Artist:Nevertheless
Album: Live Like We’re Alive
Label: Flicker
Purchase: Smartpunk
Release Date: September 19, 2006
Overall: 8.0
Music: 8.5
Lyrics: 7.5
Production: 9.5
These days bands live and die by the sticker genre. If you’re pegged as death metal, the emo kids won’t touch you. Likewise, the indie bands are ridiculed for lack of focus. So in this time of 10 cent labels and genre stereotypes what does it mean to be a Christian band? Only Christian fans will listen to you? I certainly hope not.
Labels and producers like Tooth & Nail, Solid State, James Paul Wisner, and Aaron Sprinkle have done a lot to change the general view about Christian music, but there are still kids who hear the word “religious” and go running for the hills. Of course, if you’re like me and love the production style of James Wisner you’ll actually go seek out the next projects that he’s working on just to discover new talent. Which bring me to the introduction of Chattanooga’s very own Nevertheless.
Coming out of left field in a combustion of melodic rock similar to The Fold and Forever Changed, Nevertheless are the latest underknowns to rob the Christian airwaves. Their debut full length Live Like We’re Alive is jam-packed with 10 outstanding tracks that run the gamut of hope in an arc of agressive pop-rock and ballad-driven emo. Vocal harmonies, piano build-ups, guitar licks galore, and Josh Pearson’s voice falling like autumn rain on the clearest day in Tennessee history, that’s what Nevertheless has to offer. Lyrical catchphrases like those found on “Let It Fall” and the titletrack “Live Like We’re Alive” have tons of sing-along staying power with lines like “we are bruised and destined to lose” and “do more than survive, let’s live like we’re alive,” proving that Nevertheless are more than just a cursory listen with pretty riffs.
The musicianship is top-notch, the production arrangement is impeccable, and the lyrics are powerful without being overly obscure. This is the heart of Christian music served up on a platter sure to allure pop, punk, and rock fans alike. Pick up Live Like We’re Alive this Tuesday and help me change the tradition of only Chrisitan kids digging Christian music.
Track Listing:
1. The Real
2. Patience and Devotion
3. Time
4. Live Like We’re Alive
5. Lover
6. Losing Innocence
7. Let It Fall
8. Perfect Chemistry
9. It’s Me
10. O’ Child
Standout Tracks:
“The Real,” “Live Like We’re Alive,” “Let It Fall,” “O’ Child”
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