Lindsay McGuire – The Innocence Of…

CD Review

South African rock music is in a good state, if the sophomore album by Durban trio Saints of Bliss is any indication.

The group’s name suggests a Christian direction, and the lyrics are indeed of the affirming type. This does not make Saints of Bliss perpetrators of explicitly Christian rock of the sort typically found in evangelical multimedia shops. Rather, S.O.B. (as the group likes to be abbreviated) would belong–musically and lyrically–to the genre led by acts such as Lifehouse and Switchfoot, who declare their Christianity but whose lyrics can be interpreted in different ways. What some may read as a romantic love song others may understand as an expression of Christian faith.

S.O.B. have been described as “rebels of a righteous revolution”; musical insurgents, perhaps, against the often sexually explicit, drug-fuelled, profane and cynical culture of rock. If this displaces the unpleasant likes of Limp Bizkit or Slipknot from some CD shelves, then one must forgive SOB the occasional trite lyric and sentiment.

In A Sea Of Sound, with its commercial emo rock sound, should ensure that SOB will be among a bunch of fresh South African rock bands to make it big soon.

Listen to: Can’t Deny You, Never Meant To Hurt You, Drowning (My Oxygen)