Adonai

[gman]

Several of the songs, by objective musical criteria, are as heavy as they come. The production by Brown Bannister is up there with some of his finest masterpieces. I haven't heard anything he's done that I didn't think was great.
For all the love Louie gets around here, and the dismay over him being excluded or replaced with samples on many albums, I would think there would be little hate for WUC. He plays on every song, and show why he was more than deserving of all those CCM mag awards for favorite drummer.

[fiendik]

I've never heard a Brown Bannister production that I liked. It's just a matter of personal taste, I guess.

[gman]

What? No love for Whiteheart's Freedom album? Where would there career have gone without that album? Who knows?

[fiendik]

Whiteheart in general was a big disappointment for me. I really only liked Don't Wait For the Movie, and their version of The Little Drummer Boy...

[Mountain Man]

I've always thought of White Heart (or Whiteheart, depending on the album) as "the poor man's Petra". I've always liked them, but they just never seemed to be on the same level. Seemed like they had trouble finding their musical identity and wavered between hard rock and pop. Freedom was a standout album, of course. Powerhouse a bit less so but still pretty good. Then they went in a completely different musical direction that was sort of an odd mix of rock and synth, and then they completely fell off the map.

[executioner]

White Heart's last album Redemption is a very good album. I agree that they seem to never match Petra's rock but I've always liked most of their offerings. Freedom is by far their best album though.

[Thief]

Count me in as someone who loves Wake-up Call. I started listening to Petra in the 90's, with Beyond Belief and WUC, so maybe that factors in. But to this day, many of its songs are still among my favorites: "Midnight Oil", "Praying Man", "Sleeping Giant", "Just Reach Out" are all top songs.

[BriGuyPEI]

Ok, two things to reply to. First: White Heart. Freedom was their Joshua Tree. Tales of Wonder and Redemption were also excellent. Inside was largely forgettable.

Second: Wake-Up Call. I went back and listened to it again today. I think the real weakness is the melodies. I've mentioned this before about a couple of songs in other threads, but it struck me in many of the other songs today as well. I find that the melodies in many songs (or parts of songs) sound forced and awkward. The biggest example of this is Marks of the Cross. It almost sounds like John is just picking notes at random and stringing them together. Others that stood out today: Believer In Deed, the chorus of Sleeping Giant, Strong Convictions, the verses of He's Been In My Shoes. I've named most of the songs here. When the album first came out, I thought that Bob had run out of songs.

[Mountain Man]

The biggest example of this is Marks of the Cross. It almost sounds like John is just picking notes at random and stringing them together.

Seriously? I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at when the song has an identifiable melody.

[sue d.]

I don't get it either. Picking notes? how?

And really -WUC is one of my favorites.

[Dan]

When you say John is stringing notes together, are you meaning John Schlitt or Lawry? If you can't hear the melody I would get a new sound system or hearing test.

[pmal]

No reason to bash folks' hearing It's all just opinion in the end. It won the band awards in CCM so it must not have been terrible. I just don't think it's as good as the previous 5 regular rock albums. Those seemed to keep building on one another and this one seemed to take another direction and/or a step back. There's nothing wrong with that if that's what you wanted. Think about this: the band must not have been too crazy about it because they didn't release another album like it. Debate that. Or do you think that matters?

[Dan]

It's not an opinion the song has a melody.

[pmal]

LOL

[Dan]

We have a bite from a sensitive one.