"Can't you see you're not making Christianity better you're just making rock and roll worse." -Hank Hill

"Alternative rock had no interest in matters of God" cut to "Tell me all your thoughts on God" is one of the best editing jokes I've ever seen

I'm a Christian, and I totally agree with you on contemporary Christian music, we should have stuck to gregorian chant,

One interesting tidbit he didn't point out: one of Jars of Clay's first songs was a cover of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" sung to the tune of "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

"Hey now. You're a God star. Get your Lord on. Go pray!"

The chorus sounds familiar. I wonder if Jars of Clay have ever been to the desert on a horse with no name.

As a former Christian I have to say I'm surprised that more Christian rock bands haven't tried the approach of making "feelings and struggles anyone can relate to" music while also doing their praise and worship thing, And why doing so is seen as so contentious

As someone who did grow up deep in Christian music, Jars of Clay always did seem a little more interesting in lyrical content and general attitude. They were a little more melancholy and introspective, just seemed more interesting.

I was a Hurricane Katrina victim, and when my church did a 5-year remembrance, this was one of the songs we played. It’s beautiful and powerful, especially when you’ve been through an actual flood like that.

Todd gets knocked down, he reposts again, you're never gonna keep him down.

7:20 "I wonder how many people bought this album without realizing it was a Christian band?" Me. I had an extra $20 in my pocket, the record store had it on sale. Listened to the other songs and realized the mistake I had made.

I had a weird idea while watching this: A rock band that is ostensibly some sort of Christian band, but they're actually singing about Neon Genesis Evangelion.

12:37 "If I were God I'd get sick of it." 😂 Man that landed with me. Not to tar all religious people with the same brush, whenever I would hear excessively religious people just falling over themselves to praise him so much, all I could imagine was God putting out a divine restraining order.

I grew up Baptist, and I was obsessed with Jars of Clay. I’m not really a Christian anymore (but still very spiritual), but I still think this is one of the better Christian bands out there, and I like that they’re willing to question the paradigms of conservative Christian culture. And they don’t sacrifice quality for purity the way much of CCM does.

"I like big bibles" is one of the funniest things I've heard.

The one crossover band I really liked was Red, mainly for the same reasons Jars of Clay crossed over: they’re lyrics weren’t overtly Christian, nothing was “Yay God!” and more about just being human and struggling. Their song “Pieces” was really helpful for me when I was going through a depressive time. Plus, much like Jars of Clay’s singer, the band was in support of LGBT rights. Their crossover hit on rock stations was “Already Over.”

I was going to be shocked that you uploaded two videos in two days but nevermind. It seems KZfaq has just forced you to re-upload again.

9:10 "I'm in love with a man. A man called God. Does that make me gay? Am I gay for God? You betcha!" -Rev. Charlie Kelly of St. Paddy's Church, Philadelphia, PA

Out of curiosity, did we ever get an answer of what the Reverend who requested it thought of his review?

Even as an atheist metalhead, I truly enjoyed this song when it came out.

Another member of the clergy here who follows you on social media. Apparently, you have more devoutly religious fans than you might have thought. Thanks for another great video. Peace.

Holy shit, my freshman roommate in college listened to this song all the time! I never cared enough to find out who it was. By fall semester, he'd switched to Limp Bizkit, P.O.D., Creed, and Eiffel 65. On the plus side, I spent a LOT of time in the library, so my grades were killer...

As a proudly unabashed pagan, I loved these guys in the 90s. I owned the album.

This band is such a one hit wonder that not even Todd knows their name

I died when he said "REVEREND....?"

Sometimes I get Jars of Clay mixed up with Puddle of Mudd, which is really unfair for Jars because PoM sucks.

I LOVE ________ ITS MY FAVORITE SONG BY _____________

I was here when the title was ONE HIT WONDERLAND:

0:15 I SAW TODDS NOSE IN THE LIGHT. You’re slipping man. Getting ever closer to a face reveal

"How many people bought the album without realizing [Jars of Clay] were religious?" ✋ me. I did. I still have it, too, in storage somewhere with the rest of my CDs.

