Collective Soul Homes in on Faith, Hope, Love

I'd like to begin this review of Collective Soul's latest, Home, with a confession: I was never a fan of grunge. I understood why Nirvana and Pearl Jam rejected the shallow sensuality of the '80s. But the despairing alternative they offered instead seemed depressing to me. Grunge felt like a drizzly day in Seattle.

So when I heard Collective Soul's first hit, "Shine," in 1994, my ears perked up. The song's fuzzy power chords sounded as if they could have come from the Pacific Northwest. But its lyrics celebrated something miles away from what Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden offered: hope. "Love is in the water, love is in the air/Show me where to look, tell me will love be there?" asks lead singer Ed Roland. The infectious chorus answers, "Whoa, heaven let your light shine down." Here was a band exalting something bigger than existential emptiness. Who were these guys? I wondered, And what do they really believe? Suffice it to say that I was one of the 2 million people who purchased their debut, Hints, Allegations & Things Left Unsaid.

Since then, Collective Soul has released five more studio albums, three of which went platinum. And in February, the band unveiled a live album that also functions as a greatest hits collection. So it felt like a good time to look deeper into their catalog of hits captured on this live set.

Orchestral Maneuvers in Atlanta
Collective Soul's debut bore superficial sonic resemblance to the Seattle scene, but the band hails from Stockbridge, Georgia, just south of Atlanta. Accordingly, they recorded their live album in that Southern city, accompanied by the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. The 22-track, two-disc set covers the band's history, including six No. 1s on Billboard's mainstream rock chart: "Shine," "December," "The World I Know," "Precious Declaration," "Listen" and "Heavy." Five songs from 2004's Youth appear on the disc as well.

Spending a bit of time with Home reveals that the band's heavenly emphasis in "Shine" was no fluke. Similarly spiritual themes are a defining feature. "Listen" describes someone wandering through a spiritual wilderness. "You're thirsty now/Walking in the desert all alone/... Why can't you listen/Why can't you hear/... As love screams everywhere?" The spiritual vertigo of that song contrasts with the band's description of being found in "Precious Declaration": "I believe all hope is dead no longer/... I was blind but now I see/Salvation has discovered me." Strong biblical imagery pervades Collective Soul's lyrics. "The World I Know," for example, asks, "Are we listening/To hymns of offering?/Have we eyes to see/That love is gathering?"

Given such strikingly Christian motifs, it's no surprise to hear that frontman Ed Roland and his younger brother, Dean, grew up as sons of a Southern Baptist minister. In a recent interview with beliefnet.com, Dean talked about his convictions. "I share the same general faith [as] how I was raised. It's around the teachings of Christ. It's all about forgiveness and trying to attain unconditional love." About the afterlife, he said, "I believe that our spirits are here, and we're in this earthly vessel, and our spirits are eternal. I think there's definitely a place beyond this. ... Heaven is this utopian culture where everyone serves each other. That's the ideal culture, anyway. When people find their niche and connect with the gifts that they've been given, then they use those gifts and serve others. Jesus was the greatest example. He was the ultimate server."

Beauty and Ambiguity
Amid such strong spiritual themes on so many Collective Soul songs, one of the only notes of caution to be sounded has to do with occasional moments of ambiguity. The chorus in "December," for example, instructs, "Don't scream about, don't think aloud/Turn your head, now baby just spit me out."

I'm not quite sure what that means. And as it turns out, sometimes those within Collective Soul aren't sure what a particular lyric means, either. When Beliefnet asked Dean Roland about the lyric, "God is a witness, and God is a tease," he said, "My take on it is that we're here on earth to learn lessons, and I believe the teasing element is that His love for His children is unconditional, but our souls are here to learn and to be elevated. That's my own personal take on it. What [Ed] actually meant, I don't even know if he knows." (It should be noted that Ed uses God's name as an interjection one time while speaking to the audience.)

Fortunately, moments of lyrical inscrutability are the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time, Collective Soul sings passionately about faith, hope and love. Given the dearth of popular rock bands affirming these themes, you'd be hard pressed to find a better alternative in the secular arena today.