Circle Slide

Unlike the pop sensibilities of Wide-Eyed Wonder,[20] Circle Slide was a return to "longer, ethereal jams that conveyed a sense of longing for rest, for peace of mind, [and] for security."[9] To that end, the album kicked off with the title track, which ran for more than seven minutes. Tom Willett, the band's A&R rep, was taken aback upon first listen: "It’s a shock for the record company guy to go, 'where’s the chorus? We’re 40 seconds in, there should have been a chorus by now,' [but] I ended up liking the statement it made: 'we’re in no rush, just sit back.'"[21] Originally envisioned with an extended opening sequence of guitar feedback, the band abandoned that idea and kicked things off with a programmed snare roll instead.[22][23] Inspired by a technique used by the Church on their album Starfish,[18] Daugherty and Hindalong opted to bring the song to complete silence two-thirds of the way in before amping up again.[22] Because the mixing board was not automated, this effort had to be done manually with multiple people.[22] Both Daugherty and Hindalong consider this their favorite moment on the album.[22]

Much like they did on Chase the Kangaroo, the Choir continued to experiment with various recording techniques on Circle Slide: running Michaels' sax solo on "If I Had a Yard" through a wah-wah pedal;[24] sampling Daugherty's vocals into a synthesizer that was then played by Hindalong on "A Sentimental Song";[15] combining the laughter of Hindalong's daughter Emily with a recording of his Honda motorcycle for "Laugh Loop";[25] and using alternating acoustic guitar lines that went back and forth between the left and right speakers on "Merciful Eyes."[26]

Although the album was not as radio-friendly as Wide-Eyed Wonder, both Hindalong and Daugherty claimed that, in regards to "A Sentimental Song" in particular, "if there’s one thing that’s the strength of our band, the Choir, it would be the melodies."[15]

As was becoming standard practice for the Choir, the lyrics on Circle Slide reflected what was going on in Hindalong's life at that time. As he explained, "I don’t know even how to write songs about other people’s problems. It’s funny to me that so much of music in Christian circles are about other people's problems, about how to fix other people. And If I can find something profound, looking honestly at myself, maybe it'll inspire somebody and it'll touch something in them."[16]

Because of the impact of the band's non-stop touring and recording, Hindalong's marriage was "in crisis," and this informed many of the tracks on the album.[15] "A Sentimental Song" was written as apology to his then-wife, Nancy. "I still sometimes cry when I play this song live," Hindalong said. "I feel sad; I love Nancy, but I've hurt her a lot. And she's hurt me, too — like we do to each other, the people that we're closest to."[15] "About Love" was written on the day the band left to go on tour for Wide-Eyed Wonder, "when Emily was just about a year old. Nancy was pregnant; I had just found out about a day before we left. We both cried."[14] The original lyric to the chorus was, "there’s something pitiful about love," but at the last minute, Hindalong changed it to "'there’s something wonderful about love,' as it's about the irony and the tension."[14] "Merciful Eyes" addressed infidelity, "and how sometimes we avoid eye contact with God, which makes it easier for us to rationalize our misbehavior."[26]

Bracketing these songs of domestic discord were two tracks that expressed optimism in the face of difficulty: "Circle Slide" was inspired by Hindalong's childhood memories of amusement park slides that one would ride down on gunny sacks.[22][27] A non-stop circular slide that didn't require climbing back up to repeatedly ride would be "the closest thing to heaven that I could imagine," Hindalong said.[27] The album's closing track, "Restore My Soul," expressed hope in the process of Christian sanctification. "We like to say that we talk about heaven and we talk about earth," Hindalong explained. "We don't talk about heaven on earth, because we don’t think that exists."[27]

Sauerbrey officially rejoined the Choir as bass guitarist when the band began touring in support of this album, and he remained an official member of the band for the next two years.[32] The Circle Slide tour was the first time that the Choir toured as a five-member unit, as Sauerbrey recruited guitarist Billy Sammons (or "Billy Wilde," as Daugherty re-named him) to the band, so that the Choir could add more of their more musically complex songs to their set list.[32] Sauerbrey would later say, "We were a lean, tight band that could anticipate each other live. I would sometimes simultaneously change the tempo [...] completely unplanned, and the rest of the band didn't even miss a beat."[32] Reviews at the time noted the dynamic nature of this road incarnation of the Choir.[32]

With the release of the remastered 25th Anniversary Edition of Circle Slide, the band embarked on a three-month tour in the spring of 2015 on which they played the entire album in its entirety, along with selected songs from the Choir's repertoire. For this tour, the 77's frontman Michael Roe joined the band as their bass guitarist, and also served as the Choir's opening act, where he played songs from the 77's album Pray Naked.[36]

Circle Slide is listed at No. 53 in the book CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music.[3] In that entry, critic Anthony DeBarros wrote that Circle Slide was "an album that stands as one of Christian music's rare blends of artistic sensibility and pop accessibility," and added that it was "a milestone in the genre and one of the band's greatest accomplishments."[3]

Circle Slide was well-received by critics at the time. Tony Cummings, writing for Cross Rhythms, said that "[the] Choir's albums are of a consistent quality whatever the current line up and this could turn out to be their best," and added that, "the visionary title track and the billowing 'Restore My Soul' [...] are intelligent alternatives to the cliché strewn vistas of much CCM."[37] The Choir also received a number of end-of-year accolades from a variety of Christian publications – most notably, CCM Magazine, where the Choir was chosen by readers as the best alternative rock band for a second year in a row.[9]

Retrospectively, the album's positive assessment has only grown. Barry Alfonso, writing in The Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music, stated that Circle Slide "surrounded such expressions of faith as 'Merciful Eyes' and 'Restore My Soul' with a spacey sort of pop/rock that was definitely ahead of its time."[38] John Joseph Thompson in his book Raised by Wolves: The Story of Christian Rock & Roll agreed, saying that with Circle Slide, the Choir "simply soared."[2] Mark Allan Powell's assessment of Circle Slide in the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music was more scholarly, writing that "the album opens with a seven and-a-half minute opus that doesn't sound very happy, but actually expresses a hopeful philosophy of life." He added that "the song is immediately offset by the next tune, 'If I Had a Yard,' which reveals that the band members' check-to-check existence does not yet afford them suburban circumstances that allow room for a swingset (or a circle slide)."[20] Powell pointed out that this conflict was informed by the band's Episcopalian leanings, which reflect "an appreciation for existentialist realism and an understanding of dialectical tensions."[39] Mark Allender, writing for AllMusic, called Circle Slide the band's "strongest effort" with "lyrics that are stronger than ever," and summed up, saying, "the only thing wrong with this recording is that there is simply not enough of it. Clocking in at under 40 minutes, the music leaves the listener hungry for more."[1]

• CCM Magazine
  • No. 1 Favorite Rock/Alternative Artist or Band
  • No. 2 Rock/Alternative Album
• Campus Life
  • Album of the Year
• Harvest Rock Syndicate
  • Artist of the Year
  • Alternative Album of the Year
  • Song of the Year ("Restore My Soul")
• Notebored Magazine
  • No. 3 Album of the Year
  • Alternative Artist of the Year

• Circle Slide was the inspiration for the name of the Christian alternative rock band Circleslide, which formed in 1999.[40]
• A Circle Slide T-shirt was worn by actor Brandon Call in a two-part episode of the Hulk Hogan-led TV series Thunder in Paradise, as well as the CD-interactive video game based on the series.[41]