Allies - Allies

I bought this back in the day because of Randy Thomas, the guitar player from Sweet Comfort Band, and because I was told this album was awesome. Awesome is a bit of a stretch. I liked one song, but I'll get to that eventually.

The early to mid '80s was the era of Christian music warfare. As members of the body of Christ, we had a fiduciary responsibility to subdue the ways of the world. It was "Onward Christian Soldiers," and we were going to take the D out of Evil or whatever it was we were supposed to do. Allies, dressed in camouflage and wielding their instruments, were going out there to kick butt and rack up souls on the giant scoreboard in the sky.

I ate this stuff up.

Make no mistake, there is still a war going on, but most of the time when we're (I am part of the great we) out there pointing fingers, we have more pointing back at us - and some pretty big splinters in our own eyes.

Even back then I thought it was a corny cover, but dang it, this was Randy's new band, and the previous Sweet Comfort albums had some really great songs, which I tended to attribute more to Randy than Brian Duncan (who is a heck of a talent, by the way).

Sheesh, I'm actually a little surprised at myself here. The intro has a lot of vitriol, and I feel like I should be lying on a couch trying to explain on a doll where the bad man touched me.

However, the core underpinnings of faith should not be so fragile that any discourse or challenge to one's personal interpretations of scripture or doctrine causes a person to throw it all out because it's broken. That's the very definition of a small g God, one made in our own image.

Anyway, I obviously need more than a cup of coffee to try and untangle the mess I've made so far. More to the point, why unleash this on Allies and their 1985 debut? I guess they were just in the wrong place at the right time, and frankly, after more than forty years, there's so much water under the bridge that I can look back and use the record as a beacon to focus on my own experiences as reflected by the period.

Or something like that.

As much as the content and message mattered, it was and remains about the music. Christian music has always had an inferiority complex. Depending on the artist, label, or marketing, it was either ministry or it was simply Christians making music. There was always a tendency to preach to the choir or try and use music as a witness to others. Either scenario was loaded with traps and snares.

Personally, and likely because I'm a Luddite, I liked the music and appreciated lyrics that were challenging or supportive ... but to assume a bunch of musicians who were able to turn a phrase and express their journey or perspective did not mean they were theologically grounded. They were artists.

The thing about Allies' debut is that this was as good, or bad, depending on where your tastes lay, as anything out there at the time - Christian or secular. The music here was a perfect balance of generic AOR. Safe. Competent. Radio-friendly without taking many chances. Oddly, if this had come out a few years later when Michael Bolton was ruling the world, essentially belting it out like Bob Carlisle was doing before it was fashionable, this could have been huge.

The debut is in many ways a showcase for Mister Carlisle's vocal prowess. Many of the songs have him delivering the lyrics in a voice that's as subtle as a sledgehammer to the temple. The dude can sing. Except for me, it wears thin really fast. Sort of in the same vein as Sammy Hagar, except Bob has range. If that floated your boat, this whole album would have been awesome. I never did really care for the histrionics and vocal gymnastics. The voice services the song, and a good voice elevates. Bob has an incredible voice. It's just not my cup of soup.

Even before I dropped the needle, I knew I was up against several decades of meh on my part. The one song that I really liked back in the day was "Don't You Worry," where Bob essentially pulls off two lead vocals. The first where he sings, and the second where he gets to unleash his range, and the power of the delivery totally works in the context of the song. This is truly a special piece of music where all of the ingredients are in the right proportion. In my teens I only gave the album a few cursory plays as I looked for songs to harvest for mix tapes. The other songs didn't click for me.

So it was kind of interesting that when I stumbled across the record at Redrum, I snatched this one up. I was hoping my younger self had simply slept on a hidden gem. I knew I was getting one banger for sure, and I was sort of hoping I'd slept on the record and not given it a chance.

Turns out it was a bit of both. The record starts with a couple of uptempo rockers that are pretty good, but the plethora of slow songs and ballads just seemed to unbalance the album. I had hoped Randy would sing more songs, but honestly, when you have a vocalist of Bob's calibre, you let the guy sing. Something Mick Jones should have figured out in Foreigner when he'd front the occasional song that you know would have killed with Lou singing.

I've been listening to this off and on for over a week now, trying to come to terms with it. It has all of the ingredients, but for me, it just never really comes together. There are moments that I think this is bordering on excellent, then like someone stomping into the kitchen while making a souffle, it just sort of collapses in on itself.

For all my whinging, I will say I do not regret picking this up. I was actually surprised by how much this record got me thinking about who I was at the time, rather than about the record itself. Then again, I did listen to this one about a dozen times, and I can quite confidently say it was about the music after all. It may have been a bit of a swing and a miss, but I'd go so far as to say if I were to stumble upon more of their records, they'd come home with me.