Does anyone else want there to be a One Hit Wonderland on No Rain by Blind Melon in honor of the 25th anniversary of it being a hit?

I was first exposed to this song when it was used in an anti-drug PSA played at my school during an assembly, and the presenter compared drug addiction to drowning in a flood. This was the same year it charted, so that anti-drug group was surprisingly current.

It’s funny, I go to Greenville University and they talk about how Jars of Clay was formed there like all the time.

Toad the Wet Sprocket was very edgy but without sounding super edgy. It’s so great.

i still love JoC with all my heart, mainly because of their quirky yet catchy alt-rock style and their impeccable, intricate production, but i have to admit that they belong on this series

I was in love with this song for years. Still am. Good times.

damn i was just gonna make a "jars of gey" joke but tbh the fact they spoke out in favor of equal marriage rights deserves mad respect. also that christian rapper Lacrae or however its spelled, dude's got skills

Dan Haseltine definitely represents the "Not Kirk Cameron" branch of the church. They always reminded me as Jesusy "Better Than Ezra".

As a person who was forced to grow up on Carmen, Petra, and DC Talk, Jars of Clay were.....odd for a Christian band. I remember hearing Christians around that time saying that JoC really wanted to be a secular band but just weren't good enough. Note that I don't remember hearing that criticism about the other bands that I also named even though I would normally consider Jars of Clay much better. Perhaps it's because they were the closest.

14:18 - *JARS OF GAY?!?!* JESUS CHRI-- I MEAN, UH HOLY MACKER-- ERR ... WOW what a headline

I thought we were getting two new videos in two days and I was shook

"I just... don't like happy people! Don't trust them, never have!"

Good Monsters is probably one of my favorite albums ever, glad it game up in this video.

Fun fact: when I used to be a Christian I attended a Catholic middle school and for a project in my religion class, we each had to pick a Christian song and make a slideshow analyzing it. I picked their song Good Monsters and I was surprised it ended up going well especially since I hated Christian music and was really nervous

Jars has so many good songs. Listen to the first two albums for some really contemplative acoustic stuff.

Man, this song, [title pending], was everywhere back in the day. [Band Name Example] were on top of the world before they blew it all. The follow up album, [Insert name], wasn’t what people were looking for after the hit single. :3

I was there when the title was incomplete.

i just clicked on the notification as soon as the video's title name was simply ''ONE HIT WONDERLAND:''

One of my favorite songs and bands I'm currently agnostic bordering on atheist and I still think this is a great tune

I like this song and I am unable to dislike Jars of Clay. They're a rare pro-queer Christian band who go hard on the love aspect of God and refuse to engage with the hateful subsects of Christianity. I respect that.

This song activates long-dormant neurotransmitters in my brain like a sleeper agent every time I hear it

