Stellar Kart

Stellar Kart is known for their fun but simplistic pop punk music, sounding similar to Hawk Nelson and Relient K but not quite matching those bands’ creativity. Producer Ian Eskelin (All Star United, Krystal Meyers) worked with the band on their debut All Gas. No Brake, and the slightly less hyper follow-up We Can’t Stand Sitting Down. Eskelin wanted a broader sound for their third release, Expect The Impossible, and co-wrote eight of the eleven tracks to help make that happen. While the first half of the CD is nothing new from Stellar Kart, the second half almost seems like a different album. It incorporates more rock and electronic elements, resulting in more interesting songs.

It’s no secret that Stellar Kart makes music for Christian youth – and for their parents, making sure that the straightforward lyrics leave no doubts about the band’s faith. Expect the Impossible fittingly deals with themes that teenagers can relate to, including overcoming temptation, waiting for love, being a bold witness for Christ, and finding hope in hard times. While the band has matured a bit lyrically since their debut (remember “Life is good / Eternal life is better“?), real depth and creativity is still mostly lacking. Talking at the level of young people doesn’t mean talking down to them, and trite lyrics tend to do just that.

The album starts off strong with “Innocent,” an infectious dance-pop song, but quickly goes downhill from there. “Jesus Loves You,” the album’s first radio single, is a mediocre follow-up to their previous hit “Me and Jesus.” Upbeat pop punk tracks “The Right One” and “Sunshine” have potential, but they fall victim to too many cliches – “Hey / You are my sunshine / On a rainy day / It’s gonna be ok.” The uplifting ballad “Pray” marks the turning point in the album. Its lyrics are simple but not simplistic, reflecting the message of the song. Often, the best thing to do is to stop worrying and just pray.

“Shine Like The Stars” rocks harder than anything else on the record, with intense guitars and some computerized effects. It doesn’t sound like anything Stellar Kart has done before, and the band will continue to experiment a bit musically on the next few tracks. The synthesized beginning of “Eyes” runs very close to the introduction of “Jump” by Van Halen, to the point where it seems like Stellar Kart has decided to do an unexpected cover song. (The band’s cover of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” was arguably the best song on their debut album, so it’s a little disappointing that they didn’t go ahead with this one.) They take the song in a different direction, though, combining elements of their usual style with the throwback sound of the beginning. The lyrics plead with God in , “I wanna see what you see / Beyond these beautiful lies / Open my eyes.” Fast, aggressive guitars introduce “I Give Up,” and then lead into a pop-punk chorus about surrendering everything to God.

If Stellar Kart is trying to appeal to a broader audience, it doesn’t make sense that they left the more interesting songs until the end of the album, when some will have stopped listening. Alternating the different types of songs together would have been more effective. In the end, Expect The Impossible shows signs of growth for Stellar Kart, but it’s more of an adolescent spurt than a transition to adulthood.

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