Prog?
If there were to be a genre called “Progressive Contemporary Christian,” the David Crowder Band would have it cornered. It’s weird in a good way. Since I’m slugging my way toward bed, the whole answer must be divined tomorrow.
Chris Tomlin is just all-around satisfying. He delivers, as predicted, 100% of the album. No deep surprises, but none requested.
Chevelle is becoming a serious all-time favorite band, as is Fallout Boy. Which is surprising, given my cane-waving reactionism toward All Things Remotely Emo Except 50% of Straylight Run. I guess Chevelle is a little too head-banging to lump in there with Fallout Boy, but the modernity of them still places them somewhere in the ballpark.
Crowder’s lead vocals are abrasively weird to me, but acceptably so. The same thing happens for me with The Talking Heads and Neil Young (drastic contrasts are duly noted). The Christian genre is sticky and difficult to navigate; you kind of write a pass when someone is doing something style-forward, even w.r.t. your pop music du jour. The synthesized aspect of Crowder all but writes the pass for you.
“Open Skies” is already winning. Its motion is unparalleled, even by what I feel is – in a relative sense to the genre – the compositional genius of Caedmon’s Call. It’s nice to hear an artist hit the bridge without dropping into the stock relative minor. Guitar players probably know where I’m coming from there.
“Intoxicating” shows a little distilled Dave Matthews influence, if I detect clearly, but with that I pause (literally) and go to bed.