Anberlin – Paperthin Hymn
It is 2003. An impressionable young me walks in to (most likey) a Family Christian Bookstore and puts down $10-14 of hard earned allowance money towards an up and coming band out of Winter Haven, Florida. That band was Anberlin and their first album, Blueprints for the Black Market had just been released. They had been signed to one of my favorite record labels in Tooth & Nail, had a great singer in Stephen Christian and drummer Nathan Young, and a great sound..rockish, punkish, elements of indie, fantastic lyrics.. And anyone notice they covered The Cure’s Love Song? On a debut album?? Fantastic. It’s easy to say I was a fan almost immediately. The first notes I heard from them are below in Readyfuels.
Never Take Friendship Personal was, for lack of a better word, incredible. My friends and I were just getting into recording music ourselves, and every track of the entire album had great hooks, well developed melody and choruses, and sounded huge. Every band struggles through their second album, but Anberlin just knocked it out of the park. I couldn’t begin to write my favorite tracks.. Paperthing Hymn, A Day Late, the Runaways, Feel Good Drag, dance dance Christian Paffgen..What an album where every song is memorable. Just an awesome 40 minutes of pure rock.
Anberlin – A Day Late
Then Cities hit, still my favorite Anberlin album to date. It was their last record signed to Tooth & Nail, and first debut on the Billboard 200 chart as No. 19. Every song was huge, and every song had the most mature and crafted lyrics to date. Dismantle.Repair had a huge influence for so many of my rock songs and I LOVED the way their could incorporate their clean electric intros into such a rock aftermath. The unwinding cable car can certainly not be underwritten either, one of Stephen’s favorite songs still.. and yes, I did have it as a ringtone for a few years.
New Surrender was their their first album with Universal Records and I was so happy to hear Feel Good Drag (re-recorded from NTFP) hit the radio airwaves and climb several charts. While I did feel some resentment no one knew the earlier version, I will admit the newest did sound bigger and better. There were a number of strong tracks from the group and so many songs with B titles.. I’ll always remember it as their ‘B’ album.. Breaking, Blame Me Blame Me, Breathe, Burn Out Bright haha..
I feel as though I missed out on the buzz on the next two.. Dark is the Way, Light is a Place, and Vital. Both albums were certainly darker and like a strong stout, took a while to cement themselves in my mind as strong albums from the group. Impossible was the lead track from Dark and it was again great to hear the group make the radio airwaves.
And now, it’s 2014 and the band is calling their time together to a close on their terms. They’ve returned to Tooth & Nail and returned to producer Aaron Sprinkle and have just released their album Lowborn. Check out Armageddon below… What a track and one of my favorites of their career. This band is awesome and perfect and leaving on your own terms is always the way a band should go out
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My friends and I had a radio station back in college and we generally enjoyed playing either 10pm-12am or 11pm-1am slot and at the end of every show we’d play an Anberlin track that could be found on their Godspeed EP (released prior to Cities) or on their Lost Songs album. It’s called The Haunting and I end my little devotional blog post with this track. Enjoy Anberlin and I’ll miss you guys.
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