ALBUM REVIEW

“It matters! It matters!” the Supertones shout in unison during one of the many rousing and catchy choruses on their new CD, one of the four or five best albums of Christian rock to come out of Orange County.

What they offer, in song after ska-punk song, is complete, full-hearted conviction. The passion comes through in the bright blare of a heraldic horn trio, the charging wall of slab-guitar in the punk sections and the purposefulness of the scratch rhythms in the ska segments.

It especially hits home in the warm, tunefully creaky Everyman’s voice of lead singer Matt Morginsky, who sounds like one of those scruffy but determined proletarians Ray Davies loves to play.

The Supertones don’t waste their authority on the bland preachments and spiritual happy talk that render most Christian pop untransportable beyond sectarian lines.

In songs such as “Tonight,” which finds Morginsky clinging to his belief amid a storm of trouble, the Supertones embody a faith occupied with facing a fallen world, not flying blithely above it.

In “Grace Flood” and “Resolution,” which rank with “Tonight” as the album’s three prime pop songs, the band registers a warmth and humility that places it on the side of religion’s compassionate angels rather than its dogmatic devils.

But there’s grit here as well. The Supertones suffuse punker determination in “Shut Up and Play,” which details what it’s like to carry a message many punk audiences dismiss out of hand.

The band loses its grip only momentarily on another admirably defiant anthem, “Perseverance of the Saints.” Together with such laudable avowals as “I will be as stubborn as a pit bull . . . resolute like Gandhi,” Morginsky adds the aspiration “neutral as a Nazi.” Huh? This incomprehensible goof is like Michael Jordan missing an uncontested dunk.

Otherwise, the Supertones are as winning a musical ambassador as Christianity could want, especially to alterna-rock fans who have so few opportunities nowadays to hear the sound of conviction coupled with openheartedness.

“Supertones Strike Back” stands as an example and a reproach to the trendy but overridingly superficial Orange County ska movement, which, finally, thanks to this Christian band, has produced a record that matters.

(Available from BEC Recordings, 810 3rd Ave. No. 410-20, Seattle, WA 98104; https://www.becrecordins.com)

* The Supertones, Five Iron Frenzy and the Insiderz play at “Skamania ‘97,” Sept. 27 at Bren Events Center at UC Irvine. 7 p.m. $11-$13. (714) 824-5000.

Ratings range from * (poor) to **** (excellent), with three stars denoting a solid recommendation.