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Continuing in the folk-rock style the band inspiringly slipped into for their celebrated 2003 release, Who We Are Instead, Good Monsters retains portions of the mellower, contemplative nature of its predecessor while racketing everything up with a far more kinetic rock and roll sound, and includes what may the broadest and most emotionally-charged subject matter they have ever covered – death, salvation, disheartening and frightening racial and social issues, wakening from apathy/lethargy, and the tempestuousness of romantic love.  
 
While Jars of Clay’s music is usually characterized with thoughtfulness and poetic depth, the songs on Good Monsters are less about making the listener think, than they are about making the listener feel.  It isn’t hard to determine the meaning behind songs like “All My Tears,” “Oh My God,” or “Light Gives Heat,” yet their respective subjects of life-after-death, the modern-day horrors caused by sin, and racial subjection are nothing but heartrendingly affecting.  The common theme of breaking out of apathy and disinterestedness strings together the bulk of Good Monsters, yet nearly every song on the record presents its own particular subject or angle on the matter.  Thus songs like the sensitively consoling “Even Angels Cry” or the male-female interplay in “Mirrors and Smoke”, while sticking out at first, eventually settle into and positively build upon the arching theme of the record, and also help keep the listener’s chin-up – we may feel despair and angst with the craziness and hypocrisy of the world and our own cultures, yet we also know that hope and happiness still exist, and are attainable, with the help of a loving Savior.
 
Billed as a “return to Jars’ rock roots” by the band’s label, not a lot of the material on Good Monsters is even too reminiscent of the band’s earlier days.  Which is a good thing anyway – while aspects of their debut are present, Jars of Clay is still moving forward with confidence and poise.  “Dead Man (Carry Me)” is positively the catchiest thing the band has written since their work in 1999’s If I Left the Zoo, and their cover of Julie Anne Miller’s “All My Tears” ranks with “Faith Enough” and “Frail” as one of Jar’s most stirring numbers to date.  Unfortunately, a small number of the new songs don’t quite reach the same standard– “There Is A River” and “Take Me Higher” are fairly basic and uninteresting, and “Even Angels Cry” slips on a sappy chorus-line that spoils the impact of the song as an uplifting comforter.  
 
Good Monsters is easily classifiable as a record whose whole is greater than its parts.  It’s an amazing and affecting listen, a record that tries not so much to stimulate the mind, as what a lot of Jars of Clay’s previous work has done, but instead works most of all to stir the heart.  And it absolutely does.  It at the very least matches the quality of most of Jars of Clay’s output, which simply means that it’s yet another consistent, rich, and engaging pop/rock/folk release.  

Jonathan Avants 9/27/06

I always have mixed feelings when I begin to hear about a project that’s ‘destined to become the album of the year.’ On one hand, I anticipate the possibility of some really stunning music, but on the other hand, I half-expect to be let down and left annoyed by the hype and hyperbole of the CCM industry. Jars of Clay’s _Good Monsters_ project has certainly been touted as the band’s finest hour, and the album that will set the new standard for crossover Christian bands. As it turns out, Good Monsters is - well… good. Maybe better than previous Jars of Clay outings. Good, better ….best? Best of the year? Against hype of that magnitude it’s hard not to disappoint - and the band does avoid disappointing through generally above-average playing and excellent production. …but certainly falls short of the lofty place that the CCM hype machine wants it to occupy.

Certainly, there’s a rock & roll edge on _Good Monsters_ that Jars of Clay has usually not come close to. The opening track, “Work,” starts the album off with a strong attack that perhaps sounds more like something we’d expect from a  Switchfoot CD. The next track gets into some good solid pop-rock territory. “Dead Man (Carry Me),” hits us with a bridge and chorus that might conjure up The Newsboys to some ears. Next, the album begins to slow down a bit with “All My Tears,” which has all of the earmarks of an updated standard, and even sounds melodically structured like a mid-period Petra tune. 

If you’re beginning to see a pattern here, you’re right. While these are all good songs, there isn’t enough of a signature sound to unite them – a distinct Jars of Clay sound. As you move from song to song you can mentally list the bands that influenced the sound - not unlike those awful ‘sounds like’ charts that they used to post in Christian bookstores (‘if you liked “Take Me Higher,” by Jars of Clay, you’ll like The Elms!’). The band manages to get closer to comfortable territory on the next two tracks; “Even Angels Cry,” a wonderfully-produced, atmospheric slow-down that humanizes the band’s sound, and “There is a River,” a country-rock acoustic song that Jars of Clay seems quite at home with. The half-point of the album is reached on the title track, “Good Monsters,” an excellent rock-pop exercise with some nice Hammond work thrown in for good measure. 

The next six songs – all good enough individually – still leave us with the feeling of having eaten a pretty good meal, but being unable to remember what the main course actually was. We do get some more good rock & pop, like the previously-mentioned Elms-like “Take Me Higher,” which features some tasty guitar breaks; good Hammond-organ tinged rock on “Mirrors & Smoke,” and even the increasingly-obligatory African Children’s Choir (is it me, or is this becoming a cliché?) on the sincere “Light Gives Heat.” All of the songs are well-crafted, solid, well-performed tracks – the problem is, they seem to be almost like back-up tracks that could’ve been given to any number of bands to insert themselves into. “Mirrors and Smoke,” the duet between lead singer Dan Haseltine and Leigh Nash, sounds as if Johnny and June Carter Cash lent them a leftover arrangement (not necessarily a bad thing).

The core members of Jars of Clay are, Haseltine on vocals, Charlie Lowell on Keyboards and background vocals, Stephen Mason on guitars and background vocals, and Matthew Odmark on acoustic guitar, banjo and background vocals. Perhaps it’s the fact that a drummer and bass player are added to the group as needed, partially accounts for the polished but sterile effect of many of the songs on Good Monsters. Jeremy Lutito (drums) and Aaron Sands (bass) are excellent players, and turn in quality performances, but Nashville is full of great session men and great arrangers (in this case, Ron Anlello) who know how to get the job done without breaking a sweat – maybe this project needed a more visceral approach to really become an artistic statement instead of just a ‘good’ recording. Instead, we are left wondering about the musical identity of Jars of Clay – are they a folk band, a rock band, a country-rock band, a pop band, a straight-CCM band…

Good Monsters: good – not great.

By Bert Saraco 
(www.myspace.com/expressimage      expressimagephoto.tripod.com  )
 

– Add half a tock if you’re a big fan of Haseltine and like polished rock & roll