal, three tracks stand out as not only listenable but enjoyable.

"Killing Time," while not exactly a work of lyrical genius, is textured, layered, and contains enough nice little guitar riffs and catchy melody lines to give it status as a viable single. The use of ominous guitar feedback and faded lead lines pushes it well above the quality of the rest of the record. In fact, if it ended at 2:43 rather than jumping back into an unnecessary rehash of the main riff (now with overdrive!) I might call it a great song.


"Shock" is not as subtle as "Killing Time," but it does feature some clever studio tricks, tempo changes, and quality performances that set it apart from other tracks on the disc. The guitar sound on the intro is unique enough to alert any listener (even myself at 15) that this track is worth further inspection. Featuring a very distant, muted distortion and what appears to be miked electric guitar strums in one ear and a booming low note bent and drooped over and over in the other, the song barrels into the album's best rocker, and never really lets up.

With just that in its favor, the song wouldn't be all that spectacular, but about half-way through, the beat relents and allows the guitar and driving bass to pull the song in a whole new direction. For the only time on the whole album, the band sounds glorious, resplendent, even joyful singing "Well my heart is pounding like a big bass drum. Hallelujah!" (Is that how they convinced Ardent records to sign them?)


Lastly, "Understand" is a rare ballad that is so uncharacteristic of the band, you almost feel like you're listening to a better record for most of its four minutes. Predominantly calm and quiet, the song features some lovely melodic variations on two very simple chord structures, played mostly on the higher frets while letting the open low notes ring out below. The marked tenderness of the first two minutes and the song's vaguely passable lyrics even earn the band enough credit to justify the inevitable swell into distortion that finally bursts forth. The main riff is good enough that it actually sounds just as beautiful when played in overdrive. Though, no one would ever call "Understand" a 'classic' it shows enough promise to let the listener imagine how great it might have been with the proper production and performance.


The Verdict: This is a tough one. Would you hang on to a decent book just because it had one excellent chapter? Is a movie worth keeping on your shelf because of a single classic scene? Or is it no longer necessary to stock up on relatively vapid CD's with only a few impressive tracks now that we can just download the good ones and forgo the rest?

Considering my fondness for these three tracks, and passing interest in the lower caliber songs, I also need to take into account the rarity of the disc itself. Obviously, no collector will ever pay a mint for it, and it's not going to appreciate in value, but if I toss it now, I may never find another copy if I ever wanted one. And the fact that I think I might ever want one, tells me not to toss.

Let it Eat stays.