Haole, "My Feet Have Never Touched the Ground" Review

JFH Music Review

Haole
My Feet Have Never Touched the Ground

Album length: 12 Tracks: 59 Minutes, 16 seconds
Street Date: 2001

In the vein of cheesy inartistic fluff comes a band known only by one title, Haole. Led by Mason Ian, whose lyrics reflect a life that could be mistaken for a tell-all book or at least a TV movie of the week leads the way for a band that knows no boundaries. Having no label to hold them back, the artistry of a small museum, and touring credits with the likes of Redline and Spoken comes an astonishing sophomore release entitled My Feet Have Never Touched the Ground.

Starting things off is "Useless Again," which scribbles a path for an album of dreary rock with a sense of hope, bringing something hard for even the tightest of bands to duplicate. "Stretched on Her Grave" puts a bright spotlight on the lyrical talents of Ian, tackling the daunting task of a love gone away but someday, soon, he will be with her whereas "For Me" brings out a contrasting medium showing that they can also achieve success with simplistic lyrics. "Charming" heads back to the strong and mellow rock we grew to love as the next song, I guess you could call an instrumental, has some sort of robotic voice in the background. I'm up in the air on this one. "Innocent Bystander" is something that anyone will surely relate to, painting the picture of that girl (or guy) that you just can't get up the courage to tell how you feel. "What Can We Say?" is probably the highest of highlights showing how one acoustic guitar and one voice can lead the way to a great ballad. "Like Hosea" is an amazing tune that no one but Shakespeare himself could make better leading the way to two very interesting hidden tracks that bring this amazing record to a unique close.

Each song is dreary in it's own right but breaks down the bridge, as well as comparison stigma, between other bands of the genre with, all in all, a sense of hope. Everyone will not like Haole. This is not something your mom is going to listen to along with you. This is, though, very Spiritual, awe-striking music. The people who really need to hear these fellows are the ones who won't give them a chance as everyone, especially music fans, can learn a lot from this band. We are given gifts by God to use to the fullest extent. This is not the "Christian" Radiohead or the "Christian" Pink Floyd. This is Haole. And with the right backing, and use of artistic freedom, the line won't be crossed, but pushed even further to one day having an upcoming band yearn to have the dubious honor of the moniker, the "Secular" Haole.

- Review date: 12/25/01, written by Blake Garris

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