for their tenth album. Funk,
Coldplay or Nickelback are as ripe for parody
Her 2014 synth-pop Venus album paired her
hip-hop, and gospel music
as Elvin Bishop. But for the material they do
with collaborators from within (Charlie Peacock,
flourishes take their usual
choose, the results range from pretty good to
Paul Moak) and without (Matt Morris, Incubus’
U2-influenced
pretty amazing.
Michael Einziger) the Christian music industry.
guitar
pop
into unexpected directions
JOY WILLIAMS
Venus (Acoustic)
and surprising time signatures. The lyrics
promoted general theism and spirituality (“Life
is short. I want to live it well, and you’re the
From her debut in 2001 as a
one I’m living for”) on tracks with names like
Christian music teen idol to
“Holy Water” and “The Day That I Found God.”
“Looking for America” features guest rapper
Lecrae in an examination of the aspirations and
realities of a nation “beaten red, white, and blue
for the green we pursue.” The overall result is
clearly a Switchfoot album, yet not just “another
Switchfoot album.”
APOLOGETIX
Minor League and Doves in
Snakes’ Clothing
Nearly
25
years
on,
her 2009-2013 stint in the
critically acclaimed Americana duo The Civil
She returns with Peacock here, revisiting
four tracks from Venus and three others.
Lyrics focus on romance and self-realization.
Arrangements are limited to a single acoustic
guitar with multitracked vocals, giving Williams’
voice a glorious immediacy that puts her in the
room with you. If there’s any autotune here, I
sure can’t find it, and don’t miss it.
SHUBB
Wars, Joy Williams has resisted pigeonholing.
continued on 28
CAPOS
Christian music’s premier
parody band have refined
their process to perfection:
Select the greatest mainstream pop hits of
the ‘70’s and ‘80’s (occasionally, the ‘60’s and
‘90’s), perform note-perfect cover versions,
and biblically renovate the words. On their
two albums released this year, Apologetix
once again do three things so very well. First,
they uncannily reproduce some of the most
technically proficient pop songs ever recorded.
Second, they brilliantly recontextualize as
many of the original words as possible while
totally changing the overall meaning of the
song. Third, the new lyrics show a deep and
broad knowledge of Scripture, rarely repeating
a topic or passage even after hundreds of
songs. Minor League surveys the twelve minor
prophets of the Old Testament, covering songs
After
mainly from the ‘60’s and ‘70’s this time around:
40
years
still the best!
Steppenwolf, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the like.
Apologetix’s love of the original songs shines
through; even the lengthy coda to the original
“Layla” is painstakingly recreated.
Doves in Snakes’ Clothing is a more typical
potpourri album of parodies from Alice Cooper
[email protected] • www.shubb.com
707-843-4068
to The Cars. One does wish they’d turn their
attention to current artists more often. Surely
Sep Oct 2016
ChristianMusician.com
27