The Album Review Club - Week #216 (page 1412) - Together Alone - Crowded House

RobMCFC said:
Adventures of the O.C.Supertones - The O.C.Supertones

Thankfully the ska elements were not as prevelant as I’d feared on some songs, but then again, on others ….. On the plus side, there are plenty of chipper guitar parts. The break in “Never Wanna Fall” is unexpected and really makes the song.

The bass at the start of “Found” makes me feel like it is going somewhere interesting but then the ska element comes in and some bloke goes “brrrreeeeee” in annoying way several times. And the gang chorus shouts “ska” just to underline the point. It’s like you’ve crept into a house, hoping to remain unobserved, knowing that it’s almost impossible, but you’ve done well so far. This is actually going to be a great song! And then everybody jumps out from behind the curtains with their bloody saxophones and party blowers. There’s a nice, short guitar break half-way through though before the ska returns.

In fact, the whole album is a bit like Madness with guitars, but I don’t like Madness and the guitars are not so good that they make it suddenly something that I’d listen to. Unfortunately, in some places, the vocals are “look-at-me” and rap style singing shouting, which doesn’t do anything for me. For a lot of the album, the vocals are actually pretty good.

If only these guys could have worked out how to put something in the lyrics to tell us where they’re from. I’d like to think that they are from Wigan but I suspect that they are from Seminole County, Florida.

My main problem with the album is that it sounds like the soundtrack to a party that I wasn’t invited to but wouldn’t want to be there anyway. Nothing to do with the religious content, just the general chipper popiness of it all. I can’t really say it better than that: there’s nothing really wrong with many of the songs on this album, but it just isn’t what I’m looking for from music though I can appreciate it enough to give it a 6/10.
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I'd love a surprise ska band jumping out from behind my shutters. Every time I dropped something they could emerge "pick it up, pick it up, pick it up, pick it up". They could answer Lion King trivia questions. Who was Simba's uncle? "skar, skar, skar, skar". I'd love that
 
I won't lie, I kinda had a little bit of fun. And can't really complain about having fun.

Novel-ish. Fun-ish. Bouncy-ish. Well put togerher - ish. Could be shorter. 'Christian'-ish. A 6. ish.

Could have done with less of that. Not that it bothers me in the slightest or anything like it being an unwelcome 'theme', but there was a nice little intrigue of are they serious about it or semi-satirical type of mystery, which the quantity then shattered. It is well weaved into songs though, has some balance, not overly clichéd, and takes any 'takes itself seriously out of it.

Musically.. Ska is very forgiving as a genre. In that, it hides so much. Chuck a beat and some wood at it, a bit of energy, and voilla. It takes skill and ability, obviously. But, it also doesn't really matter either. I can’t really think of a single 'bad' ska band. But then by logic and relevance, there then aren't any 'good' ska bands. It's just ska. Or it isn't. This one is. Ish.
(Na kidding with that last one)

As a nomination though, nothing ish about it, it was a great bold and unique/niche choice for the thread. Kudos on that, and a bonus point for that for an overall 7.
 
It's a strange one this.

My initial reaction - before hearing it - was that apart from some Cliff Richard songs,and of course Hymns, I don't like 'God" songs. The ones I spired by The Devil (heavy metal, Sympathy for the devil etc) are always better. To be honest, whenever I've heard Christian rock music it's been that awful mushy nothingness - middle of the road, inoffensive stuff. The kind of band who love Shania Twain when she's soft and inoffensive as well as wanting to play guitar like Hank Marvin.

However I liked this album when I didn't pay much attention to the lyrics. I've nothing against religion and took our son to Church for school etc. I like the morals and stories, even if I find some of the tales far fetched at best.

So what to make of this? I could probably sneak this on with my mates, and it's quite a nice album. But the lyrics also put me off a bit as well. They are nice, but it feels a bit "Cliff gone mad" if that makes sense. I can't imagine the post gig parties are much fun if I'm honest.

However, it's a solid album this - fun, positive and a nice message. Musically it's a nice upbeat mixture of styles. Not sure I will listen to it again, but it's nice to know that it's there.

7/10
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
It's a strange one this.

My initial reaction - before hearing it - was that apart from some Cliff Richard songs,and of course Hymns, I don't like 'God" songs. The ones I spired by The Devil (heavy metal, Sympathy for the devil etc) are always better. To be honest, whenever I've heard Christian rock music it's been that awful mushy nothingness - middle of the road, inoffensive stuff. The kind of band who love Shania Twain when she's soft and inoffensive as well as wanting to play guitar like Hank Marvin.

However I liked this album when I didn't pay much attention to the lyrics. I've nothing against religion and took our son to Church for school etc. I like the morals and stories, even if I find some of the tales far fetched at best.

