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| The development or evolution (ha) of the so called 'Christian Hip Hop' (but don't call it that) can be nicely drawn from the example of Sackcloth Fashion. While their "Something For Everyone To Hate" had, quite frankly, a couple of disastrous moments, their new one, "The
Lone Flower" is magnificent. And that's a parallel to the whole sub-genre thing, that started out on clumsy feet that stumbled for various reasons. But the baby got up and tried and tried and tried and then started to grow up and learn to walk. And now it's dancing the difficult boogie woogie dance
steps. |
| So we already said that this album is good. But there's plenty of more to discuss. First of all, you're kinda treated to a whole Southern Cali soundtrack. Meaning that this album balances a couple of genres, going from Surfing Dudester tunes ("Open Road" or "Summit
Of Angels") to the straight up rap ("Infectious", the excellent "Smile In The Dark" and "What
Is") to the interesting house tune ("Direction") with a couple of shades filling the gaps in between. And we shall start with the last, as "Direction"
is strangely enough one of the best songs on here. It's mainly carried by Kaitlyn Cassels, the lone female in the troupe, as well as the only one without a brother in the band (the other four members are Steve and Tim Trudeau, and Byron and Brandon Musser). Now this song is just incredibly funky, doing
what House does when it remembers its Chicago Gospel/Funk/Soul roots. And the whole track is a celebration of love, with Him always hovering over, underneath and everywhere else. So what could have been a happy celebration is then toned down in a lowered head of imposed humbleness. What's kinda unfortunate,
but what can't take anything away from the song. |
| Getting us to a different level and the one that's most unfortunate. Now, we're not the persons to start criticizing people for their beliefs. However, as a person with a regular Western Europe upbringing, there's a couple of moments where we struggle to keep up our complete respect
and tolerance. Especially on "Grains Of Sand" that might just take their 'we're all in God's grace' a little too far: "we do not hold the balance to wildlife's existence in our sweaty little mittens / we're all part of something bigger, it's so hard for me to figure / the role
that I'm to play in my own home I need to filter / what my kids see, God can handle the ozone we think we're responsible for what's out of our control". So what this basically says is: 'yo, keep on putting out all those pollutants, God will figure things out'. Or later the Sackcloth folks are basically
saying that the whole concept of endangered species is crap, cause there's a cycle to things, and again, God will sort it out. This is where they turn from fundamentalism to fanatism, and it shows a complete ignorance of their own actions, responsibility and free will. |
| What's a very harsh statement, but hey, Sackcloth expected us to say such things, as they mention on the explaining themselves "Strange Chemistry": "we expect a lot of heat from those who question our beliefs".
What doesn't show their willingness to discuss 'em though. |
| But what needs to be said is that we are ready to agree to disagree. And quite often Sackcloth do it how it should be done: balanced. Like on their 'true love waits' song "Give", where the tale is actually taking a surprising turn, showing that these cats are not
infallible: "I'm in complete awe, I can't believe it happened to me / naw, it couldn't be I was solid as a brick wall behind a brick wall / or at least that's what I thought, besides brick walls can fall". So you get the message of holding out, but it's not imposed on you in the wrapping of
a doctrine. Instead it's put into context. |
| And further, there are more messages on here that are worthy of your attention and consideration. Even "Grains Of Sand" contains one, when they speak of letting a child be a child and not forcing grown up lessons on them. Or there's even more or less message free
songs like "Brain Freeze", where the guys just walk down memory lane, giving us a 'back in the days' song. |
| What also needs to be discussed is the probably biggest strength of the Sackcloth: their songwriting. Check "Touch The Sky" for example, where a catchy and beautiful chorus is embedded in good music. Or listen to the drumbreak on "I Sigh", as well
as the other Kaitlyn song "Leaning", where she teams up with P.O.D.'s Marcos Curiel. And there's more excellent composed moments, to make this album musically very exciting. Therefore you can, if you want to, take the whole album with a 'grain of salt' (ha), but the emphasis is on take
the album. |
| review: tadah |
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