Customer Reviews

The Long Fall Back To Earth

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4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Since going "indie", Christian festival staple Jars of Clay have been at work at a nearly impossible task: creating an artistic work that would also be appeasing to Christian markets. If it's too artistic, Christian radio won't pick it up, if it comes across as compromised or uninspired, people might wonder why they bothered leaving a major label in the first place, and lose interest.

After a third listen to Long Fall, I am happy to announce that Jars of Clay has made a pop record that quietly remolds their sound, continues their thought-provoking lyrics, and offers THE BEST melodies and arrangements of their career.

Good Monsters did not meet the expectations created by Haseltine when described it as a "rock record" (it was hyped as such by CCM Magazine, and then assumed by Dove and Christianity Today). It is a shame because GM was right on par for Jars- enjoyable pop combined with mellow lyrics- but they had done that before, and better, I think. On Long Fall, they have done what they did not completely achieve on Good Monsters: a new sound.

Dan Haseltine was wise not to fill the album with songs like "Headphones" and "Scenic Route". He, instead, paints them in the background of tunes like the worship-rock single "Two Hands". I've heard this was the last song written for this album. If it was, no doubt there was a commercial reason for this. Christian radio, after all, still needs a single. Though, I don't think Jars are at fault, this is still the market they are vying to keep, and who wouldn't have seen the same potential in the song?

My favorite track is "Weapons", which I've listened to more than the rest. "Lay your weapons down, there are no enemies in front of you". Not a cry to end the conflict in Iraq, but a cry in the wilderness for worldwide internal unity. I can't speak for Dan, but it would seem he had a specific group of prejudiced, militant people in mind when he wrote the song. Let us hope it is who I think it is.

A couple of songs ("Heaven" and "Scenic Route") are an homage to The Arcade Fire (the mandolin gives it away), and Ra Ra Riot's The Rhumb Line had a strong influence on "Weapons". The direction they are choosing as independent artists is definite and exciting. "Hero", featured on NBC series "Kings", highlights Dan's excellent use of falsetto, and has huge potential as a single.

"Heart", the album's closer, is the most experimental track on the album, and probably the most personal tune on the record. Sprinkled with loops, a plethora of instruments, and a short verse/chorus/turnaround progression . . . the most beautiful lyric on the album: "No mountains to climb, papers to sign, offer your heart, I've given you mine". The melody is simple and the lyrics cover a huge scope. I think this might be a metaphor for the music that they are hoping to create, and mission statement for the band's future.

Over their career, Jars of Clay have played countless cities, had top 40 success, and have toured relentlessly throughout. Now, they don't need to prove anything, they don't need the 5 album record label contract. They just want to give you their best, which is what they did on this album.

Of all the Christian rock groups active today, few have had the constant success of Jars of Clay. I have been a fan of theirs since I was given "Much Afraid" as a gift for my 17th birthday. I was not aware of them prior to that. I have been madly in love with their music since the day I received that album. It still contains my favorite song from them, "Frail".

Since that time I have eagerly anticipated each album and found that each album was very different from the last but still remained true to the group as a whole. Dan's beautiful and rich lyrics bring each and every song a layer of emotion that is sore lacking in so much music in today's world. Charlie, Matt and Stevens ability to flow with each song instrumentally is another reason each and every album is so fantastic. From the stripped down sounds of their self titled album, to the polished pop of "The Eleventh Hour" and then to the soulful organic sounds of "Who We Are Instead" and even beyond to the world/new age tapestry of "Good Monsters", no group has been able to consistently release fantastic albums so consecutively.

And, no group has been able to use a musical format over again for another album yet still make said album a reinvention. Yet, here we are with "The Long Fall Back To Earth" an album that for me harkens back to the sounds of "If I Left The Zoo" and "The Eleventh Hour" with a flair of "Good Monsters", but it still sounds new and joyously refreshing. I have seen Jars 7 times in concert and have experienced magical moments from unplanned events. At a concert in Virginia several years ago, a horrible storm hit during their set, and instead of stopping they unplugged the electronics got out the acoustic guitar and performed "Frail","Silence" and "Worlds Apart" until the rain stopped and it was safe to plug in again. The first track on the album reminds me of that. "The Long Fall" feels like an unplanned just made instrumental ditty to pass time, but in a fantastically good way. It is only the starting point of a perfect album.

