Grace Hotel
  Overall rating: 

Album Reviews

The synthpop world of music is akin to a dreamy meditational state that conjures visions of futuristic vistas, sophisticated electronics and high-tech living. Indeed, the nature of the music would not exist without the advancement in electronic music.

This being the case you might find it surprising that the genre could be spiritual and even mystical. Science is often considered the high art of advanced technology. Spiritual, mystical and religious concepts often do not mesh well with this brave new world. Nevertheless, the dreamy electronics produced from synthesizers, keyboards and guitars on the echoing green’s new release, “the winter of our discontent” are rich with spiritual imagery.

Joey Belville is the primary creative force of the echoing green (yes, all lower-case). He is nearly always smiling and joking. This strikes me as unusual, not because he shouldn’t be happy and fun, but because the impression I have of synthpop musicians are humanoids of mysterious, ethereal and serious visage. You know, more like robotic techno geeks. Shame on me for such stereotyping.

Truth is Belville and his collaborators are intriguing, life-filled and life-exploring people who happen to take their spiritual journey and put it into their digital music art. It’s refreshing that Christian music is not confined to sweet and earnest guitar ballads that sing of deep felt convictions and earnest striving to be more like Jesus. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but if the music and message are to go further than the already converted it must keep stretching.

The echoing green gives us songs that ripple out from a techno center of pulsating electronic sounds and ask us to contemplate the mystery of our sometimes bittersweet earthly existence. That may be our journey, and if it's yours then don’t lose sight of your destination: a glorious heaven. Can we get a peek of it in the here and now? Songs like “The Story of Our Lives” (our dreams are in our sights/as we’re lifted out of nowhere/with sunspots in our eyes/we see the glory of our lives) and “Someday” (someday we will leave here/and someday we might fly) strive for and achieve that lofty goal.

Repeated listens are really important to appreciate what is going on here. A proper state of mind may even be necessary; at least this was the case for me so that I could immerse myself in the dreamy world of the echoing green. It's not music for all occasions, but surely there are times for immersing yourself in the subtle supple melodies that carry you to a place where your soul can rest a while from the hectic babble of your noisy life. While the beat is doing a spinal tap dance the poetry seeps through your sensory input and wafts its way to your center. Yeah, something like that. Music is often appreciated best in group settings. Still, the experience can be a subjective and personal one. Time and place will influence; results may vary.

Striving to merge beauty, hope and rhythm with the driving beat of their music and matching that music to the beat of their hearts is what the echoing green is all about (www.echocentral.com). “The winter of our discontent” is available through select stores and online outlets and you can find out more at A Different Drum.
 

~ Tom Gilbert

Joey Belville is one of the driving forces behind the American synthpop scene of today and his combo The Echoing Green has been going at it for over ten years now. Originally mixing rock and synths their sound has grown into what we hear today. Diverse, forceful emotionally charged pop, driven by multilayered electronics and Joey's almost rock-styled vocals.
I really liked "Music from the Ocean Picture" and enjoy "The Winter of Our Discontent" as well. I don't understand why many fans frowned upon the single "Fall Awake". It may be a bit rougher around the edges and somewhat gloomier than usual, but I just thought it added to the band's creativity. It is not representative of the album overall so exhale, please. It is quite a mixture of ideas and sounds, actually, with the foundation in what they always been good at. Strongly arranged, catchy songs and powerful singing (yes, Chrissy Franklin provides vocals on this one too). It makes for an interesting album, surely, but it's not all balm for the soul. For some indefinable reason I find myself thinking of other things while listening. Maybe it's just my exam paper deadline that is plaguing me. Or maybe The Echoing Green just don't hold water all the way through. Nag nag... This is still pleasurable enough to keep them on my "will always get their stuff"-list.

~ Niklas Forsberg

The Christian synth-pop heavyweights of The Echoing Green continue to explore new musical and lyrical territory on their latest studio album, The Winter of Our Discontent. As its title suggests, the album is arguably the band's darkest yet, and explores topics like backsliding ("Fall Awake"), broken relationships ("Bittersweet"), Satanic deception ("Blind") and persecution ("The Story of Our Lives"). Not all is dark and sad, however, and the band also delivers messages of hope on songs like "Someday," which is presumably about the Rapture, and on the love songs "Starling" and "Heidi's Song." The latter number, in case you didn't know, is a love song that frontman Joey Beliville wrote to his wife. Musically, the best numbers include "Fall Awake," "Blind" and "New Gold Dream," all of which showcase the band's edgier, industrial-tinged side, the midtempo, world music-flavored "Bittersweet," "Starling," another midtempo which features Chrissy taking over on lead vocals, as well as drum n' bass beats and ambient synths that sound like they were lifted from the "Theme From St. Elmo's Fire" and "Someday," a dreamy, midtempo duet between Joey and Chrissy. The band also continues its experimentation with ambient soundscapes on the opening track "Daybreak," a brief, instrumental reminiscent of the opening synths on Supernova. While the band's decision to release Winter of Our Discontent solely on the indie A Different Drum label has clearly given them more artistic freedom, it's also unfortunate that no major Christian label has picked up this overlooked gem.
 

~ James McGinnis