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When most people purchase a CD, they usually only want to listen to one, two, three, or four tracks. They either save the CD to their computer then make a mix with those couple tracks, or, if they’re old fashioned, they actually push the repeat button on the car radio or CD player. Personally, I refer to the CDs people buy and actually listen to the entire CD multiple times as “seamless albums,” because each track is just as good as the others. Some people say, “well, if the tracks are all equally bad then it’s the same thing.” Well, maybe, but who would listen to a really bad CD multiple times, anyway? The definition implies that the album is good enough to want to hear multiple times.

Kutless’s latest album “Strong Tower” definitely falls under the category of a seamless album. All of the songs follow the same general principle of composition and consequently all sound vaguely the same, but with different lyrics. This might repel many people, but, in some scenarios, I believe it can actually add to an album. I categorize all listening into two basic categories: active and passive listening. Active occurs in any scenario in which the listener pays close attention to the music and listens to the music as first priority. Passive listening occurs when the music is there, just because, for no special reason, maybe to drown out background noise, entertain you while driving and having a conversation, working on a project, or in any other scenario where listening to music doesn’t serve as the primary priority of the listener.

Although Kutless did not write many of the songs on the album, they managed to make very good remakes of the originals. They sport a somewhat rough and unrefined sound, so remaking traditionally soft songs gives the remakes a very unique sound. One of my favorite remakes on the CD is Word of God Speak, which Bart Millard of MercyMe composed. Originally, it was only done with vocals and a piano but Kutless introduced many new instruments. They also did a very nice remake of Chris Tomlin’s We Fall Down.

Some of my favorite lyrics in the album are in the title track. Strong Tower is undoubtedly the most popular of the songs on the album and is frequently featured on many Christian radio stations. They instill courage in their listeners by building a metaphor that God serves as an immense, impervious fortress to shelter us when we are weak.

Although Kutless lacks the powerfully written lyrics of Casting Crowns and the incredible voice of Bart Millard from MercyMe, Kutless’s unique style provides them with a very unique CD which serves as excellent music to listen to while working or doing something else (other than listening to the music). Overall, I give the CD at 9.34 out of 10.

 

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