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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Performances Propel Portfolio of Songs Haunted by Aaron Tate, February 7, 2003
Overview: In many ways, Caedmon's Call's new album "Back Home" is an album by a band transformed. Aaron Tate is no longer their principal songwriter; "Beautiful Mystery" may very well be his last song for them. Young Josh Moore, a musical prodigy whose skills at keyboard have reshaped the sound of the band, is a man now, and his songs on this album reflect a maturity and experience only hinted at in "In The Company of Angels"; rather than a liability, this youngest bandmember has proven to be a rewarding contributor to the band. Caedmon's Call continues its solicitation of songs from outside the band; the result is an impressive portfolio of great diversity. Lastly, the band has achieved a remarkable maturity, and it shows in the polished performances, flexible interactions between soloists, seemless integration of all styles, including world music, that they have explored, and the arrangements that let everyone shine without anyone stealing the limelight. Caedmon's Call has grown up musically and spiritually and returned to report what it has learned, and "Back Home" is our opportunity to share in the family reunion.The Songs: Principal songwriters include Randall Goodgame, Sandra McCracken, Josh Moore, Aaron Senseman, and Aaron Tate (with help from Cliff Young and Derek Webb), the latter two contributing just one song each. Unlike previous albums, the songs of "Back Home" are not obviously linked thematically, although "Purity of heart is to will one thing" or "Keep your eyes on the prize" come close to a theme for this album. Not as engaging or memorable as previous songs, most do not cry out to be sung repeatedly for months on end. Nevertheless, this album contains some very good songs; highlights, both musical and lyrical, include "Hands of the Potter", "The Emptiest Day", "The Kingdom", "The High Countries", "Thousand Miles", and "Awake My Soul". "Hands of the Potter", a real catchy song by Goodgame, is a different take on the prodigal son (See "Coming Home" from their My Calm/Your Storm or their self-titled album for comparison) and provides the title to the album. (A telling line from the song: "And Lord, when you listen for the song of my life, let it be...a song so sweet".) Don't let the title fool you: "You Created" presents a profound truth, though in rather simple garb. "The Emptiest Day" boasts an amazing and committed vocal by Derek Webb. (His performance on "Awake My Soul", a Sandra McCracken song, is equally persuasive.) "The Kingdom", an outstanding Josh Moore song, is steeped in Middle Eastern sounds and boasts some interesting lyrics on the conflict between our pride of life and God's kingdom. Those hoping for a return to their more acoustic, folk style will want to hear "Only Hope" and "Thousand Miles", which is reminiscent of songs from their album 40 Acres. "Walk With Me", "The High Countries", and "Manner and Means" boast some of Danielle Young's most accomplished singing; in "The High Countries" she sounds almost like Allison Krauss (with lush harmony vocals by Derek Webb), and in "Manner and Means" her voice is crystal clear. Disappointments: 1) The only Aaron Tate song pales before his previous work, yet its blatant simplicity in declaring God to be beautiful is poignant--maybe not bad after all. 2) The last song on the album, "Mystery of Mercy", by Peterson and Goodgame, is weak; although the lyrics are OK, any conflict inherent in them is overwhelmed by the lush orchestration--perhaps the only mismatch between lyrics and music on the album. (The music IS beautiful, though; change the lyrics to suit the music?) 3) The major disappointment of "Back Home" is the lyrics, which are too often uninvolving, trite, or unimaginative. Although the music makes up for this deficiency to some extent, I still find myself having to read the lyrics to get the point of some of the songs. (I've been spoiled by the richness of Aaron Tate's and Derek Webb's lyrics, I'm afraid.)
Summary: Although not a return to a particular style of music, "Back Home" does mark a return to a band unified in vision and performance. Unlike "Long Line of Leavers", where Aaron Tate's complex lyrics rubbed sometimes unsuccessfully against the band's musical explorations away from their original folk/folk-rock style, or "In the Company of Angels", where songs were molded from disparate tracks recorded by bandmembers now living states apart, this album boasts performances by a unified band, of one heart and one mind, of songs where lyric and music are married successfully. "Back Home" is a portfolio of Caedmon's Call latest growth and harks of greater things to come. Recommended.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Feast for the Soul and Their Best Album Yet, May 20, 2003
Caedmon's Call has long been loved for the variety associated with any of their projects. Three lead vocalists (Cliff Young, Derek Webb, Danielle Young), two primary songwriters (Aaron Tate, Derek Webb), and five different musicians (Cliff Young, Derek Webb, Joshua Moore, Todd Bragg, Garrett Buell) have contributed immeasurably to the band's success. Each of their projects has been different from each other: their folk/alternative self-titled major label debut (1997) was followed by an attempt to capture their live sound in 40 Acres (1999). That album's successor, Long Line of Leavers (2000), was very experimental in nature musically and a departure from previous efforts lyrically. Finally, In the Company of Angels (2001) was a worship album that sounded ... well, pretty much like you'd expect a Caedmon's Call worship album to sound. Nonetheless, there were three big surprises with that album: the inclusion of several slightly modernized hymns in the mix, the decreased songwriting and vocal input from Derek Webb, and the introduction of three new songwriters: Sandra McCracken (Webb's wife), Aaron Senseman, and bandmate Joshua Moore.Still, all of these diverse projects really didn't hint at what would come with their newest release, Back Home. In some ways, Back Home can be considered a combination of styles from each of their previous albums, but in other ways, it's startlingly original. When Caedmon's Call hasn't been singing about human love in the past (as was true for roughly half of Long Line of Leavers and about one-third of 40 