Popular Music - October 2018

Christine and the Queens - Chris (English version)
Amy Grant - Lead Me On
Jars of Clay - Who We Are Instead
Jars of Clay - Redemption Songs
Level 42 - Running in the Family
Wilco - Star Wars

There aren't many albums on the list (yet again), but some of them were listened to multiple times  Either on the grounds of being new, or on the grounds of being old and not as familiar as they ought to be.

Chris was the brand new album that I was very much looking forward to. Having taken some effort to get both the original and English versions of Christine and the Queens' debut album in order to hear how it was originally envisioned and what was done to it, I was very pleased indeed that Chris offered parallel English- and French-based versions in the one package. Not all the songs are the same, with a handful only being available in one of the languages, but that's fine when it's equally easy for me to hear both.

Having said that, I decided to focus on just the English version initially to try and get familiar with the music. I'm not sure I know all of it equally well yet, but (as with the debut album) there is some very accomplished and catchy pop music here. Enjoyable riffs are abundant.

One of the older albums was Redemption Songs. I'd never connected with this as well as other Jars of Clay albums, until now. Essentially it consists of hymns and spirituals, but with many of them recomposed to some extent. It often has a quite old-fashioned feel to it, particularly in the words. I think I listened to it a few times when I first bought it, but not much after that. Apart from the two songs I had previously heard, the album tended to blend together for me. There was a lot of steady mid-tempo music.

This time around, though, by concentrating more, and splitting the album into two halves (CDs might have physically killed A- and B-sides, but I firmly believe that most albums are still conceived with them), I felt more shape to the music. There is a sort of basic, traditional "niceness" to Redemption Songs that means it doesn't plumb the emotional depths, but it's still a good listen.

The other album that was metaphorically picked up and dusted off was Star Wars, which I only have as a download because that was the way that Wilco offered it entirely free back in 2015. My records indicate I hadn't listened to it since 2015, and I suspect that might only have been once. Twice at the most. The collection of mostly 2- or 3-minute songs, and a total playing length under 34 minutes, simply hadn't the weight to make an impact.

But the same strategies I used for Redemption Songs also worked for Star Wars. It wasn't enough to make me think this is a great album, but it was definitely enough to make me think it's an album I will enjoy listening to, and so I will try to do that a bit more often from now on.