Album Review: Audio Adrenaline ‘Kings & Queens’

Audio Adrenaline ‘Kings & Queens’

It’s easy to get nostalgic about a band you grew up with isn’t it?

For me Audio Adrenaline was one of those groups… and with their farewell tour I would have thought that was the end.
And then the resurrection… something new rises out of the ashes… the same name… but is it the same band that I remember?

Let me just be really up front with you… This album isn’t going to leave you a gasp at the new direction or the lyrical content… however it’s not going to leave you offended either. This is a ‘safe’ album designed to be the start of a great new re-brand of a great Christian brand ‘Audio Adrenaline’

And the sound… ironically this album comes out sounding more like Newsboys meets U2 with a touch of The Script thrown in for good measure and DC Talk vocals… this is not the same Audio Adrenaline sound that some might be expecting…
Almost every song is a dialed up to 10 stadium anthem pop/rock (very much like Newsboys and U2’s big numbers) and there is a definitive smell of mid 90’s rock oozing through almost every riff and melody.

This is a solid album… however to say it’s a Audio Adrenaline album is based on the heart of the band (still fighting for the under-dog) and the fact that Mark Stuart and Will McGinniss are still heavily involved in the band (Mark as cheerleader and Will is still playing bass).

The album starts of almost sounding like it’s going to break into a new version of Newsboys super song ‘Shine’ – however it soon slides into a song that’s in the same sort of vein as Audio Adrenaline’s more poppy tracks from the past like ‘Under dog’or ‘Get down’.
We’re then lead into the first single from the album ‘King’s & Queen’ a song that at the heart of it is orphans from Haiti… it’s a great single and stands out as just that.

Believer is my favourite track I would have to say… it’s a powerful track that reminds me of the things that have pushed tracks by The script to the top of the charts.

I get halfway through the album and I;m almost begging for something new… a new sound… something that isn’t just another anthem… I want peace… I want something that lets me rest… or maybe something that is going to rock my brain out of the ‘nice’ middle of the road stadium filling flood that is filling my room.

There has been much talk about the power and range of Kevin Max’s vocals… and they are world renown. However all I have heard is his amazing range and power… but I want to hear the diversity in his voice… I want to hear the growl and frailty I heard in some of his solo projects.

The end of the album takes a nice change and K-Max and the band start to take on more of a U2 vibe (think ‘No line on the Horizon’) especially on tracks like ‘Seeker’ and ‘I climb a Mountain’ and like anything that they have done on this album they have done it well… but it’s really just paint by numbers anthem pop/rock at the end of the day.

With a new line up and a new lead singer I though this was going to be the chance for Audio A. to really push the boundaries and wow a new generation of followers… instead it kind of feels like a band that is making it’s first appearance a face lift and the result is an album of 10 great songs that belong on 4 different albums… and while there is some continuity throughout the album it just seems like the band was being ‘too nice’ learning how each other works rather than being able to stand back and really critique the album as a whole.

I’ll give them a ‘A’ for effort but these guys have got a bit of as way to go to really land a great album… hopefully the next album will have them gelled more and ready to push their music boundaries more than this. This is good… it’s just not great…

What goes around in music… is a record

There is nothing new in music… lets just get that out there now… phew you feel better right?

Rock was birthed out of blues… blues out of Negro Spirituals… Bluegrass even was inspired by some Jazz influences…

If you take away the distortion and yelling, and unplug everything heavy metal sounds just like a mixture between classical and country… it’s can actually be ‘pretty’.

What about band’s making their careers longer by using other bands members?

Now I have been thinking recently specifically about the old Christian rock groups of the 90’s (specifically DC Talk, Audio Adrenaline and Newsboys) swapping band members… my reaction to it is “Meh”

Bands have been doing it for ages…

Van Halen, had Gary Cherone from Extreme… look back further… band members from other groups used to form ‘Supergroups’ all the time, Crosby (The Byrds) Stills (Buffalo Springfield) Nash (The Hollies) and Neil Young… Or The Traveling Wilbury’s  with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty.

Heck even New Kids on The Block decided to join forces with The Backstreet boys to form NKOTBSB *sigh*.

So why is everyone so upset when Soul tinged singer Micheal Tait, grabs the mic for Newsboys… or when Kevin Max grabs the Mic for Audio Adrenaline?

Isn’t it about the music, rather than the personalities?

And while I think about the fact that it’s a sign that often the music industry is wanting to hold onto the past it has to be pointed out that if there’s nothing else new and exciting coming through the other side from new and upcoming, then they(the music industry and music labels) have to scramble to keep revenue ticking in right?

Music is always about personalities… Elvis, the Beatles, Prince, Michael Jackson, KISS, Ben Harper, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and of course the list goes on… however… it’s always the MUSIC that lives on…

As Frank Zappa famously quoted:

“All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.”

