REVIEWS:
Post your comments about Kosmos Express
(reviewed by Kevin Baker)
Long ago in a web review not so far away, I slammed Relient K (hey! I LIKE some of their stuff!) for overly simplistic lyrics...I accused their spiritual songs of having the sophistication of a Sunday School answer. For the benefit of you HEATHENS reading this review, the correct answer to any Sunday School question is either God, Jesus, or the Bible, with occasional mentions of Paul and the Holy Spirit. In other words, a Sunday School answer-quality lyric is blatant, obvious, and not all that enlightening or moving in and of itself. This little revelation of mine apparently warranted the attention of several well-intentioed commenters, who proceeded to remind me that duh, Relient K are, like, CHRISTIANS who, uh, sing about CHRIST. Well, those comments prompted an introductory paragraph to the page and some thought on my part. "Maybe they're right," I said to myself. "Maybe I need to be nicer to my brothers in Christ that are Relient K." However, with some help from my friend Neil, I decided that the BEST thing I could do would be review some Christian artists that AREN'T content with selling me the same package of Sunday School niceties and simple morality lessons. And thus, I present......Kosmos Express.
I must confess that I've not done my research homework on Kosmos Express, being too busy working on my THEOLOGY degree and learning Greek and Hebrew to read the Bible in its original languages to go look up their band history. I do, however, know that "Kosmos" is the Greek word used in the New Testament for "heaven." I also only have one of their albums (assuming they have more than one)....I got it from my friend Neil, who introduced me to them via the next to last track on this Christian rock gem. That song is called "She's On My Side," and it's great. It's also very straightforward, but not in a bad sort of way. It's a love song, but a CHRISTIAN love song...and not one about loving God, either. Nope, it's an honest-to-goodness, man-loves-woman type song, but from a Christian perspective. This chick has strengthened this guy's FAITH. She's support and love, and he KNOWS she's a gift of God. It's also catchy.
Meanwhile, the opening track, Into The Force (the Force being the Holy Spirit) absolutely KICKS. It encourages you to go ahead and take a plunge into faith and trust in God. Next up, In My Face rips into overaggressive evangelizers who trade the firm, yet gentle approach to Truth that Jesus' message has in the Gospels for intense, GET SAVED NOW OR BURN!!!!!! confrontation. I love this song not just for its swingin' rhythm, but also for its message - if you're screaming at somebody to lead them to Jesus, you're not exactly following Jesus' example. Plus, it mentions Paul Weller from The Jam - who'd have anticipated THAT???
Subsequent songs wrestle with the eternal battle of love and edification of others versus self-interest and comfort (On Top Of The World), wanting to get away from it all in the Lord (Take Me Away), and even reference Beatles songs in the cello arrangements (Way, which has a cello line neatly nicked from Blue Jay Way, though Kosmos Express slow it down). Not all the songs are super great, though - I'm not too keen on Gone, and I think the closing Starface is way too long, but the other 8 songs are killer-diller. They rock (albeit not for too long...this is a short little honey), but they don't wrap God and Christianity up into a neat little bundle for you. Much like U2, these guys are Christians who aren't afraid to sing about God, but they want to make you think, too.
Post your comments / reviews for this album
Index | Main band/artist reviews page