About a Mile “About a Mile” Album Review

Prime Cuts: Satisfied, Power of the Cross, Trembling

It has been said that Jesus carried the Cross for about a mile before he was crucified.  This is where the band's name is derived.  About a Mile is a trio of brothers comprising of Adam, Levi and Luke Klutinoty. And just like Jesus, About a Mile's lead singer Adam Klutinoty has had his cross to carry in the making of this album.  Right after the trio signed their contract with Word Records, Adam Klutinoty became seriously ill.  He couldn't eat or sleep for days without end.  As a result, he lost over 60 pounds and there were six specific times Klutinoty thought he was about to die.  Instead of resigning to despair, Klutinoty invested his experiences into the penning of these songs.  Thus, what you will find on this debut album are songs that are by no means sugar coated. Rather, there's a stark and blatant honesty to these 12 songs as Klutinoty shares about how God has sustained him through his sufferings. 

Helmed by producer Ian Eskelin (Hawk Nelson, Sidewalk Prophets, Francesca Battistelli) and Howard Benson (Skillet, Flyleaf, Daughtry), About a Mile's debut is a polished pop-rock effort with lots of big infectious hooks and rollicking grooves. Coming from a season of fasting is the lead single "Satisfied." Featuring a crisp relaxed sound with lots of keyboard flourishes, "Satisfied" speaks of finding our contentment in Jesus. In a similar vein is "Oxygen," a song that gorgeously captures the band's love for Jesus: "I'm down on my knees, and I'm trying to/Breathe underwater/I need you/You are oxygen." The marching beat and crashing guitar of "The Power of the Cross" bring out an anthemic dimension to the song that could even work as a congregational worship song.   

"Who You Say You Are" is a slice of autobiography.  Written during the time of Adam Klutinoty's illness where he had a gun on one hand and a Bible on the other.  Klutinoty was seriously considering suicide, until the words of Scripture reminding him of who God won him over.  Similarly "S.O.S. (Hope Won't Let Go)" was birthed out of a time when the boys were in limbo waiting upon God for direction.  Thus, when they sing "I've fallen overboard/My strength is washed ashore/Spiraling out of control/Caught in the eye of storm/I've fallen overboard" you know it's not just mere rhetoric.  "I Hate Hate,"on the other hand, is About a Mile's response to the Boston bombings where they give us a thoughtful reflection of evil and redemption. 

Teaming up with country music scribe Trey Bruce (Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood, Randy Travis), "Soldier On" trumps on its use of well developed imagery reminding us that we are part of the army of Jesus Christ.  In an album with loads of rocking burner, the ballad "Trembling" is a much welcome excursion.  Interweaving strains of the hymn "Were You There," "Trembling" is easily the album's lodestar.  The line "You shake the mountains with a whisper/Sending them crashing to the sea/Laying them down in sweet surrender/From the breeze of a single breath You breathe" just grabs at the heart.  As far as debut albums go, "About a Mile" is one to take note of.  Never afraid of presenting life with all its warts and shades, "About a Mile" is the type of an album that identifies with each one of us with our faults and failings.  Yet, with album's emphases on the Cross and the Sovereignty of God, this is the type of record that can lift us from despair to hope.

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