Alright, I apologize to all the normal people who don't care about these kinds of posts, but this is gonna be long because I have some stuff to say about this band and genre. I said on a Rocked video about one hit wonders that I had absolutely no clue that Jars had ever crossed over into the mainstream at any point in time, but at the same time it didn't surprise me that it was that song in particular. For me it was surreal to find that out, and even more surreal to understand that most people knew them as a group that had one hit briefly in the early 90s. I grew up deeply embedded in fundamentalist Christianity. So long as you weren't so unfortunate as to be part of one of the circles that views Christian rock as being just as reprehensible as secular rock you knew who Jars of Clay was. Jars was always kind of an outlier, because while they had straight up, saccharine worship music like "Love Song for a Savior" most of their music was really thoughtful, something that, as you pointed out, Christian music has never really embraced as emphasizing mindless service and devotion to God and the Bible is paramount in that faith. Honestly I think a lot of the parents of people my age and other older Christians missed that and still haven't really picked up on that and I think that was one the more subtle factors that was a gateway into people leaving the faith en masse as they have over the last 20 years. Let me take a quick minute to explain "Love Song" and other Christian music like it. Christianity views every individual Christian's relationship with God as something akin to a marriage. In fact that specific imagery is used frequently in the Bible to describe both God's feelings toward his people and to help Christians who are struggling with their faith. Everybody knows how hard marriage is. It is hard work and a balancing act and people often need reassurance that they made the right decisions regarding who they chose to spend the rest of their lives with. Thus, when Christians run into the trials of life that make them question whether God is there, stuff like this reminds them of the marriage comparisons and makes them feel guilty for questioning their relationship with what Christianity views as the most perfect being who has ever existed and keeps them in line. It is indeed creepy, but it makes an unbelievable amount of sense when you're deep in the faith. Blaming God for the problems that beset you or wondering why he's not there when you need him most implies that God either doesn't exist or is incredibly cruel, and Christians cannot have either of those things even begin to enter the minds of the faithful, so music that's laden with uncomfortably romantic imagery, emotional manipulation and reminders of how much we suck compared to God have long been the go-to tool for preventing any sort of meaningful thinking. Anyway, a lot of Jars' stuff is worth listening to, but yeah, they've fallen into that "Jesus love song" trap far too many times. I listen to and love plenty of mainstream music, but I grew up with so much Christian music that I still love that I've not been able to abandon most of it. I'll give you guys some recommendations and let you judge for yourselves: Project 86, '68, Falling Up, Showbread, Emery, RED, August Burns Red, and House of Heroes.

I remembered 40 days from when I was a kid and never associated it with Christian music, but when I was older, I heard the term 40 days and realized oh yeah, that's a Christian thing, how'd that get on the radio? Nice to see a video about the song.

Needs an episode on jane child's "don't wanna fall in love." that synthesizer solo....

Wow! Props for using the John Jonethis version of Flood at the end of the video. Lounge Freak by Jonethis is a great collection of his covers of Christian rock songs.

Embarrassing confession time: this is the first song I learned all of the lyrics to when I was very young. I grew up listening to a lot of christian rock. DC Talk, Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline, Switchfoot, Relient K, Jars of Clay, etc. and some have definitely held up better than others. It seems like the key to aging well from this genre was to focus less explicitly on the Jesus message and more on just being a decent band with interesting music (go figure). Both JoC and Switchfoot tried hard to appeal to people outside of the christian music crowd, and those two had by far the most crossover success. I mean Switchfoot basically dropped any explicit christian message in their later albums, and they have had a reasonably successful career from it I'm now an atheist, and my musical interests have evolved somewhat since then, but seeing this review (again) inspired me to go listen to this album again and while it is definitely hit or miss there are a few songs that I still really enjoy. It is weird that somewhere in the back of my brain I still know every lyric from this entire album

Can't wait for the Dushwalla episode.

Jars of Clay were my favorite band in their heyday. I had their first four or so albums. Much Afraid was ok but If I Left the Zoo was probably their best work.Of course then I discovered punk rock and the rest is history.

Man, ⠀ is a classic.

Until I forgot this band again, I'll stay it here: Splendora - You standing on my neck. Who knows, maybe Todd will find smth about this band.

Got to love the fact that Todd went through the whole video discussing this song and never once mentioned that the only reason (outside of the fact that it was good) that it ever got airplay was the fact it was the closing credits music to the film Hard Rain.

Oh my God, this was the first band that I ever saw in concert when I was like 11 years old >_

I guess the flood swept away the title

How about about a summer hit special (so many one hit wonder with weird stories behind) ... maybe Lou Bega, Mambo No 5. Anyway, great work.

Todd uploaded a video? Well, time to remind everyone of his acronym. That never gets old.

You know what Christian band is great? Five Iron Frenzy. They're hilarious. The Untimely Death Of Brad is amazing.

The first christian rock song I heard was in a japanese dating sim so that was kinda weird

I love this episode. I think it's one of your best! Hey Todd, I'm on a quest to watch every single one of your videos. Watching a few every day and commenting on the last one I watched.

ONE HIT WONDERLAND:

That 2006 album sounds pretty good???

A South Park reference AND a Duncan Sheik reference in the same video? Thanks Todd!!!

