Unified One - "The Baggage That It Brings" (Never My Way Records)

Album review by Danny Alexander

This collection of hooky, inventive garage rock surprises in a couple of ways. First, its Violent Femmes quirkiness and Velvet Underground guitar (which includes wonderful bursts of distortion) simply provide an edgy framework for some very accessible pop. This album grows more fun with repeated listens. But the next surprise is more serious--these frustrated relationship songs are linked by a struggle with the call of Christianity. Yes, this is Christian rock, but it's anything but preachy. The bitter lessons of "Intimidation," "Deception, Mary" and "The Passerby" focus on the small prices you pay when you adopt a long vision and try to live a life of conviction. The faith here is stripped of romantic illusions, and, in the process, as in the particularly provocative "Sadder Hour," relationships are lost because the tissue of lies necessary to hold them together has been torn. There's more Garden of Gethsemane here than promised land. And that's redemptive because that's the world we live in--poetically beautiful but fraught with betrayal and dark nights of desperate prayer.

For more information about Unified One, visit the band's web site at www.unifiedone.com.

--Danny Alexander