The effort starts out with "Sunglasses", an eerie, inventive effort that features morphing guitar riffs and a dark, edged tone that doesn't set the theme for the whole album per say, but it does showcase the band's randomness and their ability to adapt quickly to the ever changing musical tempo that is coming just up around the bend. My favorite song off the effort is "Jesus, The Horse Thief", a high energy, pulsating track complete with the band's hallmark: a horn section that is the emotional barometer and sets the stage for the rest of the album to follow and provides for so much joy and enthusiasm that you can't help but nod your head in approval. "Good and Better Decisions" takes a decidedly more subtle approach with some light keyboard arrangements to start us out and showcases the band's ambition and resolve taking shape, while also hinting at their diversity and their ability to think outside the box. "The Desert, She Screams" gets us back into the high energy frame of mind with the horn section totally breaking out and hitting their stride and feeding off the energy of their fellow bandmates that exemplifies their musical craft hard at work on another one right here.
We get ready to close things out with the disc's title track, an amazing 7 minute slice of musical perfection with a strong emphasis being put on melody and simplicity that takes in musical elements across all the tracks featured here to give you an encapsulated overview of what you may have missed and gives an idea of what the band is like as a whole. "Wizards and Witches" closes out our stay here with a peppy, upbeat track that does a great job of showing off the spontaneity of the group that is omnipresent at every turn throughout this album and on stage as well. From their syncopated dance moves to their tendencies to dress exactly alike with a certain theme attached to it, or some of their tendencies to go half naked as two members of the horn section were shirtless while recording "The Desert, She Screams" as evidenced on this YouTube clip here gives all the reasons as to why I love and appreciate this group so much and what they bring to the musical table.
In retrospect, a highly stylized and cohesive effort from Kansas Bible Company, a group that has a certain unique musical bond and chemistry that is a breath of fresh air and shows the tight knit group that musicians have formed as a whole.
Album Score: 3.5/5
Track Listing:
- Sunglasses
- Jesus, The Horse Thief
- Rooster Crow
- Good and Better Decisions
- The Desert, She Screams
- Black Eyed Susan
- Hymn of St. Vertigo
- Hotel Chicamauga
- Wizards and Witches
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