Live - "Songs From Black Mountain"(Epic, 2006)

With Songs From Black Mountain, Live commits the Ultimate Deadly Sin of music-making, by creating what may be the most boring rock album in years. It depresses me to say that, because Live was one of my favorites during the mid-1990s, with their album Throwing Copper standing tall among the best of the decade in that regard. But the band's been remarkably inconsistent since then, much of the blame for which has to lie on vocalist Ed Kowalczyk's constant need to insert religious cliches into the picture. Secret Samadhi swam in middle-eastern rhythms and symbolic lyricism that dragged miserably, and no album since Throwing Copper has managed to succeed as an album.

Sure, the band's had occasional hits, including 1999's "The Dolphin's Cry" and "Runaway" (perhaps the most addictive song of 2003, off the band's album Birds of Prey). But through it all Ed K. figures he has to hit us over the head with theology, which ends up creating songs that are dull and unmoving. "Heaven," from Birds of Prey proved it -- though it became a hit despite everything working against it. And instead of correcting the flaws, the band has reveled in them, creating an album that ranges from the mediocre ("The River" and "Wings") to the downright embarassing ("Love Shines (A Song For My Daughters About God)") As much as I'd like to give the band the benefit of the doubt again, I've decided to wash my hands of them. Even as a Contemporary Christian album, which it is not, Songs From Black Mountain fails miserably -- the the band's didactic lyricism merely insults its audience.