I will be the first to admit that I was not too excited with POD's first mainstream offering, The Fundamental Elements of Southtown. Sure, it had a few nice songs, but most of it was skip-worthy to me. On the other hand, their follow up to that, Satellite really impressed me. It had toned down the rapcore elements and demonstrated smart songwriting. And perhaps it's strongest asset was getting released on September 11, 2001. It's inspirational lyrics spoke to a nation in pain.

Now, two years later, they drop a new album. There has been drama between then and now. In a well documented spat, Marcos, the guitar player, gets kicked out of the band. The band said he chose to leave to work with other musical projects. Marcos said he was forced to leave. Jason Truby takes his place. Truby is known in Christian circles as having played guitar for the metal band Living Sacrifice before.

I'd like to take this time to make a comparison. Remember when that Sixpence None the Richer ditty "Kiss Me" was on radio all the time? Well, we all broke into a sweat fearing their new album would be chock full of "Kiss Me"-like songs. Thankfully, it was not so and they released an album, instead, of smart songs that were decidedly pop, but each had their own identity and voice.

I'm afraid POD has failed to do that with this album. Rather than focusing on releasing another smart album like Satellite was, they have released a cd full of the next "Boom" or "Alive". If you take each song individually, it sounds good and would make me smile if I heard it on the radio. Unfortunately an entire album gets tiring really quick. It's too inspirational. Too sing-a-long. It's just too much.

However, there are bright spots. When you read the credits in the back of the cd insert, there is a line that says, "Revolution" & "Eternal" feature additional guitars by Phil Keaggy/philkeaggy.net. Phil Keaggy, for those who don't know, is considered a guitar god in many circles. Apperently Truby is a Keaggy fan and roped him in to do some work on the record. For years not many outside of the Christian music industry has known who Keaggy is, and hopefully this apperance will change that.

"Revolution" is a standard lets-see-how-bad-we-can-rip-off-our-own-songs track. And it has the unfortunate curse of also reminding me of a certain Superchic[k] song, thus cursing it more. The spot that Keaggy plays is in the bridge, and the parts that don't get drowned out are really fantastic. Whoever mixed that should be shot.

On the other hand, "Eternal" is the best track on the album. It's a soft and mostly acoustic instrumental track. Here Keaggy flashes a number of his tricks on acoustic and electric guitar. It's hard to tell if Truby helps out any to make it a "POD" track, or if it's merely Keaggy performing something they composed. Regardless, it shines as a diamond in the rough.

This release also comes with a Playstation 2 disc that has a game on it and other bonus things. I do not own a Playstation 2 so I am unable to review that. However, if you hurry you can get the cd for under $10 at Circuit City. I wouldn't suggest spending much more than that on the album unless you're a big POD fan or Keaggy fan.