So what to make of this? I could probably sneak this on with my mates, and it's quite a nice album. But the lyrics also put me off a bit as well. They are nice, but it feels a bit "Cliff gone mad" if that makes sense. I can't imagine the post gig parties are much fun if I'm honest.

However, it's a solid album this - fun, positive and a nice message. Musically it's a nice upbeat mixture of styles. Not sure I will listen to it again, but it's nice to know that it's there.

7/10
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Aye a strange one for me as well.
The sax was beginning to annoy me after a few plays but decent enough tunes.
Like yourself will not delve into their back catalogue but will give it a score of 6.
 
The weekend just gone we were away for most of it, so I ended up going to a Sunday evening mass in a neighbouring parish. It was labelled as a ‘folk’ mass though it transpired to have slightly jazz undertones. Anyway, the fact that one of the musicians was playing an upright electric stick bass was, I am almost entirely certain, by some margin the most radical thing musically that happened in the entire Diocese over the weekend. I suspect in some quarters it was probably viewed as scandalous.

But I liked it and in fact when we came to the recessional hymn at the end of mass, the musicians were pretty much swinging. This led to unprecedented scenes where I spotted at least 3% of parishioners furtively tapping their foot along in time; it was joyous. As I like to say to my Pentecostal friends, please don’t worry about us – we’re happy on the inside, honest.

I explain this to give some context to, at one level, quite how alien this album is to me; paradoxically possibly more so than for someone of no particular faith. It’s simply not how we roll in my neck of the woods :-) There’s lots of different reasons for this, ranging from the historical Catholic focus on liturgical music through to the simple practical reality that the structure of the Church doesn’t lend itself to the same sort of ‘career’ opportunities to develop as a music focused worship leader.

Nonetheless here I am confronted with a bunch of blokes skanking for Jesus. So, what to make of it?

I know some conservative American Catholics who would literally be parsing this for potential heresies that might corrupt them. Fortunately, as your common or garden Anglo-Irish variety I have a somewhat more flexible world view and am happy to file such things under “that would be an ecumenical matter”. So instead, I found myself focusing on the pleasing energy and even at times the punk adjacent DIY vibe it has. If it sounds occasionally a bit basic then I think it's probably deliberate and I quite liked that too. They've not exactly employed the Memphis Horns but then it's Ska so that wouldn't be a good move anyway.

Chronologically this qualifies as third wave ska I suppose, so it's to their credit that I didn't sit there thinking what is this lightweight tosh. It might not have been talking about the same things or have quite the bite as earlier ska iterations but it had something to say and it was delivered with conviction so holds it's own unlike too many of their contemporaries.

Probably my only minor qualm is really more my problem than theirs. I realise the point here is evangelisation so plain language is the order of the day. Nonetheless I couldn’t help contrast some of the lyrics with the beauty of the scriptures. So, for just one example, when he sings about doubt on Who Can Be Against Me I find myself agreeing with his sentiment but thinking that it lacks the simple elegance and depth of something like the phrase from Mathew’s Gospel: “Lord I believe, help my unbelief”. In some instances they quote scripture if not directly then relatively closely, but as with the Psalm 8 reference it just doesn't sound quite as eloquent. Obviously I'm being a div by comparing modern songs to canonised, culturally central words that have been shaped, translated, and revered over millennia; it's a daft category error on my part but one I couldn't initially or occasionally stop myself from making.

At one point I definitely got culturally confused. As someone who comes from a tradition where breaking ground on the licensed social club next door often took place before the church footings were established, I couldn't really understand his point about the booze in the verses on Never Wanna Fall but fortunately the urgency of the chorus carried the day anyway :-)

At one level it’s got sincerity and authenticity around a message I agree with and it’s delivered with energy in a genre I like – so on that basis I should probably give it a 10. But in fairness I also need to subject it to the same criteria as any other album on the thread and for all its virtues I think it’s maybe a song too long and/or there’s a bit too much repetition and occasionally the mostly decent harmonies get a bit too DIY. Occasionally the (none religious) lyrics were a bit naff - no one their age should be saying 'in the house' tongue in cheek or otherwise. Counteracting this who knew you could get away with ska vocal percussions when singing about St Paul on the road to Damascus? I had a bit of chuckle considering the way the Saint himself might review it though. Off topic of the album, I'm in full agreement with Mr B on his Jamerson aside in his initial write-up so that’s worth a quarter point. This pick also made me realise something about the nature of my own collection of ‘religious’ music including particularly the CCM albums I own, which though obvious in hindsight, I hadn't recognised before so another quarter point there too.

