Krystal Meyers
Essential Records
To hear tracks: www.krystalmeyers.com
Sixteen-year-old Krystal Meyers, on her self-titled debut, mixes Christian lyrics with a rock-driven, electric guitar-charged sound. She has put out a safe, solid collection of tunes. With vocals, music and a style that immediately echoes mainstream punk-pop princess Avril Lavigne, Meyers may well find a following with young girls. (Lavigne's breakout production team is behind this album.)
The Tennessee native started singing in church at age five and began writing songs in grade school. Her album was released last June; the first single, The Way to Begin, was added to WOW Hits 2006 — a compilation of the year's biggest Christian hits.
Her song Anticonformity sounds like a motto for Meyers, who champions the idea that teens shun the dominant culture around them, opting for a godly, Christian life instead: "So I'm anticonformity / I don't try too hard to be / I'm not what you think you see / Inside I've made a change / And I'll never be the same."
The album offers several enjoyable ballads including Sing for Me and the refreshing Lovely Traces, which recognizes the often challenging journey to the road of faith: "Lovely traces fall behind you / Turn around and you will see / Lovely traces to remind you / Everything that you've been through / What it took to get you to me."
The lyrics, like most of her songs and like many popular Christian cross-over tracks, are not blatant. Indeed, a non-Christian may pick up this album and think it's filled with standard love songs, rather than praise and thanks for God's grace: "I'm seeing for the first time / The changes on the inside shining through / Your love is the reason I'm alive / So as I live my life / In everything I do / I hope You see reflections of You."
Although her songs aren't ground-breaking, and her limited vocal range often leaves the listener yearning for more, this young musician has put together a thoughtful, honest, album that examines the trials and tribulations of being a Christian teenager.
