Review Summary: Even though it never earns its own identity, Devotion is the best way to experience the band's now-realized sound they perfected in Vital.
Despite earning critical success with albums
Cities and
New Surrender,
Anberlin became Anberlin with
Vital. While
New Surrender and
Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place tried to appeal to both long-time fans and the fresher radio rock crowd, sounding incredibly scattered in the process,
Vital was a focused endeavor from start to finish. It had blistering rockers, waving electronics, and atmospheric symphonies, but despite these very different moods, the album felt complete. That sense of focus and completion is what makes
Devotion such a skepticism-inducing project. The group didn’t just re-release
Vital with bonus tracks; in an effort to give the album a separate identity, they also placed the new tracks within the already established tracklist on the previous album.
Devotion is an act of reinvention of the already amazing
Vital, presenting it as a reborn album instead of a typical re-release. While that vision isn’t implemented as well as preferred,
Devotion presents a bigger, brighter version of one of the best albums of 2012. This is still
Vital; just with more to show for it.
The new tracks are compiled from store-exclusive editions of
Vital such as those from iTunes and Best Buy, along with a few fully original tracks. These tracks never seem to shake off their B-side status (which makes their placement in the album a bit less integral than preferred), but that’s not to say that these are bad tracks. Far from it, many of these recordings clearly demonstrate the mood that
Vital so triumphantly achieved in 2012: a polished approach to alternative music with just as much rock in its guts as there was texture.
Anberlin’s use of electronics for resonance and atmosphere instead of pure rhythm or melody is an astonishingly professional move, letting the keyboards sit in the background instead of right up on stage to distract. This adds a brand new layer to Anberlin’s elegant tone which didn’t appear back on
Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place. It’s not a bold and epic inclusion by any means; Anberlin were never about big, big songs. Instead, this practice dimensionalizes their sound, keeping focus on the stage front, but giving listeners something to chew on in a subtle, but meaningful manner.
But the band’s desire for rock is still very apparent. Like
Vital,
Devotion is a cleaner form of rock, one that stands above the band’s efforts on
Never Take Friendship Personal and even
Cities. The all-new track “Dead American” explodes into a fiery chorus after a quiet, subdued verse, with electronic effects intelligently placed among both. “Safe Here” is a bit less successful with a slightly limited songwriting wave and looser hooks. It screams “B-side” at the top of its lungs. But these new tracks still pale in comparison to the downright phenomenal songs from the original
Vital. “Self-Starter”, “Little Tyrants” and “Desires” remain absolutely furious rockers and some of the best composed songs the band has ever released. Joseph Milligan and Christian McAlhaney produce powerful, revving guitar riffs, but retain a clean texture alongside a subtle, but essential use of keyboards from vocalist Stephen Christian. This merging of the band’s alternative rock roots and a remarkably natural integration of electronics was the band’s creative breakthrough with
Vital and that sound hasn’t lost a trace of luster. It’s a shame that the new tracks don’t follow as enormous impression on
Devotion, but they stand their ground and still demonstrate the vision that Anberlin successfully achieved in 2012.
When the band slows things down, however, that synergy between heavy and textured isn’t as strong. Songs like “Other Side” and “Innocent” sound as hollow as they did in 2012, and “IJSW” is just
too subdued. “Unstable” has a pounding rhythm, but doesn’t provide enough of a melodic groove to be as memorable as others on the album. “Modern Age” fares much better, however, with an incredibly rhythmic beat and that same clean approach to layering the music with electronics. “No Love to Speak” is an ebbing, slightly solemn song. The chorus is calm, but constantly emits a sense of regret, a fine approach that uses Christian’s smooth, resonating voice well (one of the best aspects of
Vital). Even the fresh single “City Electric” has a quiet, but confident sound that fits in right along with similar songs like the slightly upbeat “Orpheum” and the quietly evanescent closer “God, Drugs & Sex.” Still, the new songs are usually the biggest offenders of this problem, as the songwriting put toward them doesn’t emit as tightly a chord as even the worst on
Vital.
Devotion also comes with a live recording of the band’s performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, where the band plays music from their entire back catalog. However, the performance is acoustic, which doesn’t provide that powerful rock sound that the band perfected with
Vital. The heaviest examples of Anberlin’s sound like “Godspeed” from
Cities or “To the Wolves” from
Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place are omitted, since they focus more on that rock sound. However, the songs chosen work remarkably well in an intimate acoustic setting, like the fantastic “The Unwinding Cable Car” and the fan favorite “Dismantle.Repair.” The selected songs are performed solidly, with Christian’s voice complementing his excellent efforts to involve the audience in the show. It’s nothing too sensational, but the acoustic performance is certainly a nice inclusion. The deluxe edition actually has a remix disc featuring remixes of songs from
Devotion by acts like
Paper Route’s JT Daly and even Anberlin’s own Joseph Milligan. The remix disc can only be found with the deluxe edition, and it’s not necessarily essential, but it offers even more polish for the band’s increasingly glowing sound.
If you already own
Vital,
Devotion’s wealth of collective content rewards the fans with surprisingly strong bonus material and a live disc that brings the band’s crowd-pleasing stature to light. But as a standalone product,
Devotion is an even more powerful statement. Over 70 minutes from the main album alone is already something special, but Anberlin’s fully realized vision of refining their sound stands as the most majestic message.
Vital, as stated earlier, felt like a complete album, so in that light,
Devotion seems to reinforce the “more is better” approach instead of some golden reinvention. But the impressive act of providing new material that, while still wearing that B-side tag on its collar, manages to fit in so well with the band’s great new sound is what makes
Devotion such a strong value. Like
Vital before it,
Devotion demonstrates the sound that Anberlin will be remembered for long after their disbandment. It’s not the bright light at the end of the tunnel that
Vital was, but
Devotion is every bit as endearing and memorable as its predecessor was. Is it the definitive Anberlin album? That’s currently unknown, but either way,
Devotion makes a very strong effort to prove that across all 71 glorious minutes.
