Jars of Clay - Good Monsters
List Price:
Our Price: $5.88
You Save: $12.10 (67%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.96 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Artist: Jars of ClayEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-09-05
Music Label: Essential
Soundtracks:
- Work
- Dead Man (Carry Me)
- All My Tears
- Even Angels Cry
- There Is A River
- Good Monsters
- Oh My God
- Surprise
- Take Me Higher
- Mirrors & Smoke
- Light Gives Heat
- Water Under The Bridge
Music reviews of Good Monsters
Music Review: One of the Best Pop/Rock and Contemporary Christian Music Albums Ever Made
Rating: 5 Stars
Jars of Clay's Good Monsters (2006) is the type of album that a reviewer should both look forward to, and, paradoxically, hesitate to, review. It's one of those rare albums that's so good that the potential reviewer knows that any writeup composed by him or her inevitably will fall short in describing the joys associated with a deep, rich work. Albums like Good Monsters demonstrate clearly why individual song downloads can never replace a collection of songs that a band puts together into one package. At their very best, albums can show the depth and artistry possessed by a band in a way that individual tunes never can, and this one shows Jars of Clay in full flight, at the height of its talent. All other Jars of Clay albums, both past and future (including 2009's The Long Fall Back to Earth) -- and every single one has either been excellent or just missed excellence, so the band had set a very high bar -- must be compared to this one, including the band's much-loved previous benchmark, its slightly overrated debut release.
Significantly, Good Monsters is the band's darkest album to date. You know you're going to be in a rough ride from the very opening song, "Work," when the band turns its most popular hit single, "Flood" off of the debut album, on its head. In the latter song, the speaker repeatedly pleas with God to "keep me from drowning again"; in "Work," it's not depression or despair, but everyday living that's the problem: "I have no fear of drowning/It's the breathing that's taking all this work." The melancholy mostly only grows throughout the album, although hope is the prevailing mood in one-quarter of the album's songs ("All My Tears," "There Is a River," and "Take Me Higher"), and a few signs of it are sprinkled elsewhere.
While it's not directly stated, the possibility of divorce seems to be the main culprit behind the bleakness. A husband urges his wife, "Please don't weep/Not tonight," indicating ongoing troubles ("Even Angels Cry"), while a father compares his children's dreams to drugs and "placebos/That make us feel all right" ("Surprise"). The first segment of the 3-part epic "Oh My God" significantly concludes with the lament, "Weddings, boats, and alibis/All drift away while a mother cries." Another tune compares love to "Mirrors and Smoke" (the song title), and the album ends with the muted, tentative hope that a couple can stay together the rest of their lives ("Water under the Bridge").
Lyrically, then, Good Monsters represents a significant departure for the band. True, the main theme for every album has always been human frailty, and much of Good Monsters is concerned with this topic, but only the title track expresses this sentiment in ways similar to the band's past work. Even recurrent imagery and themes from previous albums are used differently. Lead singer and lyricist Dan Haseltine has often sung in the past about how uncomfortable and piercing God's "eyes" are, but on this album the only similar reference comes when a human father studies his children's eyes for signs of "Surprise." Also, while this album is concerned with human relationships to an extent that hasn't been seen since If I Left the Zoo (1999), this time such relationships are painted in much darker hues.
This album also is well linked thematically: after the emotional devastation of "Work" and the utter helplessness expressed lightheartedly in "Dead Man (Carry Me)" (Jars of Clay's Reformed theology pinnacle to date, and that's saying something), we get three songs about weeping. Here, the near despairing heartache of "Even Angels Cry" is framed by hope both eschatological ("All My Tears") and Christological ("There Is a River"). We then get the title track, which, like "Dead Man," provides humorous examples of total depravity. Given all of this, what can we do? "Oh My God" lists troubles on both personal and global scales, surprisingly concluding that the often casual or flippant cry is actually humanity's "greatest defense." But since we rely on "illusions" that "make our feathers flow less high" ("Surprise"), an individual must turn to God to "Take Me Higher" into the stratosphere. Back on Earth, relationships on both a personal ("Mirrors and Smoke") and international ("Light Gives Heat") scale are in need of mending, and the album ends with a hope that grace will last as long as the final drop of "Water under the Bridge".
On a song level, "Oh My God," "Mirrors and Smoke," and "Light Gives Heat" are the band's most mature and greatest accomplishments to date. "Oh My God's" 3-part structure is a wonder, moving from a country-tinged recitation of personal woes to an almost spoken laundry list of character types that ends up including virtually all of humanity; and finally to an increasingly intense, drum-propelled lament over heartbreaking issues on a global scale. "Mirrors and Smoke" portrays couples as continually failing each other and ultimately finds comfort in the weeping that ensues. The incredibly moving "Light Gives Heat" finds the band apologizing to Africans for Americans' haughty attitudes toward them and leaves the attentive listener very uncomfortable; while Jars of Clay has not been afraid to use irony or critique groups before, this type of cultural criticism is a first for the band.
