Good Monsters by Jars of Clay

Good Monsters by Jars of Clay

Good Monsters is the eighth full length album by Jars of Clay. It was released by Essential Records on September 5, 2006. It features guest appearances by Kate York on Even Angels Cry, Leigh Nash (of Sixpence None the Richer) on Mirrors and Smoke, and The African Children's Choir on Light Gives Heat.

CCM Magazine called Good Monsters "the album Jars of Clay will be remembered for."

Personally, this is one of my favourite albums of all time.

Personality

To me, this album sounds nothing like Jars of Clay. It's aggressive, it's evocative, it's emotionally raw, it bleeds. This is a sorrowful, heartbreaking, heartbroken album.

Jars of Clay's front man, Dan Hasseltine explains the album like this: "This record is part confessional, part euphoric love poem, bitter separation and part benediction. It was born out of many experiences and conversations between addicts, failures, lovers, loners, believers, and beggars. And so the language of recovery and the honest discourse about our attempts to live apart from God and apart from each other is a theme. Engaging people who are doing the hard work of laying their lives open to others, and avoiding isolation, has allowed me to see that there is both immeasurable evil and unfathomable good mixing under my own skin and it is grace, mercy and freedom that allow me to not simply be a monster, but to be a good monster."

There's nothing more I can say about it. I think you really have to listen to the whole thing yourself and I really hope you do because it's worth it. 5/5.

Lyrics

There are many themes in this album that I can think of, but one eclipses them all and it is this: in all the brokenness, sorrow, and heartbreak of the world, God is acquainted with our grief and strongly desires for us know Him. Let me show you:

The first track on the album is titled Work, it describes the experience of a person who finds living to be cumbersome, can no longer find the will to continue being alive: "I don't have a line of prospects that can give some kind of peace/there is nothing left to cling to that can bring me sweet release/I have no fear of drowning, it's the breathing that's taking all this work//Do you know what I mean when I say, 'I don't want to be alone.'"

The next track, Dead Man is more of the same: "I try to lift a finger but I don't think I can make a call/so tell me if I move 'cause I don't feel anything at all ... there's something in my veins but I can't seem to make it work."

But the next track, a remake of Julie Miller's All My Tears, is something wholly different: "When I go don't cry for me/in my Father's arms I'll be/the wounds this world left on my soul/will all be healed and I'll be whole" and "So weep not for me, my friends/when my time below does end/for my life belongs to Him/who will raise the dead again."

After that, Even Angels Cry is infused with optimism, though at first glance it seems almost hopeless: "No proof that you're alive/Cold fingers find the curve below your tired eyes/no comfort in familiar places, not this time/you hold it deep inside." But the song describes Light penetrating through crumbling walls in the night and affirms: "The well will not run dry." Still, that's only a glimmer of hope compared to the darkness.

With There is a River the album really turns around: "There is a river that washes you clean/there is a tree that marks the places you've been/blood that was spilled, although not your own/for all of your tears are the wages for things you have done ... blood that was spilled, although not your own/for all of those tears love will atone ... for all of those things, love will atone." The song acknowledges sorrow and weakness, points to the cause: "things you have done," and to Jesus as the solution.

Oh My God is at the center of the album and totally encapsulates the theme. The song is heartbreaking and sorrowful. It makes me cry every time I listen to it. Here's the line that makes it all make sense to me: "Oh my God, can I complain?/you take away my firm belief and graft my soul upon your grief." This song, to me, is about how we often become bitter towards God when we encounter heartbreak and pain. It offers a solution for resolving sorrow: not simply believing in God or being a Christian, but intimacy with God for God is acquainted with our grief. He doesn't make our grief go away but he says, "Me too." Because what we need more than for Someone to take away our problems is to know that we are not alone in them.

But grafting in itself is a painful procedure.

Light Gives Heat, at the end of the album finishes with: "Will You teach us how to love?/to see the things You see/walk the road You walked/feel the pain that You feel/at Your feet I kneel/I want to see You shine/see Your light, not mine/'cause light gives heat."

The pain that we suffer, we often suffer in our war against God. This is why we become bitter against Him and angry at Him. If we refuse to be allied with the One who is the Enemy of our sin, we will find Him to be a formidable opponent and He will cause us pain. But it is against our sin that He fights because He wants us so dearly. Which is why we must endure and trust Him while He grafts us to Himself.

Elsewhere, Surprise takes a unique perspective on drug abuse that I appreciate very much: "Shoot a dream in your arm and sleep away/it's not the stuff that kills you that keeps your life at bay/every crash pulls you in reach/of a watershed of signal flares that cover your beach//these are just placebos to make us feel alright/illusions in our pockets make our feathers float us high."


I hope I haven't made this too preachy or made these lyrics say something that wasn't intended. 

I can't imagine Jars of Clay being able to make this album without experiencing the profound grief that they describe here. 5/5.

Sound

Like I said before, this album sounds nothing like Jars of Clay. It has a rocky aggressive sound. Some songs, like Oh My God, start soft and acousticky but get louder as they get angrier and more sorrowful. The music fits the lyrics perfectly in every case. And Leigh Nash's voice is achingly beautiful on Mirrors and Smoke. I also like the African Children's Choir on Light Gives Heat, very well done. 5/5.

Conclusion

A perfect album. And I love Jars of Clay for making it. 5/5 crestfallen monsters.