Jars of Clay

Item: Much Afraid
Author: Chris Parks

Much Afraid

(1997)

Reviewed by Chris Parks

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Label Essential RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth1997

acoustic rock adult alternative alternative rock folk rock

When Jars of Clay burst so suddenly onto the scene last year, achieving popularity to the point that even I had heard of them, I was prepared to be underwhelmed. The adulation poured out on the group by some struck me as excessive, considering that the group's members were fresh out of college and had had an unusually quick trip to a recording contract.

When I actually bought their debut album, though, I was pleasantly surprised. While listening to the album did not make me an ardent fan, there were a number of songs that I enjoyed, especially "Sinking" and "Worlds Apart." And reading and hearing of the Jars' efforts to respond to their newfound celebrity by not getting swelled heads inspired my respect to the point where I decided to buy their second album.

My response to that second album, Much Afraid, is similar to my response to their first album, although on the whole I prefer the first. Though there is some progression from the first album to the second, the band has done very little to stretch itself musically or lyrically. There's more reliance on full string accompaniment than the first album, more keyboard effects, and more electric guitar on songs like "Crazy Times." Early rumors that this album would "rawk" turned out to be slightly exaggerated. There are no plodding songs, but none are played at a breakneck pace, either.

Indeed, this album is missing the variety of tempos found on their debut album. The mix of slower songs and faster songs on the first album provided a respite that would be welcome here. Much Afraid is more of a succession of middle tempo songs, and the sameness wears after a little while.

The lush vocal harmonies that impressed me on the first album are still there, layered under Dan Haseltine's plaintive lead, most notably on "Five Candles (You Were There)," and "Portrait of an Apology." When they sing those tight harmonies, it doesn't much matter what the lyrics say. The album is well engineered and produced, with the intricate harmonies never buried in the clean instrumental mix.

Lyrically, this is a darker album than the first album was. While the Jars haven't been guilty of unrealistic optimism in their songs, the new songs tend to focus almost exclusively on human frailties and failures. Some of the song titles themselves are a bit depressing: "Fade to Grey," "Frail," "Weighed Down," "Portrait of an Apology," and the title cut. And the dominant mood of the song with the most positive title, "Overjoyed," is unworthiness rather than joy:

Who am I
That I should company with something so divine?

Even the affirmations and expressions of faith tend to be tangled up with confessions of weakness, as in the song "Weighed Down":

Our hearts a bubble maker's dream
Moved on by dreams of everything
As we deny that love is still the king
Not as weak as we make Him out to be.

A song that mixed in some yearning for God with the angst, like "Love Song for a Savior," or "Like A Child" from the first album, would have been nice.

I have to wonder if the band couldn't have produced a more balanced album if they had waited for a few more months between coming off touring and heading back into the studio. The Jars debut album demonstrates that they can do better.

2.5 tocks