So many years and so many albums have come out of Jars and I'm amazed at how much I'm still moved by them. "Weapons" is a powerful rock song crying out for enemies to lay down their guns, fists, hateful words and mean comments and see that we are not each others enemy, we are all brothers and sisters. The first single from the album "Two Hands" is a fav of mine talking about not letting the good things in life pass you by due to all you think you need to do. "If I had two hands, doing the same thing...lifted high...lifted high" is such a powerful lyric. "Heaven" is a great song talking about the masks we wear in our everyday life, and reminder that being our true selfs will get us farther. "Closer" is a powerful cry for love either from one human to another or from a human to their higher power. "Safe To Land" my second favorite song on the album reminds me greatly of "Portrait for an Apology" from "Much Afraid" in that it is simply a song about asking for forgiveness from someone we've hurt. "Headphones" is such a great song, it is a very calm and quiet song yet it's lyrics cry out to us, saying take off your headphones (or all the material things) and pay attention to the ones you love and communicate. "Don't Stop" is so so SO catchy, I've been humming it's lyrics all day "Ba Baba Ba Ba Ba BaBa...don't stop, don't stop for me now." The song is a straight forward love song. Now comes my favorite song on the album "Boys (Lesson One)" is a prayer from a father to his son, asking for him to never forget who he is, or what he wants out of life, but to make sure he realizes the right ways to get there and not to hurry and not enjoy life. It is such a beautiful song with such powerful lyrics. "So you know who you are, and you know what you want, I've been where your going and it's not that far. It's too far to walk but you don't have to run, you'll get there in time." Wow. The next song "Hero" is another fav for me, it speaks of wanting and needing a hero to help change the way the world is going, to help us see what we're doing to save us from ourselves. "Scenic Route" is such a sad song to me, it talks of a relationship coming to an end and how the singer wishes to take the "scenic route" or take longer to keep the pain from being so sharp. It's heart wrenching. Yet the next song is the polar opposite, "There Might Be A Light" reminds me of the movie "Say Anything", just put the words to this song in place of the one he plays outside her window and you'll see what I mean. "Forgive Me" is just that a song asking for forgiveness, and then we have my other favorite and the last song on the album "Heart". This is such a powerful song, asking someone for their love, and letting them know that they already have his. It's a beautiful song, and a perfect ending to such a fantastic album.

Fourteen years ago, Jars came on the seen and in all those years they have constantly won me over with their heart felt lyrics, their infectious sounds and with their messages of hope and love. If your a fan of Christian pop this is an album to get, and get some of their others that I've mentioned. Their music is not in your face christian in that they don't speak directly about Jesus or God, but they are faith filled and spiritual. A must listen.

How does a band top a cd as excellent as 2006's Good Monsters? Answer: Dont even try. The new release from Jars of Clay is so different from their last release, that it avoids comparison. At this point, I still like Good Monsters a tad better, but it doesnt matter. This new cd stands very well on its own and I really look forward to hearing many of these tracks live.

Back in 1995, I started listening to Jars of Clay to get away from produced sounding pop music. Its interesting that Jars new release is exactly that: highly produced yet sophisticated pop music. You can definitely hear a lot of the studio noises, beeps, and toys, but Jars integrity and soul always shines through. There are some fist waving anthems that urge us to crank the volume up (Weapons and Heaven) and there are tender moments that make us stop and contemplate our relationship to the ones we love and to the world around us (Safe to Land and Headphones). More than any other Jars cd, I can imagine many of these songs on mainstream radio. True, the music is more mainstream than anything they have done before, but Jars manages to pull your mind and soul into the music much more than average pop music. I guess Im saying this to combat any who may accuse them of "selling out". They may be using radio friendly pop music as a medium, but the Jars of Clay stamp is definitely here in abundance.

