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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A glo-ing example of daring to be different, 9 Feb 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Glo (Audio CD)
With this release an hitherto "just another Rock band" show enormous creativity, push back ever genre boundary across 70 minutes of beautifully crafted rhythms and melody.Most notable about this album is that that many tracks flow seamlessly into one another, in a manner similar to Pink Floyds "The Wall". This gives the impression of the album being an aural journey, starting with chanting monks, through crossover rock/house dance beats and rhythms in God's Romance, tender acoustic sections, hendrixesque guitar riffs and cheering, out and out pop/rock, highland bagpipe jigs, then winding up in a tense ambient track "Jesus blood" which turns into a grand choral anthem and then the final twist in the tail is the choir fading out to leave a string quartet playing a spontaneous 10minute instrumental, rather like Vaughn Williams' "Lark ascending". Spontaneity is a theme of the album too. The band recorded the album together in the studio and many songs tail off into long spontaneous sections, labelled "Glo in the dark" on the track listing. These are not your typical "play the same chord riff over and over for 10 minutes" jams though. Instead they are thoughtful communication between the band members and their instruments. One guitar finds a motif, the other seamlessly compliments it, the other instruments follow and take the vibe off in a different direction. The impression given is a band giving absolutely everything in terms of inventiveness and experimentation with production to create something quite unusual. And they nearly pull it off. I say nearly, because there is one flaw in the masterpiece, the band are Christians, and that is strongly reflected lyrically, which can be foreign to the secular ear at times, but these are no sandal wearing happy clappers. Think U2 meets Radiohead with a spiritual, upwardly focused "edge" to it all and you're in the right territory. Particular note should be given to Martin Smith, the lead singer, who delivers every lyric with genuine passion and conviction. When he sings "God is bigger than the air I breathe", you may not believe it, but you are left in no doubt that he does. This is truly music delivered with passion, honesty and integrity, qualities which are lamentably rare in much mainstream music. It seems honest rather than preachy, but still, many people are just not going to relate to much of this album lyrically, even if they appreciate it's an outstanding piece of work in every other respect. However, in a time when most guitar based bands are either drowning in wrist cutting depression and ham fisted thrashy power chords, or else sounding like tired 60s pub bands your dad would like, delirious? stand out from the crowd. Lyrically positive, but still honest, and musically not afraid to cross genre boundaries, this is a band not afraid to be different. Even if, sadly, this has been at the price of mainstream success.
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