BACKGROUND:
In a way, Hot Potato Soup is a spiritual sequel or successor to Ticked! For the album Ticked!, many of the parodies addressed controversial issues current to the day. Likewise, the spoofs on Hot Potato Soup addresses the controversial topics of its day. Hot Potato Soup consists of 15 parodies, which span 4 musical decades and at least 6 musical genres. While some songs are the typical ApolgetiX retelling Bible stories, many of them give theological apologetics (see what I did there?) to how Christians should live in the world when faced with controversial subjects.
TITLE:
A figurative name for a hot topic is a hot potato. Since this album converses about multiple hot potato topics, Hot Potato Soup fits because a hot potato soup probably has a lot of potatoes in it. I like this album title. It communicates the message of the title without having to go into a fancy wordplay. The album cover also fits well with the album, as it has the classic Campbell soup label right dead center on the front. ApologetiX let fans vote if they wanted the Andy Warhol take on the Campbell soup can. I voted no, and apparently, a majority of the fans voted no, too.
CRITIQUE:
Hallejuah, Hot Potato Soup has 15 tracks! I never thought I would say that. With Future Tense and Recovery only having 12 tracks apiece, it looked like the future of ApologetiX's studio recorded albums would be limited to 12 tracks, and only live albums, like The Boys Aren't Backing Down and Soundproof would have 18 tracks. Well, thanks to Hot Potato Soup, as well as Wise Up and Rock, hope still existed that ApologetiX studio albums could have 15 or more tracks. Sadly, that hope would not last long, as ApologetiX studio albums would quickly revert back to 11-13 track per album. At this point, though, the buyer of Hot Potato Soup feels like he or she gets more bang for the buck.
Just like Future Tense, Hot Potato Soup kind of sort of serves as a time capsule, and as a bittersweet one as of matter of fact. While 11 of the tracks on Hot Potato Soup come from 20th century music, 3 of them come from 2010 and 1 comes from 2011. Those songs are 3 and 2 years old when ApologetiX released their versions. Therefore, those 4 songs total reflect the early 2010s. More importantly, though, are those 4 songs in relation to the entire ApologetiX library. During the 2010s decade, up to today (the 2020s decade), ApologetiX have only 5 parodies from the 2010s, and 4 of them appear on this album. Honestly, the fifth shouldn't even count because it's "The Sound of Sirens" (parody of "The Sound of Silence" by Disturbed), a 2015 heavy metal cover of 1964 soft rock Simon & Garfunkel song. The fact that Hot Potato Soup has the last 4 most modern parodies marks the end of an era. Prior to Hot Potato Soup, ApologetiX felt like that Christan rock parody band, in both classical rock and modern rock, even if they did prefer the classic rock. Now after this album, it feels like Apologetix is merely that Christian classic rock parody band, for better or for worse. In the album description for Ticked!, J. Jackson reveals that ApologetiX actually had to do research and studying to determined what modern rock songs would make good spoofs. It almost feels the band continued doing that research and studying up to Hot Potato Soup, and then gave up their research and studying. I get that cultural influences like Guitar Hero and RockBand opened up the new, younger generation to classic rock, but with Guitar Hero no longer existing and RockBand fading into obsecurity, ceasing to rewrite the lyrics to modern rock songs will alienate the new generations.
2 of those 3 2010s parodies appeared prior to Hot Potato Soup on the live album 20:20 Vision, with the third being "Weep Jeremiah" (parody of "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N Roses), which the original came out in 1987. In this instance, I am OK with all 3 tracks coming out again as studio recordings. So many of the new songs on previous live albums never had a studio recording released. I'm glad to see all 3 new spoofs from 20:20 Vision got a studio recording in Hot Potato Soup. They all needed the studio recording, some more than others. "For Just You" (parody of "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green) needed it the most. With the 20:20 Vision version, the mic for the lead singer sounds at the same level as the mic for the backup singers, sometimes resulting in the backup singers "ooohhh"s and "aaahhh"s drowning out J.'s singing. In Hot Potato Soup's studio recording, lead singing is clearly lead singing and backup singing is clearly backup singing. I really can't tell a difference in quality between J.'s home church's worship singers and the band members' daughters singing backup, so no loss in quality there. "Weep Jeremiah" (parody of "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N Roses) is the one that needed it the least. Honestly, when playing the 20:20 Vision version and the Hot Potato Soup version side-by-side, I can't tell the difference between the 2 versions without hearing the live clapping on 20:20 Vision. That's how good ApologetiX did on the first live attempt.