I only have a couple of very minor complaints. For one, I find that the song Hero is about a minute and a half too long. There are only two verses and both verses are completed 90 seconds into the song, yet the song is almost 5 minutes long. The chorus is repeated so many times that the song almost wears out its welcome. Its a good rock song, I just wish that there was either one more verse or it was a shorter song. Intitially, I thought "There Might Be A Light" should have been the closing song. But the more I lsten to "Heart", the more I realize Jars made the right decision. "Heart" is a wonderful quirky song that mixes many of Jars' trademark elements under an umbrella of electronica and seems to intimately tie together many of the themes explored on this album. The guitar line in "Heart" seems to hearken back to "Frail" from the "Much Afraid" album, and it really does seem like a modernized sequal to that song. In a spot or two on this album, the lyrics get a tad cheesy (an unreachable itch, if you hemorrhage I'll stitch) but top to bottom the lyrics are heartfelt,poignant, and often powerful. Case in point: Boys (Lesson One) is a powerful and quiet father to son ballad...FAR superior to Scott Stapp's generic and overblown "Arms Wide Open". This contains my favorite lyric on the entire album "Its too far to walk, but you dont have to run to get there in time." Dan Haseltine often cleverly uses contradiction to make things seem mysteriously clear.

Im glad to see Jars of Clay refuses to stay in one place musically. They force their fans to remain open to new styles and they seem quite adept at just about anything they try. The Long Fall Back to Earth is a welcome edition to the current musical landscape. I have been a U2 fan for 25 years and they have also released a cd this year which received a ton of hype. But, and I might get eggs thrown at me for saying this, Jars of Clay has outdone U2 this time around.

I have been a fan of Jars of Clay since the release of the debut album. They are one of my all-time favorite bands. I have anxiously awaited every new release -- and have loved most. I have seen the band several times in concert -- have even met the guys backstage. My favorite CDs are the debut album, Who We Are Instead, Redemption Songs, and Good Monsters.

Unfortunately, this new CD does very little for me. I can't quite put my finger on it. I can honestly say that if I never heard this CD again, I wouldn't feel like I was missing anything. I wouldn't say that about any other Jars of Clay CD.

First, I'm not sure that Jars of Clay is always making musical choices that are in the best interest of the song. Often, they seem to be making production choices with the aim of being different or running against the grain. Variety is a nice thing -- but what exactly is the band's style these days? This album sorely lacks anything resembling a cohesive "feel".

Dan Haseltine used to be a poet who wrote song lyrics. On this album, he just writes song lyrics. There is a depth missing that used to pervade the songs. "If I had two hands doing the same thing. Lifted high"? Egads. These are lyrics to suit a pop artifice. "Take my world apart - broken on my knees" - this is not.

Worst of all -- the album is rather boring. Jars of Clay used to produce songs that made me weep or smile -- songs that brought me closer to God -- songs that made me sing along in the car! There is something missing from these songs -- inspiration? Whatever it is, this is album is a disappointment.

Jars of Clay has built an extraordinary career based on the uncompromising integrity of its music, worldview, and humanitarianism. Jars of Clay's last album, Good Monsters, was my favorite Jars of Clay album since the amazing self-titled debut. That album managed to reinvent the band's sound while tackling subjects as diverse and demanding as social responsibility, spiritual doubt and the duality of the human heart. Now, three years later, Jars of Clay returns with The Long Fall Back To Earth. The album's first single, "Two Hands," builds on the duality theme from "Good Monsters." Haseltine's lyrics observe, "I use one hand to pull you closer / The other to push you away," before going on to suggest that this internal conflict can be overcome with a simple, but profound course of action: "Two hands doing the same thing / Lifted high." According to Dan Haseltine: "`Two Hands' was the last song we wrote for the record. We'd been trying to find a way to try to connect all the various themes of the album--relationships, faith, social justice--with one unifying anthem."

That desire to connect is the primary theme of The Long Fall Back To Earth and nowhere is it more explicitly stated than in "Closer," the first song recorded for the record. When Haseltine sings "I'll drop out of the race for more personal space / `Cause the rockets we're in get so cold, and I miss your skin," he's never sounded more direct or personal. One of the last songs written for the record is the instrumental opener "The Long Fall," which gently introduces the theme of the record before giving way to the marching wake-up call of the song "Weapons."

This is the most amazing album I've heard in the past year and ranks right with Third Day's Revelation last year. Jars of Clay has managed to channel the best of themselves, almost unanimously agreed to be the self-titled debut album and give fans what they've come to expect with anthems like "Weapons," "Two Hands," "Safe To Land" and "Heaven," the stand-out songs for me. However similar to Third Day, they've also mixed up their sound and pulled out all of the stops with inventive new electronic songs like the instrumental opener "The Long Fall," "Closer," "Don't Stop," "Boys (Lesson One)" and the closing song "Heart." I immediately replayed the songs "Hero" and "Scenic Route," which are both amazing instrumentally and lyrically.

