Brandon Scott Smith

A quick trek through one’s memory will bring up a few albums that have had some good ideas, but just didn’t execute them very well. Maybe they had a creative lyrical idea, but ended up being so vague that the meaning the artist intended got lost in translation, or they aspired for a unique musical style but didn’t quite have the skill to pull it off, or they wanted to change their image and it just didn’t fit right. Either way, it’s hard to hate an album when the main flaw is that it tried to be creative, but failed. This is pretty much the case with Brandon Scott Smith’s album, Modern Day Prodigal. It only consists of seven songs, but each of these songs run for about 4-5 minutes, making it stretch out to normal album length. On the one hand, this works in his favor by leaving less room for filler tracks, on the other hand, long songs tend to overstay their welcome quite easily.

Take, “So Divine”, a rather bland love song that plods along an obvious acoustic guitar-driven melodic path for about four minutes, but the lack of musical or lyrical variety makes it feel twice as long, and in the end it’s really rather forgettable and would probably have been better suited to having about a minute of its’ running time shaved off. “More Like You”, doesn’t fare much better as lyrics like, “You make me/Make me more like You” are straight out of the big book of CCM clichés. It seems groomed for Christian radio, much like a similar track, “Out On A Limb”, which at least benefits from a decent metaphor and a catchy chorus that describes God going out on a limb to rescue a sinner who is barely hanging on out on a limb. It’s a tad corny, yes, but it’s a bright spot in a song that is otherwise fairly average. Although the line, “If You could choose I know You would have set me free” is a bit confusing, as though Brandon is suggesting that Christ didn’t have an option whether to set him free or not.

That’s not to say the entire album contains weak lyrics and overdone musical ideas. Indeed, there are a couple tracks that are actually pretty cool. Like the album opener, “Come On With That”, which uses a slow burning guitar to build an intense song with more of a rock edge than the rest of the album contains. It’s not the most common thing to hear come from a singer/songwriter, and the lyrics still aren’t the greatest, but the layered sound created by the fuzzy guitars and counter-melodies provided by the keyboards combined with a passionate performance from Brandon as he seems to channel Derek Webb a little bit create a memorable experience. That sweet guitar solo is just the icing on the cake.

The title track, “Modern Day Prodigal”, takes an unexpected route with the lyrics describing people seeking love, rather than the obvious prodigal son imagery, which is a nice change. The music takes some of the influence seen in, “Come On With That”, and turns it into a catchy, danceable song. It’s a really great way to close out the album, and shows that Smith is capable of more than the rest of the songs would indicate.

Overall, this album is worth a listen, although in the future Brandon needs to focus more on the electronic influences and run with that, rather than filling a seven song album with a lot of filler plus a few creative songs. There’s potential here; time will tell if it really comes to the surface.

Tagged as: Brandon Scott Smith, Modern Day Prodigal

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