So lets not worry about who is singing with who… but the fact that someone is still singing!!

 

Vampires and Zombies

Zombies as portrayed in the movie Night of the Living Dead (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With so many films and TV shows about Zombies and the un-dead you would think it was something new however if we are to be really honest the whole idea is quite old… in fact it could be a sign of how behind the times we really are.

The book Dracula was written in about 1897 and was based on folklore that had already been around.

But even before that there were glimpses of the un-dead… even in The Bible

And then there is Jesus… he even adds to the Vampire myth…. Jesus says this:

But Jesus didn’t give an inch. “Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day. My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you. In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always.” – john 6:53-58 (The Message)

There are a lot of things that Jesus was referring to here… his crucifixion… how the Passover meal would take on a new meaning… that he was the bread of Life… and his words were to be digested… swallowed… but we see all this in hindsight of 2000 years don’t we???
The people of the time didn’t see this and they were confused… it even says that a lot of Jesus’ followers found it too hard to swallow and they left him… they just didn’t get it.

However they were going to find it hard to get their heads around the Zombie Jesus too.

Now I don’t mean to be disrespectful… but I think Zombies are a great analogy for Christians…

Jesus died… it’s not a myth… it’s factual and historical, and the resurrection is just as factual… thousands of people saw Jesus back among them… they all saw… they all witnessed his brutal death… and when you see someone back among you… you start to take notice.

Just like Zombies… we are un-dead… dead to our old life… and we are born again a new creation

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
– 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) –

We don’t have to our old life…it’s dead… and we are REBORN something new… and we don’t have to worry about our old life dragging us down… it’s dead.

In 1997 Audio Adrenaline released a song called ‘Some Kind of Zombie’ that said this:

I must have been confused or vain
to let this evil in my brain.
Lord did I enjoy the change
that you made inside my heart?

….here they come
they’re all up on me
but I’m dead to sin like
some kind of zombie.

And now 5 years later Family Force 5 have some back with their version of the same thought…

So here is the newly released FF5 song ‘Zombie’ from their album III.V

Click on this link… and enjoy: Family Force 5 ‘Zombie’

 

Album Review: Know Hope Collective

Know + Hope Collective

I love the IDEA of concept albums… and sometimes it really works  (Jars of Clay presents: the Shelter is a great example of this… ) but sometimes the concept IDEA can over power the music so it’s a fine balance, between the thought and the music behind it. So I started listening to this album with skepticism, and I was left pleasantly surprised.

Basically the concept of this album is ‘HOPE’ or as another commentator put it “the feeling that events will turn out for the best”

I found this album while searching for songs that would provide a soundtrack to those living in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake. I was searching for songs of hope… not the kind of hope that people ‘just know’ – the head knowledge… I was hunting for songs that were about hope from people who have experienced hopelessness… and discovered the grace that comes in these times.

Lead singer Mark Stuart and bassist Will McGinnis both from Audio Adrenaline, formed the group after talking to people around a camp fire and discovering that their stories of hope through turmoil were being echoed from others also – and the more they talked to other people the more they discovered that others had similar stories.

And so from that spark Know Hope Collective was born.

Now lets get down to the actual album itself… It was publicized as a “this ground-breaking initiative combining worship music with stories of hope and inspiration” personally I’m not sure of that description- I just think that it’s a really great idea. To often there are ‘worship’ albums with church in mind… or ‘secular’ focused albums with the lost in mind… An album that combines what we do in church and what happens in our lives (both good and bad) is what makes an album ‘real’… and I guess makes it more of a ‘worship’ album in doing so.

Almost half the albums you may have heard before… “Ocean Floor”, “The Good Life” and “Hands and Feet” were previously released on Audio Adrenaline albums, but these are new fresh cut back versions… the same treatment has been given to “Build us back” that was a song co-written by Mark Stuart and ended up on the latest Newsboys album ‘Born again’. All of these remade songs are tastefully done… however I wonder with so many of them already known are they a distraction from the flow of the album… Do they fit with the theme? Yes… Do they enhance the story process? I’m still not sure… but they are great songs (Especially ‘Build us back’ a personal favourite of mine in light of the recent earthquakes in New Zealand)

The album is a real, back to basics album… almost acoustic in feel… almost live… it’s music that draws you in. It’s like coming to sit at the feet of an old story teller who draws you close and whispers “there is hope even in brokenness… and this is how I know”.

Drawing from Psalm 23 the first single ‘Attention’ Mark begins the album with these words…

“You call me here from all the things I’m chasing. You bring me to this place to lie down. You pull me from the wars I’ve been waging and remind me there’s a table set for us. Exhale, shut my eyes, let me slow down and be still. Speak. You have my attention, Lord.”

If you’re in the middle of turmoil in your life… if you’re not sure of your future… then listen to this album… listen to the stories of others who have been were you are… but more importantly find out why they KNOW that there is hope.

7/10