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The World As I Best Remember It, Vol. 2 Review

When this album first came out in the late spring of '92, I was disappointed. While clearly a very good album, it just didn't seem to live up to its predecessor, The World As Best As I Remember It, Volume 1. On top of that, producer Reed Arvin had seemed to go overboard with the strings this time around, making the album seem overproduced.

Well, I put this album on for its first spin in several years a few weeks ago, and while I still see the same flaws, they seem much less pronounced now. This album is the work of an artist who is near the top of his game, although (I'd argue) not quite there.

The album begins with as close-to-perfect of an album opener as I can imagine, "Hello, Old Friends." There's a bittersweetness to this tune that tugs at your heart immediately. At the time, this was (reportedly) to be Mullins' last album (thankfully, it was not), and now, it's about seven years since we lost Rich. So even 12 years after this album first came out, when Mullins sings, "There's really nothing new to say/But the old old story bears repeating," both sadness and joy hits you in an inexplicable way. It's quite a feat when a singer can sing a line like "When you find something worth believing/That's a joy that nothing can take you away" in a way that makes the listener feel a joy that's come only through trial, adversity, and sorrow. Never schmaltzy, this tune seems perfect for an album that ostensibly is one part of a culminating life's work.

We next get the expanded version of the previous album's "Step by Step" in "Sometimes by Step"; Mullins added verses to Beaker's chorus. The childlike innocence of the previous album's opening track had been changed to a more mature mixture of joy and weariness by that album's closing reprise; now, we get the mature reflection of a speaker looking back over his or her life. The verses still seem somewhat incomplete to me, as they did 12 years ago, and Arvin lays on the strings a bit too heavy, but the song's still a very good one.

"Everyman" is a gem, similar in sentiment to Volume 1's "Who God Is Gonna Use," except that the focus is now not who God will use, but who is welcome at the foot of the cross. Rich said once near the end of his life that he was definitely not a Calvinist, and this track proves it, as Rich joyfully exclaims "With a thorn in His brow, a spear in His side/Nails in His hands He died/For you and I and everyman." This is followed, however, by a track that displays a more traditionally Refomed theology in "The Just Shall Live."

"Waiting," the side 1 (to date myself) closer is one of the better pieces of poetry on the album. "To Tell Them" musically seems out of place on the album; I'm betting that it was one of the songs added after Reunion Records decided that 15 or so tracks was too much for one album and broke The World As Best As I Remember It into two releases. Still, it displays Rich's quirky side quite well.

"The Maker of Noses" is, to my mind, the second best track on the album, as Rich examines the cost of following Christ and the futility of any other pursuit. If the idea of following the One who has made your nose is a personal sentiment, "What Susan Said" is an even more personal track detailing the friendship Mullins had with cohort and frequent cowriter Beaker. A reference to "Wally and the Beaver" would be pure hokum in the hands of most writers, but Mullins' obvious emotion makes it seem fresh.

The album now comes to its climax. "Growing Young," inspired by an analogy used by G.K. Chesterton, is the album's high point. This is what it all of life boils down to, according to Rich: "And when I thought that I was all alone/It was your voice I heard calling me back home/And I wonder now Lord what was it made me wait so long/And what kept you waiting for me all that time/Was your love stronger than my foolish pride/Won't you take me back now/Take me back and let me be your child/'Cause I've been broken now, I've been shamed/I've learned to cry and I've learned how to pray/And I'm learning, I'm learning even I can be changed." Literary influences aside, it takes quite a writer to put such a deeply personal spin on the story of the prodigal son and make it seem so original. This song is heartbreaking and can leave you feeling wracked emotionally.

Appropriately enough, that emotional climax is followed by a childlike expression of trust in Rich's soothing rendition of the hymn "All the Way My Savior Leads Me." And the denouement continues with the album closer, a brief reprise of "Sometimes by Step."

At the time this album came out, some reviewers said that Volume 1 is from a child's perspective, while there's more maturity in Volume 2. That's too simplistic a conclusion. For all of the maturity evident in this album, no song in either volume is as mature or world-weary as Rich's ruminations on lost relationships and death in "The River," off of Volume 1. And both "Growing Young" and the simple trust of "All the Way My Savior Leads Me" brings Volume 2 back to a childlike perspective.

To my mind, this album is still not the equal of Volume 1, but Volume 1 was an incredibly hard act to follow. Volume 2 is an excellent album no matter which way you slice it; while not all songs are of the same quality, the album is an incredibly ambitious one that succeeds in 90 to 95 percent of its intentions. And that's a high enough success rate to make it worth 5 stars -- and every minute of your time.

Review by: Chip Webb, Amazon.com