As stated in the background, Hot Potato Soup reflects Ticked! because it addresses the hot topics of the day. Indeed, a lot of the songs on Hot Potato Soup address controversial topics of modern times, even the opening track! "Barroom Hitz" (parody of "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet) sounds like it will be just a typical introduction song for the band, which it does rightfully so, but it goes on to defend the band for rewriting the songs into parodies instead of writing something original. "Puffed Up Cliques" (parody of Pumped Up Kids" by Foster the People) exposes the evil of cliques, which in part cause the root of bullying. Lyricist and lead singer J. Jackson could have taken the easy way out by turning "Two Princes" by Spin Doctors into "Two Pregnant," retelling the story of how Elizabeth and Mary found themselves pregnant at the same time. Instead, J. Jackson tackles abortion for the first time by turning "Two Princes" into "Too Pregnant," and he does an excellent job doing so. Kudos also goes J. Jackson for tackling the hard issues of politics within the church in "You Got Another King Comin'" (parody of "You Got Another Thing Comin'" by Judas Priest. The parody helpfully reminds the Christian not to get too caught up who will be the next president because Jesus is always king. J. worried about how this would come across to American Christians, and he got overwhelmingly positive praise. I join in giving him praise. The most iffy topical song on this setlist is "Gimme Pre-Trib" (parody of "Gimme Three Steps" by Lynyrd Skynyrd). Whereas all the other parodies have this Christian versus worldly mentality, this spoof has a liberal Christian versus conservative Christian mentality. Not too many non-Christians discuss and debate the rapture. It's just interesting to take converse about a controversy within the church than an inside versus outside controversy. Even "Guard Your Candle" (parody of "Hard to Handle" by the Black Crowes) can be considered a hot potato topic song because it encourages Christian to shine the light of Jesus, even when nobody wants to see it. I would also add "God's Blood" (parody of "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner) becauses the spoof teaches that no one can remove the "gory" details of the atonement, as so many have tried, because the blood is necessary for atonement. Then again, that would be an internal conflict, not an external one.
While the highlight of Hot Potato Soup falls on the hot potato topical parodies, the spoofs retelling the Bible stories are pretty solid, too. "Do What David Did" (parody of "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" by Manfred Mann) pretty much sums of the entire message of the whole book of Samuel (Samuel in the original Hebrew was 1 scroll, not 2 books): do what David did, don't do what Saul did. "Weep Jeremiah" (parody of "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N Roses) accurately surveys the whole book of Jeremiah. "Man on the Cross" (parody of the "Man on the Cross" by Alice in Chains) tells the crucifixion story from the point of view of the two criminals crucified next to Jesus, a part of the crucifixion not commonly talked about in churches. I especially love how they kept "Jesus Christ" in the refrain, yet they use it without speaking the Lord's name in vain. Talk about redeeming the song! Similarly, "Cemetery Came Alive" (parody of "Semi-Charmed Kind of Life" by Third Eye Blind) tells about another forgotten part of the crucifixion story: some people came back to life once Jesus died. Talk about foreshadowing. The parodies retelling the Bible stories are just as good as the spoofs teaching the correct theology for controversial topics.
FAVORITE SONG: "Lived the Day You Died" (parody of "Love the Way You Lie" by Eminem feat. Rihanna)
This parody definitely had to become a favorite because it is the epitome of ApologetiX redeeming songs. The original song is about a couple in an abusive relation, yet the song tries to pass it off as love. How offensive to the Lord our God to misrepresent love because he is love incarnate! J. Jackson totally turns it around. This spoof emphasizes that Jesus took on the abuse to prove how much he loves us. The first verse makes it apparent how much humanity doesn't deserve Jesus. The second verse makes it evident how much abuse and suffering Jesus went through on Good Friday. The chorus further highlights this message with its mention of myrrh, the gift from the wise men typically used for burial embalming, foreshadowing Jesus's death. This parody, not the original, gets true love! The question was whether to make this the favorite song on 20:20 Vision or Hot Potato Soup. I know J. loves his oldest daughter very much, and I mean no offense to Janna, but Janna fails in comparison to Heather Haff. Heather knocks it out of the park, so much so that I thought that J. somehow got Rihanna to do backup singing on a parody of one her most famous songs. That leaned me towards 20:20 Vision. The only problem is, just like with "For Just You," the balance between the two singers. Whether it be technical difficulties or just the nature of a live concert, you can barely hear J., which is a shame because he crafted together lyrics both beautiful and brilliant. The whole point of redeeming the song is not how well the band can cover the song, but rather, how well the lyricist rewrites the lyrics and how well the lead singer raps/sings them. Therefore, I have to say that the Hot Potato Soup version is the better version over 20:20 Vision, and therefore, it gets the distinction of the best song on the album.
Hot Potato Soup has variety. It has variety in musical decade, as the parodies cover from 1964 to 2011. It has variety in musical genre, as the spoofs at least come from 6 different musical genres. Sadly, this will really be the last of that great variety, as future albums will abandon the modern rock for more focus on classic rock. While the album has variety, it also has unity in the fact it covers hot potato topics of the day. Even the songs retelling Bible seem to have something to say. Both parodies retelling Bible stories and spoofs speaking out on theological topics come across as solid, well biblically defended. I only wish there was more than 15. I am glad, though, that 3 of those 15 songs are re-records of 20:20 Vision songs in studio, for all 3 deserved it. For these reasons, the album falls in 12th.
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