Jars of Clay walks that tricky tightrope between the mainstream and Christian rock worlds more carefully and competently than most. While the band revisits a punchy rock sound on much of “Good Monsters,” it also seems to struggle at times with twin ruts: lyrical content that doesn’t always escape Christian rock conventions, and musical hooks too ready-made for radio (as on “Work” and “There Is A River”). Yet this album picks up guts and steam in the second half–oh, that it were sequenced in a more inside-out order–and has its undeniable strengths, particularly when things slow down. “Oh My God” builds from a whisper-quiet falsetto to a trembling, tumbling prayer that laments senseless suffering, while a cover of Julie Miller’s “All My Tears” weaves a bracing web of ghostly vocal harmony. And the album closer “Water Under The Bridge” marks a satisfying coda, coasting on a river-placid hook that dries like storm-drenched summer pavement, leaving only Dan Hasletine’s gravelly, unadorned vocal.
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