Flyleaf — Flyleaf

Flyleaf's self-titled debut came out on Octone Records on 4 October 2005. It was eleven tracks running about thirty-four minutes (33:42), produced by Howard Benson and recorded in Seattle. Lacey Mosley sang, Sameer Bhattacharya and Jared Hartmann played guitar, Pat Seals played bass and James Culpepper played drums. Mike Plotnikoff recorded and mixed it. Leon Zervos and Chris Athens mastered it at Sterling Sound in New York. Dave Navarro added guitar on There for You. Ryan White of Resident Hero sang backgrounds on Cassie, So I Thought and Red Sam. The record sits on the metal shelf here. It's Texas alternative metal and hard rock from the mid-2000s Octone lane, the same broad shelf as Skillet's harder radio years and RED's early work.

It peaked at No. 57 on the Billboard 200 after a long climb, spent more than 133 weeks on that chart, and hit No. 1 on Billboard Top Christian Albums. Billboard later ranked it the ninth best-selling Christian album of the 2000s. The RIAA certified it platinum. Singles carried the cycle for years: I'm So Sick (Mainstream Rock No. 12, Alternative No. 27), Fully Alive (Mainstream Rock No. 13, Alternative No. 31), All Around Me (Hot 100 No. 40, Modern Rock No. 6, Mainstream Rock No. 20), plus Breathe Today and There for You. Cassie was written for Cassie Bernall, killed at Columbine in 1999. It scores an 8/10.

What you're hearing

I'm So Sick opens with a distorted bass figure and Mosley's downshifted vocal before the chorus hits like a hospital for sinners. Mosley has said the song partly tracks a line often tied to Augustine about the church as a hospital, not a museum. Jesus Freak Hideout's Paul Portell (8 November 2005) heard haunting, creepy lyrics about a viral disease of self. AllMusic placed the record in the alternative-metal lane and flagged the melodic hooks against the scream. Fully Alive is the short, radio-shaped punch Portell compared to an Evanescence feel. It was written about Layla, wife of Trust Company singer Kevin Palmer, and the way her struggle reframed Mosley's own complaints. Perfect is the blunt faith line Portell called the lyric high point: perfect in weakness, only in Your strength.

Cassie keeps the Columbine memorial without turning the album into a newsreel. Sorrow is the mid-tempo spiritual ache Portell quoted, with its sorrow through the night and a piece of You held for eternity. I'm Sorry and Red Sam carry EP songs remade under Benson's polish. All Around Me is the crossover center: outstretched hands, the Father close enough to thicken the air, the Hot 100 foothold that kept the debut alive into 2008. There for You is the trust ballad with Navarro's extra guitar. Breathe Today snaps short. So I Thought closes long, about four minutes fifty, with White's background vocal still in the mix.

Portell's JFH read was warm on the guitars and the step up from the 2004 EP, cooler on Mosley's chords and screams sounding the same across too many tracks. Kludge gave it 5/10. About.com and AllMusic sat warmer on the hooks and the alt-metal energy. Christian critics praised it but flagged the vocals, and mainstream rock radio kept spinning the singles. That's how the record still makes its case.

How it was made

The Belton, Texas five-piece had already made a self-titled EP for Octone in 2004 with Rick Parashar producing and Kevin Shirley mixing. The full-length moved to Howard Benson in Seattle in 2005, with keyboards and programming from Benson, Plotnikoff on the console and Sterling Sound for the master. EP songs Cassie, Red Sam, Breathe Today and I'm Sorry were re-recorded for the LP. When A&M later teamed with Octone, a re-print swapped in a shorter radio Fully Alive. A CD/DVD special edition landed 30 October 2007 with acoustics and the three main videos. Polydor put a UK reissue out 14 January 2008. The videos, by the Brothers Strause for I'm So Sick and Fully Alive and Paul Fedor for All Around Me, kept the singles on Fuse, Yahoo Music and rock television long after street week. I'm So Sick also went into Rock Band and the Live Free or Die Hard soundtrack.

Where the score lands

It gets an eight because the chart life and the songs still hold, and because the cooler reviews weren't wrong about the vocal sameness. A Billboard 200 peak at No. 57, a Christian Albums No. 1, platinum RIAA, ninth among Christian albums of the 2000s, I'm So Sick at Mainstream Rock No. 12, Fully Alive at No. 13, and All Around Me into the Hot 100 at No. 40 are real mid-2000s numbers for an Octone Texas hard-rock debut. Portell's praise for the guitars and Perfect is the warmest review it got from the Christian press. His charge that Mosley's voice can tire, and Kludge's 5/10, are the fair brake. So why not a nine? The short running time, the remade EP core, and the vocal-sameness note keep it off the top shelf. Why not a seven? The platinum plaque, the Hot 100 single, the Christian Albums No. 1 and the three official videos earn the eight.

Watch

I'm So Sick leads with its official music video. Behind it are the official Fully Alive and All Around Me videos from the same album cycle.

Where this album sits on Loud Faith

Christian hard rock out of Texas in 2005 was a real mainstream fight, not a side project. Flyleaf put the band on the Billboard 200 for a long stay, topped Christian Albums, went platinum, sent three singles deep into rock radio and put All Around Me on the Hot 100. It belongs on the metal shelf here next to the other mid-2000s hard-rock records that crossed into the wider chart. I'm So Sick leads the videos, with Fully Alive and All Around Me right behind it.