I'll be measuring all other albums this year against "The Long Fall To Earth". Whether you are a long-time fan of Jars of Clay or have recently discovered them, you won't be disappointed with this album which for me is a 5 star masterpiece.

"The Long Fall Back to Earth" could quite possibly be the best album that I have purchased in years. I have been a fan of Jars of Clay for a long time, and I would have to say that this is their best album ever, including their self titled debut. The sound quality and the way that this album flows is exceptional. But it is the musical harmonies and the messages that can be derived from the lyrics to these tracks that make "The Long Fall" awesome. This starts out with one of the coolest instrumentals that I've ever heard and goes into the crunching Weapons. This is followed up by the wrenching Two Hands, and the synth-rocker Heaven. Hero, Headphones, and Scenic Route are also stand out tracks on this album. However, I would have to say that the best track, hands down, is Safe to Land. Listen to the lyrics and form your own opinion as to what they mean. I have, and I'm glad that I did. Job well done guys. Keep up the awesome work.
Peace and Love,
Jake

First of all, I want to note that I am a religious Orthodox Jew. I know that it's probably weird that I am a huge JOC fan, but I honestly think these guys create some of the most beautiful music out there. Ever since their 1995 self-entitled album, I have been a fan. Of course there are some albums that are better than others, but this one is right up there with the best of them. Some albums have lyrics that are more literal and some are more metaphorical. Obviously, as a Jew, I prefer the metaphorical lyrics since I can relate to them more as referencing God, as opposed to Jesus (since that's not my belief). This album is less explicit and more metaphorical.
Second, I will note that I am a musician. JOC just knows how to make music. It's that simple. They know how to write tunes, lyrics, how to organize instrumentation, and how to create an actual song (something 98% of the bands out there nowadays cannot do). They know how to throw in flare and keep songs exciting, often building up songs to a grand finale.
Now, on to the album. At first, only a few songs really stood out to me. But after about 5 listens through, I can honestly say this album is just great from start to finish, and better than Good Monsters. Of course there are a few songs that are still just ok to me (such as Forgive Me and There Might Be a Light). As a child of the 80's who's witnessed the great decline of musical integrity and songwriting over the past 2 decades, I am deeply pleased with this album's 80's-influence. The album has its fair share of excellent uptempo songs, like Weapons, Heaven, Closer, Don't Stop, Headphones and Heart. Hero really sounds like it could be from a movie soundtrack, and it displays Dan's excellent vocal range. Two Hands is a good radio pop tune. And of course no JOC album would be a JOC album if it didn't have the requisite gorgeous songs. This one's got Safe to Land, Boys, and The Scenic Route. However, Worlds Apart is still in my opinion their most beautiful song of all.
To conclude, this album is excellent, but I think it's the kind that grows on you. Don't give up after one listen. Great job JOC. Keep up the good work.

Since 1995, Jars of Clay has delivered hit after hit. And after listening to this album, it seems like they're not going to stop anytime soon. This is possibly Jars of Clay best album, and the best album in the Christian market released this year. Thematically the album focuses on relationships, so it is faily easy for listeners to relate. The title track is a beautiful opening to the song Weapons, which tells listeners to put their guard down. A nice piano opens up the radio hit Two Hands. It's about as spiritual as Jars of Clay gets on this record, "And if we just keep digging we can reach the foundation of our souls, and if we just keeping cutting all the chains from our hearts we lose control". The synth laden Heaven is up next and it's the kind of song you want to roll your windows down and crank up the volume. Closer is a great pop song which first appeared on the Closer EP and it now has an extended intro. Safe to Land is a moving ballad about being on the road and missing your loved one (also the theme of Closer). Headphones is unfortunately all to true: instead of dealing with all the problems in the world and reaching out to others we put on our headphones and ignore them. Don't Stop kicks off the equally engaging second half of the album. It's a nice pop song, but it's weird after hearing such a serious song. The ba bada ba's make it more uplifting then the previous and following songs. Boys (Lesson One) takes it down a noch again, and as heartfelt as it is, it's the only song I would skip on this album. PS lesson one is do not hide. After Boys is Hero, which in my opinion might be the best JOC song to date. With soaring vocals, driving guitars, a melodic piano, and driving drum beat, and even better lyrics, this will soon be a radio hit. Scenic Route has a nice build. It's somewhere between a power ballad and a pop song. It is one of the better songs on the album. There May Be A Light and Forgive Me are good songs, and Heart is a great way to end an epic album. Highly recomended to anyone. The Long Fall is an hour of music the way its supposed to be done.