There are plenty of different ways to evangelise and bear witness and I liked and enjoyed theirs and also the fact that as far as I can tell Matt Morginsky doesn’t appear to have tried to build a multi-million dollar ministry that loses sight of everything made me more predisposed to him/them. I will definitely play some of the tracks from this again and I've started to have a little listen to the rest of their back catalogue.

I’ll go for a very enjoyable 8.5/10 for this nomination at this highly appropriate time of the year.
 
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threespires said:
This pick also made me realise something about the nature of my own collection of ‘religious’ music including particularly the CCM albums I own, which though obvious in hindsight, I hadn't recognised before so another quarter point there too.
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I imagine you're into the gregorian chants or Rebecca St James?

Thanks for the thoughtful and considered review. I am experiencing a strange sense of pride even though i had nothing to do with the production of this album.
 
ADVENTURES OF THE O.C SUPERTONES

Good pick which was fun to listen to , if I ignored the lyrics being anti religious.
It sounded like Greenday meets Bad Manners on most tracks and a Christian Beastie boys on others.
Heaven reminded me of Elvis Costello with Topper Headon on drums.

I really enjoyed the sound and Matt Morginsk’s voice, very much an album to play whilst enjoying the Florida sunshine.

An 8 less 1 for the lyrics so 7/10
 
Greetings one and all.....and no, I wasnt hiding out after our drubbing at the Emptihad. I am in no way bitter!
I felt a tad guilty at have everyone listen to my own offering and then going AWOL the following week. Alas the first 30 seconds of Family received a far from positive response from the family as we left Stranraer and so it ended up with Absolute Radio on for the rest of the drive down to Bury. There then followed a week without and mobile due to my old S8 deciding to pack up.
Work got in the way after returning from holiday but I managed the 3 listens for these eager, clean cut lads from the OC.
The first thing that struck me was the energy, excitement and joy that they were showing albeit with what came across as a house or party band. Even with that the up tempo fun of the album made it rise above the waves and made it safe from the torpedoes ( I think).
The whole thing could perhaps have been trimmed a little and in the end I was starting to tire about all the praising and exalting. The whole Christian Ska didnt really bother me, that is until I started to listen alot more closely to the lyrics, at which point my general anti all religion mindset started to take over. Which made me want to forget the lyrics and just tap my feet and nod along.
I did also wonder about 3/4 of the way through whether I had been tainted by seeing these guys online only a few days before this was nominated...

"https://www.bing.com/videos/rivervi.../channel/UCT2kH5_tcJMveAj1Wi03_yg&FORM=VAMGZC"

For the sheer freedom and energy, the simple way it is all delivered and put together a worthy 7 from the Derry jury, but I don't think I will be seeking out anything else by them. Thank you Mr B for something new and different.
 
Adventures of the O.C.Supertones - The O.C.Supertones

I tried to be like God but when I tried I failed
And every time I fail and fail

Hmm, a line from a song from this band, or a reference to a now-removed ill-conceived AI generated image tweet from a narcissist who these days has no self awareness, much less guardrails?

Either way, I was hoping to get a chuckle at some point on this week's selection. The music was the best part, but unfortunately this isn't my genre despite the horns. It takes some vision to start a song off with slight nods to "hey ho, let's go!" or Black Sabbath or Green Day and then dip into the rinse and repeat ska-punk like they do. They've got that down.

The vocals weren't anything that grabbed me, but the slow-it-down song(s) worked better. "Roots" was a prime example, the best track for me.

I did get a chuckle when seeing on Spotify that "these lyrics aren't time-syned, yet.". Well of course they aren't... given the speed of delivery, and who has time for that? The "yet" gives us that anticipation factor too, so the comma is well noted.

The lyrics are Christian-centered, and that's fine, but they're a bit on the simple and repeating side. I can think of other bands I'd rather hear with more depth, including Jars of Clay, which not ironically released their early albums around this same time, both of which I own and ended up revisiting this week as well.

The timing of this during the Easter Season gets this an extra point, but that brings this up to a 5/10 for me. I wish this was more down my alley, but anything that gets me revisiting a band with a similar focus the same week that is more my speed is a good thing in my book. I too appreciate the 'new to me factor', but sometimes something that speaks to you works best.
 
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Ska. You either love it or you hate it, don't you? Either that or you are somewhere on the continuum between those two extremes, which is where I am but probably a bit over the midline towards hate.

It's not that I didn't listen to it back in the day. The 1990s and two-tone that is, not the 50s when I wasn't born. Looking back though I think it was easy to get caught up in the rush without giving it any sort of sober analysis. And of course there were some great tracks came out of it but only a handful and when I think back to the Specials and Selector albums I had then I remember them being pretty inconsistent.

