27. 20:20 Vision

 BACKGROUND:

The milestone event that triggered this album was the ApologetiX's 20th anniversary. The 20th anniversary ended up being a double entendre. It was a 20th anniversary celebrating 20 years and 20 albums. To celebrate this milestone, the ApologetiX wanted to make a unique album. To simply make a live album would not cut it, as they had made live albums before their 20th anniversary. This live album would differ because it would give the full concert experience. Of all the live albums, this album has the most talking parts included and the least amount of touching up in the studio. Over 2 discs, the album has 39 tracks. Only 20 of those tracks are songs. The remaining 19 tracks consist of introductions, joking around, sharing testimonies and presenting the gospel message.

TITLE:

To have 20:20 vision means to have perfect seeing. As mentioned above, the 20 on each side of the colon represents something different: 20 years as a band and 20 albums composed as a band. Their vision for the future stays the same as it has for 20 years: to reach the lost and to teach the rest. J. even found a Bible verse with 20:20 in the reference that matches the theme of the album, which is John 20:20, which reads, "After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord." This verse fits perfect with the theme of vision because the disciples were overjoyed at a sight.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES:

Once again, I will remind you of my bias against live albums. Live albums will always be of lesser quality next to its counterpart studio albums. With studio albums, bands can re-record, re-edit and re-mix until they get the best quality music possible, especially with all the music technology possible in their hands. With live albums, the band gets one take, and that's pretty much it, with the exception of whatever little touch-ups they can do in studio with post-editing work. Live albums will always have to compete with unruly crowds and technical difficulties. Studio albums do not need to worry about as much. If I want the feel of a live concert, I will actually go to a concert. I want to listen to the best studio records on my commute to work or doing chores around the house, not a live recording with all its messiness. It would seem as if this live album would make my bias confirmation worse, for it even more embraces the concert aspect of the live album, including the most talking interludes and the least post-recording polishing.

At the same time, however, I might have a bias towards this specific live album. See, I actually got to attend a concert during the 20th anniversary tour. This was the concert I attended in Shippensburg, and if you can recall from my introductory post, this was the first concert I brought along my then-girlfriend, now-wife Carrie. I can attest to you that the way the concert plays out on this live album is exactly how all the concerts went, as I heard first-hand myself. Therefore, every time I hear this album, I receive positive, warm, fuzzy feelings, remembering the actual concert. Maybe, just maybe, the nostalgia for the concert I attended might negate the negative criticisms that come naturally from a live album.

As stated above, about half of the tracks on the 2 discs consist of the conversational interludes between the songs. To begin with, let me just say ApologetiX was smart to keep these separate from the songs themselves. Nobody would want to have to fast-forward through an interlude part just to get to the song, and no one would want to hit the skip button as the outro to song played because they knew it would follow with a couple or few minutes afterward of talking. These conversational interludes do what the band wanted them to do: they capture the feel of what it's like to attend an ApologetiX concert. The comedy bits between the band members make you laugh. The strong testimonies of Todd Waites, Tom Tincha and J. Jackson touch the heart. J. presents such a powerful gospel message that if an unsaved person listened to it over and over again, that person would eventually come to Christ. I'm impressed with all the cultural references that J. can cram into a single concert. Some I even had to look up to get the reference! I'm impressed how many Bible verses J. can stuff into a single concert. That alone attests to how much he deserves to write parodies. Despite all the impressive pieces in these conversational interludes, I only want to listen to these once, and then I'm done. I'm not going to listen them over and over again. Once I'm finished listening to the CD from front to back, I burn the songs, and just the songs, off the CD and add them to music playlist, and that's that. I'm not going to burn these talking parts because I don't want to be jamming to the setlist on my commute to work and then get interrupted randomly by a conversation tidbit. While the talking interludes do give the concert feel, they only make sense within the 20:20 Vision album. Even when listening to just the album, you will sometimes find yourself skipping the talking interludes just to get to the next song.

