How Can We Be Silent

Chronique

BarlowGirl might look like a Christian teen pop group on the cover of their crossover-minded third album, How Can We Be Silent, but they sound like a Christian Evanescence, singing harmonies in fifths over dark, roiling riffs and all manners of goth textures. In this brooding atmosphere, such Christian calls to arms like the title track feel ominous, as if nonbelievers should take their faith as a threat. BarlowGirl do this goth rock about as appealingly as Evanescence, but they're a bit more charming when the cloud lifts just a bit, like on the off-kilter "One More Round" that opens with Mellotrons and waltzes into some psychedelic jazz, or when they punch the melodies a little bit harder as on "Take My Chance," a piece of barbed melodic pop-punk that also showcases the trio's harmonies. Although "Take Me Chance" is an anomaly on the album, How Can We Be Silent is certainly more interesting overall than a lot of CCM rock -- and a lot of secular rock in this vein, for that matter.

© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo