1. Adam Up

 BACKGROUND:

Adam Up is ApologetiX's 10th album. It came out in December 2003. The album consists of 22 tracks, with a mix of classic and modern rock, and then some.

TITLE:

If you think about it, the Bible begins with Adam, the first man, and the rest of the Bible tells the story of all Adam's descendants, or the history of human beings. Likewise, Adam Up has a parody about Adam, it has a spoof about Adam's first two sons from the perspective of Adam, and from there, it walks through the Bible all the way to the book, which is you think about it, is the last Bible book chronologically speaking. Adam Up also has a bit of a wordplay. Adam Up sounds like "add 'em up," recognizing the countless albums they have (seriously, your count of ApologetiX "albums" will change depending on whether you count the cassettes, rarities, downloads, compilations and live albums). Ultimately, the title prepares the listener for what to expect, making it the perfect album title.

CRITIQUE:

Since the title has to do with the content Bible content, let's address that first. As already mentioned in the title section, if putting the parodies in biblical order, the first parody would be "It's Not Eden" (parody of "Superman (It's Not Easy)" by Five For Fighting), a parody about Adam and Eve's removal from the Garden of Even, as found in Genesis. The next spoof would be "Called My Wife" (spoof of "All My Life" by Foo Fighters), a spoof about Cain murdering Abel, as found in Genesis 4. I know I have complained in the past about ApologetiX albums using multiple parodies on a single album to tell the same story, but that doesn't count here. Even though both songs come from Adam's perspective, the two songs tells two different stories, as evident by two different chapters. Then would come "Sweet Oholibamah" (parody of "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd), a parody informing the audience that even choosing a wife became a rivalry between Jacob and Esau. Following would be "Downer of a Sister" (spoof of "Chop Suey" by System of a Down), which recalls how Laban tricked Jacob into marrying Leah instead of Rachel. From there, the album continues to walk through the Bible, all the way up to "Listening After Midnight" (spoof of "Living after Midnight" by Judas Priest), which retells how Paul resurrected the young Eutychus after he had fallen to his death from listening to Paul preach all night, as found in Acts. Again, if you think about it, Acts is technically the last book in chronological history. Despite this album having gaps and jumps throughout biblical history, with its emphasis on retelling Bible stories, Adam Up really does feel like a walkthrough of the Bible.

Adam Up does not open up the album with one of those parodies about Adam. Instead, it opens with "We're in a Parody Band" (parody of "We're an American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad). This is one of the few songs not retelling a Bible story, but it works as an introductory track, for it introduces the band members. The band used it as the opening song for their concerts, so it only makes sense to have it as an opening track for their album. Of course, the spoof did not age well, as J. Jackson and Keith Haynie are the only ones still in the band. In a way, it preserves some ApologetiX history by doing so. Then again, Hits: The Tour has already done it.

While Adam Up has a gap in Bible stories, it does not have a gap in musical decades represented. Adam Up covers a span of 6 musical decades, from "Wake Up Talitha Cumi" (parody of "Wake Up Little Susie" by Everly Brothers) coming from 1957 to "Look Yourself" (spoof of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem) of 2003. Now the 50's only has 1 representation with "Wake Up Talitha Cumi" (parody of "Wake Up Little Susie" by Everly Brothers), and the 60's only have 1 representation with "Little Read Bible Book" (spoof of "“Lil’ Red Riding Hood” by Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs), which is understandable considering how old the decades and the songs are. All the other decades, however, have equal representation. The 70's has 5 parodies, the 80's has 4 spoofs, the 90's has 2 songs and 9 tracks from the 2000s. Too often in other albums one single decade dominates and another decade gets little to no representation. For this album, every decade, with exception of the older ones, gets good representation. Even the 9 tracks of the 2000s, the most represented decade, do not take a majority of the album. No matter what decade was "your music" or "your generation's music," Adam Up appeals to them all.

Not only does Adam Up has some of the best musical decade representation, the album also has some of the best musical genre representation. Classic rock, which dominates most ApologetiX albums, has only 3 tracks on this album: "We're in a Parody Band" (parody of "We're an American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad), "Boy Tell the World" (parody of "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night) and "Sweet Oholibamah" (parody of "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd). Less classic rock songs means more opportunities for other genres to get air time. Desire country music? "Choose Your Daddy" (parody of "Who's Your Daddy?"  by Toby Keith) will be the desire of your heart. Like some rap? Then you'll like "Look Yourself" (spoof of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem). Love disco music? Then you'll love "Get Found Tonight" (parody of "Get Down Tonight" K.C. and the Sunshine Band) and "The Word" (parody of "Grease" by Frankie Valli). Prefer your rock to be more oldies rock 'n' roll? Then you'll prefer "Wake Up Talitha Cumi" (parody of "Wake Up Little Susie" by Everly Brothers) and "Little Read Bible Book" (spoof of "Lil’ Red Riding Hood” by Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs). Want your rock to be more like heavy metal? Then you'll want to listen to "Listening After Midnight" (spoof of "Living after Midnight" by Judas Priest), "Downer of a Sister" (spoof of "Chop Suey" by System of a Down) and "Lazy Brain" (spoof of "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne). Even the modern rock genre, which has the most representation on this album at 6 tracks, takes up less than a third of this album. Adam Up has the most album variety of any ApologetiX, truly making it the album for everybody.

To top off everything, Adam Up has the variety in original artists. It's already impressive ApologetiX squeezed 22 tracks onto this album. It becomes even more impressive considering that each song comes from its own original band. ApologetiX has other albums with 22 tracks, but those albums have repeated artists. For Adam Up, every track sounds new because it comes from a new band.

With Wordplay, I stated that Wordplay was the best ApologetiX performance for a studio album because it's each of the band members' height of performance. Of course, I can't say that twice because it wouldn't be true. Therefore, I will this is easily the band members' second best performance. The one band member I can say that for is Bill "Moose" Rieger. This is his last studio album with ApologetiX, and it truly is his best. I especially compliment him for his drum playing on "Downer of a Sister" (spoof of "Chop Suey" by System of a Down). That is definitely not an easy song to play. No offense to Moose, I still prefer Vegas, but Moose deserves the compliments for his drum work on this album.

Speaking of ApologetiX's performance, ApologetiX takes their album performance up a notch by introducing a female band to aid them in their parodies. ApologetiX planned for 3 parodies famous for having female backing vocals: "Meshach" (parody of "Love Shack" by B-52), "Get Found Tonight" (parody of "Get Down Tonight" K.C. and the Sunshine Band) and "Sweet Oholibamah" (parody of "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd). In the past, ApologetiX would have attempted to do the female backing vocals themselves or got amateur female singers. For Adam Up, ApologetiX got Everlife, an American pop rock band. At one point, Everlife was signed under the Disney label, opening for Miley Cyrus, Aly & AJ, Bowling for Soup, Jesse McCartney, the Cheetah Girls and Jonas Brothers. They were a kind of a big deal, and they did backing vocals for ApologetiX! While I understand why ApologetiX band members want to include their daughters into the band, and their daughters have indeed impoved over the years, but it still lacks the professional polish that Everlife brought. I wish future ApologetiX albums would have continued to do collaborations with other female bands, especially Christian female bands. It would have given ApologetiX some serious cred among Christian artists, Christian bands and Christian labels.

Speaking of collaborations, one of the most impressive collaborations in ApologetiX history has to be "Boy Tell the World" (parody of "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night). ApologetiX got Steve Carroll, a former studio musician who arranged, recorded, and toured with Three Dog Night in the early 70's to play the keys part of "Boy Tell the World." How cool is it that ApologetiX got one of original members of the original band to contribute to a Christian parody of their own song. I know ApologetiX attempted this for "The Devil Went Down to Jordan" (parody of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by Charlie Daniels Band) on Grace Period, but that fell through, although ApologetiX got somebody close. I'm glad ApologetiX finally got it to happen. It testifies to how great this band is.

FAVORITE SONG: "Look Yourself" (spoof of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem)

As stated many times before, when rapping, your rap has to say something. It has to make a statement. For "Look Yourself" (spoof of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem), J. Jackson has something to say. Just like Eminem gives his own autobiography with the original "Lose Yourself," "Look Yourself" tells the testimony of J. Jackson. I'm not sure if Eminem's autobiography fosters any kind of emotion or behavior, but the testimony of J. Jackson in this song evangelizes to every non-Christian who listens to it. It also disciples the Christian, for it encourages the Christian to do some evangelism himself or herself, no matter the pushback. Another key factor of rap is the use of illustration and metaphor. Boy, "Look Yourself" sure does have a lot of illustrations and metaphors, especially from pop culture. I appreciate lines like "Hope it's some fad, like New Coke or Shaun Cassidy" and "As he moves forward — it’s true George Orwell" and "Goes to go show his bros at his Alma Mater, 'Welcome Back, Kotter'" and "I’ve been shooed off and spit at like Rudolph the Reindeer" and "With questions and I know how Mother Hubbard’s dog felt — famine, drought" and so much more! While I fear these references may be lost as time passes, right here and right now they work (and as of 2022, they still work). Because of all of this, this is my favorite Eminem parody, my favorite rap spoof, and it may even be my favorite ApologetiX song.

FINAL VERDICT: 1st

Adam Up is the best ApologetiX album because it has so much to offer due its variety. Because of its variety in musical decades, if your generations was the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s or 2000s, this album has a song for you. It doesn't matter if your favorite musical genre is country, rap, disco, pop, oldies rock 'n' roll, classic rock, heavy metal or modern rock, this album has a song for you. If you look for ApologetiX music to teach you about the Bible, this album will walk you through the Bible, starting with Adam in Genesis and ending with the church age in Acts. While this is the band members' second best overall performance on a studio album, this is definitely drummer Bill "Moose" Reiger's best drum playing ever on a studio album. To further enhance this band's outstanding performance, ApologetiX added Everlife for their female vocals and Steve Carroll for the keys of "Boy Tell the World," which also gives them cred as a Christian band, even if a Christian parody band. For all these reasons, Adam Up is the best ApologetiX album. How fitting for the album that is alphabetically first (if not puting number albums first).

1. Adam Up
2. Wordplay
3. Keep the Change
4. Biblical Graffiti
5. Grace Period
6. Spoofernatural
7. Ticked!
8. Jesus Christ Morningstar
9. Wise Up and Rock
10. Radical History Tour
11. Isn't Wasn't Ain't
12. Hot Potato Soup
13. Recovery
14. Future Tense
15. Handheld Messiah
16. Apoplectic
17. You Can't Say Euphrates Without the 80's 
18. Music Is as Music Does
19. Play Nice
20. Easter Standard Time
21. Singles Group
22. Loaded 45's
23. Unconditional Releases
24. New and Used Hits
25. The Boys Aren't Backing Down
26. Chosen Ones
27. 20:20 Vision
28. Hits: The Road
29. Soundproof
30. Apol-acoustiX