The other half of the 2-disc album contains 20 songs...well, about 20 songs. 1 of these "20" songs is the "anniversary medley," which comprises of 3 songs: "We Will Walk Through" (parody of "We Will Rock You" by Queen), "Heavenly Hill" (parody of "Beverly Hills" by Weezer) and "I Love Apostle Paul" (parody of "I Love Rock N Roll" by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts). Now the first time I heard this "anniversary medley," I wondered if the ApologetiX knew the definition of a medley. According to my definition of a medley, a music medley mixes part of one song into a part of another song and so on and so forth. This "anniversary medley" plays "We Will Walk Through" in its entirety, plays "Beverly Hills" up to the solo (which is most of the song), and then plays "I Love Apostle Paul" in its entirety. That's not a medley, according to my definition, at least. That's two complete songs, with an incomplete song connecting them. Don't get me wrong; they transitional smoothly. It's just not a medley. Again, it had me seriously wondering if the band knew what a medley was, but they do indeed know, as the lack track on Wise Up and Rock does fit the definition of a medley.

16 of these songs are what J. Jackson calls in his journal "classics." To clarify, when J. says "classics," I believe he means previously released songs. I want to clarify because one can easily confuse "classics" to be a synonym of "hits." I don't think J. is recognizes these all as hits (well, beyond the fact that their secular counterparts are all hits). I make this careful distinct because I was critical on Hits: The Road for including songs on a live hits albums, which had cleared the threshold as a hit. I don't believe J. makes any such claim for any of these "classics," so it would be wrong to criticize 20:20 Vision the same way as Hits: The Road. Just like I said for the review of Hits: The Road, whenever a band goes on tour, a lot of the songs will come from the newest album to promote the album. Naturally, that happens for 20:20 Vision. The las studio album prior to 20:20 Vision is Wise Up and Rock. With that in mind, 6 songs on 20:20 Vision can also be found on Wise Up and Rock. Again, I cannot be too critical because I know why bands do this, but if you thought Hits: The Road was bad for repeating 3 songs from New & Used Hits, then 20:20 Vision is worse for repeating 6 songs form Wise Up and Rock (to be fair, Hits: The Road repeats half the new songs from New & Used Hits, whereas 20:20 Vision only repeats about a third of Wise Up and Rock). It's just a bummer for fans buying a new album to find out 6 of the songs you already have on the album you just bought last year. Plus, the songs are the studio album are better than the live versions because they are more polished up in the studio than the live version's 1 and only take. That leads to another big difference between Hits: The Road and 20:20 Vision. With the 17 previously released songs on Hits: The Road, some of the songs have been out for awhile, so the live performance is the perfect time to update them. 20:20 Vision came out only 11 months after Wise Up and Rock. I highly doubt J. would regret the way a Wise Up and Rock song came out 11 months ago and needed to update it immediately with 20:20 Vision. If anything, the live performances of the Wise Up and Rock sound like de-makes of the song, with much worse quality. The biggest offender has to be "Dancing with the Ark" (parody of "Dancing in the Dark" by Bruce Springstein). Because of nobody in the band able to play saxophone, they have to resort to J. playing the kazoo. It kind of works, but it would have been better if Todd set his keys to play a saxophone sound (and yes, I know the kazoo was part of the next comedic part).

