North Texas Daily

Trent Johnson / Staff Writer

REVIEW

There comes a time when every successful rock band must make a career-defining choice of whether to shake the foundation upon which their success has been built.

With the recent release of “Vital,” Anberlin has made its choice blatantly clear by transforming their sound from traditional alternative rock into a more electronic radio-friendly form of music.

Bands changing genres in the past has produced mixed results. While “Vital” isn’t terrible, it doesn’t stack up to Anberlin’s past successes, such as “New Surrender.”

The new album also lacks the spark of past singles like “Feel Good Drag,” damaging the idea that the change of style was needed.

Anberlin first formed in 1998 under the name SaGoh 24/7, recording two albums before disbanding.

They reunited in 2002 under their current name and recorded three albums before gaining notoriety with the aforementioned “New Surrender” in 2008.

The album gets off to a ferocious start with “Self-Starter,” a song that features the passionate vocals of lead singer Stephen Christian.

Along with the intense war-themed vocals, this song serves as the perfect example of the musical changes taking place on “Vital.” It features the usual guitar riffs found in the band’s tunes as well as an energetic keyboard.

After the first few tracks, the band slows down the pace in songs like “Innocent,” which resembles a 1980s ballad.

The song features an almost exclusively computer-generated sound, replacing the traditional instruments used to perform their more classic songs.

Though the music behind Anberlin’s lyrics has changed in a huge way, the actual words still hold tremendous weight.

Nearly all the songs on “Vital” feature lyrics concerning the heart-wrenching and difficult subjects of love, disappointment and political issues.

The album wraps things up with “Unstable,” the most popular song off the album according to iTunes purchases. This song offers up somber lyrics played over an electric keyboard.

While “Vital” is a decent album, it may be remembered as the album where Anberlin transformed from an aggressive alternative band into your more traditional pop band, and for that it’s not worth a buy.