Product Showcase {Music & Video}

POP / ROCK

Good Monsters

Jars of Clay / Essential (Provident-Integrity) UPC: CD: 08306108202 Style: Pop / Rock More than 10 years after releasing its self-titled career-breaking album with multi-format hits like “Flood,” Jars of Clay returns with one of the most inspired, thought-provoking discs to hit shelves this year, Good Monsters. It’s pure pop-rock fare compared to Jars’ last offering, Redemption Songs.

One of the most inspired, thought-provoking discs to hit shelves this year.

While Redemption Songs showcased the root-sier side of the band with its acoustic instruments and old-time hymns, Good Monsters leans toward the moody and morose. The 12-song disc is expertly layered with electric guitars that vamp and rage with songs like “Mirrors & Smoke” with guest Leigh Nash, and later come under beautiful control with “Even Angels Cry.”

Darker than any of the ambient piano or stark string arrangements is the song content. Good Monsters’ subject matter is serious and the songs paint moving images of the soul’s destruction in “Oh My God” and the title track, among others. Frontman Dan Haseltine sounds fragile and ragged at times, as if the weight of the song is almost too much to communicate. Death is a prominent subject on this disc, but so is the hope that lies in knowing God, as evinced in Jars’ cover of Buddy & Julie Miller’s classic “All My Tears.” —Lizza Connor Bowen

Between the Dreaming and the Coming True

Bebo Norman offers hope to a hurting world.

Essential (Provident-Integrity)

UPC: CD: 083061079925

Style: Contemporary Pop

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Singer/songwriter Bebo Norman now adds producer to his list of accomplishments. Norman co-wrote and produced Between the Dreaming and the Coming True primarily with Jason Ingram (The Longing), with “The Way We Mend” produced by Glenn Rosenstein. While Norman used to write all his own songs, he told ASPIRINGRETAIL the collaboration allows him to place more priority on family, friends, and his wife. Proclaiming a newfound confidence, Norman says this album is a turning point for him

as an artist. Norman’s loyal fan following will experience his personable and conversational stage presence as he tours the next few months with Brandon Heath (Reunion/Provident-Integrity) and Aaron Shust (Brash/Word).

ABOUT THE ALBUM

Two years after Try, Norman’s fifth studio album Between the Dreaming and the Coming True arrives in stores Sept. 19. Inspired by Robert Benson’s same-titled book about finding God in the midst of depression, “It was so poignant to me because this really is where life as a believer is most often lived… somewhere between the two. It’s about hope eternal played out against the backdrop of a difficult world. It’s messy and it’s beautiful all at the same time.”

ABOUT THE SONGS

“Into the Day,” reflective of the entire album, is about stepping out of darkness into hope. “Be My Covering” displays a rousing chorus calling out to God. “Time Takes Its Toll on Us” is a prayer written to God (“I need to see you in the sunrise”) and a rally around relationships in which beauty and tragedy intermingle. “I Know Now” uses surges of strings and brass to propel the message that burdens can be laid down. “I Will Lift My Eyes” uplifts “the Maker of the mountains I can’t climb… Calmer of the oceans raging wild…Healer of the hurt I hold inside.” “To Find My Way to You,” with its upbeat tempo and sweet message, strikes a bittersweet chord with lyrics about loving long-distance. “Sunday,” a simple and sunny love song, provides a stark contrast to the final song. “Now That You’re Gone” is a cry for those wounded by loneliness and loss. The least hopeful of all the tracks, it draws listeners back to the beginning of an overall triumphant album.

REVIEWS

Into the Unknown

Anadara / Spring Hill Worship (Word)

UPC: CD: 789042111928

Style: Contemporary Pop

Anadara, an artist featured on Spring Hill Worship releases for over a year, debuts her solo album, Into the Unknown, which has moments of promise.

Glimpses of promise include “Go,” a radio-friendly, engaging tune with a catchy chorus and an equally appealing theme imploring that one should, with Christ, “leave all that you know and take the leap of faith”; “The Name,” a song made powerful by the gradual layering of voices to the continual cadence of the Biblical names of God; and “Still,” where Anadara’s crystal clear vocals blend quietly with a

52 | AspiringRetail | September2006

The Official Magazine of CBA