Acres), it's been majoring on theology, and a particularly Calvinist one at that. In the process (and this was undoubtedly unintentional), heart has taken somewhat of a backseat to head. Even when the band members have expressed feelings of doubt (as in Long Line of Leavers' "Prove Me Wrong"), loneliness (as in 40 Acres's "Table for Two"), and loss (as in Caedmon's Call's "Center Aisle"), to cite just a few examples, the theological musings have suffocated the emotions to such a degree that the songs have lost some of their potential power. Back Home is different because it majors on spirituality rather than theology -- put another way, it's about our response to God rather than our thoughts about God. And while the spirituality still unquestionably displays the band members' Calvinist leanings, there are, surprisingly, offerings from the Wesleyan side of Christianity ("Only Hope," a modernization of a Charles Wesley hymn) and Anglicanism ("The High Countries," a song full of allusions to the works of C.S. Lewis). Caedmon's Call's members haven't lost their intellectualism at all -- they've just applied it to spirituality instead of theology this time around! The album starts out as if it were In the Company of Angels II. Even with its Wesleyan spirituality, "Only Hope" wouldn't have been out of place on the band's previous album, and Joshua Moore's "You Created" likewise continues in that vein. It's on the third track, the astonishingly beautiful "Walk With Me," that Back Home comes into its own. From there, the album takes us through a diverse musical landscape populated with many different lyrical inhabitants who either long for God or have returned to him and, hence, are "back home." "Walk With Me" takes us into Psalm 23 territory; "Hands of the Potter" brings us back into more traditionally Calvinist musings; "The Kingdom" betrays a Middle Eastern musical influence in its tale of destruction of idols. Each song offers a different perspective on the album's central theme, and the variety herein (both musically and lyrically) is impressive. For this, we have several songwriters to thank. Tate is back for only one song, the wonderful "Beautiful Mystery" (cowritten with Webb and Cliff Young), and Webb is likewise missing in action. But McCracken, Senseman, and Moore are back, and there's the addition of Randall Goodgame and Andrew Peterson. All contribute excellent work, with Moore's lyrics particularly being heady. But the two best tracks belong to McCracken: "Walk With Me" and "The High Countries." Both songs are dense, reflective, and lyrically evocative, rich with Biblical or literary allusions. The last two songs are sung expertly by Danielle Young, and this album will undoubtedly be remembered as the one in which she really came into her own as a vocalist. (Memo to Danielle: have McCracken write all of your songs in the future.) With Webb mostly relegated to background vocals (undoubtedly due to his then imminent departure from the band), the burden of the majority of the songs falls on Cliff Young. Cliff has always been my least favorite Caedmon's Call vocalist (Webb is better, and Danielle can sing circles around both of them), but he does an outstanding job on the last track, "Mystery of Mercy," and, to a somewhat lesser extent, "Beautiful Mystery." If he can keep up this level of performance, it bodes well for his increased duties. The production is crisp and clear, and the musical variety is considerable. In the end, though, it's the beautiful and haunting lyrics with their rich imagery that stay with you from this album. Whether it's "The hush of [the] voices" of God and human being (from "Walk With Me"), the train station to "the high countries" of Heaven (the station may be from Lewis' "The Last Battle" in the Narnia series, while other references in the song are to his "Weight of Glory"), the "river/Where the strong can swim in deep and/The weak and the broken/Can walk across so easily" (from "Beautiful Mystery"), or the tale of a pilgrim "watching [his or her] kingdom crumbling down" (from "The Kingdom"), there's much here both to respond to and to ponder. Back Home is Caedmon's Call's best album yet, and a promising sign for their future (even without Webb).
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of their best yet, February 12, 2003
By A Customer
"Back Home", the fifth studio album from folk-rock group Caedmon's Call, finds a middle ground between the acoustic folk rock of their early years and the experimental pop of recent years (particularly their "Long Line of Leavers" CD), but tends to lean more toward their musical roots. The opening track, "Only Hope", features the familiar acoustic guitars, vocal harmonies, and worldly percussion that have established Caedmon's Call as one of the most unique sounding groups in Christian Music. Two others that feature these signature elements are "Hands of the Potter" and "Awake My Soul", two lively numbers, the latter of which has a bit of a zydeco feel to it. However, many of the tracks build on that signature sound to provide something totally enjoyable. Standouts include "You Created", with the trade off between male and female vocals of Cliff and Danielle Young; "The High Countries", which features Danielle's smooth voice against a mellow musical backdrop somewhat reminiscent of parts of U2's "The Joshua Tree" CD; and "The Kingdom", which combines majestic string arrangements with some Asian influences. Lyrically, the biggest change is in the songwriters: instead of relying solely on their usual songwriters, Aaron Tate and Derek Webb, they brought in a host of songwriters including band member Josh Moore, Webb's wife and independent artist Sandra McCracken, Randall Goodgame, Andrew Peterson, and others. Tate and Webb only contribute one song, "Beautiful Mystery", which they co-wrote with Cliff Young. Still, the quality of the lyrics remains the same: contemplative, introspective, and thought-provoking. Webb fans may also be disappointed to hear only two songs featuring his lead vocal ("Awake My Soul" and "The Emptiest Day"), but take heart: Webb's solo release comes out March 25. (This just in: word has it that Derek has left the band to pursue his solo career, so this may really be our last chance to hear him with Caedmon's Call.) Altogether, this CD is truly one of their best, and is sure to please both old-school fans and new fans alike. I highly recommend it!
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