Jars Of Clay – The Eleventh Hour

Still my favorite Christian rock act, Jars Of Clay’s fourth album sees them returning not only to the studio, but to the producer’s chair. Though I liked the stylistic stretches that it represented, not everyone dug If I Left The Zoo, with its almost Jellyfish-like experimentation with everything from bluegrass banjos to hard rock. That spirit of not sticking to the program, fortunately, survives through The Eleventh Hour with the hard-rocking “Revolution” (a smart song whose message is that if you really want to be a rebel, try being a decent person instead of trying to be a badass), and flirting with a latter-day R.E.M.-ish sound on “Silence”. The more traditional Jars Of Clay sound is still present too, with “Fly” and an alternate rock hit waiting to be discovered, “I Need You”. The band still excels at love songs which are neither sappy nor overly concerned with physical relations; they could be sung to the object of your affections as easily as they could be sung to Jesus – and that’s the beauty of it, because the latter is who the songs are directed toward, but these songs could hit mainstream secular radio without sounding like Christian music.

Though the entire album is excellent, the cluster of “Fly”, “I Need You” and “Silence” is one of the better three-song runs I’ve heard on anything I’ve listened to recently. But the entire CD is highly recommended.

1. Disappear (3:56)
2. Something Beautiful (3:46)
3. Revolution (3:42)
4. Fly (3:20)
5. I Need You (3:40)
6. Silence (5:17)
7. Scarlet (3:32)
8. Whatever She Wants (3:43)
9. The Eleventh Hour (4:27)
10. These Ordinary Days (3:04)
11. The Edge Of Water (3:54)

Released by: Silvertone
Release date: 2002
Total running time: 42:21