ALBUM REVIEWS : DC Talk Can’t Quite Walk the Walk

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DC TALK

“Jesus Freak”

Forefront

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“Bombarded by philosophies that satisfy the surface,” begins “So Help Me God,” the opening song on this hit album by this Christian-rock sensation. Well, people who live in superficial houses shouldn’t cast stones.

A few years ago the Washington, D.C., trio was offering “decent Christian hip-hop.” Now it wraps its parroted preachings in grunge-pop and tries to pass it off as deep and meaningful. But all the music and many of the topics are just as much tied to today’s fashions as the Cobain-like appearance members Kevin Max Smith and Toby McKeehan have now affected.

Typical is the title track, which turns the mocking label into a zealot’s badge of honor to the tune of fake Nirvana and fake Chili Peppers. The words are sincere if simplistic, but blatant professionalism undermines any pretensions of grunge authenticity--the music, in fact, is nearly all played by studio pros.

Ironically, it’s the least grunge-like songs that are the most effective. “What Have We Become,” a musing on the social wages of self-indulgence, makes for a worthy Sting/Hootie/Billy Joel meld, with a small dash of U2. But if they really practiced what they preached, they’d find a more original vehicle for their message, as U2 did.

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*** 1/2 Pearl Jam, “Merkin Ball” (single), Epic. These two songs from the “Mirror Ball” sessions show that it was Pearl Jam that gained more from that collaboration with Neil Young. On “I Got Id,” Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament and Jack Irons rally around some of Young’s most arresting guitar playing like soldiers around the flag at Iwo Jima, while on the moodier “The Long Road,” Young’s pump organ provides an earthy, eerie ambience.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).