Audio Adrenaline

Item: Underdog
Author: Kevin D. Hendricks

Underdog

(1999)

Reviewed by Kevin D. Hendricks

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Amazon Music Spotify YouTube Music

Label ForeFront RecordsReAL Magazine1999

ccm rock

Audio Adrenaline comes roaring back with their fifth album, abandoning the creative explorations of Some Kind of Zombie and returning to the safe and successful fun of Bloom. Audio Adrenaline has always been pegged as a high school band, although with Zombie the band began to shed the teenager-band image and spread their wings. Unfortunately, Audio Adrenaline has somewhat retracted the wings with Underdog and secured their place as a high school band. That's not to say Underdog isn't a fun album, but if you're looking for the ground breaking exploration of Zombie, forget it.

The album starts off with skin deep lyrics, "A mighty good leader is on the way / He's the only one gonna come save the day / It's all right, yeah, uh-huh, it's OK / 'Cause a mighty good leader is on the way." Skip to track 2. 'Underdog' has to be one of the best songs on the album. Musically it's fun and charged with intensity. Their cover of Peter Townshend's 'Let My Love Open the Door' is just plain fun. 'Hands and Feet' struggles with the honest issue of being servants of God. The remake of 'DC-10' from Audio Adrenaline's self titled debut album--almost ten years ago--is another fun song, even more so if you remember the original. The band manages to branch out with this one, covering it in a modified rockabilly style. 'It Is Well With My Soul' features Jennifer Knapp and is a nice, slow break from the rest of the album. 'This Day' is a surprisingly reflective song about starting each day with God. 'It's Over' is just asking to be a concert encore. Finally 'The Houseplant Song' shows that Audio Adrenaline is still willing to be a little nuts.

Underdog is a fun rock 'n roll album, but if you're looking for something deep and ground breaking you've come to the wrong place. Audio Adrenaline is still catering to the high school crowd. And that's not a bad thing.

But aside from the music, you have to love the cover art.