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Knights of Badassdom
New Empire: In A Breath

In A Breath

(New Empire)
Label(s): 
Genre: 
Release Date: 
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Grade:
D+
Format: 
LP
Tracks: 
11

Buckle up children, this might get a little ugly.

If you're familiar at all with the landscape of Contemporary Christian music (CCM for short) these days, you're probably aware of the fact that it is stricken with a sad lack of creativity and diversity. Or at the very least, that's true of what you'll hear at any given moment on Christian radio. As a believer myself, I'm continually baffled by the banal sameness that seems omnipresent within this genre and it's one of the reasons why I tend to avoid it at all costs. I don't know if the copycat mentality is safer, if it sells more records or if it's simply laziness writ large. But life is way too short to listen to crappy music, so I've personally found deeper inspiration and hope in music far outside the boundaries of those who share my faith.

All of that is preamble to explain where I'm coming from as I listened to this new album from New Empire. These guys are a pop-rock quartet from Australia. This is their third record, but the first that's going to be widely available in the US, thanks to their new record deal with Tooth & Nail. Now I don't know if their first two records were amazing, but this one is relentlessly boring. It's chockfull of mid-tempo tunes that seem written with large-scale arena audiences in mind. But as a result, there is nothing about them that seems to have any depth or heart...at least not in any way that distinguishes them from anything else out there. It's all a stab at being Coldplay or The Fray or any other current pop rock group that's completely inoffensive and safe.

Beyond all of this, here's what's really frustrating: it's possible to do something fun and enjoyable in this genre and be creative and somewhat unique. Case in point, Waking Ashland. Now I haven't listened to (or even thought of) those guys in years. But as I was listening to New Empire, something brought them back to my mind. Maybe it's the label association. Tooth & Nail signed them and released their debut album nearly 10 years ago. And they didn't necessarily do anything super unique with their sound. It was just a piano, drums, bass and guitar. But their songwriting had that certain "je ne sais quoi" about it and you could feel a heartbeat, a pulse behind it.

At any rate, I could go on and on with examples of this music done right. But the bottom line is that, unfortunately, New Empire is forgettable, not just as soon as the album is over, but even from song to song. It's a blur of sameness that doesn't leave a mark, good or bad. It just is...and that's pretty bad.

Jeremy Hunt
Review by Jeremy Hunt
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