"Glory/Us" by Acceptance, Friday, December 1, 2023 (repost)

 

One rainy day in March 2005, I saw   Acceptance's Phantoms in Walmart's Pop/Rock section. I picked up the album and wondered who this band was. I looked at the back and saw the track listing. There was a song titled "This Conversation Is Over," which was the same name as one of the songs on The Sims 2 University expansion pack. Could it be the same group? I rarely bought albums without listening to them first. That's why I have so many Christian Rock albums. The Family Christian Store had a sample CD for almost every album sold in their stores. However, albums sold in major retailers might let you preview a few of the songs. I don't think the preview was available for this album. Nevertheless, I bought this album and put it into the fickle CD player in my 1991 Toyota Corolla. Immediately it became one of the most played albums of the next two years along with Anberlin's Never Take Friendship Personal, Falling Up's Crashings and Dawn Escapes, Day of Fire's self-titled, and Mozart's Requiem.

HONESTY WAITS HERE FOREVER. The music you listen to as a teenager to your early twenties is the most impactful. If you listened to music of your time, there's something of a big-brother factor (not the Orwellian kind) about these bands that are just a few years older than you, making music that's now considered cool by other like-minded people. Then put that teenager behind the wheel of his first car, send him off to the store, or make him tote his younger siblings around. This was the American spirit of freedom the founding fathers had no idea about. I love that music is so accessible now. I pay $11 a month and have access to millions of songs. But I spent a lot more than $11 every month on maybe three albums at most. I didn't listen to as many songs as I do now, but I listened to music a lot more often. Music was everything. Albums were meant to be listened to with minimal skips. Sure sometimes you just want to play the hits, but for long rides between the town where you take your little sister to school and the town where you go to school, there's a lot of time to listen to the full album. Albums like Phantoms were great because you didn't have to skip a track.

COLD AND WIRED. One of the reasons this album stayed in my usual rotation from Junior to Senior year is that it's both seasonal and year-round. The album was released in late February and I discovered it in March. Many of the early tracks on the album have a springtime sound. These songs are more piano-driven, but by the middle of the album, it turns more into a rock record (summer?). Then songs like "In the Cold" and "Breathless" feel autumny. The final track, "Glory/Us" is the coldest track on the album, perfect for winter. The lyrics of this song deal with the ending of something that immediately leads to a rebuilding. Jason Vena's vocals, the band's instrumentation, and Aaron Sprinkle's production make this a beautiful and hopeful ballad, ending a cult-favorite album for a band that was ultimately cursed by the music industry. The band broke up in August of 2005 following Columbia pulling the initial release from the stores due to a spyware issue with the CD enhancements. Band members went their separate ways. Vena appeared on some tracks, but left the music industry. The other members joined other projects, notably Christian McAlhaney joined Anberlin, giving them a bit of an Acceptance sound from New Surrender on. Because of the cult success of this record, the band got back together in 2015, though not in a full-time capacity.