Search - Mark Harris :: Windows & Walls

No "Window or Wall" Could Confine Harris

T. Yap | Sydney, NSW, Australia | 09/25/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Prime Cuts: One True God, Writing on the Wall, The Living Room



At the hub of what makes "Windows and Walls" Harris' best album to date is that this former 4Him member knows how to give a fresh and at times heartwarming spin to tried-and-true themes. Rather than belling on overused clichés, Harris has often taken lofty themes (such as godly parenting, surrendering to God, worship) and dressed them up in enthralling narratives that are realistic, acerbic and penetrating. Just like his hugely successful debut "The Line between the Two" and his 4Him catalog, this new effort continues on the Christian pop trajectory with uptempo rockers as well as high-charged ballads. Thanks to producers Steve Kipley and Nathan Nockels, "Windows and Walls" has the added wattage of urgency and verve yet not for a moment sacrificing the shades of emotional subtlety and spiritual deliberations.



Giving a poignant cap to the theme of parenting, the tender ballad "The Writing on the Wall" tells of an exhausted parent to the mess of his son's graffito on the living room. Instead of letting anger get the better of him, Harris would rather see a "Piccasso with a purple crayon." The thread of creativity is again evident in "Living Room," a prayer of invitation to God to "come through the doorway/I've closed in the past/And tear down the walls of pride/.../Fill up my heart/Make it Your Living Room." Again capitalizing on the house motif is the title track "Windows and Walls," a driving rocker that boasts some shimmering guitar-playing extravaganza. While the stirring keyboards that opened the ballad "Nothing Takes You By Surprise" gives way into a rousing Hillsong-esque high-charged balladry.



However, the voltage of ear-popping drums, the mechanical twigging of Harris' vocals, and the over-zealous guitar riffs of "Use Words" somehow takes away the poignancy of its message which is loosely based on St. Francis' prayer. More controlled and certainly more soothing is "One True God," is a powerful reminder that God isn't something we can create or keep in our pocket or put on a shelf. While album closer "In a Moment or Two" finds Harris with mostly just his guitar on a contemplative reflection on the transient of life and the purpose of living. Though relatively short time-wise, this track has a soul-penetrating quality that ought to do well in any evangelistic setting.



Though this sophomore effort is pretty safe in the sense that it's what you come to expect from a contemporary Christian album of ballads and pop-rockers, it's the words and motifs that Harris and his co-writers employ that makes this CD towers over the rest. Like a good sermonic illustration, these songs take the happenings of life tell them as they are before driving home God-honoring truth through them. At the end of the day, with a CD this good, no window or wall could ever confine Harris."