Colours

Description

Colours is the third album by the American hard rock outfit Resurrection Band, released on Light Records in 1980. Also released in the UK by Light Records the following year, distributed by Word Records. The album was recorded during August and September 1980 by Phil Bonanno at Chicago Recording Company (CRC) in Chicago, Illinois; with the band producing. (Bonanno worked at the cutting edge of slick eighties rock. He is known for having engineered and mixed the Grammy-winning mega-hit “Eye of the Tiger”, the theme song for the movie Rocky III, released by the American rock band Survivor in 1982.)

According to the December 1981 issue of CCM Magazine, Colours was among the 15 top selling CCM albums released in 1981.

The Resurrection Band epitomizes heavy metal Jesus rock, and this, the band’s third release, surely won’t disappoint those who go for this type of sound.

From a purely musical standpoint, ‘Colours’ can power-chord your brain into mush when played at a high enough decibel level. And the searing vocals of Glenn and Wendi Kaiser add to the intensity. But the gut-wrenching sounds are appropriately matched to lyrics which speak of cold city life (death?), lonliness, hurt, violence, desperation, struggles and… love. The lyrics aren’t pretty, nor is the music. It is hard – almost brutally so. ‘Colours’ is not a “bless me” album – you have to think about the picture it paints. But fortunately, a compassionate Christ is always in the picture.

As usual for the Res Band, the cover is absolutely outstanding. (Best cuts: «City Street», «Colours», «Hidden Man».) [CCM, January 1981]

Colours has got to be the pinnacle of Christian hard rock, detonating with an intensity level of ten as Glenn Kaiser and Stu Heiss unleash some of their best solos on record, while Glenn and wife Wendi scream out lyrics that speak to real life issues, as well as the hope Christ brings to a world caught up in the despair of vain existence. The first two albums certainly had their share of hard rockers, but this one breaks the dam and lets the torrents rage forth. Explosive statements on inner city life («N.Y.C.», the AC/DC-ish «City Streets»), failed ideals («American Dream», complete with nuclear explosion) and tragedy («Benny & Sue») effectively dislodge us from our comfort zones, while «Autograph», «Amazing», «Beggar In The Alleyway» and «The Struggle» point an optimistic ray of light toward the Redeemer. The classy gatefold cover is once again an artistic delight. They continued to record some of fine albums on into the 80’s, but in my opinion they never came close to matching the forcefulness and conviction of these ten songs. Righteous! [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th Edition]

Girder Music Promo, 2021

Resurrection Band – The Light Years

There may be no better musical example of the concept of “tough love” than Chicago’s Resurrection Band. Boldly committed to embracing the outcast, speaking unvarnished truth to power, kicking over cultural stones and sacred cows with prophetic abandon, and shining the light of love into even the darkest corners, the members of Resurrection Band were a complete anomaly in both the world of rock and roll and the emerging evangelical industrial complex of the modern church.

After two excellent records in the 70s that captured the lingering aesthetic of the counter-culture by melding elements of progressive and acid rock with heavy blues, Resurrection Band emerged into the 1980s with a fresh musical and missional perspective. While still doggedly committed to taking the radical words of Jesus seriously, the group had been living in “intentional community” long enough by then to have faced the fallenness of man head-on. That they chose to do so not in some utopian commune in the desert but in a blood-stained Chicago neighborhood known for gang violence, prostitution, homelessness, and drugs, forced their eyes to stay wide open. The musical result was a trilogy of albums that combines elements of 80s hard rock, new wave, and even punk into something truly unique. Call it urban hard rock, if you will, but these three albums, Colours, Mommy Don’t Love Daddy Anymore, and DMZ, saw the band truly come of age. They would come to define the very concept of Gospel Rock.

Colours is considered by some music critics to be one of the band’s defining works. The album was Resurrection Band’s first release for Christian label Light Records, which had up to this time been known as the primary record label for Andraé Crouch and similar gospel artists. Colours is also considered by some music critics to be one of the band’s defining works.

Colours begins with the powerful «Autograph», which opens with a full two minutes of exciting guitar riffs before Wendi weighs in with her Grace Slick vocals. The album’s title track is an offering of worship that concludes with the poetic refrain, “Whatever one could ask of faith, obedience will give/ Together all express the love in hearts where Jesus lives.” «N.Y.C.» describes the harsh urban life in the mean streets of Chicago’s big sister city, but «Amazing» expresses wonder at the hope and help God offers those who are metaphorically or literally homeless. «City Streets» and «Beggar in the Alleyway» continue the social consciousness, an attribute of Resurrection Band’s albums almost totally absent from other mainstays of Christian music at the time. «American Dream» predicts an apocalyptic nuclear holocaust: “It will happen/ Just don’t think about it!” It is significant for being the first of many songs that Resurrection Band would write about the moral rot at the center of America’s political and media culture, indicating a much more progressive political worldview than most Christian musicians would dare sing about at the time. Overall Colours embraced a more radio-friendly hard rock and sound with this album, which is a mix of personal reflections on God’s sovereignty and love.

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/colours/404056373)

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Autograph” – 4:03
A2. “Colours” – 4:58
A3. “N.Y.C.” – 3:24
A4. “Hidden Man” – 2:48
A5. “Amazing” – 2:22

Side Two
B1. “American Dream” – 3:24
B2. “Benny And Sue” – 3:53
B3. “City Streets” – 3:22
B4. “Beggar In The Alleyway” – 3:57
B5. “The Struggle” – 3:46

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by Light Records with the vinyl edition housed in a gatefold sleeve. Re-issued on CD by Light Records in 1991. Remastered and re-issued limited to 1000 CDs by Retroactive Records ‎i 2005, distributed by Brutal Planet Distribution. Re-issued again in 2017 in a 4 panel digipak limited to 500 copies featuring the same re-master that was used on the 2005 Retroactive Records jewel case re-issue. This re-issue uses the original 1980 vinyl record gatefold release to reproduce the artwork. (“Re-mastering takes things to the next level as well. I find the Light CD re-issue not to sound bad in that the raw but not thin Colours production is fine in its own right. Retroactive, however, tightens things exponentially with added doses of polish, which expands upon the low end and further enhances the crisp guitars.” – review at angelicwarlord.com) Remastered by Rob Colwell of Bombworks Sound and re-issued by Girder Music (through Limited Run Music/Limited Run Vinyl) in May 2021 on both CD and 12-inch vinyl LP featuring Gatefold Jacket (125 units pressed on Crystal Clear Vinyl with Blue/Pink/Green Splatter; 75 units pressed on Transparent Royal Blue Vinyl; and 50 units pressed on Black Vinyl).

Gatefold Cover Artwork