Published on Feb 9, 2005
The challenge with any Christian band is to sound appealing to a
mainstream audience while having a message pure enough to appeal to
Christians.
It’s not as easy as it sounds. Members with Christians are not
Christian bands per se, like Chevelle and U2, while those who have
had crossover success have their faith called into question, like
Amy Grant and P.O.D.
It is highly unlikely that Poor Old Lu will ever reach a degree
of success, which is a shame, because they sound great. Longtime
fans of the group may resist
The Waiting Room, their newest release, but anyone new to
the band will notice the made-for-radio songs.
Taking five years off from recording, the Seattle quartet
learned how to produce, and the songs here could easily fit
alongside Puddle of Mudd and 3 Doors Down on rock radio. As with
most modern rock, though, the emphasis is on power chords and
angst-ridden vocals, not guitar pyrotechnics and drum solos (oh,
how I miss the ’70s, and I was born in 1983).
Anyway, there is not much here to distinguish this record from
similar-sounding peers, which means if you like what’s on rock
radio, you will like this. The group shows some restraint in the
vocals, never resorting to screaming or rapping; lyrically, lines
like “I hope for strength to stand / I hope to be the man that I
should be” pepper the album with more emotion than usual for this
type of band, but less than Poor Old Lu has offered in the past
(check out their 1998 song “Rail” for an example.)
There are small flourishes here and there that pique interest —
the U2-sounding introduction to “Sunlight and Shadows,” the funky
instrumental “Interlude,” the acoustic moodiness of “Praying” —
and the music is never explicitly Christian or mainstream. Which is
good news to fans of this sound, but falling in the middle of the
scale is a dangerous ground to walk, and Poor Old Lu needs a little
more to offer before they attempt it.