Spoken For (CD - 2002)

MercyMe: Bart Millard, Barry Graul, Nathan Cochran, Michael John Scheuchzer, Robin Troy Shaffer, James Phillip Bryson.

They may look like drinking buddies of Barenaked Ladies, but in fact, MercyMe is a straight-up Christian Rock band. Unlike many of their contemporaries, this quintet doesn't mask the spiritual message of their lyrics with rock & roll cliches. From the very first song, "The Change Inside of Me," all the way through SPOKEN FOR, they sing clearly and earnestly about their faith and the nature of their beliefs. That doesn't mean that MercyMe is just a "message" band, though. SPOKEN FOR teems with ringing guitar melodies, infectious vocal harmonies, atmospheric keyboards, and charging, often exhilarating rhythms. Moving easily from moody, melodic tunes to anthemic rockers, the band shows its knack for mating spiritual lyrics to state-of-the-art pop-rock. minimize