Pros: Nichole is an amazingly gifted lyricist and a talented piano player.
Cons: Production leans toward the conservative "let's not startle the older listeners" side of CCM.
The Bottom Line: At last, an intelligent Christian pop album that isn't concerned with trying to sound trendy, or with giving Christians trite answers to their doubts and problems!
divad23's Full Review: Wide Eyed by Nichole Nordeman
At first glance, Nichole Nordeman is not what she seems. She had all the right ingredients to be the next big female pop star in Christian music – her look, her voice, and her talent for writing genuinely encouraging songs could have easily placed her in the upper echelons with the likes of Twila Paris, Amy Grant, Jaci Velasquez, et cetera. But take another look at her debut album. Sure, the packaging is attractive enough, and at least four of these songs were huge hits on middle-of-the-road Christian radio. But look at that slightly bewildered and bemused look on her face, and the slightly out-of-focus photograph. Listen carefully to the doubts that she confesses, the sins that she admits to, the slightly askew melodies of some of these songs. Suddenly, Nichole is closer to the more groundbreaking territory of Margaret Becker or Jennifer Knapp. But then, she plays the piano and not the guitar, so we won’t be squeezing her singles into the rock radio playlists any time soon. What’s a girl to do?
Just be herself, that’s what. Though Nichole wears her influences on her sleeve, she creates a compelling blend of the vibey pop of Amy Grant, the introspective and slightly playful songwriting of a cross between Margaret Becker and Carolyn Arends, the smoothness of Sarah MacLachlan, and the jazzy swagger of Fiona Apple. All of this was done on Wide Eyed with a sound that was pleasing enough to the pop listener’s ear to fit squarely into Christian radio, but underneath it all is something more substantial, something really good for you, like the secret vegetable in one of mom’s classic recipes that you were happily eating for all those years without knowing it was there.
To Know You Be patient with my doubt, I’m just trying to figure out Your will…
As you might expect from your average pop record, the first track on the album is the first hit single. In Nichole’s case, the placement of this song was a bit of a surprise, because it’s not the upbeat, feel-good pop tune you’d expect to draw listeners into a pop album. It’s a mid-tempo blend of the dark and the light, where a weary beat meets Nichole’s lovely voice and piano, though I will say that the programming is a little more dominant here than in other tunes. It almost seems to be Nichole’s latest journal entry after an in-depth Bible study, as she examines characters who knew Jesus first-hand, such as Thomas and Nicodemus, and realizes that they struggled with disbelief just as much as she does two thousand years later. It’s personal, and yet most honest Christians can relate to being “awake with questions that won’t wait for daylight”. Though it may not have been a #1 smash, this song got a lot of exposure thanks to a spot as a “hidden track” on WoW 1999, and people loved it once they got used to Nichole’s style. Her lyrics tend to be rigid in the sense that “everything must rhyme”, much like Carolyn Arends, but her delivery is fluid enough that it doesn’t feel forced. There may be times when the impact of a song gets bogged down slightly by the need for nice and neat lines that match up and rhyme, but compared to most of the music that falls under the pop category, I can’t exactly complain.
Wide Eyed And so I turned and walked away, and laughed at what he had to say, and casually dismissed him as a fraud. I forgot he was created in the image of my God.
This tune was another hit single, and it still stands out in my mind as Nichole’s signature song, though it may have been a tad long for pop radio to play in its entirety. The programming is scaled back here to allow Nichole’s moody piano to shine, accentuated slightly by a little bit of electric guitar accompaniment, but nothing overbearing or rock-sounding. Every element of this song just adds to the mood of Nichole’s bewilderment at the world around her. As she begins singing the first verse (with a tune that is amusingly but unintentionally similar to that “da-da-da-da” song that Suzanne Vega did a few years back), she describes a homeless guy on the street who thinks he is Jesus reincarnated and chooses to spend his time drinking booze and warning people of the apocalypse. The second verse describes another uncomfortable encounter that Nichole had with a new agey-type woman in a bookstore who was telling her all about reincarnation. You would expect the average Christian song to marginalize such people as obviously lost and confused souls who haven’t seen the Truth yet. Instead, Nichole take a surprising and refreshing turn and asks herself why these people, who are also created in the image of God, make her so uncomfortable, and it ends up being a plea for tolerance. Just because we don’t understand somebody’s beliefs, does that give us the right to write them off as nonsense? Don’t we hate it when others do that to us? Nichole really drives it home in the bridge when she wonders what she would have treated Jesus like if He were around today (sort of the flipside of the last song) – she’s almost certain she would have written Him off as a wacko, too. You’d expect such a radical-sounding idea to not sit very well with Christian radio. But they ate it up! Towards the end of the song, there are some jazzy key changes which seem odd at first, but I think it just helps to set Nichole’s music apart from the typical happy-sounding pop that Christian radio has been overrun with for quite a while.
