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Just about any church band can stand up in front of its congregation and play The Twelve Sacred Songs of praise and worship (you know them all by heart), but it really takes imagination to be innovative, different, and appealing in worship. There are indeed local and regional bands who are truly imaginative. Here's another: Goodbye Audio from Bloomington, Illinois. Self-produced and engineered and not at all sounding "home grown" or amateurish, it may be easy to detect some major and minor influences that the four-person band utilizes for Run to You, including (in no particular order) Fleming and John, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Jimmy Cliff, Sixpence None the Richer, Everybodyduck, Waterdeep, Viva Voce, Plumb, and of course, elements of current Vineyard and Maranatha! offerings (and the "hidden track" on CD projects isn't over yet!). Despite the possible plethora of styles offered by Goodbye Audio, this band really does have musical glue: an acoustic/electric basis as the underlying foundation for truly excellent lyrics. Apart from a couple of unusual change-of-pace tempo gear shifts, the flow of Run to You as a recording performance is actually quite smooth. For the most part, where the music appears frenetic, the lyrics follow suit, as in the straight-ahead-rock "Lift My Voice" (a group-written song); acoustic just can't work for "I can't be quiet any more / Living savior I am yours / We belong to you now / Jesus come and fill this place." Makes sense to me! All the music and lyrics are original, and there are moments here that are beautiful, worshipful, thrilling -- and most of all, imaginative and very intriguing.

Olin Jenkins 6/8/2003

You want to refer to Goodbye Audio’s collection Run to You as "modern worship"? Fine. Though the phrase "worship music" is as varied as the demographic and psychographic profile of the bands performing it, in this case, the parlance fits. Members Chris Shandrow, Lewis Lux, Stacey Lux, and Jimmy Wise have traded the restrictive shackles of record company contracts for an open-minded, eclectic, independent path – resulting in a project which is diverse, progressive and hip.

The efficacy of worship music has much to do with purity of heart and a desire to glorify God. In contrast, the life of a career artist typically requires some level of self-promotion, which can easily give way to self adulation. In short, these sometimes conflicting goals pull in opposite directions. While it’s beyond the purview of this reviewers function to evaluate sincerity, Run to You appears untainted by compromise, vanity or pretentiousness. As an illustration, you won’t find an exhaustive listing of specific instrumental and vocal contributions in the liner notes, an apparent agreement that this is a joint project – not to glorify band members, but to shine the spotlight on God.

Though intermittently rough around the edges, nothing another take couldn’t have fixed, Run to You offers seasoning and elegance rarely found in independent projects. Indeed, we hear a sophistication that only evolves over time. While band members may be young, they aren’t inexperienced. Instrumentally, the group exudes confidence and cohesion, though I could have done without the sporadic electronic forays, which distract and date the core material. For the most part though, the songs are buttoned-down and fastidious – well constructed and solid, if not especially original. While there isn’t anything particularly groundbreaking found in the lyrics, that’s about par for the worship course.

At times the lead male and female vocalists are stunning, with vocal reciprocity and intuitive harmony passages which bind the songs together like hand and glove. It’s surely not much of a stretch to compare the ethereal characteristic of Stacey Lux’s voice with those of Leigh Nash from Sixpence None the Richer or Amy Lee of Evanescence. 

Indeed, other comparisons between Goodbye Audio and Evanescence can be made; the diversity of musical styles contained in this project (thread-bare acoustic, straight ahead rock/pop-rock, shades of alternative rock), and a compelling female vocalist meshed with shimmering metal. If Evanescence’s chart success is any indication, maybe there’s still room for artists who shun paint-by-number artistic monotony, even in the predictable arena of praise and worship. And if not, let’s make room.

Curt McLey June 22, 2003