Bryan Duncan

Item: The Last Time I Was Here
Author: Alex Klages

The Last Time I Was Here

(1998)

Reviewed by Alex Klages

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Label MyrrhThe LighthouseUnsorted 1998

adult contemporary pop rock r&b soul

Bryan Duncan has been around a long time, and you'd think that he'd lose a step or two somewhere along the path. After all, there aren't a lot of recording artists in contemporary Christian music who can claim to have been fairly active for the last 20-some-odd years, and there are even fewer who are able to make each album sound fresh and new.

Fortunately, Duncan still hasn't hit the rut that some artists have, where one does the same thing over and over again, because they know that they can get enough record sales to make the record company happy. There seems to be a genuine love of making music projected throughout this album.

This love of making music is reflected by the various levels of funkiness displayed on the more upbeat, bouncy numbers, such as the opening cut, "Yes I Will," and the groove-laden "God Knows," as well as by the beautiful, high, yet smooth tones in songs such as the title track. Once again, Duncan's lyrics reflect a certain degree of personal honesty about his own failures and shortcomings as one of God's children with the sinful flesh still attached. As he says in the song "Sometimes In The Dark,"

Sometimes in the dark, it feels a little scary. Never know if help is near or far, And shadows make the smallest things A little bigger than they are. But even in the darkness, I can see you comin' to me now, Ah, like a shimmering light, Like a shimmering light on an open sea.

(from "Strollin' On The Water"). It is this hope and light that Duncan's music, no matter how deep the musings may be, always returns to, and is perhaps the reason for his longevity. Beyond the success, and the music itself, there is that conviction of the hope that only Christ can give that drives him, and his music onward. There are certainly worse things to sing about.

The only thing that bothered me about this album, which otherwise I found to be uplifting and enjoyable, was the computer-generated voice at the beginning of "Strollin' On The Water." While it is true that not many people in the target audience will also possess a copy of Radiohead's album OK Computer, the fact remains that the computer generated voice is essentially the same. To hear it reciting a passage of Scripture in Duncan's song is really interesting, and does give a certain flair to the song as a whole, but I simply couldn't shake the association with Radiohead's "Fitter, Happier," in which the computer voice is a little more negative.

But this is one blemish on a fine album, and, as I said, it's a point that most people shouldn't find disconcerting. Fun music to groove to, and it may just win back a few fans that Duncan perhaps alienated when he mellowed out a few albums ago. I know it's won me back.