“Your Love Goes On” by Abandon, Wednesday, April 12, 2023

In 2011, San Antonio-based Christian Rock band Abandon released their third record, Control. This was the band's second release on ForeFront Records, a label that had been forefront in the Christian music scene in the '90s, releasing albums by dc talk, Audio Adrenaline, and Rebecca St. James. But after the label's success with Stacie Orrico, it seemed that the success of other Christian labels like Tooth & Nail Records was eclipsing the once legendary record label.

I'M LIKE EVERYONE LIVING IN A QUICK-FIX NATION. Before ForeFront Records was absorbed completely by its parent label, Capitol Christian Music Group, the label had a few last-ditch efforts to produce rock in the '00s. The early '00s gave them the "two-album wonder" The Benjamin Gate and a few head-scratching hip-hop projects. In 2007, the label released the debut record from This Beautiful Republic, a band that seemed to be the label's answer to Anberlin and the success Christian bands were finding in the Warped Tour scene. But This Beautiful Republic lost their energetic lead singer Ben Olin when stepped down from his role after recording their second record. The band broke up shortly after Perspectives' release in 2008. Meanwhile, Abandon seemed like the label's next big thing, particularly because they could be marketed to Christian Hit Radio and Christian Rock radio in a similar way that the label's bread-and-butter act TobyMac was marketed. In early 2011, several hits were released on Air1 and RadioU. The mellower singles were played on Christian Hit Radio and the alternative and rock singles were played on RadioU.

YOU'RE DESPERATE TO BE NEAR ME. A major difference between a Tooth & Nail band and any other label's Christian Rock band is that Tooth & Nail's sounds more general market than, say ForeFront or Flicker Records'.  Abandon fit the niche of the pop-rock band, so a Tooth & Nail comparison might be Capital Lights. Christian versions of Imagine Dragons/ OneRepublic bands didn't do as well in the late '00s and early '10s, and Capital Lights quit after two records. But listening to Capital Lights and Abandon back to back, you realize that the formal is completely different when it comes to lyrics. With Capital Lights, only one song on the album will mention God or something spiritual, whereas on an Abandon record, you'll have multiple nods to God in most of the tracks. The songs aren't exactly worship, but there is little ambiguity about the topic, and non-Christians find it harder to relate to the songs. In 2011, Christian music was starting to sound stale. Worship music was engulfing bands, and my tolerance for the lack of originality pushed me to listen to less overtly Christian music. Abandon's Control was in my CD player for about a month, April 2011, before the tornado, back when it seemed that my Christian world view I had constructed with the help of my fundamentalist university felt so solid. And yet, I really couldn't admit that it was the handsome men on the cover of the album was the real reason I wasted $18 on the CD.

Read “Your Love Goes On” by Abandon on Genius.