I have been a fan of Anberlin ever since I was introduced to them either by my friend Eric or Spencer freshman year in high school. I was attracted to the bands honesty, and refreshing musical perspective, from their debut record Blue Prints for the Black Market, to Never Take Friendship Personal, and to Cities. Then came their major label debut New Surrender. I cannot put my disappointment for this record into words. At first, I was disgusted that they recorded “Feel Good Drag”, a song that was two records old, because they “thought it didn’t receive enough attention”. I thought it did! I did not even think it was in the top 5 songs on that record (NTFP). I bought the album off of iTUNES the midnight it came out, after 5 solid listens to the record the following days, I still thought it sucked. Not a little bit, but like…a LOT of suck. Mounds and mounds of suck. I thought the first 4 songs on the record were pretty solid, but then it just sort of crashed from there. Songs like “Breathe”, “Soft Skeletons”, and “Younglife” almost made me want to cry and ask iTUNES for a refund and then some. This was not my beloved Anberlin that had crafted songs like “Godspeed”, “Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen”, “Glass to the Arson”, and a bunch of other really killer tracks. After New Surrender I had basically given up on Anberlin. I wrote them off as a major label casualty, just like what had happened with some of my other favorite bands (namely The Juliana Theory and Relient K).
That was, until I heard their single for the new record “We Owe This to Ourselves”. It very much reminded of Anberlin’s Cities days…which was awesome to me, as that was my favorite record by them. I breathed a breath of hope. I thought maybe they weren’t too far gone, and that Stephen Christian still had some good lyrics left in him, and that the band was still capable of writing a solid song. After listening to their latest record Dark is the Way, Light is a Place, I am proud to announce that the Anberlin people like myself have grown up knowing and loving has returned…sort of.
Musically, the whole record is pretty killer. The song structures are super solid, and also a bit refreshing, which to me, was super surprising after the loads of disappointment that was New Surrender. Lyrically however, I feel like Stephen is still trying to get a grasp on the whole…honestly, I don’t even know. At some places the lyrics are just plain bad and elementary—things that you would’ve expected to be on their very first record BPFTBM, in particular the songs “To the Wolves” and “Art of War”. (To be honest, I called that “Art of War” was going to be a lame song when I saw the track listing…solely based off of the super lame title, which was also a mildly lame movie.) It almost astounds me that a guy that has written soo many killer lyrics on both Anberlin’s stuff, and his solo stuff, can think that some of those lyrics are good. Like “Who needs enemies when we’ve got friends like you”, “Because of you I’ll never write another love song”, are just some of the super trite verses that exist on the record.
Similar too their previous effort, Dark is the Way, Light is a Place is good to a certain point. I would say that point is starting at the lyrics “Art of War” (the music is REALLY good on that song, ironically) the album sort of downslides. So if you’re wondering why there are only ten songs on this record, I think you should do less wondering and more being thankful that there are only ten songs. Six of which are super, super solid. I would have to say that for me, “Pray Tell” and “Impossible” are the highlights to this record. Thankfully they don’t come even close to writing a song as bad as some of them were on NS, but I am starting to think that this band is now entirely incapable of writing a record that will ever live up to Cities, which is super unfortunate.
Either way, I encourage you to give Dark is the Way, Light is a Place a solid listen and decide for yourself, because there definitely are some killer tracks on it. So if anything, this record is a huge comeback from their debut major label release, but the band still has a far way to go to find the passion of their Tooth and Nail Record days.
Vocals: 8/10
Musicianship: 6.7/10
Lyrics: 6/10
Production: 8/10
Creativity: 6.8/10
Lasting Value: 7/10
Final Verdict: 71%
hahahahhahaha your review is a joke. what a terrible review.
ReplyDeleteand no, i am not saying this because we have different views on the record. i haven't listened to the record yet and won't for a couple days probably. it's more that you wrote more about your casual liking to their earlier records and HATED new surrender. you talked more about their old stuff than the actual record. TERRIBLE review.
Chad,
ReplyDeleteNew Surrender has to be appreciated for what it is. A band that was pressured by their label to produce a record. Stephen came to a point where he almost went Brian Wilson and locked himself away for months. Dark Is The Way is a reinvention, and Art of War does not have terrible lyrics, "Readyfuels" did. I will concede "To The Wolves" has some questionable lyrics and is the weakest track, but again its still the guy who wrote "Foreign Language." Lastly, I'd like to say that Relient K is not a major label casualty, they jumpstarted Mono v Stereo to release Forget and Not Slow Down, which was the best album of 2009, laden with spirituality. That's all I got. Hope to see you again brother, come on over to Copper Beech and visit. Adios.