“Contact” (Complexus) by Falling Up, Thursday, April 25, 2024

The idea of a remix album has been around since the 1970s. In 1987 Madonna released her remix album You Can Dance, the second most-selling remix album ever after   Michael Jackson's 1997 Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix. Jennifer Lopez's remix album J to tha L--O! The Remixes, in  2002, was the first remix album to top Billboard's Hot 200 album sales charts.  There have been some notable rock remix records. Nine Inch Nails released Further Down the Spiral in 1995, remixing their classic album The Downward Spiral. In 2001 Limp Bizkit released New Old Songs, which sold 500,000 copies. However, I argue that it was another platinum remix album followed by a slew of Christian Rock artists to copy their style. The band is Linkin Park and the album was Reanimation, a reworking of their 12x platinum debut Hybrid Theory. 

HE'S IN THIS PLACE TO QUESTION WHO YOU ARE. Reanimation featured collaboration between rockers and underground rappers. While the track listing of Hybrid Theory was different, every song had a remix. There were also a few additional songs and interlude tracks. In 2006, Falling Up was one of the biggest upcoming acts in Christian Rock and they drew comparison to Linkin Park for their use of electronics, hard rock sound, and collaborations in the genre. Unlike Reanimation,   Falling Up's 2006 remix album Exit Lights draws on the band's two prior studio albums: Crashings and Dawn Escapes. Exit Lights featured artists like Family Force 5's Solomon Olds, Thousand Foot Krutch's Trevor McNevan, and CCM singer Rachel Lampa. The album opened with a new song, "Islander, " featuring several creepy instrumentals. Many of the remixes take on a darker approach to the original songs. At this point in the band's career, members started leaving and the band started losing popularity. When they performed at Cornerstone in the summer of 2007, lead singer Jessy Ribordy seemed distracted, sometimes forgetting the band's lyrics. The hype Falling Up had garnered started tapering off. 

EVERYTHING WITHIN YOU WILL FEEL ERASED. I still listen to Dawn Escapes, particularly in the fall. It's one of my first "driving" records, released the fall after the summer I got my license. The early tracks on Dawn Escapes set an uncanny mood, not quite a horror movie, but a "Thank God I'm in the warm car and not on the broke down on the side of the road" feeling. Taking a break from the intense guitar-driven songs, track 5 was a repetitive piano-arpeggio-driven song called "Contact." The song evokes emotions and even inspired my sister and I to write a teen drama when we were in high school--we never finished it. The track was remixed on Exit Lights, but this time, an acoustic guitar replaced the piano. "Contact" (Complexus) still has an atmosphere to it, though rather than the rainy cold sound of the piano, the guitar makes it sound like an autumn or late spring or summer afternoon or evening. Based on Psalm 42:7, the song was featured on X Worship 2007, despite vague references to God and not being a particularly good song to sing as a congregation. The Bible verse, too, is vague. Is it baptism? Is it drowning? And what is this erasure? According to a user on SongMeanings.com, in concert lead singer Jessy Ribordy talked about "how temporary everything in life is, and how Jesus is the only thing you can put your faith in." But following this thread too far can lead to a godly depression, so typical of believers. Erasing everything I am is erasing the person God made. Spending hours in self-reflection about what is wrong with me, trying to kill the sinful cancer could damn near kill me. And yet, how much do preachers and every religious organization want to reprogram me? How much do they want me to look just like them? Why? Because differences are scary. You start to wake up and realize that you were never following Christ, but your pastor. And you're just left erased.

Read the lyrics on Genius.

Dawn Escapes (Original):

Exit Lights (Remix):