Third Day

Item: Third Day
Author: Robert Berman

(1996)

Reviewed by Robert Berman

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Label Reunion RecordsThe LighthouseSeptember 1995

alternative rock pop rock roots rock southern rock

If you follow Christian music long enough, you see it happen over and over. A vibrant new secular band bursts onto the scene, followed a year or two later by a new Christian band with startlingly similar music. Even if the Christian band has merit of its own, it has to live in the shadow of a more famous band who got there first. It's happened to many a band before them, but if their debut is any indication of their future, Third Day may yet escape this "self-made trap."

I first heard Third Day on WAY-FM while passing through Nashville, and I'm confident that most listeners' initial reaction to the band was the same as mine: "Oh, they finally dredged up a Christian Pearl Jam." So it was quite a pleasant surprise to actually hear the whole album. Okay, so lead vocalist Mac Powell sounds an awful lot like Eddie Vedder, and grungisms do pop up on the album. But this is a true pop/rock album, more in line with Hootie and the Blowfish's East Coast sound than with the Seattle crowd. Acoustic guitar abounds, supplemented with dobro, mandolin, keyboards, and other un-grungy instruments. There's even a piano ballad ("The Thief"), two worshipful guitar songs ("Love Song," "Take My Life"), and a cool bluesy song ("Blackbird"). In a more perfect world, songs like these would be staples of mainstream Christian radio.

Third Day takes the straightforward approach with its lyrics, with songs wearing titles like "Holy Spirit," the countryish "Livin' for Jesus," and "Consuming Fire." "The Thief" is a Don Francisco-like first-person tale from the perspective of the repentant thief on the cross; unfortunately, the song seems longer than it really is, which isn't a good sign. In one of the album's nicest moments, the closing "Love Song" could be a twin to Guardian's "Never Say Goodbye" in its acoustic "divine proclamation of love" approach. This song, and the other slow ones, find Powell's voice taking a more Cat Stevens tenor.

The biggest shortcoming of this album may be its length; with three songs under 2:30, the album seems over just as it's building momentum. But the pettiness of this complaint is a tribute to the men of Third Day. I've heard enough when-is-this-over-please albums lately, and it's certainly better to leave your audience wishing for more than pleading for less. Third Day should be a real winner as an inaugural artist in the Gray Dot Records stable. Pearl Who?