I just bought, on the recommendation of a blog post (that’s now long gone from my browsing history…) an album by a Los Angeles band called Zehnder. Zehnder is made up of twins Tim and Tom Zehnder, cellist Adrienne Woods, drummer Mike Boggio and percussionist Emiliano Almeida.
General Review: I love this album. Great harmonies. Great arrangements. Strong lyrics. It’s music about God by Christians that aren’t just trying to fit into the Paul Baloche mold or the Casting Crowns mold, but are instead making their own art. This album is on my playlist all the time, and it gets better with every play. If this album had a bit firmer hand on the production tiller to weed out a few poor choices, it would have been darned near perfect.
Zehnders Overall Sound: A sparse and open acoustic sound. Single acoustic guitar and reggae-inspired bass are the predominant instruments with great percussion support and wonderful integration of cello and other instruments. The vocals are predominantly two voices in constant harmony as only twin brothers can do. Songwriting and arranging is a strength of Zehnder’s. No song is just “verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus”, there are always twists that make listening interesting and appealing.
The reggae feel and high vocal harmonies of Spirit Born, I Believe, Rise Up and Holy God Creator of All Life will have you swearing that Synchronicity-era Sting is in the studio, but that makes me smile rather than being a distraction. It fits in so well, imagine an alternate universe where Sting and the boys went acoustic and created a Christian band rather than going 80′s new wave punk. (and yes, that’s incredibly high praise from me, the entire Police box set is also on my permanent playlist).
Highlights:
- Spirit Born – Great song. Try getting this out of your head. I dare you.
- Angels’ Song – Catchy and fun and deep all at the same time. This has made it into our regular Christmas playlist. Lyric Highlights: “Oh, sweet Mary, my love / I was so close to saying goodbye / To my life, my wife-to-be / Thank God I heard that song / And followed the dream… / And now we listen to the Angels’ song / We listen to the heart of their song / We put away our fear, put it all away / And find a way to sing along”
- I Believe - This song that shows the arranging talent these guys have. It’s a great song of struggle and doubt and faith. Lyric Highlights: “And oh the grief, to say goodbye / Sing out wailing through labored sigh / Swing white hot fury to black despair / Dare you to find your God in there / I believe, help my unbelief”
- Rise Up - Another great example of Zehnder’s ability to write a song about something that’s been done to death but bring a new perspective and fresh sound to it. Lyric Highlights: “At the moment of deepest grief / The powerless are lifted high / And carry truths beyond belief / Rise up, feel the change! / The Resurrection comes again!“.
- One Fluid Flow - An oddly structured, quirky, beautiful song full of monotonic harmony and incredible lyrics, this is the deepest song on the album. It contains my favorite lyric:
Varied and wide is the landscape of this life,
And naturally running through is the river of my faith,
Yet why do I pour it out
Into categories of people, place and time?
They become little glass jars on a shelf,
Full of the river’s water, but river no longer,
- What Wondrous Love is This – A celtic-influenced thick, deep interpretation of a beautiful classic hymn. It’s respectful and classy. but very uniquely Zehnder.
- Holy God, Creator of All Life - This song is the closest this album comes to getting everyone in the sanctuary/arena to sing along. It’s a simple plea for God to hear our prayers, but it completely avoids cheesiness and instead pours out sincere desire. You’ll be shouting along, I promise.
The entire album is interspersed with short clips that tie the set together and make it an album, not just a bunch of songs. I love this decision, it shows a mindset that wants to present a body of artwork, not just radio hits. In between various songs are a 10 second clip of a cello quartet playing the theme from Angel’s Song, a hand-drum improvisation, and a choirboy’s vocal solo from Angel’s Song. The album concludes with my kids’ favorite track, Up Via Westinghouse. On the cover of the album is an elevator, so this last track is a hilarious marimba lounge-jazz elevator muzak version of Spirit Born.
Lowlights:
- Justice Jam – Zehnder sings the (admittedly nice) chorus and a group called “Street Poets” rap the verses. Sorry Zehnder, but I deleted this song. I tried to like it, I played it dozens of times, I tried to reconcile it with the rest of the album, but I couldn’t. I’m not against hip-hop/rap, but this is just poor. The lyrics are forced, the rhymes are weak, the delivery is amateur. It brings nothing to the table and it ruins the cohesion of the rest of the album. It breaks the album in half and destroys the flow of a great set of songs. Lyric highlights: “To not get bothered, followed, beaten or clobbered / By police for being the wrong color / Not guilty, your honor, my post traumatic slave disorder / Got me thinking freedom is far-fetched like President Obama“. Heh.
- Breathe In Breath Out – I saw a website that described this song as very “Emergent”. It calls eastern sounds and ideas into the concept of peace. I have to admit some unease about the concepts expressed in “Shalom, salaam, namaste / ancient the paths, we find a new way “. Namaste is a Hindu greeting (the palms together at chest level), and Salaam is the arabic root for the Hebrew Shalom. I can understand the need for peace, but without any further knowledge of the band, I get wary of Syncretism. It’s a beautiful song that still makes the playlist, but (while trying not to be knee-jerk) I still sometimes get little warning lights when I hear it.
- On Promise Road – My least favorite song on the album, once I deleted Justice Jam. It’s as high a quality as the rest, but it seems manufactured somehow. It’s missing the unique Zehnder treatment. The lyrics are pretty bland and there’s nothing to make this song stand out for me at all except the 30 seconds of unaccompanied hand-drumming at the end.
Overall album rating: 8.5 out of 10. (Minus Justice Jam: 9/10)
I strongly recommend you check this one out.
The CD is available for $14.99, or MP3 download for $9.99 here. Samples of every song on the album are available on the download page, and the band website offers samples of some of the songs, as well as a free full mp3 of the song Spirit Born here. The video for Spirit Born is here.