Album Review - Jars of Clay's The Shelter!

Can you believe it? It's been 15 years since Flood and Liquid (some of you weren't even born yet) revolutionized the Christian Rock genre and proved to the world that you didn't have to sell out to attain mainstream success (although the guys did draw their fair share of controversy in the early years amongst conservative circles).

With The Shelter, Jars of Clay delivers an album that is every bit as revolutionary as the original Jars of Clay was 15 years ago, whilst staying true to their acoustic-rock roots.

There are collaboration albums, and then there are collaboration albums. The Shelter sits firmly in the latter category. There are plenty of albums and songs out there that feature artists writing and performing together, but most of those never progress beyond being artistic collaborations.

On the other hand, Dan Haseltine's idea of getting other artists to buy-in to the concept of 'Shelter' and then perform on Jars-written tracks (instead of contributing to the creative process) is just sheer genius - creating an album that just oozes the very essence of community and mutual support.

The concept is nothing less than abstract but somehow, Jars of Clay and their guest artists manage to turn the abstract into something tangible, something that we are all familiar with and can relate to.

Perhaps the best way to understand what I'm trying to say here (words are failing me miserably right now) is to sample some of the tracks from the album.

We Will Follow - featuring Gungor:



The title track Shelter - featuring Brandon Heath, Audrey Assad and TobyMac:



Lay It Down - featuring David Crowder and Dawn Michele:



So here's my final verdict:

Here's the 'downside': if you're not a Jars of Clay fan, it might take some listening to get used to this album.

But once you do, it's likely that the songs and their message will stay with you for quite a while.


How many of you out there are old enough to remember such Jars of Clay classics as Flood, Liquid, Love Song for a Saviour and Needful Hands? Leave a comment and tell me so I feel better knowing that I'm not the only oldie out here!