Description
Branded is the fourth album by the American alternative rock band Undercover, released on Blue Collar Records in 1986, distributed by Lexicon Distribution. The album was recorded by Mike Mierau and band member Joey Taylor at Pakaderm Studios in Los Alamitos, California; with Taylor producing. Mixed by Dino Elefante at Pakaderm. Arranged by the band.
The band’s original lead vocalist Bill Walden had departed to form The Fourth Watch (which released their sole album Dare To Be The One the same year) and was replaced by Sim Wilson of Martus fame (Martus was kind of an early incarnation of Adam Again). The rest of the band line-up remained the same though: Gym (Jim Nicholson) on guitar and vocals, Ojo (Joey Taylor) on bass and keyboards, and Gary Olson on drums and vocals. Additional vocals provided by Riki Michele and Gene Eguene of Adam Again and Glenn Holland of 4-4-1. All songs written by Ojo except “Cry Myself To Sleep” written by Gym.
Branded was actually recorded twice. After the release of Undercover’s second album – God Rules – it became apparent that a greater emphasis on new music was needed, from which Maranatha created Broken Records, headed by Chuck Fromm with the advice and support of Chuck Smith at Clavary Chapel. (The new label’s first effort was Undercover’s third album, Boys and Girls – Renounce The World!, however technically it was released on Maranatha’s A&S Records. The European edition though, released by A&S the following year, actually features the Broken logo on the back of the album cover.) And so Branded was initially recorded for a tentative Maranatha/Broken Records release (though at one time even Sparrow Records was interested in doing the album).
Sometimes during the summer of 1985 Smith became uncomfortable with the direction of things and decided to pull the plug on Broken and to a degree Maranatha, cancelling the contracts of all artists on the label at the time. After sorting things out with Chuck Fromm (who had purchased Maranatha and with it Broken Records in 1985) over who had the rights to the new album, Undercover scrapped the original sessions for Branded and re-recorded the album for a Blue Collar Records release, a indie label both Undercover and Adam Again had recently signed with.
Branded took Undercover in a slightly different direction with keyboard-laden melodies (featuring the punkish/gothic/classic rock feel of the typical ’80s style) and darker, more introspective lyrics. The album marked a turning point for the band, as on future releases it would continue to explore aspects of Christian life not frequently addressed by the CCM musicians who were finding increasing acceptance on secular airwaves and with secular audiences.
Given the tendency of many Christian lyrics to take on the kind of “it’ll all work out in the end” attitude of a Hallmark card, one might compare the gift of a contemporary Christian album to a young believer to the gift of a Bible with the trials of Job, the lamentations of Jeremiah and the psalmists, the violence of the Pentateuch, the confusion of the parables, or the scandal of the Crucifixtion all cut out. Leaders among such offenders – despite good intentions – are the early works of Undercover with their simplistic expressions like “Loving God makes me a happy boy” and “Jesus rose from the dead/ Jesus can fix your head.” While I would be the last to deny the truth of these statements and emotions, something is lacking when this is the total range of expression. Is there room for the experience of hurt and pain, the despairing Jeremiah, and the weeping Jesus, the Man of Sorrows?
Here on ‘Branded’, however, we hear a different Undercover. “I cried last nite/ I faced my fears,” sings Sim Wilson in the LP’s opening track. “There’s one thing I’d like to do/ I’d like to learn to live and cry with you/ I’m just a man.” Written by Joey Taylor, those words reveal the tender side of a man of faith who is still a broken human being. Taylor – who writes nine of the ten tracks, plays keys, and produces – lets this experience of pain and fear provide a dark undertone for songs where anguish, anger, and disappointment give way to faithfulness and God’s graceful touch.
At last the aggressive, sometimes frantic rhythms of Undercover are harnessed in songs which express plenty of authentic emotion. It’s no longer “pie in the sky and smiles until I die,” but «The Fight for Love». Rather than keeping us from God, our honest pains are wiped away by God’s grace in Gym Nicholson’s «Cry Myself to Sleep»: “God in heaven up above/ Has compassion and love/ His hands wet with my tears/ He’s been drying them for years. Taylor reminds us that Jesus is our model for coping: “Anguish and despair/ Surround me like a flood/ And I know you once were there/ Crying out, sweating tears that turned to blood.”
Perhaps this authentic expression and intensity of emotion are the things which convince me that this is Undercover’s strongest musical outing yet. As on previous releases, the mix is dominated by vocals, and Wilson’s clear, trained voice cuts through with strength, clarity, and emotion. I would prefer more guitars and keyboards to provide greater tension and to help distinguish between tracks. Still, Nicholson is a blazing guitarist and Taylor even manages to make a churchy organ sound mean and streetwise. All the while Gary Olson nails the rhythm down solid to the dance floor.
