It can be disorienting coming in in the middle of a movie; how did the protagonist arrive where he or she is now, and how do those earlier experiences help complete the arc their character goes through in the course of the story? <\/p>\n
It can be like that with musical artists, too. I came in smack in the middle of The Drew Holcomb Story, starting out with 2017\u2019s Souvenir<\/i> and only then looking backward to his initial breakthrough and first charting album, 2011\u2019s Chasing Someday<\/i>. Three key differences between the albums manifest themselves in the first five songs.<\/p>\n
First is the big rock dynamics heard on opener \u201cFire & Dynamite,\u201d an airy, searching alt-rock tune that bears a striking resemblance to similar-era Switchfoot in its sound and lyrical approach. Like Switchfoot frontman Jonathan Foreman, Holcomb conveys both an intensity of purpose and a sense of humor, sings about faith without ever calling his god by name, and makes big, earnest, insightful, idealistic songs. And while his more recent music has a stronger Americana\/folk-rock flavor, his often anthemic approach to songwriting is a good fit for this style as well. (Plus, you can\u2019t go wrong with a snappy line like \u201cYou are a novel in a sea of magazines\u201d\u2026)<\/p>\n
Second is the strong presence of wife Ellie Holcomb, who\u2019s since gone solo while occasionally guesting on Drew\u2019s songs, but in 2011 was a full-fledged member of Holcomb\u2019s backing band The Neighbors. She takes a verse on \u201cAnywhere But Here\u201d and sings lead on \u201cYour Love,\u201d the latter basically a giant arrow pointing down her subsequent path as a solo CCM artist. <\/p>\n
The latter tension plays into the third immediately apparent difference: a song (\u201cLive Forever\u201d) that\u2019s both explicitly about faith and carries a strong evangelical message. It\u2019s a beautiful song, but I honestly don\u2019t know how to react to it. I believe sincere faith deserves respect and people should be free to believe what they want to believe. I also think the idea of faith granting immortality was an invention of ancient religious leaders looking for ways to control the unruly masses. Let\u2019s just agree to disagree on this one, Drew\u2026<\/p>\n
Moving along, the big rock dynamics of \u201cMiracle\u201d echo \u201cFire And Dynamite,\u201d building up a healthy head of steam before lofting into the atmosphere with chorused vocals backed by arena-sized riffing; for a moment things get very BoDeans, that soaring Americana sound with the big guitars. Through the middle of the album we get lovely story-songs (\u201cSomeday\u201d), endearingly lusty entreaties (\u201cCan\u2019t Get Enough Of You\u201d), flashes of rockabilly (\u201cSteal My History\u201d), and a road song with a hint of Springsteen in the bells and glockenspiel (\u201cBaby Tomorrow\u201d).<\/p>\n
The final trio offers a slow-building folk-rock number (\u201cHourglass\u201d) that\u2019s contemplative and philosophical right up until the big, airy alt-rock guitar solo. The characteristic \u201cDay At A Time\u201d marries ambling, rather serious verses (\u2018Movies don\u2019t tell you the truth \/ It\u2019s much harder than they make it look\u201d) with an expansive, optimistic chorus (\u201cWe\u2019re making something worthwhile \/ I love you, baby I love you\u201d). The Holcombs close Chasing Someday<\/i> with \u201cWeight Of The World,\u201d a slow, serious, intense duet that again reminds of similar tunes by Switchfoot, carrying a similar message about the difficulties and challenges of everyday life, and how love (and faith) can help you rise above it all.<\/p>\n
Chasing Someday<\/i> has more shine and crunch than Souvenir<\/i>, but ultimately less appeal. Holcomb\u2019s songwriting and arranging chops would only improve from here, even as his sound lost some of its alt-rock affectations, becoming both more grounded and more varied in subject matter within the core Americana palette. This album offers a number of strong moments and striking images, but Drew Holcomb And The Neighbors could, and would, do better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":33382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9145],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-45197","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-drew-holcomb-the-neighbors","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45197"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45197"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}