eager

Description

The sole album by the American alternative rock band eager featuring Patrick Andrew of PFR fame, was released on Questar/Mission Records in 1997, manufactured and distributed by Questar/Mission Records. The album was recorded by Shane D. Wilson at October Studio in Nashville, Tennessee; with Jimmie Lee Sloas producing. Mixed by Rick Will at October Studio.

Vocalist/bassist Patrick Andrew emerges from PFR‘s ashes with the new four-piece modern rock band, eager, featuring Greg Pope and Mark Kloos (formerly of Apple Green) and Paul Eckberg (of Someday Soon). (Some PFR followers might recall Pope’s guitar work with the band during its last tour.)

Produced by Jimmie Lee Sloas (PFR, Dogs of Peace) with engineer Rick Will (Fleming & John, Charlie Peacock), eager punches out an aggressive mix of rock that showcases a big guitar sound, some cool bass work, and Andrew and Pope sharing the vocal and songwriting duties.

While it has been Andrew and his considerable star power as a PFR alum that has been getting the band some high octane buzz, it is Pope’s vocals and songwriting that gets eager up and running out of PFR’s shadow and straight into the college market.

Andrew and Pope democratically split the CD’s 11 songs (that’s five for each with one tune shared for those who are counting), and it allows for an interesting duality of sorts. As vocalists, Andrew approaches his songs with a Euro-pop flavor that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, while Pope heads into different territory with an alternative pop sound that has teeth. It’s no surprise then that the songs also present their unique voices, and it won’t take a listener very long to figure out who penned what.

«Touch» with its big guitar intro reminiscent of Chagall Guevarra’s «Murder in the Big House» has Andrew singing about darkness and fear: “I cannot not touch what touches me.” «Decide for You» is one of Pope’s sincere and simple ballads addressing matters of faith and decisions: “You know I’ve made some big mistakes/ But I’ve seen enough to know what I believe to be the truth/ And I’ve decided for me/ But I can’t decide for you.” «The Hand That Can», like all of the album’s songs, speaks to the relationship to God in the midst of our humanness.

This debut is very much a solid band effort. It’s not merely a spotlight for Andrew, and it shouldn’t be too long before eager finds its own legs and its own sound without comparisons to PFR. [Kathleen A. Ervin, CCM, October 1997]

CD tracklist:

01. Touch
02. Blame
03. Unspoken
04. Don’t Let Go
05. Decide For You
06. Crimson For Downy Flake
07. Look At Mary
08. Found Out
09. Draw Me Back
10. The Hand That Can
11.1. Million Dollars
11.2. Untitled

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Questar/Mission Records.