Not only will bands use any given concert to promote their last album, they will also use the concert to promote their next album, performing songs that will appear on that album. The ApologetiX do exactly that on 20:20 Vision with 3 songs: "Weep Jeremiah" (parody of "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N Roses), "For Just You" (parody of "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green) and "Lived the Day You Died" (parody of "Love the Way You Lie" by Eminem and Rihanna). Later on, the ApologetiX would make studio recordings on these 3 songs on their next studio album Hot Potato Soup, but at the time, they did not announce it, so for a time, the band left the fans with only these 3 versions. Therefore, let me briefly comment on those 3 tracks for how they held up as live recordings for their master recording. "Weep Jeremiah" is odd choice for an opening track of a live album. Remember this live album captures a single concert. Usually, the ApologetiX open up the concert with a song introducing who they are or what they do, like "We're in a Parody Band" (parody of "We're an American Band" by Grand Fun), "Play that Funny Music" (parody of "Play that Funky Music" by Wild Cherry) or "Let's Redo the Music" (parody of "Listen to the Music" by the Doobie Brothers). With "Weep Jeremiah" as the opening song to the concert and the opening track to the album, it feels like they dive headfirst into the biblical parodies. Recording-wise, this is definitely one of the better live tracks on the album. Listening to intro lick on both the live recording of 20:20 Vision and the studio recorded Hot Potato Soup, I can't tell which until the clapping begins on the live 20:20 Vision version. "For Just You" has a balance problem between lead singer J. Jackson and the ladies sings backup to J. They almost sound like they are equal with J., which sticks because sometimes J.'s brilliant lyrics get drowned by background singers just singing, "Aaah" and "Oooh." Fortunately, the studio recording will fix this. "Live the Day You Died" gives me the most mixed feelings. 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. The only problem is, again, the balance. 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. I sometimes really want to get a music editing software, so I can edit together a definitive version of "Live the Day You Died" with the Hot Potato Soup version for the verses and the 20:20 Vision version for the chorus. Still, despite the issues with some of these live recordings, they hold up pretty well for live records. I would even go as far as say that if the ApologetiX decided not to include these songs on their next studio album, these would have sufficed for the master recording of the song. This contrasts hugely to Hits: The Road, where those new 3 songs desperate need master recordings in a studio.

In order to up the ante for their 20th anniversary album, the ApologetiX had female backup singers take part in the 20th anniversary concert. The first set of ladies comes from the praise and worship team at J.'s home church. The second set of women are the band member's oldest daughters. Then, for the anniversary medley, they all come together. This was a good idea, and the ApologetiX took advantage of it. Of course, I just mentioned a few of them: "For Just You" and "Live the Day You Died." This is a bigger deal, though, because for the first time in a long time, we have a live rendition of "Sweet Oholibamah" (parody of "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd) and "Meschach" (parody of "Love Shack" by B-52). from the Adam Up album. On a similar note, we have a live rendition of "Heavenly Hill" (parody of "Beverly Hills" by Weezer) from the Worldplay album (even if an incomplete version from the anniversary medley.  While this was a good idea and the ApologetiX took advantage of it, it was not a great idea, and they did not take full advantage. For the first set of ladies, they perform backup singing for "Baa! We're Lambs!" (parody of Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys), "Search and You'll Get Saved" (parody of "Surfing USA" by the Beach Boys) and "Found God" (parody of "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley). All these songs have backup singing by men, not women. Yes, I know the high notes of the Beach Boys are hard to hit for male singers, but a high-pitched male singer is very different from a female singer. Call me sexist if you must, but when I hear female singers singing backup where male singers usually do backup, my conscience becomes aware I'm listening to a parody from a cover band, not a redeemed lyrics on the original. Because of this, I prefer "Baa! We're Lambs!" on Grace Period, "Search and You'll Get Saved" on Chosen Ones and "Found God" on Hits: The Road. For the second set of women, again, I know the band members love their daughters very much, but you can tell this is their first live performance with a big crowd. If you watch the video, it almost looks like the girls are trying to hide behind their think mic stand. Again, the mixing here is atrocious. I don't how it happened, but it always sounds like whoever is doing the backup singing is in the foreground and whoever is doing the lead singing is in the background, and on top of that, the instruments overpower everybody. The combined effort for the anniversary medley actually works out well in everybody's favor. Again, it sounds weird hearing female backing vocals for "We Will Walk Through" because the original "We Will Rock You" by Queen has male backing vocals. "Heavenly Hill" works out well because you can actually make out "John and Jimmy!" from the girls, unlike in the Wordplay studio recording. "I Love Rock N Roll" works out because of the irony. If you know the background of the song, "I Love Rock N Roll" was originally composed for The Arrows, a male band, but it became famous under Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, a male band with a female lead singer. In the famous version, a female sings the lead and the males sing the background. The ApologetiX switch that up by having a male sing the lead, while the females do the background, which is ironic to me. I have come to appreciate it. One last note on the female singings. I say they took advantage of it, but they did not take full advantage because they could have done so many other songs. Instead of the ladies from J.'s church doing backup for songs famous for male backing, they could have done "Get Found Tonight" (parody of "Get Down Tonight" by KC & the Sunshine Band) and "Choose Your Daddy" (parody of "Who's Your Daddy?" by Toby Keith) from Adam Up. They should have done a full, separate performance of "Heavenly Hill," not a part of it in a medley. So much lost opportunity. (Oh, and as a quick aside and fun fact: while the ApologetiX had female backup singers for their actual 20th anniversary concert, they did not bring female backup singers for their 20th anniversary tour. Therefore, whenever it came time to perform those songs with female parts, the male bandmates filled in for those parts. They did their best, but they still were no female singers.)

