November 2013 – intheloup

Jars of Clay — The Long Fall Back to Earth

10/10 Where Jars of Clay’s Good Monsters dealt with the macro of the biggest issues in life, The Long Fall Back to Earth deals with the micro realm of relationships. The former deals with man’s relation to the universe and the Almighty, but The Long Fall Back to Earth deals with our relationships with eachContinue reading “Jars of Clay — The Long Fall Back to Earth”

Jars of Clay — Good Monsters

10/10 If you want to skip the decade of experimentation Jars of Clay went through between releasing their first album, and absolutely perfecting their craft, you can go straight to Good Monsters. You shouldn’t do that, because you would be missing out on several very good albums, but Good Monsterssees the band reaching the rareContinue reading “Jars of Clay — Good Monsters”

Jars of Clay — Redemption Songs

8/10 While it may not have sold a million copies, Jars of Clay’s fifth album, Who We Are Instead, was quite well received. The band decided to explore the sound and themes of that album even further by taking the next logical step: releasing an album entirely composed of re-envisioned hymns. However, Jars of ClayContinue reading “Jars of Clay — Redemption Songs”

Jars of Clay — Who We Are Instead

9/10 As several great bands have done for their fifth album, Jars of Clay looked west. Who We Are Instead incorporates a country-gospel feel into the band’s sound. But just as U2 sounds only like U2 on The Joshua Tree, Who We Are Instead sounds only like Jars of Clay. This isn’t a country album,Continue reading “Jars of Clay — Who We Are Instead”

Jars of Clay — The Eleventh Hour

9/10 It’s safe to say I might never completely understand the way I feel about Jars of Clay’s third album, If I Left the Zoo. I don’t hate it, but it’s very far from my favorite. Compared to the rest of the band’s work, it is a little short on power. There aren’t many momentsContinue reading “Jars of Clay — The Eleventh Hour”

Jars of Clay — If I Left the Zoo

7/10 Man, I haaated this album when it was first released! If I Left the Zoo is the point where a lot of people deserted the Jars of Clay bandwagon. Those who did ended up missing the seven excellent albums that followed, but I can’t really blame them for leaving. I almost did myself. Thankfully,Continue reading “Jars of Clay — If I Left the Zoo”

Jars of Clay — Much Afraid

9/10 And now we have the Jars of Clay story. Their first album went multi-platinum, beloved by millions. It caught so many people off-guard, it established new expectations for what a debut should sound like. Unfortunately, it also set higher expectations on the band itself. With fans set on the band’s acoustic rock sound, JarsContinue reading “Jars of Clay — Much Afraid”