Form

Albums Reviewed

Form (1997)
Journey Closer (1999)
Follow (2001)

Form

(1997)
Form leader Dean Rush started his career as the drummer for three piece Drinkwater, whose other members went on to join The Newsboys (who, although they're about a thousand times as popular, aren't even in Form's league) and local band Elephant. At the point of this debut Form were known as CCC Auckland, and the album's name is Form; on subsequent albums they adopted Form as their band name. This album's so obscure that it's difficult to even find a track-list for it on the internet, which means that I'm guessing on the song titles. It's a shame that this album hasn't received more attention - it's certainly no flawless classic, but the band are definitely onto something with their melding of worship and rock. While their next record would adopt a slightly harder sound - this resembles Matchbox 20 more than say Pearl Jam - for a pure worship album it's surprisingly rough edged in places and is completely guitar based. Even the gentlest songs are still underpinned by surprisingly aggressive guitars. No strings, recorded on a mobile 16 track, not many keyboards, and although they'd lose the female vocals on the next album they're a nice touch here. In short, there are lots of American worship bands who would be well advised to follow this example, by turning up the guitars, lowering the cheesiness quotient and listening to music from outside the Christian industry straitjacket.

As much as this album's extremely likeable, and they've got their style pretty much figured out, about half of these songs are on a completely different level than the other half. Musically they've generally got something happening - at the very least, the guitar parts are constantly creative, straining away from generic strumming, and placing rhythmic emphasis in unexpected places - but some of the lyrics aren't substantial enough to bear close scrutiny ("God is good/You are real/You are everything to me" is the refrain of the worst offender). The best songs include the opening 'Creator Of All', which gets a lot of mileage out of a simple chord structure and about thirty words of lyrics, and the surprisingly aggressive 'Endures Forever', which would be close to punk territory if it was sped up a little. Of the more reflective material, the gorgeous 'Lift You Up' expresses reverence of the presence of God, and 'Rain' is a perfect closer, simple yet emotional. If you're a youthful worship leader or musician at your Church, please check this band out. They're making real worship music for real people, taking away the overproduction and pomposity that mars some worship projects, and stripping down to simple yet memorable songs.


Journey Closer

(1999)
Journey Closer was recorded in an actual studio, and Rush and company are able to flex a lot more muscle here on their second release. Sure, the intimacy and freshness of the debut is lost here, but that was always going to be difficult to recapture, and this album is easily more consistent and more substantial. What's surely one of the only triple guitar lineups in Christian worship fills the record with creative riffs and unpredictable rhythmic emphasis, while drummer Scotty Pierson (now decamped to awful mainstream band Elemenop) anchors proceedings with solid playing. Deputy songwriter Bruce Conlon, now fronting his own worship band Eight, almost steals the show with his two contributions, 'Let Everything' and 'Come Before', and Julian Currin anchors the title track with his prominent bass line.

If none of these songs really stand out, it's because they're all strong. Conlon's two contributions are maybe the two most immediate - the anthemic 'Let Everything' and the gentle 'Come Before' are both regulars on the song list at my Church - but Rush still contributes the opening 'Glorify', the pretty 'Redemption Day' and the excellent closer 'Wait On You'. Sure these songs are pretty simple, but they're designed for congregations to sing to (after all, these guys are the worship team at their local Church), and the fact that it manages to achieve this aim at rock respectably at the same time is fairly impressive. Journey Closer is the best of Form's first three albums, and the highlight of what's surely one of the best and most overlooked catalogues in Christian music.


Follow

(2001)
Sometime between Journey Closer and this record, Dean Rush joined Sonic Flood as a temporary lead singer on a US tour, which to my mind is the equivalent of roping Lou Reed into the Bay City Rollers. Fortunately it hasn't had too much of a negative effect on his music, even if the slightly distasteful overproduced update of 'Creator of All' sounds like something that Sonic Flood would do. If anything, this record sounds like the debut, but with more professional production and more consistent songs, although if it doesn't quite hit the high points that the debut did in its freshness and excitement of that approach to worship. The female vocals are back, and it's less of a rock album than Journey Closer -if there are still heavy guitars in 'Holding On' and 'No One Like You', there are also piano led songs like 'Surrounded'. It's more subtle than the previous two, and it takes a little longer for the songs to surface, and it's also more generic, tending towards something that Delirious might do at times, but it's still song for song stronger than their previous work.

My favourite moment of the record is the guitar jam that closes 'Holding On' - it's catchy and aggressive, and sounds like something that Pearl Jam would be proud of, reminding listeners how much of their muscle that Form are under-utilising elsewhere on this album. 'I Bow My Knee', a simple four chord rotation, is powerful in its plainness. Most of these songs are strong; 'No One Like You' is a memorable riff based rocker, while 'Freedom Song' kicks in with some guitar punch. The quieter highlights include 'Lift You Higher' and the closing 'Glorify Your Name'. This is a very good record, even if it's slightly below the standard of Journey Closer; if some of Form's distinguishing traits are becoming lost here, and they're tending towards more generic CCM worship, they still have better songs than most of their Christian contemporaries.


Random Album Pick: Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden

The result of fourteen months of recording in an abandoned Suffolk church, it's certainly not difficult by any stretch of the imagination; it's warm and inviting, filled with rich organic sounds like its predecessor.



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Written 2001-2007, Graham Fyfe