Julian Drive's Day will have to wait
Posted January 30, 2009
By Nathan,
Anyone looking into Julian Drive’s résumé will invariably run into 2004 Exalting Him National Talent Search which the band won while prevailing against the 1999 other contestants. The eventual sighing with Inpop records led to their debut pop/rock/southern worship album My Coming Day.
While comparisons range from Casting Crowns, Mark Shultz, and Daughtry the obvious and under looked comparison to Julian Drive is 33 Miles. Shane Bowers’ lead vocals is very similar to that of 33 Miles front man Jason Barton, and the southern music is simply a little more up tempo with Julian Drive. The guitar driven pop sound in “In you” has southern sound to it but its too generic and the underwhelming “you can” sounds far too much like 33 miles. The first demanding song on the album, “cry” certainly got help from Bowers’ vocals but the song still lacked musically.
The aggressive medium rock “The fight is yours” did a solid job of keeping the emotion level high through the entire song and the Afters-“Never going back okay”-like tune “unplug” moved past it’s rough spots to be an enjoyable electronically charged pop/rock tune that is a more memorable song on the album. Sadly the strength of “the fight is yours” and “unplug” doesn’t translate into the rest of the album for the rock tracks. Representing the soft songs and ballads, the title track offers very little potential while it blends a more significant worship sound than most other songs on the album, although “the reason” offers a very intriguing piano light pop sound.
To their credit Julian drive offers a solid Biblically prospective in their songwriting. That aside, truth be told, originality is somewhat lacking in the lyrics. “From your hands” will almost certainly get questioningly glances with it’s very similar Tenth Avenue North “love is here” lyrics (‘True love was pouring from Your hands’). Solid, if not terribly deep, messages are passed along in the form of admiring Jesus while relating the messages of grace and hope “you can” and “from your hands”. “Unplug” takes a very electronic approach to pushing away things that interfere with our relationship with God (‘I turn around, I see Your face, open arms for my embrace/You were only one step away’).
If you think this analysis of My Coming Day has been a little harsh that’s okay because their lyrics are God filled and the music is not bad. The problem is that only a few songs venture out into deep categories as most of Julian Drives lyrics stay in shallow water (“my coming day”, “in you” and “one step away to name a few). As for the pop rock at its best it’s good but for the most part it stays at mediocre. I’d like to say My Coming Day is sure sign of future Juliann Drive efforts and a grand career but I can only hope.
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