Well, in this particular instance, yes, though I don't necessarily have a bias against electronica or pop; my problems with this record are several. For one, it seems-- for the first time-- like they're trying to jump on to a particular bandwagon; this new style happens to be a very hip one, as with bands like The Killers, et al.
I don't think the use of synthesizers and 80's elements should draw immediate comparisons to The Killers and their ilk. That's like saying anything with a banjo was influenced by Sufjan Stevens. It could have been, but it isn't necessarily.
Personally, I see this flirtation with 80's-era sounds as the fulfillment of something they've probably wanted to play around with for a while, but that their old label might not have let them get away with because a few years back, it wasn't "cool" at all. They did an version of "Boy on a String" in concert circa
If I Left the Zoo that was very much electronica-influenced and that would have fit the style of
Long Fall, and I've heard them do several 80's covers, both live and in studio. Jars of Clay always had the nostalgia; they just hadn't fully embraced it until now.
Second, there's less depth to the production this time around, and there aren't many dynamic shifts-- many of the songs feel very samey to me, and most of them feel very flat.
There are a few that don't stand out, but I think the standouts are pretty stellar, so I think this probably an issue of not having listened to it that much just yet. Many of my favorite Jars albums felt flat and samey to me at first.
Third, the hooks aren't there, at least not for me.
That's just one of those subjective things that we can never seem to nail down. One man's hook is another man's boredom. For me, such it's a heavily pop-influenced record, there are
tons of hooks, and my issue is just whether the hooks are creative ones or whether they're cheesy. I had an argument with someone over at Jarchives about the song "Scenic Route", which they claimed had no hook whatsoever, but to me that song has tons of hooks even if it doesn't have a singular "chorus" that is easily recalled. Similar thing with "Safe to Land", which is one of the group's all-time best songs. They experimented a bit with song structure in those cases.
And fourth, I'm not big on Dan's lyrics here. The sentiments he expresses are all fine, and some of his turns of phrase are quite memorable, but they don't really seem to flow with any kind of rhythm or momentum, which you really need in pop songs like these.
What's an example of an older Jars song or two that has that "lyrical momentum", and how does this album not follow suit?
In terms of subject matter, it's clearly a shift to more of a relational approach, so I can understand why that might not hit the same people who were really taken by the more directly spiritual and confessional nature of
Who We Are Instead or
Good Monsters.
So all in all, while there's nothing here that I think is particularly bad, there's also nothing that engages me.
How about "There Might Be a Light"? That one's particularly bad.