Never a band to be taken lightly, these hard-hitting, aggressive neo-punks now show that the Undercover of ‘Branded’ is to be taken seriously. [Brian Quincy Newcomb, CCM, September 1986]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/branded-25th-anniversary-edition/423886773)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “I’m Just A Man” – 3:24
A2. “The Fight For Love” – 3:00
A3. “Where Can I Go” – 3:13
A4. “Tears In Your Eyes” – 2:05
A5. “Pilate” – 3:00
A6. “Build A Castle” – 3:25
Side Two
B1. “Cry Myself To Sleep” – 2:31
B2. “Prelude” – 1:55
B3. “Darkest Hour” – 3:26
B4. “Interlude” – 0:35
B5. “Come Away With Me” – 4:44
B6. “If I Had A Dream” – 5:02
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by Blue Collar Records. Re-issued on CD by Broken Records in 1989 as a part of the compilation album Undercover Vol. 2 also featuring Boys and Girls – Renounce The World!, the band’s third album. A Remastered 25th Anniversary Edition CD was released by Intense Millennium Records in January 2011, featuring three bonus tracks; “I’m Just A Man” (Demo, 3:41), “Tears In Your Eyes” (Live 2000, 2:06), “Cry Myself To Sleep” (Live 2000, 2:29).
A full-page advertisement for two new albums released on the indie label Blue Collar Records, 4-4-1’s Mourning Into Dancing and Undercover’s Branded, was featured in the May 1986 issue of CCM Magazine.
Undercover, Live 1985
Production and the Music
Harry Barnes of Blue Collar Records is a really incredible human being with an uncanny ability to meet and befriend people. When we came to his roster with Adam Again he had already forged a relationship with the Elefante brothers and if I remember correctly, had recorded 441’s debut at Pakaderm, their studio in Los Alamitos, CA. Harry arranged for us to record Branded there as well. I don’t remember too much about the sessions but I do have a few vivid memories. One was Gary doing the drum track to «Tears In Your Eyes» which I can still hardly believe he pulls off with only one bass drum pedal. A second very specific and clear memory was the layering of keyboard parts on the «Prelude to Darkest Hour».
In the early 1980s a new technology standard emerged called MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) that allowed MIDI enabled instruments to “communicate” with each other. For keyboard players this was huge. Just by connecting keyboards together with a single cable, I could play one and have them all play their sounds at the same time. I could now with one hand control a host of instruments, assuming I wanted them all to play the same thing. What was also possible though, was playing a MIDI-enabled keyboard into a sequencer, basically a “tape recorder” but instead of tape it records digitally, and instead of recording audio, it records digital information about exactly what is played and how it is played. It essentially records a performance that can be played back on any MIDI instrument again and again. That’s what I did on «Prelude». All those strings were layered by way of MIDI. I recorded it once and then played it back again and again using different string and choir sounds on each pass.
Branded was the first record we made with MIDI capabilities and the reason I mention that here is because it was important in the way the songs were written, arranged and recorded. It was a big part of the reason why Branded sounded like a musical departure from our earlier records too where each keyboard part had to be played manually each time until it was right. With MIDI and a sequencer I could record the keyboard parts at home into the sequencer and work out all the bugs there and then bring it all in to the studio and just lay it all down. The only part on «Prelude» that was not recorded by MIDI was the solo violin part at the end, which I played on John Elefante’s Emulator digital sampler, which was then state-of-the-art.
A second reason why this record sounded so different from the earlier ones was Pakaderm itself, Dino Elefante, and his engineers. Our first two records were engineered by folks at Maranatha who really had no idea what to do with this kind of music and no experience with it. Praise albums were their expertise. This was not the case at Pakaderm where Dino and his crew knew what we needed, knew how to make it happen, and had the equipment to do it. When it came time to mix the record, Dino took the helm and when it needed more bass or guitars, he moved the faders up almost with abandon until it was right where we needed it. I was sitting right next to him and when he was moving those faders he was often looking right at me with a “Tell me when!” look on his face. That’s the kind of boldness we needed. [Excerpt from Branded – 25th Anniversary Notes written by Joe Taylor of Undercover]
CREDITS. Produced by Joey Taylor. Engineered by Mike Mierau with second engineering by Bobby Saucedo and Paul Abajian. Mixed by Dino Elefante. Arranged by Undercover. Mastered by Bernie Grundmann.
Musicians: Sim Wilson (Vocals), Gym (Vocals, Guitar), Ojo (Keyboards, Bass), Gary Olson (Vocals, Drums). Background Vocals: Gene Eugene, Glenn Holland, Marie McGilvray, Riki Michele.
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