Anberlin's Surrender on the lyrics continues
Posted October 06, 2008
By Nathan,
It’s pretty safe to say that Anberlin make a big impact with their breakout release Cities. The band took it up a notch to create something new, yet with an uncanny sense of maturity behind the alternative music. The change caught many eyes. It caught fans attention in a big way because it sold 34,000 copies of their album in the first week. Second it caught the eyes of mangers of tours that soon set up Anberlin to open for successful mainstream bands like My Chemical Romance, Simple Plan, and Fall out Boy. The it caught the eyes of the big secular Universal label, leaving behind Tooth and Nail records behind because “there was no way to get our music to all the people we wanted to reach” (says lead singer Stephan Christian).
With dumping Tooth and Nail behind and star producer Aaron Sprinkle, Anberlin apparently decided to get rid off of their old bio which contained quotes about the bands Christian roots and beliefs for a new bio which is more professional and much more secular leaving no indication to those passing by to read what the band is about. Such drastic changes suggest that what Christian means when he says “reaching people” could mean obtaining popularity for earthly means. On the off chance he is talking about reaching people with Anberlin’s lyrics, which would be strange statement that doesn’t line up with Anbelins declining strong moral messages.
However not much has changed much about the music, that is to say they are as good as ever. Anberlin still brings their A-game in alternative rock and it still runs along the same lines but New Surrender incorporated a more electronic music instead of a more organic feel that fueled Cites (the change isn’t bad, but it’s different). The album’s first single, “feel good drag” is really a slightly mixed version of the original song released first on Anberlin’s sophomore album, Never take Friendship Personal; The intense rock song is phenomenal from the aggressive electric guitar intro to Christian’s vocals which he takes up to the next level. The rock tracks stand out more on New Surrender, possibly because of the increase of ballads, so when “disappear” appears, it stands out as a harder rock song than “feel good drag” but not quite as smooth; Another thing about “disappear” is that Christian’s vocals does a small dose of screaming and his voice is very moody.
The mellow rock song “breathe” uses the electronic sound well, plus the emotion is high though the tone of the vocals is a little moody, and the heavy ballad, “breaking” contains a hint of electronic music and the tune is slightly reminiscent. But Anberlin does serve up big guitar riffs in “Haight Street”, a song which doesn’t sound too much like an alternative song but it holds more of a party atmosphere. The times where Anberlin sounds off is on “younglife” which features an odd alterative pop tune, and while it’s original it doesn’t quite fit the feel of the album plus unusual pop tune “Blame me! Blame me!” doesn’t have any intensity that the title would suggest. “Soft skeletons” is a great example of the maturity that Anberlin has because every stage of the melancholy light rock song follows a great formula. For any further proof look no farther than the last and most artistic song "Miserabile Visu (ex Malo Bonum)".
The issue is not the music of this album or even in any of Anberlin’s CDs, but it has been with their spiritually vague and occasionally disturbing lyrics. There is plenty on New Surrender that is though provoking, like “resistance” a song that deals with people coming together even against those who want “bring” and “take down” them; the only disturbing thing is the lack of sympathy towards the aggressive parties ‘You crash where you stand/You've got a riot on your hands…we set your walls to fire’. “Feel good drag” was edgy when it was first recorded and not much has changed ‘I'm here for you" she said/and we can stay for awhile,/my boyfriend's gone,/we can just pretend…Your lips/Your lies/Your lust/Like the devils in your hands’. “Disappear” is another disturbing song although the singer is looking not to be left along but ‘wait for me will you wait for me/with arms wide’.
The songs that deal with reminiscing are “retrace” and “young life”. The former suggests that the past is worth more to the singer than the present, and the latter fondly recollects staying up all night’ and ‘We would dance in your apartment/Til neighbors would knock on your door?’ and the desire to return to them. "Haight Street" promotes youth messing around without care for the future or consequence (‘Let's, you and me, make a night of it./Old enough to know, but too young to care.’) and although the man steps away from a bad relationship, “breaking” is about a girl who breaks hearts all the time and uses people. But good things do come up like “soft skeletons” which focuses on the destructiveness of drugs and the importance of a will to fight and “breathe” which could reflect Ephesians 4. “Burn out better” is really good but it only hints at what is worth living and dying for is (‘Live; I wanna live inspired./Die; I wanna die for something’) so that means the only real spiritual song is "Miserabile Visu (ex Malo Bonum)" which is about the end times.
Woven into the lyrics is angst, regret, despair, and poor relationships; not the kind of substance that is desirable among an album that already lacks a focus of God in the lyrics. Not that it should come as any surprise since Anberlin has hit the big time and there was nothing to indicate a reversal of what was already in past lyrics. New Surrender may be a slight degrade in terms of music but its mainly different and still top notch. Sadly that will be the standard on which Anberlin’s latest will be judged.
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