When it comes to Christian music there are the bands that try to sound like someone else and bands that make it their personal mission to sound like, well, themselves. Jars of Clay has always been a member of the latter group. Over the course of six albums, each sounding different from the last, they have strived to become better musicians and sometimes to mixed results. Jars of Clay has really come into their own on their last three releases: The Eleventh Hour, Who We Are Instead, and Redemption Songs. This is due largely to the fact that they had a large hand in producing these records instead of relying on an outside producer to instruct them. On Redemption Songs, a “praise and worship” album, they chose to write several of their own praise songs as well as use old almost forgotten hymns instead of opting for the normal praise and worship songs everyone else was recording at the time. However, as good as the last 3 albums have been, they could not have prepared me for what was coming with Good Monsters. The opening track “Work”, tells you right away that you are listening to a different, more mature version of Jars of Clay. The guitars are rocking and Matt has really gotten the hang of using that electric (he only started using one on The Eleventh Hour) and Dan is getting much better with his metaphors. And that’s just the first song. The album progresses well, you’ve got a couple slower tunes mixed in among some rockers. As you get towards the middle of the album you start to see the Who We Are Instead sound return but with the new edge of this record. It is as if Jars of Clay used this record to take everything they have learned over the past decade and put it all into this record. And the results are quite pleasing, at least to this listener.

This is the 7th album from Essential, which means (if I know my Jars history) that they have fulfilled their contractual obligations to Essential Records. While I would love to see them go independent like some artists are doing these days, Essential seems to have given Jars of Clay the creative freedom to grow so things might not be so bad if the were to renew their contract. Though no matter what happens from a record company standpoint, I hope that these guys don’t stop. It’s easy to see from the past few records alone that they only get better as the years go by and I think they have a lot more in them.

So pick up Good Monsters, give it some good listens, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much your ears enjoy the sounds they are hearing.

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