Despite all my criticisms, one of my biggest appreciations of this album is that it includes 2 songs from Soundproof, probably due to the fact that Soundproof was the 2nd most recent of their albums. For the first time, we hear these 2 songs from a full band of electric instruments. These 2 songs are "Huge Slumber Party" (parody of "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon) and "Aquila" (parody of "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull). I know some of you might be wondering why I'm not including "Ain't that a Miracle" (parody of "Pink Houses" by John Cougar Mellencamp). I am not including that song because it does have a master recording on Isn't Wasn't Ain't, even if J. changed up the lyrics. Of the 2 tracks 1 the ApologetiX gets right and 1 the ApologetiX gets wrong. The song that gets it right is "Huge Slumber Party." Simply put, the song is played how the Kings of Leon intended it, with a full band of electric instruments. Even with the band asking for audience involvement (I love the line "Sing along, even if you don't know the words"), the listener can still primarily hear the male band back the lead singer, just like the Kings of Leon. The song the band gets wrong is "Aquila." But I got my electric guitar, right? Yes, but I got too much of it. The electric guitar is just in the intro, the guitar solo, and the outro. The rest is acoustic guitar. I know I might sound nit-picky, but the guitar parts tell so much of the story of "Aqualung." The rough electric guitar intro of "Aqualung" makes the audience feel uneasy about Aqualung, not sure if he can be trusted. The softer acoustic guitar playing of the middle of the song makes the hearer pity Aqualung. When that tough electric guitar gets reintroduced for the solo and outro, it snaps the listener back to reality, almost saying, "Yes, in a way he deserves pity, but he's not exactly in the right either." While the electric guitar throughout "Aquila" rocks, it loses the emotional journey, even if the lyrics of Aquila tell a very different story. To make matters worse, J. does his little sneezing prank on Keith again, which ruins the mood, too. Again, just like with "Live the Day You Died," I want to take music editing software and make a definitive edition of "Aquila" with the intro and outro (including the solo) from 20:20 Vision and the middle of Soundproof. Of all their songs with only a live recording, "Aquila" most desperately needs a studio recording. 

FAVORITE SONG: "Huge Slumber Party" (parody of "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon)

