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CD Review
Undone
Mercy Me
© 2004 Mercy Me/Ino Records.
Review by Jo van Leerdam
MercyMe have enjoyed success with their previous albums over the past
few years earning them Dove Award nominations and awards. (Dove Awards
are given each year by the Christian Music industry in the USA.) They
have a very “radio friendly” sound with catchy melodies and some good
guitar hooks. A number of their songs have been well received by radio
stations and particularly on Christian stations, have been getting quite
a bit of airplay. “I Can Only Imagine” (from their previous album) won
last year’s Dove Award for ‘Song of the Year’ and has been very
successful on commercial radio.
While Undone has earned them five nominations for this year’s Dove Awards, it follows the same pop/soft rock formula as their previous albums. It would be refreshing to see MercyMe extend themselves stylistically so that this album didn’t sound like a reinvention of the last. However, I am sure Mercy Me fans will love it, along with those who enjoyed Smalltown Poets and the earlier albums of Jars of Clay and Ten Shekel Shirt. If you are interested in popular style music with Christian lyrics, you might want to give this album a try. The band’s website at www.mercyme.org has a lot of photos, information and testimony from the band, but more importantly, you can listen to clips from the album and preview it there.
The intensity of the music gets your attention right
away. I do feel that it is a bit over-produced, but that seems to be the
way of pop music these days, Christian or otherwise. The more you
listen, though, the lyrics emerge and the music serves to complement
them very well.
The lyrics are reflective and thoughtful, serving to encourage us to
examine our relationship with God, promoting honesty and openness in our
prayer and communication with Him.
The songs on this album speak of the experiences we have as Christians at different points of our faith journey. We have moments of strength (‘Blink Of An Eye’), of longing (‘Homesick’) and times of sorrow and trouble (‘Keep Singing’). There are also some challenges: ‘When You Spoke My Name’ discusses how Jesus’ name is used differently in this world than among those who know Him, and how when we come to know Him in faith, we can’t ever blaspheme His name again.
Another thing I really appreciate is that MercyMe don’t simply put head knowledge into contrived lyrics – there is real practical application for our lives in these songs. They remind us that whatever happens to us or around us, we do not need to doubt, because “You’re never alone because I am with you, And I will always be, I will hold you cause you belong to me; you’re never alone because I’ll be with you for all eternity” (‘Never Alone).
Perhaps the album as a whole is best summarised in the words of ‘Shine On’: “In all that’s said and done, in everything you do, just let your life glorify the One who shines on you.”
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