For fans of: Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, A Day to Remember, The Almost, The Classic Crime, Sent by Ravens.
Alright, so here it is: my first music review of any kind. Perhaps I’ll keep it up, but maybe not at the same time. Either way, I’d like to introduce you to a little band known as This Beautiful Republic. For those of you who have over-familiarized yourselves with them already, then you are aware of their current circumstances and are now scratching your heads. Well don’t worry, we’ll get there. Let’s backtrack.
This Beautiful Republic started out with a group of high school kids in Toledo, Ohio, back in 2004. Skip ahead a couple of years and a couple of switches in the lineup, and, in November 2006, they signed with ForeFront Records. Three months after their first EP, Casting Off, was released in January 2007, they release their first full-length album, Even Heroes Need a Parachute. A year and a half later, in August of 2008, their second full-length, Perceptions, was released. However, while the band was having notable success on the Christian rock scene, lead singer Ben Olin left in late 2009, and the band dropped ForeFront to become independent in 2010. Little has been announced from the band since.
Okay, so why do we care about a band that is potentially defunct? Seems kind of pointless to write your first music review on a band that lost their lead singer just over a year ago. Well, allow me to explain. First of all, I’ve been on a kick with these guys as of late. I can’t help it; their music is addicting. But here’s the real kicker: they’re real to me. I get these guys. Olin and the guys wrote songs about brokenness and desperation, as well as songs about total surrender. They have managed to tear me to shreds in a couple lines; that’s powerful stuff. I don’t often encounter bands that really sound like they feel what their singing about, and it’s even less often that I hear it through the instruments as well. These guys pull off both; listen carefully, and, if you have an ear for this stuff, you’ll catch it.
A prime example actually features one of my all-time favorite musicians: Aaron Gillespie, former Underoath drummer and current frontman for The Almost. So, if you’re an Aaron fan and can handle a little screaming, “My God” is a great introduction. Let’s face it, at some point in your life, you’ve probably taken a step back and looked at your life in absolute horror. I have. I then spend hours beating myself up, getting to the point where I sound just like the chorus of this song: “My God, my God, what have I become?” Not-so-ironically, I often find myself playing this on my iPod in the process. But Olin hits what I frequently miss in the very next line: “You never fail me. You’re what I need.”
My point? This isn’t your typical cliché Christian radio nonsense; This Beautiful Republic actually gets it. We are broken people in a broken world, with one singular solution (for more details, check out The Story). These guys are raw, and they’re real. If you like what you’re hearing, I’m going to recommend checking out “Going Under” off their first album and “No Turning Back” (currently my favorite), as well as their music video for “Surrender Saved My Life,” which you can check out below. Also, go to their website to find them on Twitter, Facebook, iTunes, and the like, and be sure to take advantage of a free and legal download of “Surrender Saved My Life” on their PureVolume page. Thanks for reading my first review!