Who You Are Every teacher, every preacher with the very best intent, found new ways to hide the mystery, replaced by common sense, and to know You was to keep You in my pocket, so easy to hold…
This song takes more of a brave musical stance, turning Nichole’s personal musings into an encouraging anthem celebrating the mystery of God. Nichole looks back with wisdom upon the days of her youth, when she was sure she had this Christianity thing all figured out, and it was easy to assume she was doing the right thing and there was no need for any radical change. She realizes now that in her ripe old age (which is likely her mid-to-late twenties), she cannot ever stop classifying herself as anything but a “seeker”, and once again, this is a refreshing alternative to the majority of Christian music that acts like it already has all the answers (though the tide is slowly turning). The dramatic strings and confident piano melodies bring the song to a joyful climax and fade, affirming that faith is nowhere near as exciting if we don’t have these questions and even doubts nagging us from time to time. “I could not be satisfied with black or white.” Hear, hear!
Anyway A gallery of paintings new and paintings old, guess it’s no surprise that I’m no Michelangelo…
Here, almost everything but Nichole’s voice and piano falls away for a moody ballad that seems almost intentionally unfinished. This is definitely not a tune that would fall into the “potential radio single” category, which is refreshing, because after three hit radio singles, it makes sense to switch gears. The tune seems odd and even awkward at first, as Nichole taps out her interesting chord progression and describes herself as a painting in an art gallery, evoking a little bit of Tori Amos in the process. She feels ugly compared to the other paintings, but knows that God still chose to hang her on the wall despite her inability to see her own beauty, almost like a parent hanging their child’s first finger-painting on the refrigerator. Just when the tune seems to be bringing itself to a resolution, it ends as the last line of Nichole’s quiet chorus falls silent – no fadeout, no climax.
I Wish the Same for You We are not so different, sons and daughters, you and I - facing walls of questions, fearing answers on the other side of eternity…
Another poppy tune kicks in at this point, its beat and keyboard tones evoking a lot of Amy Grant influence. It’s notable that this is the first tune on the record where Nichole wrote only the lyrics – the music was written by producer Mark Hammond, who has been around the block a few times in Christian music. It’s a pleasant tune that manages to be catchy without being cheesy. It’s an open letter to a friend and fellow seeker – Nichole desperately wants to explain the peace and hope she has found in Christ, but she wants to treat the friend with dignity and respect instead of just blatantly proselytizing. Nichole identifies herself with this other person instead of supporting the “us and them” mentality that plagues Christianity so much. There are more lyrics to the song than what seems to be written down in the CD booklet – Nichole is singing her own backup during the chorus and I can’t quite make out everything that the quieter Nichole is singing. But it adds a lot of dimension to the tune. A guitar seems to break in during the bridge, but it doesn’t really go much of anywhere, which is a shame, because a modest solo wouldn’t have been out of place here. I guess it’s one of the downfalls of producing a record with Christian radio in mind. At least the lyrics didn’t seem to suffer for it.
Is It Any Wonder Take a look around her – magazines, glamour queens, waist-line dreams in her diary – so inspiring…
Here’s where the Fiona Apple influence really kicks in, at least in terms of Nichole’s piano playing and vocal acrobatics. Her voice is of course not as deep as Fiona’s, and this particular apple isn’t nearly as bitter, but Nichole really smokes on this tune. A lot of elements work to make this odd little tune fly, including the strange synth effects that open the song (they almost sound borrowed from a Zelda game!), the minimal beat during the verses, and Nichole’s slightly cynical stories of a girl obessed with fashion and a guy obsessed with cash and success. I dare say, the tone of the song is almost sensual, in the same way that Fiona’s “Criminal” is (a song which has its own religious implications, but that’s another topic altogether). It’s strange, but it’s fun, and even if the message here is a little more predictable than some of Nichole’s other songs, it’s still a clever indictment of materialism.