A year or so ago we were given tickets to a ska revival show at Buxton Opera House and while it was entertaining it sort of confirmed for me that this style music wasn't really for me. Maybe it was the concentration on Madness and Bad Manners and not enough of the Beat (were the Beat ska, I think they were and assuming I am right the best band to come out of that era because they were less ska than the rest).

So, to this weeks pick. More Bad manners than the Beat. I'll give it that it gets the feet tapping and the enthusiasm and joy is almost infectious but I think that @RobMCFC got it right in his early review that it had the sense of being at a party you didn't want to go to (I'm paraphrasing, it was probably a more eloquent and considered comment).

I found it quite quickly got wearing, and having just checked I'm surprised to see it's only 37 minutes long so should be endurable. I've no problem with the lyrical content, I continued to listen to Van Morrison while he went spiritual shopping in the 80s and 90s although I did draw a feint line under the duet with Cliff Richard and usually skip that track while listening to the otherwise sublime Avalon Sunset

The vocals are a bit weak here, the music a bit samey, OK if you like that sort of thing. It's hard to knock the motivation and as my scoring system says five and below is for albums I find to be perfunctory or cynical this garners a 6 for it's honest intention. But I'm kind of glad to see the back of it.
 
A note on the remaining nominators in this round:-

15/04/2026 GornikDaze
22/04/2026 BimboBob - AWOL since 9th March
29/04/2026 FogBlueInSanFran - On holiday until the week of his nomination (I think)
06/05/2026 southamptonblue
13/05/2026 Mancitydoogle
20/05/2026 GoatersLeftShin
27/05/2026 BlueHammer85 - AWOL since December

I do hope that BimboBob and BlueHammer85 are OK, and they've just had enough of the forums for a while. We certainly miss their involvement in these music threads and I still hold out hope that they will return at some point.

In the meantime, it gives us a problem with scheduling. So please can I ask one of @southamptonblue @Mancitydoogle and @GoatersLeftShin to be ready to nominate next week? And of course, everybody else should be prepared to jump forward a week. Thanks.
 
mrbelfry said:
I imagine you're into the gregorian chants or Rebecca St James?

Thanks for the thoughtful and considered review. I am experiencing a strange sense of pride even though i had nothing to do with the production of this album.
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Well over half the religious music I own is liturgical, probably closer to 2/3 tbh if I include contemporary artists like Page CXVI who are mostly 'just' resetting traditional hymns in more modern settings.

This does include some Gregorian chant but I probably listen to as much Taize as I do that, though obviously that's designed for a communal setting. The plainchant I listen to most often tends to be from a couple of Abbeys where I've witnessed it live.

Of the rest when it first started becoming available over here I did buy some albums from the big CCM artists of the day like Jars of Clay and Third Day but my experience with them was a bit patchy. I do actually own a bit of Rebecca St James but she's a good example of where I was going with my comment. Despite her having enough synths to annoy Rob, without necessarily noticing why, I 'd find something a bit 'missing' in her music in terms of it making a connection. Listening to this nomination and looking at what I owned I realised that having bought some earlier mainstream CCM music I've then subconsciously trodden a specific path with it.

Beyond that early stuff I own very little with an up tempo triumphal or victorious tone. It's almost all meditative or introspective stuff mostly singer songwriters often focusing on brokeness and the need for grace. I suppose at one level in the absence of many Catholic artists in the space I've gravitated towards music that has a focus on things that many might say my faith branch is (arguably over) obsessed with such as examination of conscience etc.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for someone like RSJ that she feels the way she does but ultimately for me personally it feels for want of a less crass phrase too 'one and done' to truly seep into my marrow. I think that's why the likes of someone like Jennifer Knapp's music resonated, there's not an ambiguity as such but there's a vulnerability and willingness to sit for a while in mystery and uncertainty.

Anyway, it boils down to I like stuff like The Porters Gate for a bit of a liturgical alignment and artists like Andrew Peterson for a bit of contemplation etc. Even if I go for something overtly poppy like Francesca Battistelli it'll be tracks like If We're Honest that appeal the most. Ditto I'll happily listen to a bit of Big Daddy Weave too which might be slightly more dynamic but is often quite introspective too.

As 'simple' as the music was in your nomination it was actually a bit disorientating for me in a good way. Generally if I want to participate in some straightforward worship music then my muscle memory is probably always going to gravitate to a traditional hymn on a Sunday morning but this gave me lots of food for thought. Why (particularly English) Catholics have such low visibility in terms of evangelising is way too OT and multifaceted for his thread but this pick had me thinking about this and many other things. Really enjoyed it thanks.
 
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The comments on ska are interesting. I've got Toots and The Maytals on my nomination long list; might be be interesting to see how people view the roots compared to later iterations.
 
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