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Artist: Leeland
Label: Provident / Sony BMG
Time: 11 tracks / 47:37
There was a certain freshness and innocence about the first wave of what was called, for lack of a corporate title, “Jesus Music.” Those of us who loved God and rock and roll would seek out these recordings where they could be found – these artists were ‘indy’ before ‘indy’ was cool – and we felt excited and relieved that there were others who shared our passion for the great music that bounced back and forth between England and America, as well as our passion for our Maker. These were the days before Nashville and L.A. stepped in with session players, promotional machines, demographic studies, and image-consultants which, to a great extent, have taken some of that freshness out of the experience, and reduced ‘records’ to ‘product.’
To my surprise, hearing Leeland’s Sound of Melodies brought me back to those “Jesus Music” days. Like a blind taste-test, I listened to my review-copy of the CD without the benefit of liner notes, or even a CD cover to ‘set me up’ for what I was listening to. Without the distraction of even a single promotional picture of the band, I was able to listen to this debut CD with totally un-biased ears. The music that I heard brought me back to early work by the likes of Phil Keaggy (the vocals on “Reaching”) and groups like Malcolm and Alwyn (hold up your AARP card if you remember that band – I see that hand!), but with a modern intensity and drive that could only come from a group out of the post-pop era. The lead singer, Leeland Mooring sings in a refreshingly un-affected style, with emotion and an identifiable sound, unlike many of the generic sounding rock vocalists that abound these days. There’s a strong British Invasion influence in the band’s music – the songs revolve around melody, as opposed to riffs, and are structured in a classic-rock verse, chorus, verse structure. It was surprising to me, when I eventually checked out their MySpace page, to find out that this is a band of young guys (Leeland is 18) from Texas! What was not surprising to me was finding out that their musical influences are as varied as The Beatles and Mute Math. The songs are catchy, occasionally anthemic and memorable, and will stay with you through the day, if you let them.
In classic “Jesus Music” style, Sound of Melodies is unashamedly pop/rock but is at times worshipful as well. One of the problems with ‘Praise and Worship’ as a genre, is that there’s an implied separation between that specific category and all ‘other’ music – if that’s valid, then why does Daniel Amos’ “Banquet at the World’s End” cause me to worship? Without becoming mawkish or repetitive, the songs on this project repeatedly bring the listener back to a sense of passion about God – after all, rock and roll is about passion and about joy, so why should it be discounted as a source of ‘worship’ music? Leeland, the band, delivers a strong rock/pop album, free of pretentiousness and posturing, with excellent musicianship, vocals, and songwriting. The production, by no-less than Steve Hindalong (The Choir) and Matt Bronleewe (formerly of Jars of Clay), is delightfully sparse – the producers wisely allowed the band to sound like a band, and not a committee meeting; and a good band it is. Along with Leeland Mooring on vocals and guitars, we have Leeland’s brother, Jack (vocals, keyboards), Jake Holtz (bass), Jeremiah Wood (guitars), and Mike Smith (drums).
Leeland is a band that is creating passionate God-flavored rock music for a generation that seems to have too often sacrificed melody on the altar of The Riff. Don’t let the somewhat-flowery title fool you - melody is still alive and well, and so is “Jesus-rock.”
Bert Saraco
www.myspace.com/expressimage
http://expressimagephoto.tripod.com
…drop a tock if you absolutely require double-bass drums and throat-shredding
vocals.