Burnin’ Used to be that I could say my faith was one arm’s length away, from any flame that ever felt too warm…
Another ballad shows up here, taking a similar quiet tone to “Anyway”, but this time, Sarah and Fiona are more of an influence than Tori. Nichole uses a small flame as a metaphor for her faith here, something that she was able to construct by rubbing sticks together, but that wasn’t very powerful. She’s honest here about her fear of asking God to add more fuel to the fire – even though she wants to know God more intimately, she’s afraid of the things that will have to change in her life to do so. The remnants of these necessary changes are eloquently described as the ashes that now surround Nichole as she burns away. Again, subtlety wins over climax – the song is very moving, but unlike the raging forest fire that Nichole describes, the song is a slow-burner, like a lone candle sitting atop Nichole’s piano as she delicately plays each note.
Gone Are the Days Do I dare even wear what I was thinkin’ of – my true colors bleeding on my sleeve?
Another soft drum beat starts this song off, and Nichole’s vocals during the verses register rather low, almost at whisper level, fittingly accompanying the lyrics that describe her fear of letting her real self show through. Here she addresses God almost as a lover who has become almost too close and familiar – we all have our days when we feel ugly and uncomfortable and we just want space, and it’s a brave thing to confess this to God. Nichole knows, as she admitted it “Anyway”, that God loves even the ugliest parts of her, but it’s still easy to be embarrassed and feel unworthy. The approaches its chorus with more authority and vocal confidence, as Nichole sings of her fear of intimacy slowly becoming a thing of the past, but it’s the quiet verses that turn out to be the most compelling aspect of the song.
To Say Thanks Funny how the fog rolls, funnier that I’d know who to blame, never thought I’d have to own this pain…
This is a wonderfully honest track that tragically got buried rather late in the album – though perhaps that saved it from radio overplay. The song deals with times of trouble arising when you least expect them, like storm clouds in June, and Nichole sounds rather melancholy at first, like a teenage girl wondering why all the bad stuff has to happen to her. The song takes on a surprising layer of death as Nichole’s “Why, why, why, why?”s repeat during the chorus – she’s not demanding that God tell her why it’s all happening, but rather she’s asking Him this: “Why does it keep getting harder to say thanks?” She knows deep down that the struggles bring positive change and are almost necessary for her to grow up as a person of faith, but like all of us, she still hates going through it. Many of us insisted our parents were so unfair to us growing up, and they often told us we’d thank them for it later as they were grounding us or sending us to our rooms to cool off or whatever else. But we never believed them. And here, Nichole is struggling to own the belief that God disciplines the ones He loves (i.e. everyone). It’s not an easy theological concept to understand, but Nichole handles it with encouraging honesty.
River God Sometimes raging wild, sometimes swollen high – never have I known this river dry…
The final track on this album is a gem – a brighter piano ballad that I believe is Nichole’s favorite of all the songs she’s recorded so far. The main structure of the song seems to be built on a sequence of high piano notes that do a great job of evoking Nichole’s image of a river passing through. Just as the fire was a wonderful metaphor for God a few songs ago, the water works perfectly here, and though we’ve seen the analogy of God as a river before, Nichole adds a new twist by writing herself into the analogy as a rough stone at the bottom of the river who is changed and smoothed over as the steady waters rush by. It’s a fitting testament to her view of the Christian as perpetually being saved and changed, getting closer and closer to knowing and understanding God, and yet still having so far to go. Though all of Nichole’s popular singles were great songs, the ballads are where she truly shines as an artist, proving that she could make it on her own without any production or outside songwriting help or anything else, if that became necessary. And even though I always think ten songs is a bit short, ten lyrically outstanding songs isn’t exactly going to leave me with much to complain about.
Honestly, there’s not a track on this album I don’t like. The only downer for me is that the production on most of the more “upbeat” songs plays it rather safe, which may have tones down a little of Nichole’s uniqueness. Her second album, This Mystery, while containing a bunch of similarly eloquent piano-driven tunes that simultaneously earned Nichole critical acclaim and more commercial success than Wide Eyed did, didn’t impress me as much. The overall tone was too happy for the questions to have as much poignancy. This is the album I keep coming back to, and though it was a great surprise to see Nichole walk away with a Dove Award for Female Vocalist of the Year for her work on This Mystery, I’d almost rather see her leave Sparrow for a smaller label that won’t expect her to gravitate closer to typical Christian pop as her career unfolds. In any case, this is a great album that will offer a lot of food for thought to thinking Christians of all ages (especially the college crowd), and I highly recommend it.
TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY Excellent: Wide Eyed, To Know You, To Say Thanks, Who You Are
Good: Anyway, I Wish the Same for You, Is It Any Wonder, Burnin', Gone Are the Days, River God
Decent: NONE
Weak: NONE
Skippable: NONE
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