Jars Of Clay released a 5 song EP last fall title “Closer EP”. It features 2 brand new songs from their upcoming full-length CD, 2 remixes of old favorites and another song that they wrote for the documentary “Sons of Lwala
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The 2 new songs, “Closer” and “Safe To Land” are brilliant songs. Jars of Clay at their best in my opinion. Both of these songs are emotional ballads, the first is a bit more upbeat, the latter is more melancholy. Of the two, I like “Closer” the best. The song reminds me of staying to close to God, to experience his love and losing myself in him. That’s what I take away from it.
The 2 remixes are of “Flood” and “Love Song For A Savior”, again. Really, that is the one bad spot (that’s a bit strong, not sure how else to say it) to the CD, as do we need remixes of these songs again. If I recall correctly, they’ve remixed these before, a couple of times. Yes, they’re good songs, but I’ve got them already a couple of times around. The thing is that I really liked Jars Of Clay’s original CD, it’s one of my all-time favourite albums, so I have a hard time with them messing with already great songs.
“Prisoner of Hope” is the final song on the EP. It was written for the documentary, mentioned before. “Sons of Lwala” is the story of two Kenyan brothers sent to America to become doctors. After their parents die from AIDS, they return home to finish the health clinic their father started. It is also melancholy, in a good way, as only the Jars can do melancholy.
So, if this is a glimmer of what is in store for the us from the next Jars of Clay CD, then I’m really looking forward to it in 2009.
Track Listing
- Closer
- Safe to Land
- Love Song for a Savior [new version]
- Flood (New Rain) [new version]
- Prisoner of Hope
Wow, you’re doing a great job here. I love the Christian music info. I would direct you to an old favorite of mine in the Country sound of Christian music. I learned about these guys through a Christian retreat for singles nearly or maybe it was more than 10 years ago. The funny thing is that these guys have been around for a very long time and stridently competed to make number 1 on the secular lists and did make the top ten a few times with Christian themed music. They are known as Brush Arbor. They put a very different sound to Psalm 105 but the two most popular songs they did were their title song “Brush Arbor” and one introduced at the singles retreat called “Swinging Bridge”
http://judgeright.vox.com/library/video/6a00e398d7a95b000300fa96895de20002.html
http://judgeright.vox.com/library/video/6a00e398d7a95b000300fa96895dc90002.html
Thanks for the comments Judge, truly appreciate it! And I’ll take a look at the band, thanks for the link.
Good work! Thank you very much!
I always wanted to write in my blog something like that. Can I take part of your post to my site?
Of course, I will add backlink?
Regards, Timur Alhimenkov