With Arrows, With Poise
Posted January 08, 2009
By KevinDavis_NRT, Staff Reviewer
The Myriad is one of the most unique bands I’ve ever heard. Winners of the MTV2 contest to determine the next breakout artist, they hit the ground running “With Arrows, With Poise”. Not only is the album title and artwork obscure, the music is the most original and they are the most engaging new artist I heard in 2008 other than After Edmund, who is another great new alt-rock Christian band. Other comparisons could be Christian bands Anberlin, Mae and Saosin. There are a couple of songs I just keep playing, including the hit song “A Clean Shot”, which is so catchy and obscure.
There is not a strong biblical basis for just about any of the songs. Opening song “You Waste Time Like A Grandfather Clock” has an interesting bridge asking “And If God did part the clouds, do you think He’d be proud?” The next song “Get On The Plane” has the lyric “It seems that God was not impressed with clever crooked fools”. Another standout song “A Thousand Winters Melting” has the great chorus “Love, Love, a thousand winters melting. Love, yes love, as you wrap your arms around me”. All that being said, the diversity of the songs and the great music keeps your interest much more than the average album. “Don’t Let Them See You!” is another song in that category as it just jams and builds to the exclamation “You might be wrong!” I can’t say enough about the music as the instruments and vocals all blend so poetically that you can get swept up by the songs, such as in “Forget What You Came For” and “The Accident”. I’ve listened to the album as background music while working, and cranked up in my car while driving and on my headphones breaking down the strange lyrics and it works on all fronts. The production, originality and style are all top notch.
For me personally, had The Myriad decided to be more direct in expressing their faith, this album would have been in my top 10 albums of 2008. As it is, I still like it a lot and rate it 90% out of 100% and consider it one of the best buys of the year. On iTunes, I got 14 songs with 2 bonus tracks including a cover of the Blondie classic “Call Me” and the music video for “A Clean Shot” for $7.99, which is a great buy. View All Music And Book Reviews By KevinDavis_NRT | View KevinDavis_NRT's Profile
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