DeGarmo and Key are a landmark in Christian rock music. Over the years they continue to endure together, with such fun things as solo projects and assorted books on the side. Over the years they have experimented with some slight musical variations, but overall D&K is well-known for pumping out fun, yet still scripturally sound and spiritually challenging songs. Their new release, still on Benson after all these years, Heat It Up, is rife with pretty "cool" pictures of DeGarmo and Key looking like they've just stepped out from the fiery furnace, toasted instruments in hand.
The album kicks off with a catchy tune entitled "God Good, Devil Bad" that describes an encounter in a Nassau bar with a man who has tattoos of both Jesus and the devil side-by-side, and telling him that he must be confused-you can only serve one. This begins one of several references to the people that are out to make Christians look foolish or that mock Christianity outright by wearing crosses simply as adornments, etc. This is never more prevalent than in the song "I Use the J Word," a powerful tribute to the "one name under heaven by which man might be saved," used today more as a curse or a joke rather than the name of the Savior.
Several tracks come as the mini-stories that D&K are famous for, while the others are outright assurances and slight twists on scriptural themes, such as in "Selective Amnesia" which shares the fact that God remembers the sins of his children no more. "It's my Business" takes a firm stand stating that it's our business to watch each other for accountability.
Gone are the pop sounds of The Pledge and Go to the Top, back is the rock. Key jams on his Strat, while DeGarmo wails on the B-3 Organ and even joins with some lead vocals in spots. Their time spent exploring the pop arena pays high dividends, with some excellent pop hooks being flawlessly integrated into the rock style, creating some catchy choruses that are hard to forget. Even the ballads drop a little of the pop style for a more rock feel.
The album is an all out return to the more rocking days of this pair's fifteen-year musical past, but shouldn't alienate any of the pop fans from the past years due to some memorable hooks and ballads.
Similar sounding releases
1993MagdalenRevolution Mind
1995One Hundred DaysThe Obvious
1994Kerry LivgrenWhen Things Get Electric
1993PetraWake Up Call
2003LeviticusLive At Bobfest 2003
1992RansomSoul Asylum
