swing, kinda rockabilly, kinda crazy, kinda punky". Cross Rhythms provides the most concise explanation: "This is Swing Ska!". Reviewers, who noted a lack of depth in songwriting, regarded both of The W's albums as "fun". CCM reported that lyrically, their songs "swing between subtle spirituality and general goofiness." Elsewhere this style was described as "an odd marriage of reverence for God with forced attempts at irreverent wackiness." While the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music cites this as a "subdued approach to ministry", other commentators saw it as a disappointing lack of spiritual message, especially on Trouble With X. Trouble was much more themed on Christianity than their debut, although its nature was philosophical rather than spiritual. Characterized by James Carter, "The last album, we wrote about our everyday lives... the majority of the songs were about skateboarding and stories we made up. This album, pretty much every song is about Christianity." The band leveled criticism at the church and Christians generally, sometimes using sarcasm, reminding one reviewer of Steve Taylor. "Tip from Me" is about breaking broad perceptions of Christianity and the Church. The purpose of the song was to acknowledge problems with the church, say to the non-Christian that "Yeah, we see the problems too," and a call to the Christian to act to fix them. In the song "Stupid" the band used the example of abortion clinic bombings (see, for example Eric Robert Rudolph) to make a pronounced statement about hypocrisy. Several songs draw directly from biblical stories. The song "Moses" is about struggles with faith and insignificance. It draws inspiration from several biblical figures and stories, including Moses' Burning bush, Gideon, Peter's denial of Christ, and Paul's role in the death of Stephen to show how God can use anybody for his purposes. "Used Car Salesman" paints a colorful description of the Devil, selling sins as used Hondas. Other songs, such as "Dexter", and "Frank" retell parts of the lives of band members. "J.P." tells about how a friend of Valentine Hellman encouraged him to leave the party scene and rededicate his life to Christ. "Hui" retells the 1987 film North Shore. More mundane topics include the hardships of school ("101") and of touring and making music professionally ("Two More Weeks", "Open Minded"). Another notable song was their cover of John Denver's "Country Roads", which some thought worked well as a swing tune. Discography 1998 Fourth from