Lifehouse Shuns Smoke & Mirrors

Artist:  Lifehouse
Title:  Smoke & Mirrors
Label:  Geffen

Are Jason Wade & Co. getting overly familiar?

Even as Delirious and Sonicflood detonated the modern worship explosion in 1999, an emerging praise band on the West Coast decided Christian rock fame wasn't for them. In fact, though front man Jason Wade would continue leading worship at the Malibu Vineyard Church on occasion, the members of Bliss changed their moniker to Lifehouse and signed a major label deal. The band's name wasn't all that changed. While Lifehouse continued recording worshipful songs, the object of said worship was no longer specified. The result? The band's "Hanging by a Moment" became pop radio's most-played single of 2001.

More radio hits, multi-platinum status, and departing band members soon followed. Though Wade's the only remaining founder, the good news is he's had the same line-up around him since 2004, and the band's continued to be successful. Christianity may not be unanimous among Lifehouse's current lineup, but with Wade as the band's leader and principal songwriter, the music remains hopeful.

For the band's fifth album, Smoke & Mirrors, Lifehouse and its manager/producer Jude Cole (Beth Orton, MoZella) originally intended to capture the band's live rock sound. However, as the studio sessions continued, Lifehouse became admittedly more concerned about radio singles. Hence some songs have a more straight-to-tape sound, while others are vintage Lifehouse. Stylistically, the album travels the band's familiar terrain of uplifting pop, emotive post-grunge rock and melancholy ballads. Lead single "Halfway Gone," which recently saw its music clip hit No. 1 on the "VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown," excels with a danceable loop-beat, Wade's versatile vocals and a lingering hook of a chorus. Fellow artist of faith Chris Daughtry helped pen the uptempo "Had Enough" and provides support vocals on the track. Smoke & Mirrors also includes a remastered version of the 2007 iTunes-only single, "From Where You Are."

Like the music, the thematic material on the 12-song album is perhaps all too familiar for Lifehouse:  romantic harmony and dissonance, inner healing and growth and, depending on how you interpret lyrics, perhaps modern worship. Indeed, questions abound. Is "By Your Side" a prodigal's confessional return? Is God "the light to my soul" that "calm[s] the storms" and "give[s] me rest" in "Everything"? Is the "Wrecking Ball" He who gives and takes away? And is the lead vocal on that song by Wade? Maybe, maybe, maybe and no. (It's bassist Bryce Soderberg.) We do know that someone is "h--- bent looking for a god send" in "Nerve Damage" and that in "Near Life Experience" [which appears only on the Deluxe Edition with three other added songs], "it hurts like h--- down here on my knees." Can we get an "Amen" (for a prayer of lament)?


**This review first published on March 10, 2010.