I want to reiterate that (with the exception of Double Take) I don’t dislike any Petra album. Even those at the bottom of my list have some really good songs. God Fixation actually has a handful that I enjoy, even if the album didn’t excite me when it was released in 1998. That was during the time Bob Hartman had stepped away from performing but still wrote and played on the albums. It was also during the time I was preoccupied with playing in my own band. I was twenty-eight and into three chord, punky, power pop. By this point Petra had evolved into a safe, radio-friendly Christian version of bands like Matchbox Twenty and that wasn’t where my head was at. John Schlitt had become the official face and voice for Petra and the other members (outside of Louie Weaver seemed to change with every album.
I actually listened to this one in the car yesterday and was a bit surprised by how much I liked it. I mean, there were the three or four songs I was familiar with but the rest of the songs seemed to be better than I remembered. I realize that I am no loner in my Twenties (or Thirties or Forties) so that probably has something to do with it. God Fixation still late Nineties “adult alternative” but I noticed little things that had eluded me in the past. There’s some funky bass playing in places and the guitars fit the mood of each song. I also enjoy John’s lower register quite a bit. There isn’t anything original and it seems obvious that they were following trends but the album fits nicely alongside bands like The Wallflowers and the previously mentioned Matchbox Twenty. The album also gets points for St. Augustine’s Pears, which is one of my favorite Petra songs.
That 80s Pastor Dude 