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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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We Haven't Just Been Told, We Have Been Loved Artist: Half-Handed Cloud Label: Asthmatic Kitty/Sounds Familyre Time: 24 tracks/33:26 When I listen to a new album, one of the first things which hits me is the dominant instrument on the album. Is it guitar-driven? Bass-heavy? Piano-driven? With this album, it wasn't the instrumentation so much as the dominant emotion of the album which really struck me. This album is like a dose of Vitaman C for the soul. It simply radiates the joy of salvation and rest which is found in Christ. True, this message is wrapped in 24 short songs, compact jewels with structure and vocalizing reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkel, but the message comes through loudly and clearly. An example of this is the "One Song in Seven Rests," comprising tracks 2-8 of the disc. Essentially one song spread across seven tracks, it reflects an insightful, well-developed theology of rest. "We're worried and we're confused but we could be so blessed/I wonder what we're doing when running from the rest./What's that guy running for?/What's he got to run there for?" John Ringhofer, the one-man band comprising Half-Handed Cloud is like a more melodious version of Daniel Smith. The instrumentation of this album is uniquely quirky and lo-fi, as one would expect from a Sounds Familyre release, including piano, drums, trombone, kazoo, bells, cello, guitar, accordian, keyboards, and so forth. The overall effect, as was mentioned, is essentially like Simon and Garfunkel revved up and compressed. If Paul Simon were unable to write songs longer than about 90 seconds a piece, mixed in elements of the Beach Boys and the Beatles, and had a desire to write of things Christological, he might sound a little like Half-Handed Cloud. All this is to say that I have listened to this album many, many times but I still find myself completely unable to describe it, except that it never fails to leave a smile on my face and a song in my heart. It is a definite departure from the dominant modern music idioms, and a proud reclamation of joy; not some contrived, forced joy, but the spontaneous joy which is found in Christ. In these greying months of late fall, that is not a bad thing to be reminded of at all. Alex Klages 11/7/2002
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