Musically, Good Monsters is also a considerable step forward for the band, with a slight tendency toward harder-edged rock but much musical variety throughout. "Dead Man (Carry Me)" channels 1980s pop/rock, opening with a riff seemingly directly stolen from the Police and paying homage to "Der Kommissar" and similar tunes throughout. "There Is a River" takes Jars of Clay's continuing love affair with 1970s pop/folk band America to probably the greatest heights that it will ever reach, with the beautiful guitar sonics two-thirds of the way through lifted almost directly from the conclusion to America's "Tin Man." "Take Me Higher" bears both musical and lyrical similarities to U2's "Even Better than the Real Thing" and is aided by gospel-styled backing vocals from the always incredible Ashley Cleveland. "Mirrors and Smoke," with its clear Johnny Cash homage marked by driving guitars, sounds like it could have been written for the film Walk the Line (and Leigh Nash's awesome duet with Haseltine evokes a June/Johnny Cash collaboration). The slow lament of "Light Gives Heat" gains a world music feel, if only from the welcome presence of the African Children's Choir.
Make no mistake, Good Monsters is a pinnacle for Jars of Clay, leaving all of its previous albums -- despite their high quality -- in the dust and making it difficult for newer albums such as The Long Fall Back to Earth. It is arguably the best CCM album since Amy Grant's Lead Me On (1988), an album with similar themes and no less talented musicianship that many still consider to be the best CCM album ever made. Even more, in some of its themes (particularly the divorce angle), its harder rock, and its being a turning point for the band, the album evokes comparisons with the U2 classic Achtung Baby (1991). Good Monsters is, without hyperbole, one of the very best pop/rock albums ever made, one that any band would be proud to have as the shining star in its catalog.
Description of Good Monsters
Multi-platinum and triple Grammy winning band Jars of Clay have long held a reputation for creative excellence. With their latest record Good Monsters, the band continues to create music that stretches the imagination and offers a new perspective on who we are as a church today. Dan Haseltine explains,"I was not sure how all of the experiences of the last few years would translate into music. There have been so many things to look at and describe. This record is part confessional, part euphoric love poem, part bitter divorce, and part benediction. It was born out of many experiences and conversations between addicts, failures, lovers, loners, believers, and beggars. And so the language of recovery and the honest discourse about our attempts to live apart from God and apart from each other is a theme. Engaging people who are doing the hard work of laying their lives open to others, and avoiding isolation, has allowed me to see that there is both immeasurable evil and unfathomable good mixing under my own skin and it is grace, mercy and freedom that allow me to not simply be a monster, but to be a good monster."
General CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in General CDs
Kings of Leon - Only by the NightRCA; Release date: 2008-09-23; Music CD
Best price: $7.87
Price in other shops:
Muse - The ResistanceRelease date: 2009-09-15; Music CD
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops:
Twilight SoundtrackRelease date: 2008-11-04; Music CD
Best price: $8.05
Price in other shops:
Creed - Full CircleCreed; Release date: 2009-10-26; Music CD
Best price: $9.47
Price in other shops:
Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits (Deluxe CD+DVD)Sony; Release date: 2009-11-03; Music CD
Best price: $11.94
Price in other shops:
Pink Martini - Splendor in the GrassDig; Release date: 2009-10-27; Music CD
Best price: $11.80
Price in other shops:
![Live at Royal Albert Hall [CD/DVD] Image](/images/Live-at-Royal-Albert-Hall-CD-DVD-B002Q4TKAY-X.jpg)
The Killers - Live at Royal Albert Hall [CD/ DVD]Dig; Release date: 2009-11-10; Music CD
Best price: $12.44
Price in other shops:
They Might Be Giants - Here Comes ScienceRelease date: 2009-09-08; Music CD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Owl City - Ocean EyesRelease date: 2009-07-28; Music CD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
The Twilight Saga: New Moon SoundtrackRelease date: 2009-10-16; Music CD
Best price: $9.44
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
Jars of Clay - Furthermore: From the Studio/ From the StageRelease date: 2003-02-04; Music CD
Best price: $4.87
Price in other shops:
Jars of Clay - Greatest HitsRelease date: 2008-04-01; Music CD
Best price: $11.98
Price in other shops:
Jars of Clay - Christmas SongsRelease date: 2007-10-16; Music CD
Best price: $6.75
Price in other shops:
Jars of Clay - Much AfraidRelease date: 1997-09-16; Music CD
Best price: $8.29
Price in other shops:
Jars of Clay - The Eleventh HourRelease date: 2002-03-05; Music CD
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
Jars of Clay - If I Left the ZooRelease date: 1999-11-09; Music CD
Best price: $4.39
Price in other shops:
Jars of Clay - Who We Are InsteadRelease date: 2003-11-04; Music CD
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Jars of Clay - Jars of ClayRelease date: 1995-10-24; Music CD
Best price: $7.97
Price in other shops:
Jars of Clay - Redemption SongsRelease date: 2005-03-22; Music CD
Best price: $8.19
Price in other shops:
Jars of Clay - The Long Fall Back to EarthJARS OF CLAY; Release date: 2009-04-21; Music CD
Best price: $8.61
Price in other shops: