C. J. Bergmen: Sons and Daughters
May 18, 2008
This isn’t as much a “review” as it is a way for me to process this album. I don’t expect anybody really reads or cares about my opinion on music, but it is a venue for me, a lover of music.
Like most things, I am ADD in my music rotation. Typically, I will listen to one album exclusively (or song in the case of Chamillionaires Ridin’ Dirty) for about 2 weeks and then be distracted by something else and drop it. I did that initially with CJ Bergmen’s, Sons and Daughters, when it was released last fall and loved it. But this week, I picked it back up and for some reason, it sounded 100 times better than the first.
I need to fame drop a little here. CJ and I go way back. He used to be my arch-nemesis which is a long story but it basically revolves around me ignoring an email he sent me and then our friend Justin Garbinski fanning the fire of resentment. He forgave me and now we are bosom buds… I know, made for Hollywood story, right? Rumor has it that CJ is also a frequent Rethynk.org troll (crawl out of your cave a post something!). CJ’s wife was in my sister’s wedding… as the photographer… which she is awesome at, by far the best I have ever seen. I even once built CJ a terribly lame website for a band he was in called, Amnot (I hope that URL is down).
But all that aside, I am not biased.
The album rocks, moves, and inspires. The guitars, from tone to musicianship, are excellent. The lyrics are at times both comfortably predictable and brutally honest. The arrangements are artfully crafted. The production is deceitfully high market.
I want to save the individual song experience for you but I will mention a few of my favorites.
Save Us, could be the title track and the only thing I don’t like about it is that it is not called Sons and Daughters. Lyrically, this song captures God’s plan to fix the world by way of the Church and also reflects CJ’s heart for the hurting world. My favorite lyric is, “broken hearts will only ever bleed, bring your sons and daughters to the need.”
The Real Me starts the album off in a mellow, piano/vocal sort of way but just when you think its over, a wall of delayed guitar and crashing drums brings the chorus back like a tsunami. When I first heard it, I was driving my car and almost crashed into a construction pylon because this reintroduction vamp startled me and melted my face off. I like songs that do that.
If you can’t get to an event where CJ is leading, than you can buy Sons and Daughters on iTunes or at Indybands.
iChat: nickasolas@mac.com
I totally agree! I was listening to The Real Me last night after you went to bed and the entire time I was thinking Man, this an amazing song!It brought me to tears. love you!
Hey Rethynkers. Ask Nick about an even better band, his old band, Glass Candle. He’ll happily burn you a cd or rip it to your ipod. My plan was to post a link to some old review or embarrassing bio, but, lucky for Nick, I could find absolutely nothing online.
I am going to NOT take that as some cheap, back-handed insult Justin.
I liked that cd until Cj ignored a complimentary message I sent him on myspace… now I have a voodoo doll in his image. How’s that ankle CJ?
It is feeling a little better. I was hoping that the punishment would be appropriate to the crime, however clearly mercy was not on the agenda. I wrap it daily, and try my best to live on despite the excruciating pain.
Nick and Mandy, thanks guys =], I feel loved.
I didn’t know what a Blog Troll was until you told me Nick, so I didn’t know I was, according to Webster, “a person who lives or sleeps in a park or under a viaduct or bridge, as a bag lady or derelict.”
So sorry for being a blog derelict, it’s comments like these that make me want to remain your arch nemesis. If I take troll as a verb then it means “to sing or utter in a full, rolling voice”, which I find not only less offensive, but even might take as a compliment. In that case, you are welcome for the 3 times I have “Trolled” in order to lead some of the sheep God has entrusted to you in a time of worship.
Furthermore, as I have thought more about your “Blog Troll” comment, it has become clear to me that what you are really saying is, “I really like my blog, and want people to read it”, and only know if they have read it when they actually leave a comment saying preferably something to the degree of, ‘wow Nick I really agree with you, you have offered some wonderful insight on this particular subject matter, it is likely that I will return to this wonderful online journal, the portal to your very soul and clearly a big part of your identity’.
I get it though. I do. So here I am, I will continue to “Troll”, but try not to be a “Troll”, if you get what I mean.
Justin, shut your dumb mouth.
P.S., Nick, Renee would like to take pictures of your kids free of charge. Please have your wife contact her soon at Renee@ReneeBergmen.com, or 480 785 6192.