Album Review :
True Liberty - City Of The One

Artist: True Liberty
Title: City Of The One
Label: Wounded Records
Release Date: 6/15/2010
Reviewer: Jeremiah

Tracklisting:

1.  Revolution
2.  Here To Stay
3.  Cringe
4.  Here’s The Issue
5.  City Of The One
6.  Home
7.  Suicide King
8.  Set Me Free
9.  No Security
10.  Take It Back
11.  To The Front
12.  The Letter

I remember growing up during the late 80s and early to middle 90s having been forced to listen to mostly radio friendly country music.  It was probably a main reason why I wasn’t interested in music until my 8th grade year in 1996.  Flash forward to today and I still could careless about the music on country radio.  Personally I don’t listen to the radio at all for music anymore except for a scan of a CCM station from time to time.  But it makes me wonder if my parents listened to punk rock while I was growing up then maybe I would have a dislike for it instead.  Late 70s and 80s punk music is still a little foreign to me but with the recent release of False Idle’s “Hymns Of Punk Rock Praise” and True Liberty’s “City Of The One”, I’ve been getting a nice dose of what I’ve missed out on.  Except this stuff was created in 2010.

True Liberty has been around for quite awhile now.  The band was originally started by Aaron Wells in 2005 after rededicating his life to Jesus Christ.  He wanted to form a christian punk band but had no idea how.  He proceeded to put out an ad that said, “need Christian punks to form a band”.  Mike Collawn and Tom Schoppe contacted Aaron and that’s basically how the band was born.  Flash forward 5 years later and after 2 full length’s we have the bands third full length “City Of The One”.

“Revolution” starts the album off right with punk rock intensity.  It has some sweet gang vocals during the chorus parts.  “Here To Stay” slows things down a tad but gives us an enticing guitar solo toward the end.  “Cringe”  is a fun foot stomping number.  “Here’s The Issue”  starts off with gang chants and has, dare I say, a bass solo.  That was really pretty neat to hear because they are very few these days.  “City Of The One” is intense throughout with more gang chants.  I honestly love these throughout this entire album.  “Home” slows back down and reminds me of early Social Distortion.  It has a nifty guitar solo toward the latter-half of the song.  This is by far my favorite song on the album.  “Suicide King” has some lyrics we can all relate to / Well I can’t do what I should and I do what I hate / So I pray to my God up above / I’m down on my knees and the hour is late / But He still sends me a sign of his love. “Set Me Free” also brings to mind Social Distortion with Aaron singing / Set me free from this prison / Set me free from my old life / Set me free by the waters / Of everlasting life.  “No Security” is a fun punk number that picks back up the pace and has more gang chants.  “Take It Back” is not a tribute song to the band Take It Back.  But it is about giving the gospel to the unsaved and letting that person know there’s more to this life than what they see.  “To The Front” is about war.  That we need to have on our armor of righteousness  because the enemy is always ready to attack in our constant spiritual war.  I liked how the drums, bass, and guitar switched off with each other.  “The Letter” closes out the album in acoustic fashion.  It acts as a letter from Christ to the unbeliever to put their faith and trust in him.  Some lyrics include / I’ve made a way in, don’t try it on your own / My love is enough, you can do no more / No matter what you’ve done, I’ll make you brand new / Please turn to me now, I’m waiting for you.  It’s a great song and a great way to close out the album.

Overall: This is a great retro 80’s type punk album from start to finish.  I would probably call this band a spirit-filled punk band as it has bold christian themed lyrics throughout.  The band is also very up-front in their faith as you can read about here.  If you passionate about punk rock with a classic feel and/or want a great album in general then do yourself a favor and pick up this release.

RIYL: False Idle, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Social Distortion