One of the most difficult tasks facing a music reviewer, especially those that review rock music, is dealing with a disk that comes across their desk labeled "Christian." The reasons for this vary but some of the most prevalent seem to be:

1. Christian Rock is an oxymoron. Rock and roll to many critics is about rebellion, thumbing your nose at authority/society, breaking the rules, all things that run counter to a Christian life style in their mind.

2. Many critics are by nature cynics which makes them suspect the motives and sincerity of the message or the messengers.

3. Most critics aren't sure how to critique a Christian band. Do you just review the music and lyrics like any other band?. Or do you measure the message by some religious version of political correctness?And if so what are the guidelines?

4. Most Christian bands suck, i.e. they couldn't cut it if they had to make it without the label attached.

5. Nobody listens to them anyway so why waste my time.

6. It's not a Christmas album? The only time critics seem to find it acceptable to review Christian rock music without a problem is once a year.

The problem doesn't just stop with critics. Many musicians themselves add to the problem by trying to straddle the fence and make both camps happy. Their press releases are an exercise in tiptoeing around the "are we a Christian band" question. They'll tour with other Christian bands and gladly accept the label while on tour but when their disk goes out for review little or no mention is made of the Christian element, as if being labeled will consign the press kit to the "not worth reviewing pile." I think this can be traced back to one band, "Stryper." They got some airplay and attention which soon exposed their second-level talent and poisoned the well for future "Christian" bands.

Thus some of the most successful Christian bands of late have been less overt, such as "Jars of Clay" and currently, "Sixpence None The Richer." Yet there are others who carry the cross more obviously such as "The Orange County Supertones" and the hiphop group "New Direction." In any case, the question remains, how do you review "Christian Rock?"

AMZ this month reviews several bands who play and lay claim to the title "Christian" and six different reviewers reviewed the various albums, including myself. When the reviewers were sent the albums no special note was made of the nature of the music and the reviews are interspersed with all the others in this month's issue.

Yet each reviewer felt the need to comment in one way or another about the message and how it was delivered. They wanted to be fair by exposing their possible biases in doing their reviews. Their various thoughts make for interesting notes about how the music is perceived and I think each of them did a fine job.

It's apparent from the reviews that some of the reasons I cited above do come into play in the reviewers minds but that both the music AND the message were listened to. You can read the results and draw your own conclusions.

Donn Jehs Associate Editor