Hi Pal,
Welcome to another newsletter. Bonus Stuff is an umbrella column for ideas that do not fit into the other content brackets I write here.
If you missed the first part and feel the need to catch up, don’t worry I’ll wait.
If you’re here, I’m assuming that you’ve caught up or you don’t feel the need to. As the title suggests, we are looking at the opening tracks of Jars of Clay and this is the second of a three-part series.
Sunny Days — Who We Are Instead (2003)
This album is mellow when compared to its predecessor and brings back some of the acoustic pop/pop rock feels that had permeated their earlier records. Jars of Clay have always been storytellers and that doesn’t change on this album. Still, it’s noticeable that there are quite a number of obvious and less cryptic Christ-centric songs here — like “Amazing Grace” and “Jesus’s Blood Never Failed Me Yet” — when compared with previous albums. The opener, “Sunny Days”, has always felt like a tune that stands as a reminder of the hope that saturates this album even as the band explored some strong and melancholy themes on it.
God Be Merciful To Me — Redemption Songs (2005)
If the previous album was a bit more explicit in its expression of faith, this one goes in full tilt and is for all intents and purposes, a worship record. If you’ve been following the trend, you’ll know that it is almost impossible for this band to release a generic album and this album’s sound is far from pedestrian. In fact, I can boldly say that many of the sonic elements which eventually matured into their alternative/indie rock sound of the late 2000s began to take form on this record. The opener here, “God Be Merciful To Me” is not my favourite song — tunes like “God Will Lift Up Your Head” and “Jesus, I Lift My Eyes” are strong contenders for that — but it acts as a necessary appetizer and does a good job of kicking off this journey.
Work — Good Monsters (2006)
Now this is an opening track! In retrospect, there are a number of factors that coalesced to make this one truly special. On one hand, it was a really good time globally for alternative rock music in general. When you combine this with the fact that they were already among the most established bands on the Christian scene and their desire to continuously improve on themselves and re-invent the wheel, there was only one way this was going to go. Good Monsters
is the album that got me really invested in this band and it’s for good reason. It has everything from energetic and driving tunes like “Work” and “Dead Man (Carry Me)” to sober heartful songs like “Surprise” and “Light Gives Heat”.
As great as the album is, I would not have paid attention to it if I had not listened to/watched the music video for Work. It’s a perfect gateway tune to all that this band had to offer.
All Links
That’s it for today.
Catch you at the next one!
Also, if you’re open to alternative ways to support my work, consider Buying Me A Coffee.
If you’re not a paying subscriber and want to sign up for additional postings and to join conversations, here’s how: