JOSH WHITE AND JOSH GARRELS STEVEN MALCOLM MATTHEW THIESSEN AND THE
Josh White and Josh Garrels (EP) The Second City (full album) EARTHQUAKES
Wind Up Bird
Two of the Pacific Northwest’s foremost musical The trio of releases comprising Malcolm’s
talents combine their efforts on this indie folk “Second City” is now complete, yielding a
EP which features some of the most explicitly 15-track collection of reggaetón and hip-hop.
Christian material that either man has recorded. The title track serves as auto-biography-in-
Garrels starts things off with an echo-laden song for a man who has been “Freed by the
meditation on the meaning of the cross: “In blood of the Most High”. “On Ten” reflects on
you, we are forgiven; sins are forgotten.” White, the rigors of life on the road, punctuated with
sounding like Peter Furler-era Newsboys, sings further reflections on his past and outbursts
of giving all for the cause of Christ: “I lost my of praise to God. Some rappers use chill
house and my good name when I found the road midtempo tracks as filler, but Malcolm adopts
of my king.” “The Children’s Song” is a straight- a triplet delivery that crams every song full of
up praise song recounting Jesus’ person and thought, regardless of the beat. A cover of
saving work. Strummed acoustic guitar, lightly Bob Marley’s spiritually-minded “Redemption
garnished with electric lead counterpoint, is on Song” wraps things up with a nod to Malcolm’s
the menu with tracks like “Enclosed by You”, Jamaican
which ponders the mystery of God indwelling soaring, gospel-inflected “Even Louder” which
his people, echoing Solomon’s prayer in 1 features Leeland.
Kings 8:27. “How could I contain You, when
You contain everything? The house of my soul
is far too small, but still I must sing”. And sing
they both do, to moving effect.
heritage.
Album
highlight:
the
Relient K’s frontman steps back into a delightful
side project overflowing with musical ideas. In
2005, Thiessen assembled the Earthquakes
as an outlet for music that didn’t fit the pop-
punk work that Relient K was doing at the time.
Relient K has expanded its musical diversity
substantially since then, but this Earthquake
revival is mellower still, an acoustic-driven group
of songs leavened with horns, not far from The
Head and the Heart or Vampire Weekend,
more John Mayer than Johnny Ramone. He
hits multiple sub-styles along the way, from
the “amateur baroque” feel of Sufjan Stevens
on “Oedipus” to a slurred Bon Iver/Lord Huron
to the close harmony “unearthed Simon and
Garfunkel” sound of “Mother’s Triumph” to the
layered CSNY harmonies of the title track. But
don’t mistake “mellow” for “slow” or “boring.”
The tempos are plenty skippy, and the sedate
drumming just gives more opportunity for the
melody to shine through. Most song links
hover around three minutes, plenty to relish
the arrangements and then moving on before
staleness sets in.
Robert Berman
Robert is a Sunday School teacher, music nerd,
and acoustic guitar enthusiast. He lives in rural
Tennessee with his wife and three boys.