There is such depth to this album. You can talk all day about Jars of Clay balancing an appeal to different fan bases but I think the songs on this album really trascend all that. I feel like there are songs on this cd of the like that haven't been written before. Sure, there are similarities in sound perhaps but never has there been this sound combined with such lyrics. Dan Haseltine said the theme of the album is the "sobering of relationships". Isn't that such a good topic especially as much as our culture romanticizes love beyond reality? So much of our culture speaks of unmet expectations followed by divorces which create so many children without fathers. Jars of Clay speaks in the midst of all this some very clear messages.

Their song, "Boys (Lesson One)" is one of the most profound songs I have heard. Has their ever been such a beautiful song with the theme of a father talking to his boys. And if you are a Christian, it doesn't take long until you connect the dots between this song and how God longs for us "not to hide" and to be willing to "weather love". The song's chorus goes, "So you know who you are. You know what you want..." Our fathers can help us with this in a huge way but it's our Father who ultimately reveals to us our identity and desires. All this to say that their messages are less subtle than in past albums and in this case it is as if you are looking through a camera lens and watching a beautiful image come into focus. You are never left with a blurry image that you are trying to figure out which I felt like was the case in past albums.

This album has met me personally in so many ways. I get frustrated with unrealistic expections of my earthly relationships, expectations which the culture has encouraged, and I feel like Jars of Clay screams out sobering words and then sings soft, lilting melodies of truth-filled encouragement. Listen to this cd. I think it is one I will still be listening to and coming back to many years down road.

Many things interest me about Jars of Clay's albums, but with the band's new release, The Long Fall Back to Earth (2009), my eye was drawn to was the back cover of the lyrics booklet. Here we have a pyramid of boxes stretching into infinity, and as someone who was a teenager in the early 1980s, I couldn't help but think, "Q*bert!" Q*bert was a hit 1983 video arcade game in which you played a sort of mini-aardvark character responsible for jumping on each box in a pyramid, thereby changing each box's color from white to yellow. Meanwhile, you had hindrances, such as balls, that would bounce on the boxes and change them to another color, so you had to jump on the boxes several times during the course of a round. A round ended when you had all of the boxes successfully changed to a yellow color. While I don't think the band (or lead singer/lyricist Dan Haseltine, who provides the creative spark for much of the band's marketing and graphic design) had the game in mind (another drawing inside the lyric booklet shows a small square box fitting into a larger one--a distinctly un-Q*bert image), my connection proved fortuitous: in its distinctly 1980s retro bent on the musical end, and in its many tales of people trying to set personal relationships right but being frustrated in their attempts to do so, The Long Fall Back to Earth plays--well, like a Q*bert game.

After the impressive artistic heights reached on Good Monsters (2006), Jars of Clay's last major studio album and easily its best one to date, fans were left wondering where the band would go next. Superficially, The Long Fall Back to Earth seems to build on that album in continuing to take the band more of a rock direction. But Good Monsters showcased the band's talents in many different musical genres, from rock to acoustic to country; no previous album had given listeners a good sense of the band's many varied talents in one package. By contrast, The Long Fall Back to Earth, with the exception of a few acoustic songs (including one that musically sounds like it came off of the band's much-loved eponymous debut album [1995]), is pop/rock, and almost totally `80s retro at that.