Flood and Crazy Times where the only songs from Jars of Clay that I have ever heard

Todd. Where's the title at homie?

That southpark reference had me laughing so much. The timing was perfect

You forgot the title

My grandpa used to listen to this! Like he got really into it! Love the video! Just discovered your channel, and I'm so glad I did!

Needtobreathe hits the charts... they’re a Christian band that plays some secular music...

I love a surprise, I don't know what to expect Edit: Legitimate surprise that we got our first christian rock video. The only two rock songs I ever listened to which I found out were Christian bands were: _Underdog_ by _Audio Adrenaline,_ which I personally only found out was a "christian" song when I heard that the full version has a quote from a pastor or something during a bridge; and _Phenomenon_ by _Thousand Foot Crutch,_ which, if you listen closely to lyrics, would probably be obvious if you're not me.

You need to stop drinking Todd and put the title on.

That south park reference is so bang on

I've known about this song since it came out! They were big before Creed was even a thought!

I can respect a Christian band that makes music cuz they like it and have talent, not just to be cash cows. Speaking out about gay marriage was also respectable.

I love Jesus! But I was young when this song came out and didn’t know it was christian alternative rock

Nice job. Title: 10/10

Weren't skillet switchfoot and relient k Christian bands too? And crowder? And Toby mac had some mainstream success too.

A Todd in the Shadows reupload, praise tha lord!!

GREAT video! I grew up listening to Jars of Clay and I think their music is still pretty good! BIG props to Todd for including the "lounge" cover of Flood that was also ubiquitous in the christian music scene in the 90's.

DAMN You, can't get this out of my head!!! Great work!!

I have their 07 album “The Long Fall Back To Earth”. It’s a decent LP. It has almost a U2 vibe.

love the mystery with this one todd

I remember hearing Jars of Clay on Q101 in Chicago, which was a rock station

One hit wonderland mystery box edition.

I actually remember this song. I even recorded it off the radio with my handy radio/Cd player/cassette player/recorder with two tape decks, for making mixtapes of very shitty sound quality but hours of work and dedication. Those mix tapes were full of 90s one-hit wonders. Tracy Bonham, Primitive Radio Gods, Amanda Marshall, Deep Blue Something, Tal Bachman, Martin Page, etc. I think I even recorded Newsboys - the band all over the God’s Not Dead movies - who had their own 90s crossover hit, “Take Me to Your Leader”, which was much more pop than rock, while Jars of Clay obviously rocked more. I had NO idea EITHER was Christian until I think I read it in Rolling Stone or something. And remember Vertical Horizon? They WEREN’T Christian Rock/Pop but the rumour was that “Everything You Want” was all about Jesus. GASP. I really like “Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)”, which I listened to in my longing-filled college days. ANYWAY, I want to close this long comment by saying - I LOVE Toad the Wet Sprocket. They are primo 90s hitmakers. Hootie & the Blowfish used to tour with them. Now, Hootie, there’s an interesting band - One ALBUM Wonders. I’d love to see Todd explore that phenomenon.

two todd uploads in 19 hours? is it my birthday?

I love that you unearthed the lounge cover of Flood.

I saw them play with Leigh Nash, from Sixpence None The Richer" in 2006. The highlight of the evening was when she sang "Kiss Me" and one of the jars (idk their names) busted out a melodica for the hook. The song she sang with them on Good Monsters (mirrors + smoke) was actually pretty catchy too.

I could tell by the band's name that it was gonna be from the 90s

Oh wow I remember this song actually. This channel is so damn good for reminding me of songs from my childhood that I completely forgot about.

'Goodbye, Goodnight' off the album 'If I Left the Zoo' is a fire semi-jokey song that had this sort of silly sincerity. As somebody who was in youth group but was unsure in my "faith," Jars of Clay's generally less-blatant lyrics struck a chord with me and I was a big fan. I tried to like other Christian rock, but it was all utterly ham-fisted.

Heck yea I knew this one!!! I was totally an edgy christian in the 90s.