4th June, 2008

JUSTIN MICHAEL

Album: Jars of Clay: Greatest Hits

Artist: Jars of Clay

Year: 2008
Label: Essential
Web: www.jarsofclay.com
 
In A Word: Masterful

"(F)or fans and newcomers alike, there is plenty to like and, I’m sure, plenty to look forward to."

Bring together titles like Flood, Show You Love, Crazy Times, Worlds Apart, Frail and Love Song For A Saviour and you have a set that represents millions of album sales worldwide, a whole bunch of movie soundtracks, and, no doubt, the soundtrack to a few people's lives.

Jars burst onto the scene [pun possibly intended] in 1995 with their platinum selling self-titled album, fuelled by the massive success of the single Flood. Relentless writing and touring ensued. The beautiful thing about their story is three-fold: 1, they sound like nobody else I can think of; 2, the lyric is always uncompromising in its artistic depth and its spiritual reality, and; 3, they sound like nobody else. It’s true and it’s worth noting twice.

Recently the boys have become independent artists again and, as such, we get to see this collection come to light.

During their recent tour of our shores, we saw a band that once again brought a sound all their own with remarkable renditions of Frail (from the album Much Afraid) and God (Good Monsters) along with the high energy disco rock of Dead Man (Carry Me), the unnerving rock of Love Is The Protest (the only new track on this disc) and a nice little twist with an INXS cover, to boot.

Back to the album. You can hear all these tracks sans the INXS and for fans and newcomers alike, there is plenty to like and, I’m sure, plenty to look forward to. I’d recommend staying on the Jars wagon for many years to come - it’s just one of those wagons that seems to keep producing amazing songs (maybe it’s one of those wagons with 5.1 surround sound...maybe the analogy has gone too far and you should just go get some greatest hits for your own stereo!)