13. Recovery

 BACKGROUND:

For video gamers, 2009 is known as "The year with too many music video games." Both Guitar Hero and RockBand had grown greatly in popularity, and as a result, both Guitar Hero and RockBand released multiple games in that single year. Furthermore, a lot of video games and developers decided to take advantage of this music video game explosion by throwing their own music video game into the arena. Because of the music video game explosion, younger generations became familiar with the classic rock of older generation. ApologetiX took advantage of this. Previously, ApologetiX kept their albums balanced with classic rock and modern rock to appeal to both the older generations and the younger generations. Now with the new generations learning the classic rock of old generations, ApologetiX could dedicate an album to music they grew up on when they were younger. The album Recovery consists of 12 tracks all from the late 1970s, more specifically, from 1976 to 1979. The band also arranged the tracks in order of release date of the original.

TITLE:

Since ApologetiX intended to make this album a 70's album, they also decided to spoof a secular 70's album. Since it was the first time ApologetiX parodied an Electric Light Orchesta (ELO, for short) song, they also parodied an ELO album title. From ELO's Discover comes ApologetiX's Recover. Despite parodying an album title via rhyming, ApologetiX does have scriptural backing to it. A possible definition of the verb "recover" means "to save from loss and to restore to usefulness." Citing Ephesians 2:4&5 and Romans 11:11, ApologetiX reminds all Christians that Jesus recovered them through his death and resurrection. Now all Christians have been saved from loss and restored to usefulness. ApologetiX went all out spoofing ELO's Discovery, going as far as spoofing the album cover, too! Keith dresses exactly like the man on the cover of Discovery. To spoof in a way to have some fun with it, Keith holds a Simon Says. Of course, its name on front is not Simon, but rather, it's Peter, because Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter :) . Both the album title and the album cover communicate what to expect on the album.

CRITIQUE:

As the first album after Future Tense and the second album post-Karl, here is another album with only 12 tracks. 12 tracks as the average for album has set in as the new norm. Just like with Future Tense, it feels disappointing next to all the album previous to Chosen Ones because they each had 18-22 tracks. ApologetiX would bounce back with 2 albums with 18-19 tracks following Recovery, but that would come at the cost of trading in studio recordings for live recordings (that is, The Boys Aren't Backing Down and Soundproof, if you haven't caught on yet). Again, I imagine this might be in part due to the double work Bill Hubauer has to do playing both lead guitar and keys. Although I am not a fan of a low track count and overworking Bill, because Bill plays both lead guitar and keys, ApologetiX has picked an excellent setlist of 12 songs that equally utilize electric guitar and keys for both melody and rhythm. Let's take a look at that setlist.

"Keep Your Arms Steady" (parody of "Detroit Rock City" by KISS) was a much-welcomed parody. Up to this point in ApologetiX's career, the Exodus story was much underrepresented. Seriously, this is the 28th album, and in the 27 albums before, the only songs that come to mind are "YHWH" (parody of "YMCA" by The Village People) and "You Ain't Been Nothing Yet" (parody of "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" by Bachman Turner Overdrive). Yes, I know that "Credence Thru Deepwater Survival" (parody of "Proud Mary" by Credence Clearwater Revival) mentions Moses parting the Red Sea, but that's more of a topical song than a song focusing on Exodus 14. This song covers neither the origin story of Moses nor the 10 plagues nor the first pass nor the crossing of the Red Sea. Instead, this track covers how Moses helped the Israelites win the battle against the Amalekites. It fits so well with the original song. Lyricist and lead singer J. Jackson just had to change "Get up" and "Get down" to "Hands up" and "Hands down" respectively to communicate the message the Israelites won when Moses held the staff in hand above his head, and the Israelites lost when he lowered the staff in his hands below his head. This parody is very faithful to the Bible story it tells.

