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Many people wonder how we can relate to God on a personal level. It's an important question since it's at the very heart of Christianity - recognizing that God related to us by sending Jesus down to earth as a man and reaching out to Him by accepting him as a personal and integral part of our lives. Though we may never see exactly eye to eye with God, we are called to be like-minded with Christ and we should certainly try to live in accordance with His commands. With their latest release, Iris to Iris, Building 429 encourages listeners to draw near to God.

Well, there are certainly no surprises here musically. Iris to Iris follows the lead of Rise with an incredibly safe version of rock and roll. The overall impression left by the music here is that of a worship album with hopes of bringing a few rock fans in for a listen. While there's nothing inherently wrong with that per se, it's a style and sound that has been done several times before and one starts to wonder why. At times - specifically songs such as "Power of Your Name" and "Constant" - it seems as though the band is going for a 90s modern rock sound a la Oasis, while elsewhere, tracks like "Incredible" show off an effort towards an edgier rock sound. The group is most at home and most impressive on tracks like "Singing Over Me," "Amazed" and "Grace That Is Greater" (arguably the best song in their entire catalog), that lean towards an acoustic side and highlight the vocals of Jason Roy, which are enjoyable save for the awkward transitions in and out of falsetto.

Lyrically, the album serves up a strong focus on worship and includes a few tracks that spotlight portions of Scripture which is generally a good thing. Some of the songs, however feel slightly cluttered, suffering from using too many words to express a concept that needs but a few. Thankfully, a large portion of the lyrics avoid the common worship "catch phrases" but that may also explain the verbose nature found sprinkled through the album. "Majesty" proves to be a rather charming worship tune as does, "Constant," but Iris to Iris isn't a corporate worship album in any sense. The bulk of the songs, despite the vertical appeal, wouldn't translate well to that environment.

Aside from a really intriguing bit of cover art, Iris to Iris doesn't stand out much by way of promotions or presentation. It's clear that they'll be making some inroads on the radio, but the group is resting on the laurels of past success in a many regards. Their website has very little info available on it and while their MySpace does have a few new songs up, last year they had a video description of every song on "Rise" leading up to the release.

It may be simply that they are hoping to get radio airplay across multiple formats, but it seems like the biggest expression coming from this album is the marketability of it. It's definitely a difficult task to balance marketability and artistry, but it is possible. Unfortunately, Iris to Iris isn't an example of that balance and seems more bent on finding a sound that will continue the group's success within the industry.

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