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Loud and Clear Artist: The Orange County Supertones Label: BEC Recordings Length: 13 tracks

I tried my best to hate the new Supertones album. I really did. I started off before I had even listened to Loud and Clear by saying things like "Wasn’t their last album putrid?"-­it was-­and "You’re a music critic! You can’t like youth group trash like the  Supertones!" Then, when I put the disc into my CD player, I started saying things like "This sounds just like Chase the Sun!" and "Didn’t they already use that riff in Supertones Strike Back?" In the end, though, I’m afraid the album’s infectiousness paid off, and here I am, destroying my indie credibility by professing my love for Loud and Clear.

I’ll start with the liner notes. They’re done like a high school yearbook, with the band members posing (in full costume) for groups like drama club and astronomy society. The pictures themselves would be funny enough, but the captions clinch it, with hilarious movie references-­everything from This Is Spinal Tap to Happy Gilmore. To top it off, underneath the lyrics to each song is a paragraph or two written by lead singer Matt Morginsky explaining the message behind the song. Some of his listeners might need these explanations more than others-­not everyone knows what "apostate" and "neo-orthodoxy" mean, after all. 

Then there’s the music. It is indeed very reminiscent of their last record, Chase the Sun-­The Supertones continue to drop the ska influence, instead moving into a more reggae-rap sound. The group is furthering the rap sound more than the reggae sound this time around, though, as is evidenced by the appearance of several "guest-emcees"-­Toby McKeehan of dc Talk and Chille-Baby of Gospel Gangstas. Morginsky is becoming a much better rapper-­whereas in the past his style sounded awkward and out of place, his raps make Loud and Clear: "Escape From Reason" and "Return of the Revolution" are highlights, and even McKeehan’s constant need to embarrass himself ("Yo, pass dat mic") doesn’t ruin "What It Comes To." The rap influence doesn’t mean that Morginsky can’t write a catchy melody anymore, though-­indeed,  "Wilderness" and "Jury Duty" are two of the most hummable tracks in the Supertones canon.

Lyrically, Loud and Clear could very well take its mission statement from Hosea 4:6: "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Many of the songs lambaste the church for "putting down the Bible and picking up the playstation." My favorite lines come from "Escape From Reason," a title taken from a Francis Schaeffer book:

Tell me, who will listen to uneducated congregants?
And why should they when all we have to say is
Bumper sticker doctrine and cute catch phrases?
Does this amaze us that no one will take us seriously?
 

So, aside from a few missteps ("My Father’s World" never quite gets up off the ground, and "Who Could It Be?" has a chorus that is almost retch-inducing in its banality-­"Who could it be? Who could it be? The person of the Trinity / Between one and three ­ J-e-s-u-s C-h-r-i-s-t"), Loud and Clear is the best Supertones album so far.
 

Michial Farmer 10/22/2000