J. Jackson, very familiar with the music he parodies, kept "We Will Walk Through" (parody of "We Will Rock You" by Queen) and "We're More than Champions" (parody of "We Are the Champions" by Queen), knowing these 2 songs are usually played back-to-back. Somebody might expect "We Will Walk Through" to be about how the ApologetiX parodies walk a person through the Bible, but rather, it teaches that God gives the power to do the impossible with tribulation arises, in order that we may give him the glory through testimony. While I think the former idea would have been the better idea, the latter idea works out very well. "We Will Rock Through" cleanly segues into "We're More Than Champions" very cleanly, especially in comparison to the anniversary medley. "We're More Than Champions" finds its basis in Romans 8:35-37. J. decides to translate ὑπερνικάω (upernikao) to "champions" instead of the traditional "conquers." J. commits no blasphemies or heresies here. The root of the Greek term comes from νικη (nike), meaning "victory." Therefore, ὑπερνικάω (upernikao) literally means "super victory" or "super victorious." I can't think of a better one-word term to describe the super victorious than champion! J.'s translation is more relevant to the modern-day Christian, too. Not too many Christians today take part in a conquering army, but they may have experienced a championship in a team. Besides the songs musically going together, I think the rewritten lyrics work together well, too. "We're More Than Champions" teaches that the Lord "will keep us on and strong and on and on." That's exactly what the Christian needs in hardships described in "We Will Walk Through." While I understand the band wanted to arrange the album in the order of release, I think these 2 songs would have been a strong start for the first 2 tracks of the album. They set the path that God gives both the characters of the Old and New Testament hardships, just like he gives modern-day Christians. In both instances, God gives them the strength through, so they became become super victorious.

For "Come. Whale. Away." (parody of "Come Sail Away" by Styx, not only does the song consists of all 4 chapters of Jonah, but the title itself contains all 4 chapters of Jonah! First, the word of the Lord comes to Jonah, and Jonah attempts to come to Tarshish. Second, the whale intercepts Jonah, where Jonah prays to the Lord. Third, once the whale vomits Jonah out onto dry land, Jonah is away to Nineveh. And yes, I know, and I imagine J. knows, that the monster of a fish that swallowed Jonah probably wasn't a whale, but whale rhymes with sail. This parody was meant to be because the keyboard sounds of the original almost sound like whale sounds. J. and Bill made sure their fans knew that by putting in actual whale sounds! Yes, they already had "Jonah Jonah" (parody of "Mony Mony" by Billy Idol), but that's OK. It all depends if you want your story of Jonah told me 70's prog rock or 80's alternative rock.

"Enemy Lines" (parody of "Ebony Eyes" by Bob Welch) is probably my least favorite song on the album, but that's more on Bob Welch and less on ApologetiX. This song retells the Bible story of David committing adultery Bathsheba and murdering Uriah. While I do not like this song, I appreciate that J. turns "Your eyes got" to "Ur-i-ah." It's almost like this spoof writes itself.

"Obadiah" (parody of "Hold The Line" by Toto) retells the Bible story of... well, Obadiah. ApologetiX already had a story about "Obadiah" on a cassette and a Rare Not Well Done rarity, but they did not like the quality of the song. Instead of re-recording it, which they would eventually do for Minor League, they wrote a new parody! Although it doesn't fit as neatly as going from "Your eyes got" to "Ur-i-ah" in "Ebony Eyes," it's neat how the name of Obadiah fits so snugly in "Hold the Line." I love how they say that Obadiah "wasn't a talky kind of guy" to communicate it's the shortest book in the Old Testament. The only problem with that is that the song focuses way too much on how the book is so short. If someone wants to learn more about the book of Obadiah, they will want to listen to "Obed-Edom Obadiah" (parody of “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da” by The Beatles) on Minor League.

"Time for Me to Die" (parody of "Time for Me to Fly" by REO Speedwagon) sounds like it should be a spoof about Jesus predicting his death. Instead, the parody sings about Paul knowing his trip to Rome will eventually end up leading to his martyrdom. While I would have perferred the former idea, the latter idea works here. 2 Timothy Paul, the source of this spoof, is not typically touched on in church circles. J. has found a creative way to teach it here.

I never thought I would say this, but "So Render" (parody of "Surrender" by Cheap Track) should have been a live recording. I know, crazy? The original "Surrender" has a more famous live recording, which has a speaking intro. ApologetiX has copied this speaking into, but it is totally fabricated, with obviously fake crowd sounds. I can't believe I'm saying this, but they should have held this one off for The Boys Aren't Backing Down. While I have never seen the band perform this song live, I have seen videos of it, and they do just as a good of a job live as in the studio. If this song would have appeared on The Boys Aren't Backing Down instead of Recovery, it would have easily been my favorite song. As for song itself, again, I applaud J. for noticing how easily "Surrender" turns into "so render." It's like the song was begging to be rewritten to tell about how Jesus answered the Jewish religious leaders on the questions of taxes.

