John Davis

Former Superdrag frontman John Davis has found Jesus and like every fresh convert he wants to make sure you know all about it. On first pass through this self-titled album, the only song that stuck out as anything special was “Jesus Gonna Build Me a Home,” complete with that alt country mopey gospel sound packed with the right amount of irony in its delivery to hold your attention when listening. No one could sing lyrics like “the Bible tells me death has no sting / Jesus gonna make me a king” straight… right? Wrong, because closer examination revealed that every one of these well-crafted rock-pop songs was about Jesus, too (though some more obviously than others). From dirty blues growl (“Tear Me Apart”) to power pop faux-punk melodies (“Nothing Gets Me Down”) to Costello-cum-Bacharach long lyrical exploration, (“The Kind of Heart”) Davis shows a mastery of song-writing craft that is only enhanced by the quality of the album’s production, but ultimately it all comes off as hollow and occasionally patronizing.

Faith and rebirth are beautiful things and great songs have been written about those subjects, but these aren’t them. Sure they sound polished, but ultimately, they are boring and don’t go past the trappings of faith. In terms of their music, finding Jesus didn’t work for Dylan and isn’t working for Prince, and it isn’t going to work for John Davis unless he is willing to get a little courageous in his explorations. On second thought, this album would be perfect for the Christian rock fan out there that has some taste…