Summer indeed, as the brass section on opening track ‘A Mirror Is Harder to Hold’ is surely a nod towards Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’. Once Jon Foreman’s strong American twang kicks in though, we’re away from Gershwin and off into inoffensive Americana, particularly evident on the slide guitar in ‘Resurrect Me’, which sounds not too dissimilar to Primal Scream’s ‘Country Girl’. A coincidence, no doubt. After discovering that Jon Foreman is in fact a purveyor of Christian Rock, this track has a decidedly different feel to it, but is non-the-less energetic, and the lyrics are still poignant no matter what your religious orientation.

Perhaps the Winter or Fall EP would be more appropriate, as the current gale force outside is doing little to make me feel summery, but luckily ‘Instead of a Show’ is a rather vitriolic number far better suited to a rainy day, with it’s gloomy blues guitar and some scathing lyrics which seem to be attacking other religions. Controversial and stormy indeed.

‘House of God, Forever’ marches firmly into Christian rock territory, and is nothing short of a full blown hymn with the lyrics lifted straight from The Lord is My Shepherd. If it’s not your bag, don’t annoy yourself by listening to it and getting worked up by it’s self-righteousness, but if there are any Christians left, then I imagine this would be a nice addition to a Sunday service. Despite being raised a Catholic myself, I can barely make it past the second verse when the wobbly female vocals kick in.

The final track on the EP is also heavily God-based, and whilst personally I’ve got nothing against Christian rock, singing ‘Holy Holy’ is going to alienate a fair amount of potential audience, which is a shame. The tracks are well-crafted, the vocals are strong, and there’s a nice old-fashioned feel to this EP.
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Links
Jon Foremam [official site] [myspace]