Daniel Amos released their self-titled debut album in 1976. They are perhaps best known for a series of four albums known as The Alarma! Chronicles, released between 1981 and 1986. Here, I will be reviewing the second of those albums, DOPPELGANGER (Alarma!, 1983). According to one online dictionary the word means "an apparation or double of a living person". At the time, Daniel Amos was: Terry Taylor, Jerry Chamberlain, Tim Chandler, and Ed McTaggart. Tom Howard and Derri Daugherty are among the guests on the album.
Starting things off is 'Hollow Man', a spooky sounding cut about emptiness: "One finds no eyes here/In this empire of dying suns/In this vacant kingdom/This scattered realm of false empires/In this final assembly/We stumble together and are silent/Collected on the shores of the river of disturbance, the barren men". 'Mall (All Over the World)' is a great rock song about materialism: "How come you're sad?/How come you cry when golden arches cross your sky?/They're reminders of sweet by and by/This could be heaven when we die". 'Real Girls' includes chant like vocals and these not so hopeful lyrics: "Who are the real girls?/What's happened to virtue?/What's happening to people?/Some females, they don't see heaven/And he-men deflect their vision/Angels grieve their indecision/God escapes their imagination".
Bill Colton plays sax on 'New Car!' It's a hilarious old school rock 'n' roll number making fun of the prosperity gospel: "Well, I know what I want/I know what I need/I want a miracle/I know what I need/I know what I want, I know what I need/Give me a new car!/I'm one of the King's kids/I do deserve the best". 'Do Big Boys Cry?' is about humility: "Do big boys cry?/Do they come down from their place on high, to the dirty ground?" 'Youth With A Machine' is fast paced rock music. It speaks to parents: "Youth with a machine/He needs to know how to handle it all.../He needs you now (2X)/He needs you now, now more than ever".
Next up is 'The Double'. It's 'out there' in a good way: "My double's sitting in another world/My double's laughing in the heavenly places/I am his double here/I can expect we'll be together when time is no more/That's not so strange/You've got one, too/Behind your eyes killing you/Behind your eyes, killing me". 'Distance and Direction' is a song of reflection: "We're putting on our make-up but we never make-up/We're the beauty and the beast/We're the dead men telling tales/Sleeping through our wake-up/Two of me, two of you, two of us, two by two/The double life we live/Distance and direction run straight ahead to your better world". It's a good ballad. 'Memory Lane' rocks and warns of spending too much time in the past: "You take another trip down memory lane/You go down there once too often and you're likely to remain.../You make a list of all your failures/You count all your heartaches/Please sit up straight at the table and eat your words".
'Angels Tuck You In' is a pop song touching on Calvary: "You've been a wide-eyed innocent/Come to the garden, come to the hill/Come to the tree/Come to the kill/Won't break your bones, but it can break your will". 'Little Crosses' speaks out against Jesus trinkets: "Little crosses, I see on my T.V./Take my money and give me some of these/Little crosses with lots of color and sound/I'm in heaven with all these treasures around". 'Autographs For the Sick' is a short, weird track with lines like: "Phonographs for the deaf, they can't hear you/Gloves for the amputees, they can't cheer you".
What follows is 'I Didn't Build it for Me'. It's aimed at televangelists: "There's a plaque in the hall/My name's on the wall/And a statue of my family/It wasn't my decision/It was all in a vision/I didn't build it, I never would have built it/I really didn't build it for me". 'Here I Am' is a ballad about the distance between rock stars and their fans: "You want an autograph/What is your need?/Mine is for you to know that I really bleed.../Moving about in our own exclusive spheres/We touch not, we are not even near". Last up is 'Hollow Man (Reprise)'. It includes these words: "For me, therefore, everything has a double existence/Both in time and when time shall be no more.../My Lord and my God, having seen Thy salvation/I am a hollow man/I am his double here".
DOPPELGANGER, to the average CCM listener today will sound foreign and alien like. The lyrics are far deeper and require much more thought and interpretation to decipher when it comes to meaning. This is not a worship record. It is a commentary and a critique on the world and Christianity and the church, that is just as relevant today as when the album first came out. This is an energetic alternative Christian rock album which I'm rating a perfect 100%. The deluxe two cd version of the album includes a bunch of alternate takes, live versions of songs, etc, that collector's will eat up. It also includes writings by Terry Taylor in the cd booklet. For more info visit www.danielamos.com.