Good Monsters

Have you ever bought a CD that you regret purchasing?

I like the song Dead Man (Carry Me) by Jars of Clay, so I bought their CD Good Monsters. It was a mistake. I have to say that, other than the song I knew I liked already, there is very little that I like about this CD.

• First of all, and this is a small thing, but I find the picture of the band on the CD to be a little bit scary. I could ignore it, but with my general annoyance with entire package, I'm complaining about the picture, too.
• I'm a lyric reader. I like to be able to read the lyrics. The CD comes with printed lyrics, but the print is tiny and pale. With my contacts, I have excellent vision -- I had to use my magnifying light to read the print. I handed it to Steve -- he just laughed. "I can read the titles." Another small thing that I could ignore if I liked the music.
• So, the music. I haven't listened to the CD from beginning to end, so my comments aren't about the sound of the music. It's the WORDS that leave me wanting. Some of the songs are just difficult for me to understand. Others are so depressing that I want to throw the CD in the trash and crawl under a rock to sleep. Sad.

So how about some examples (Hang on, let me get my magnifying lamp):

From Good Monsters:
We are bored with the things that we know.
Do you know what we are?
Do you know what we are?
Not all monsters are bad
But the ones who are good
Never do what they could.

From Water Under the Bridge:
I do not love you the way I did when we met
There are secrets and arguments that I haven't finished yet.
But it's only that grace has outlived our regrets.
We're still here.
Maybe others would like this CD -- would find it to be wonderful. Not me. Excuse me while I go crawl under a rock.

Critics don't agree with me. The album won the CCM magazine "Album of the Year Award." Oh, well.

Read about the album here, and learn why you might think I'm wrong.
Site for the CD, with a technologically cool interface, although difficult to navigate. It will play a song for you, and really, the music itself is OK -- it's the words that I don't like.