Apologetix pops outta church with more of their brand of kid-tested, youth minister approved Sunday school rock parodies. This is a two CD compilation of 22 remastered Apologetix favorites, along with four unreleased Christmas songs, seven new songs, and seven live cuts. Fans of the band will enjoy this new CD immensely, and not having checked Apologetix since my Christian rock radio days I can tell you that their sound and production values have improved. The songs sound beefier and rockier than the early CDs that I was familiar with. The remastering helped some of the older songs sound better as well.
When I worked Christian radio, the Apologetix were requested often. I received multiple calls every show to play their stuff, and the kids dug 'em big time. Their bible-themed songs help kids to grasp Bible stories, while serving as sort of a "guilty pleasure" 'cause you get to listen to evil secular rock while learning about the Lord.
Some of the new songs on the project are kinda fun, I liked "The Voice of Sodom" to the tune of "The Boys of Summer," and "Are You Gonna' Be Ike's Girl" is an amusing version of Jet's "Are You Gonna' Be My Girl." I can tell you after hearing the Apologetix version of Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady" that the band needs to RUN, not walk away from doing further rap parodies, and their version of AC/DC's "Back in Black" sounds sorta' weak production-wise. I do wish that the Apologetix would consider doing some satire ala' Steve Taylor and would comment on current events or topics other than just Bible themes. Or perhaps an original song every now and then would help broaden the scope of the band's CDs. As it stands, the Apologetix are good at what they do--taking a one-hour Sunday school class and stuffing it into a three minute top 40 rock/pop/or rap song.
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2005Reviewed by Jamie Lee RakeThe day after I last saw ApologetiX, wherein the band performed some of the new numbers included on New And Used Hits, I told a friend at church about the concert. After prefacing my comments with an explanation of ApologetiX's biblically Yankovian schtick, I mentioned that they had tweaked Fountains of Wayne's "Stacy's Mom," but I forgot the title. Not missing a beat, he guessed, "J.C.'s Mom?"…Similar sounding releases
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