You might have seen this coming, based off what I said in the above paragraphs. There are 20 songs on this album, including the anniversary medley as 1 song. I don't feel like they anniversary medley is a real medley, so that eliminates the medley, bringing the number of a possible favorite down to 19. 6 of the songs appear on the previous album Wise Up and Rock, and every single one of those songs are better on Wise Up and Rock, bring the number down to 13. 3 of the songs will occur on the new album Hot Potato Soup. While some of those songs sound better than others, they all ultimately fail in comparison to their Hot Potato Soup counterpart ("Live the Day You Died" was so close though!), bringing the number of possibilities down to 10. As sexist as this may sound, I don't like any of the songs with female backing vocals, whether because it's not true to the original or the sound quality is not the best. For all those songs, I prefer the prior recording of them, even if it's just another live album. That brings the count further down to 4 songs: "Huge Slumber Party" (parody of "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon), "Aquila" (parody of "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull), "Want It Dead of Alive" (parody of "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi) and "Catch That Fever" (parody of "Cat Scractch Fever" by Ted Nugent). Let me eliminate 3 more songs. I already explained "Aquila," so eliminate that one, and then there was 3. While this is usually a section for my favorite song, let me tell you here my least favorite song: "Want It Dead or Alive?" In my opinion, this may be one of their worst live performances of a single song. The intro sound comes off way too strong and off key. The guitar sounds nothing like the original guitar. J. sounds like he's straining his voice at the end to sing it. Eliminate that song, and then there was 2. "Catch That Fever" almost makes it as the favorite song, but unfortunately, the producers didn't to keep the big rock ending as part of the track. The big rock ending drags out the song way too long by thanking all the people. I'm also curious to know why Todd Waites decided to do a fake guitar song for his outro solo (it especially sounds fake right next to a real guitar), when he could have done an organ solo. I ultimately prefer the version of "Catch That Fever" on Radical History Tour, but even the live version of The Boys Aren't Backing Down is better than this one on 20:20 Vision. The one song standing alone is "Huge Slumber Party." It does deserve it. It's an interesting take on the Easter story, when all the Romans guards fell asleep, and Jesus awoke from death. It finally gets the full electric band treatment. The fan involvement gives it the live album feel, yet the dominating backing vocals from the other band members allows the listener to escape the reminder it is a live album. Until this song gets a studio recording (if ever), the 20:20 Vision version is the definitive edition of the song. Still, it feels like this song won by default, by process of elimination.

FINAL VERDICT: 27th.

When ranking these ApologetiX albums, 20:20 Vision and Hits: The Road pretty much tied. I almost even gave the tiebreaker to Hits: The Road. The tiebreaker ultimately went to 20:20 Vision, however, because 20:20 Vision does things right, which Hits: The Road does wrong. If the goal of a live album is to give the fan the experience of a concert at home or in the car, 20:20 Vision does that better because it includes all the talking interludes between the songs. Hits: The Road feels like the band took the stage, played 20 songs, and then left, without any interaction from the crowd. Yes, you pick up bits and pieces during the songs of Hits: The Road, but it does not come off as strong as in 20:20 Vision. ApologetiX brings out everything for this 20th anniversary performance, including female backing vocals. While Hits: The Road has not big milestone to celebrate, the band could have done more for their first live album, a milestone within itself. 20:20 Vision is front with its purpose to capture a 20th anniversary concert, and therefore, it's alright to include 6 songs from the previous CD and 3 songs from their next CD in order to promote them, unlike Hits: The Road, which tries to pass over 3 songs from their most recent album and 3 songs never recorded in a studio as "hits." While 20:20 Vision wins the tiebreaker over Hits: The Road, it still falls to the bottom of all ApologetiX albums. It still has all the pitfalls of a live album, including unruly fans and technical difficulties. I know they wanted to give that "raw concert feel," but for their 20th anniversary celebration, they should have polished it up for such a milestone. The conversation interludes do give the concert feel, but the listener will only listen to them a couple or few times, and then he or she will return for just the songs. Even so, that person would have to admit that the songs sound better as a studio recording on a previous album, or even on another prior live album. These songs do not add anything new to song; they merely give the feeling of what the song sounds like at a concert. While this album gives a nice mix of Wise Up and Rock and Hot Potato Soup, with a little bit of Soundproof mixed into it (and then some), new and old fans alike will ultimately want to seek out each of those albums individually.

27. 20:20 Vision
28. Hits: The Road
29. Soundproof
30. Apol-acoustiX