Dawn of Grace
Artist: Sixpence None the Richer
Label: Nettwerk
Length:  10 Tracks / 35 mins

A lot of people will be pleased to hear this new Sixpence Christmas disc, the first release since they decided to re-form. There is a floaty wistfulness about this duo that suits the wonder of the festival. Meanwhile, there will be many who complain of it being syrupy. There are both aspects here, but the strong pieces certainly win out.

On their MySpace page, Sixpence describe the reasoning behind the disc: “We experienced a deeper connection to our own faith, and to the faith of the composers, as we dug deeper into the words delivered by those melodies, and tried to express our own views about Christmas. I guess we chose to make this record because it was a fun project that could really fit with our sound, but in the end we were thankful for the spiritual connection and reflection it fostered in us.” 

While eight of the ten songs are traditional, only three are particularly well known (four if you count “Carol of the Bells”) and they come across very well. “Angels We Have Heard on High” gains from the subtle beauty of the arrangement, clothing jingle-jangle guitar in a see-through minimalist dress to feature all the character in Nash’s voice. One of the great delights here is the way that they introduce several unexpected bits – small delays that give a touch more guitar when you are expecting vocals to return; the sort of approach that gives a freshness to the whole song. It’s only the distracting breath break in the “Gloo-ooria” vocal that stops this track being perfect Sixpence material. “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” enjoys a similar approach, with a percussive shuffle behind some of the later vocal lines, but its strongest feature is a dash of the twangy-yet-floaty guitar that defined their wonderful Divine Discontent album. “Silent Night” is played pretty straight, other than for an atmospheric steel guitar and a response vocal sung by Dan Haseltine from Jars of Clay that becomes an à capella duet before instruments come back in for the quiet finale.

“Riu Riu Chiu,” largely sung in Spanish, is new to me and it is as strong as any track on the disc. Nash singing in a foreign language is so exotic, and the melody suits it tremendously well. It is a 16th century carol, the title coming from an impression of the nightingale’s song, and that sound is slipped in towards the end. Some lines translated read, “A thousand singing herons I saw passing / Flying overhead, sounding a thousand voices,” to which they add in English, “Hear the joyful singing, the message of delight the nightingale is bringing.”

The ‘fun’ song is “Christmas Island,” which breaks up the collection, preventing it from becoming too serious, but it also breaks the spell a bit. Otherwise, this music tip-toes around the incarnation story with a mix of wonder and quiet awe. One of two songs that come from the present, rather than deep in the past, “The Last Christmas” does so while linking Nash’s experience as a new mother to Mary’s pregnancy. 

The song quality dips a bit in the second half, letting in just enough festive cheese to sprinkle on a crumpet, but the minimalism of the delicate acoustic bed remains.

The Steve Hindalong / Derri Daugherty partnership produced and engineered this. They too seem to have been absent for a while, and their return is just as welcome. Having worked with Sixpence on the City on a Hill projects, they have a comfortable and sympathetic relationship that has paid off well. Hindalong’s emphasis on percussion has been tamed, and they have added some strings and Keaggy-esque guitar washes in the background. Most importantly – and surprisingly, for a release short of 40 minutes – they have let the music dream and wander at its own pace. It’s great to have them back. 

Derek Walker

         

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For many a member of the Christian alt-pop camp, February 26, 2004, will forever remain, to quote FDR’s famous 1941 war address, a date which will live in infamy. It was on that day that Matt Slocum sent an open letter to CCM Magazine informing the music world at large that Sixpence None the Richer, the group for which he had served as lead guitarist and songwriter for over a decade, would be no more. But even as fans of the band who opened the pages of the March issue of CCM, where the letter appeared, sat in stunned silence at Slocum’s announcement, they simultaneously took solace in the wording of his parting note, “goodbye ... for now,” hoping that the decision to cease recording with SNTR vocalist and co-founder Leigh Nash would turn out to be temporary rather than permanent.

By this point, all but the most cloistered of Sixpence devotees realize that their prayers have, at long last, been answered. Those looking for proof that the years since the duo’s last full-length outing,  2002’s Divine Discontent, have done nothing to dim their artistic prowess need look no further than the new album’s triumphant opening track, “Angels We Have Heard on High,” which marries Nash’s wispy, ethereal voice to Slocum’s shimmering, understated fretwork in letter-perfect fashion. Likewise daunting are “Silent Night” (a duet with Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay) and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” whose appealing folk-meets-modern-rock textures and faithfulness to the source melodies call to mind the critically-hailed City on a Hill worship releases. Perhaps most impressive, though, is the whirling, almost hypnotic, “Carol of the Bells,” which flawlessly captures the mesmerizing awe of the original composition.
 

While the familiar traditional carols are delivered with a majestic and sublime reverence that places them among the pair’s most memorable compositions to date, the remaining cuts are far more hit-and-miss. “Last Christmas” (written by Slocum for the birth of his first daughter) is a first-rate example of elegantly-constructed minimalism. “Riu, Riu, Chiu,” is likewise refreshingly unassuming, even if its Spanish-language description of Christ’s birth and death will ultimately be lost on most of those who hear it. The jaunty, romantically-inclined “Christmas for Two” and “Christmas Island,” though, while far from bad, fit in jarringly at best alongside the more somber (and, truth be told, better) religious-themed entries. And Nash’s intermittently awkward vocal execution on “River” only widens the gap between her version and the far-superior Joni Mitchell original.

Of course, any discussion regarding relative song quality is rendered largely moot by the fact that most listeners familiar with the Sixpence collective will purchase Grace by default simply because they admire its creators. That being said, those who were put off by the group’s harder-rocking, more alternatively-flavored material may want to think twice before they pass on the record, given its relatively kinder, gentler character. And even listeners who have yet to fall under the group’s seemingly irresistible spell would have to admit that, with the exceptions noted above, Slocum and Nash’s latest release stands head and shoulders above the average Christmas-themed collection in terms of composition, arrangement and respect for the material covered. Admittedly not as essential as Discontent or the self-titled project, The Dawn of Grace nevertheless functions as a fine album in its own right and, even more importantly, offers a long-awaited reintroduction to one of pop music’s most uniquely gifted musical ensembles.
 
Bert Gangl, The Phantom Tollbooth (11.19.2008)