"Shovin' Crushin' Squeezin" (parody of "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin') is nnother beautiful example of ApologetiX redeeming songs. The original song sings about a man who wants a lovin', touchin' squeezin' kind of relationship, or in short, a sexual relationship. It really robs relationships of love when it's all about sex. ApologetiX redeem this song by using it to teach how the crowds got so big and tightly packed around Jesus, they shoved, they crushed and they squeezed Jesus and the disciples, as found in Mark 5:21–31, 6:31–34; Luke 8:42. For his first time trying to imitate Journey lead singer Steve Perry, ApologetiX lead singer J. Jackson doesn't do too bad. From this point on, J. will only get better in future Journey spoofs.

"Not Some Old Fantasy" (parody of "Rock N Roll Fantasy" by Bad Company) is not just an ApologetiX song, but also an apologetics song (see what I did there?). The spoof comes prepared to give a defense to those who claim the Bible is a fantasy story, like fairy tales. In. J.'s journal, J. goes into great detail, in great lengths, why nobody can call the Bible a fantasy novel. Unfortunately, those defenses don't make it into the song. The song moreso encourages people to read the Bible, which is good, but it alone doesn't solve the problem of the people who read it like a fantasy novel. Inserting some of that defense would have helped with that.

"Don't Bring Me Cows" (parody of "Don't Bring Me Down" by Electric Light Orchestra) is that long awaited ELO spoof, which gave ApologetiX the idea to spoof the cover of the album. Just like "Don't Bring Me Down" closes out Discovery, "Don't Bring Me Cows" closes out Recovery. As crazy as this sounds, believe it or not, in this song, ApologetiX addresses an issues that Christians struggled with throughout the church age, even to today. Medieval Roman Catholics thought they could pay off the Lord with indulgences. Even some modern-day Christians think that if they put more tithes into the offering plate, God will look the other way from their worldly, sinful life. In this track, J. teaches that it didn't work back then, and it won't work now. On top of that, it is a nice touch to replace the "Gross"/"Bruce" sounds with cows mooing. 

That leaves...

FAVORITE SONG: "Hurry Home Wayward Son" ("Carry on Wayward Son" by Kansas)

There are a lot of wayward sons in the Bible, but the most famous one has to be the prodigal son in Luke 15. Again, this song was asking to be parodied this way. Someone would almost think the song's original lyrics don't need too much rework to communicate that message. While true, J. does rework the lyrics plenty, not only to make sure the parody accurately retells the parable found in Luke 15, but to also make sure the spoof communicates the moral of the story. Musically, Bill hits all 4 guitar solos (depending on how you count them), and his keyboards fill in nicely between the guitar section. Both J. Jackson, as lead singer, and Tom Milnes, as backup singer, hit the notes that Kansas originally sung, which is not always easy to do. While I will admit I may have bias for this song due to the Lord using the secular version to work through a problem I had in my college years, ApologetiX still nails this song, with both the instruments and the lyrics.

FINAL VERDICT: 13th

The album Recovey definitely has unity. It has unity in musical decade, as all these songs come from the late 1970s, more specifically, from 1976 to 1979. It has unity in musical genre, as all these tracks can be called classic rock (with a few falling under the subgenre of prog rock). That unity, though, hurts its outreach to its audience, both fans and non-fans. In order to love Recovery, you have to love 1970s classic rock. Those who do not will pass on this album. If the most important part of this album was that all the songs originated of the 70's, perhaps ApologetiX should have thrown in a disco song to give it that variety that will appeal to a wider mass. It also doesn't help it's a short album with only 12 tracks. Ultimately, I believe ApologetiX got it right in their album description where they say that Guitar Hero and RockBand give these parodies a wider appeal to older and younger generations. It would be foolish for the old and young alike to pass on this album.

(Author's Note: With only the top 12 songs, the top 40%, ahead of us, these albums will finally get longer. With longer albums, I do not have the time to go into detail with every single track. I will highly tracks of main importance, and of course, I will definitely continue with the favorite song. If you see me skip a song, it's not that it's a bad song, but rather, it's just not worth highlighting.)