US Album 'Touch'
Last modified: 22 Oct 2002
Artist: Delirious?
Label: Furious Records USA
Date: 22 Oct 2002
You know how people are always going on about how celebrities are shorter in real life? Well Delirious? get that a lot. Not that they're best known for glaring at people 24/7 from the tube (let's face it, these boys are in it for the tunes, not the fringe benefits). No, there's another reason why people are often surprised to find that the five members of Delirious? aren't a set of dead ringers for the business end of an English rugby scrum. It's all down to the music. Delirious? makes music that is, above and beyond everything else, big. Big passion, big guitars, big dreams, big beats, big message.
So just what do you do with an album like 'Touch', the band's fifth studio album? It's big, that's for sure, but to go on about waterfall guitars, great canyons of beats and lyrics as stubborn as a redwood would be to miss the point. Put simply, 'Touch' is not just another Delirious? album, a churn out to manipulate the audience, plastic moulded in order to bring in the dollars. Yeah, yeah, you think. We all know the press release line where things get just a tad out of proportion, some back room boy gets all excited and starts churning out $5 per dozen statements of mind-bending stupidity.
So with that in mind, let's get one thing straight, shall we? 'Touch' - from the squeakscratchsqueal of the opening track right on through to the brooding skies of the closing Stealing Time is a winner. It is, to be frank, Delirious? at their best. The colours sharper, the tones more vibrant, the emotions more raw. What marks this album is its dedication to one thing: relationship. It's all about finding and hanging onto that touch from the eternal, the one without which we cannot survive.
The theme threads through the album, at times delicate, but at a turn expressing the true grit of a life lived in love with the Son. In Love Is The Compass the door is thrown wide open for a failures' return, a melody for all the prodigals who feel God's hand upon their shoulder. Alien takes the lost and found theme, working it around the tension of living out the gospel where it needs to be seen and heard the most. For Smith and the others this tension is all part of the calling, part of the game plan. Yet, even though they may have 'never felt so alien,' the message is clear that 'yes you are brighter than the sun, only your love can make us one'. The whole album explores these and other tones of a relationship with God: the triumphs and the troubles. The album refuses to shy away from the truth, and presents it with lyrics as honest as the music is unique. But the daddy of them all has to be the title track, as raw an anthem of devotion as you can get. Cut the band open and this is the core: simply delirious at the eternal truth, overwhelmed by the grace, mercy and power of Jesus Christ. The tracks simply don't get any bigger, the message couldn't be clearer.
As well turning up the heat on the message, things were different this time around in the studio. Thanks to the guiding hand of producer Chuck Zwicky (whose talents worked wonders for Semisonic and Prince) the band have been able to prove that they can tackle the big stuff without getting overwhelmed. The approach worked well enough for Bryan Adams to invite the band to support on his recent UK tour, just like Bon Jovi gave them the call last year.
For a band that have sold over 2 million units, a band who are regularly hailed as one of the UK's greatest musical exports to America, success is an interesting concept. But they have not notched up such accolades through coasting and taking it easy. Delirious? have grown into what they are today - a curious blend of freshman creativity with Old Time wisdom - by remaining committed to what they do best: keeping the tunes big, the lyrics real and the crowds jumping. 'Touch' has each of these essentials in abundance. Having already infected the UK unlike any other previous release, there can only be one possible conclusion about how it will go in America... big.