This is by no means a bad thing. With the band having repeatedly demonstrated a love affair with 1970s folk/pop/rock over the years (most obviously thanks to several songs that have more than tipped the hat to popular 1970s folk/pop band America), it's great to hear Haseltine let loose his heretofore unseen inner Simon Le Bon on the very Duran Duranish "Heaven." The previously-released-but-now-expanded "Closer" plays with electronica in a mid-1980s technopop manner, while "Don't Stop" may time warp you back to a mid-1980s dance club. Generally speaking, the music is loud in what the band Hall and Oates once sarcastically described as a "Big! Bam! Boom!" way that characterized much of the decade, driven by rhythmic, crisp drum beats, jangly guitars, and keyboard flourishes. (Amusingly, there is at least one nod to the 1970s: A keyboard flourish early on in "Scenic Route" seems to pay tribute to the Steve Miller Band's "Fly like an Eagle.") Band members Steven Mason, Matt Odmark, and Charlie Lowell, as well as cohorts Jeremy Lutito and Gabe Ruschival, all get a chance to shine.

Once again, then, Jars of Clay has reinvented itself, as it has on every single major studio album it has ever released. Many people don't like this chameleon tendency, but others of us love it. This time around, the band has said in interviews that the `80s retro is present to disguise the darkness of the lyrics.

And dark they are. While Haseltine's lyrics have always been melancholic, a decidedly downward turn began in Good Monsters, with the specter of divorce haunting the proceedings but mostly staying out of sight there. Here, the songs openly and overwhelmingly deal with the threat of divorce, as the band members themselves have admitted. Absent even more from this album than its predecessor are Haseltine's almost trademark frank, sometimes tortured talks with God and depictions of the gospel as the fulfillment of fairy tales. This time, the album decisively turns to human relationships after "Heaven" (track 4), and while many of Jars of Clay's love songs can apply to God as well as another person, it's harder to maintain both meanings with most of these songs.

Admittedly, fears concerning marriage and relationships have been evident in Jars of Clay's music ever since the band provocatively placed the title Much Afraid over the image of a smiling, apparently happy young 1950s or 1960s-era couple on the cover of their second album (1997). That album also contained one of Haseltine's better early pieces of poetry, "Tea and Sympathy," a song with a speaker pleading for the other party in a relationship to not give up on them. Similar songs that followed over the years always depicted relationships (including human relationships with God, always expressed from a theologically Reformed perspective) and marriage as struggles. Even so, however, the concerns are markedly more pronounced in Long Fall. With rare exceptions, one spouse/party in these musical stories is shown to be striving to save the marriage/relationship, while the other party seems uninterested in doing so--and there's an at best barely hidden sense of desperation in many of these songs, perhaps best expressed in Haseltine's moving, anguished cry, "I just want to drive" until the couple in "Scenic Drive" resolves their issues. (Ever since Who We Are Instead [2003], Haseltine has been stretching himself with his voice, and he's never been in better form, or more forceful, than here.) And there's the Q*bert connection: These protagonists are trying to change the color of their marriages/relationships, but they are constantly opposed by the ones they love.

These songs generally don't match the quality of the output seen on Good Monsters. Partially, this may be because the latter album had universal concerns that give way to the more personal here (although Long Fall starts out at the universal level with a literal or figurative call for humans to lay down their "Weapons" and insightful analyses of the human condition in "Two Hands" and "Heaven"). Nonetheless, Long Fall's songs are excellent compared with other contemporary Christian music, which means minimally very good when considering Jars of Clay's own high standards. "Scenic Drive" is the album highlight, a driving (no pun intended) musical journey that's as forceful as it is emotionally moving. "There Might Be a Light," the album's second best track, may seem subpar at first, but it grows on you until it becomes wonderfully unforgettable -- it's a late '80s romantic acoustic ballad in genre. "Safe to Land's" (unchanged here from the version on the band's 2008 Closer EP) melancholic folk is coupled with lyrics that hit the gut in its tale of relationship fears. "Headphones" is another interesting, alternative tune about people's unwillingness to truly listen to each other. Haseltine's instructions to his children in "Boys (Lesson One)" provides a much needed recognition of other family members than spouses on this album. Of note as well is the opening track, "The Long Fall" -- for the first time, Jars of Clay includes an instrumental (Haseltine's repeated "[t]he long fall" verbiage don't exactly count as lyrics), and one that begins with a piano solo, no less.

So while The Long Fall Back to Earth is not the tour de force that Good Monsters was (and, to be fair, it will be very hard for Jars of Clay to top that album), it's still a strong example of excellence in the pop/rock field, not just CCM. Four-and-a-half stars.