The Spectrum Stacks: Contemporary Christian Music

The Spectrum Stacks - a handful of CDs from a particular category that I didn’t get a chance to review yet


Hip Hop/Rap: KJ-52’s Behind the Musik (A Boy Named Jonah)
Fresh raps is what the Christian music scene needs, and KJ-52 (pronounced “five-two”) succeeds in many places on his 2005 release, Behind the Musik (A Boy Named Jonah). “Fivetweezy” has the swanky whine of Slim Shady, a narrative of KJ-52’s music career—not adding up to the popularity of those whom he name drops but hey, “kids take puff paint and write my name/on they t-shirts and they be like “wooo heyyy!!” It’s a groove that leads to right up to a simple declaration: “God runs things not Bruce Almighty/He’s Jesus the only one I need.”

Flush with the success of rap metal in the current Contemporary Christian Music scene, Kutless’ Jon Micah Sumrall joins KJ-52 on “Are You Real?” which opens up to a hard rock chorus, but pulls back for groove/rap on the verses. This track crunches especially due to the contribution of Aaron Sprinkle on programming, keyboards, bass, and guitar.

Rebecca St. James adds her siren vocals on the chorus of “God,” a little touch of that hard rock while the verses rap over a synth laden groove which has light similarities to that odd jungle instrumental “Three Sisters” on INXS’ Listen Like Thieves while also sounding like the movie score Hip Hop of Jon Kennedy.

While those songs rip and ride the rhythm, the album is broken up by interview pieces with the parents of KJ-52 (Jonah Sorrentio). If these interviews had been edited down to 10-20 second bits which add to the autobiographical nature of the album, the concept would’ve worked. As it is, though, the pieces get too long, seem a bit self-indulgent, and work against the energy built in the songs. (Perhaps it’s designed for an MP3 era where one needn’t listen to the whole album, but if you slap the CD in the player, you might find your finger’s on the >>| button quite a bit).

“Video Game” adds some fun to the record, name dropping all of the video game names, stars, blips, beeps, and lingo, making it a metaphor for finding faith in Christ. It’s one of those CCM songs that are fun, but in the end, have trouble seeming like much more than a good youth group Bible study lead in.

There’s a lot more to comment on here, what with the album coming in at 18 songs, but as I’ve noticed with other rap albums, the album begins to fizzle out just as it begins to get going. The second half ain’t bad, but there’s probably more songs on here than deserved to have gotten past the “we’ll put this in the demo tape compilation” bin.

Behind the Musik is released by BEC Records.


Folk-influenced American Rock: Krystal Meyer’s Krystal Meyers
After releasing Day of Fire in 2004 and gaining a spot among the Hard Rock CCM category, Essential Records seems to be continuing to pursue harder-edged acts in hopes to broaden the sound of the imprint. Perhaps this was the hope with the newly released, self-titled debut from Krystal Meyers, but if so, they may be disappointed that I’d categorize it as a slightly louder version of Folk-influenced American Rock.

Meyers clearly gravitates towards (and/or has been groomed towards) the GRRRL image of Avril Lavinge. The cute teenage skater chick from next door, Meyers launches some skater-rock-lite on “Anticonformity,” a reversal of Corrosion of Conformity which shows how subversive it is to be Christian. However, rejecting ideas of image is a bit empty considering how much the album, photos, and bonus CD-ROM material are built around Meyers’ image.

Overall, Meyers sounds like Michelle Branch and Jennifer Knapp. Meyers is given lead songwriting credits on all tracks, but all include cowriters or cowriting committees. Meyers is still young, and while she poses good voice, good instinct, and some songwriting skills, I think remains to be seen whether those skills will mature to be able to unleash the apparent rebel voice that gets lost in these pop-over productions.

Songs like “Fall to Pieces” have the potential to blaze, and perhaps as Meyers tours and develops a regular back band, the songs will take on the energy her image wants to exude.


Garage Rock: Olivia the Band’s Olivia the Band
While Krystal Meyers may not be as hard edged as her image, Essential Records probably got a little bit more of what they wanted with Olivia the Band’s self-titled debut (released in January). The Hawaiian band turn out empty swimming pool skate punk tunes, some six months ahead the new hot add StellarKart.

There’s a lot of Christian music festivals, so I suppose it’s OK to have more than one band that sounds like Relient K. That’s what you’ve got with Olivia—the sound, at least. There’s not the seeming silliness of Relient K’s humorous approach to the life of faith, but Olivia’s lyrics do have the same way of hanging on sound and rhythm as much as syntax. “Butterflies” begins chant-like, “If thoughts were butterflies, a thousand would be flutter flying round about, all throughout the vast expanse between my ears.”

Let’s call this a retro sound, since the CCM world is currently fueled by the skate punk of the 90’s. You can imagine a Tony Hawk skate video, doing drop-ins on the drum rolls of “Along the Way”—the sound of MxPx with Relient K vocals. You imagine surfers riding the curls across your TV screen with “Stars & Stripes” playing. On the fist-punching rhythm of “Shut It Out,” you can also imagine one of those backyard concert videos by the O.C. Supertones videos from a decade ago.

For all of its throwback sound, there’s certainly plenty to fuel car trips, driveway car washes, car camping, and car-parked-in-the-lot-of-the-picnic-area-acting-as-an-overgrow-stereo.

The darker guitar throw down of “Kill the Grey” captures the infuriating conflict that Paul wrote about in Romans 7:15-25—the struggle between wanting to serve God but still following the desires of the flesh. Guitars wrap themselves around this struggle, along with the call and response vocals, perhaps making the concept more understandable than my recent sermon.

The album closes acoustically with “Missing,” which gets me thinking of the Monkees. It’s a very sincere, harmonious song, but there’s jangly fun to it all. That jangle fun helps Olivia avoid the overly sincere acoustic song trap, and perhaps that’s why this album avoids all of those other landmines (Relient K wannabees, retro fluff, not punk enough). Olivia will bounce along on their merry, guitar-led way, enjoying the surrounding sounds, without ever getting stuck in any one place.