Alive, Only for those who have actually listened to it please! Options

[SinfulEyes]

Tell me.

[FishOutaWater]

I won't post a song-by-song review of Alive. I think that has been done very well by others. I will give my general, high-level impressions.

This CD is the tale of two CD's. It's good (not great). And it sucks.

What do I mean by that? If you totally ignore the lyrics and what Ed is actually saying, this is a pretty good and enjoyable album. I really like the music and the melodies. The riffs are good. There is some good bass and rumming. It works well with Ed's voice. And I love Ed's voice! His will always be may favorite voice. And this album showcases it. This album fits neatly into the trilogy of albums that is Birds of Pray, Songs From Black Mountain and now Alive. They are similar in sound and theme and producing.

But I can't ignore the lyrics. They are in your face and relentless.

Besides being filled from top to bottom with in-your-face Christian preaching, and sappy, happy, joy-filled, nausia-inducing platitudes, it has a couple of other things working against it.

First, there are so many themes, and even exact quotes, from lyrics in past songs, that it is frustrating to wonder whether Ed has run out of new ideas three albums ago. Mona Lisa. What Are We Fighting For. Water. Daughters. Bla bla bla.

Then overlay on top of that the inescapable voice in the back of your head telling you that if the allegations that Chad, Chad and Pat made are even partly true, then all this talk about Jesus and love and grace and the Great Beyond are so hypocritical that it makes me want to throw the CD against a wall. I am not saying the allegations are entirely true. Ed probably has a side of the story that adds a different perspective on the facts. But what I am saying is that with the allegations being out there - unanswered - I can't stop them from sneaking into my head and effecting my views on these Christian, I've found bliss in Jesus, lyrics. At the very least, it seems clear that Ed operates within the music business like he is using the Machiavellian handbook. And I don't want to get personal, but I've seen him at clubs while on tour and I wonder what his wife and daughters would think of his Christian family values if they had a chance to follow him around. So on some level, these lyrics strike me as profoundly hypocritical.

Another point about the lyrics - I've never heard an album with 11 tracks that all make the same lyrical point. Over and over again, it says the same, happy sappy stuff about God and Ed marinating in the flow of God's love. Word after word. Line after line. Song after song. I had to take a break before I got to the end of the album because it was too much. I fealt like I had just spent a whole morning in Sunday School listening to a lecture by a Catholic nun on ecstacy.

So for me, this album could be really good if I block out what Ed is saying and just listen to the tunes without paying attention. I'll keep listening. Maybe it will start to work for me. And as I have done in the past with Krishnamurti and Ken Wilber, I will try to understand where Ed is coming from with his Christianity thing and maybe that will inspire me and influence my own spirituality.