On August 28th, I opened Spotify and a newly released album popped up titled "Out of Body." The cover art is what hit me first. The stacked exposure photos of a man almost coming up for air feels like a modern take on the classic impressionist painting style.
The artist was NEEDTOBREATHE, a contemporary Christian music band that has consistently had songs on Christian radio stations like K-Love and TheJoyFM. They have always had a solid country/alternative rock sound, but this album took that even further by stepping up their lyric game into words of comfort and security based on God’s goodness and faithfulness. It’s an album that doesn’t gloss over the pain and turmoil of even the happy times of life. It’s an album of longing and of love, and rejoicing in the tension, as Dr. Finch likes to say.
There is a weary excitement in the first track, "Mercy’s Shore," as the focus is our future in heaven, with a mental image reminiscent of Reepicheep’s quest. The third song is "Hang On"—which should have an exclamation point in my personal opinion, because of how impassioned that line is when sung as a resounding call to battle, to perseverance. And, while "Hang On" is filled with “love-drunk, original reasons” to stay the course and keep fighting for the life you know you were made for, the next song reminds you that those little dreams aren’t enough, because the band gets back to their gospel roots with the line in "Survival," “Jesus, come quickly, I need you for my survival.”
There is also a very intentional introspection in their lyrics, matched by wandering guitar licks, “I am a man in need of constant revival” is another lyric from "Survival," while "Child Again" admits right out of the gate “I know too much” and explores how that loss of innocence creates a barrier between him and God, crying “I want to know it’s safe to be a child again.” This leads them into the title track, which gives me Harry Styles’ "Fine Line" instrumentation vibes. The plea of this song’s heart is “Take me out of my body / Take me out of my mind / I wanna know how you made me,” and that might be the lynchpin of the entire album. "Who Am I" follows with the logical and awestruck conclusion “who am I to be loved by You?”
The next two songs are folk/rock comfort food, with "Banks" being a healthy and adorable love song: “I wanna hold you close but never hold you back / I'll be the banks for your river.” "Riding High" is a proper rebellion song you want to cover with some Catacombs or Brethren guys on a back porch in Louisiana, belting “We might die trying, babe, we're gonna go out riding high” as loud as you can at dusk. Then, the deep introspection stabs you through the heart with "Bottom of a Heartbreak," which speaks honestly to the often unexpected vulnerability of loss, but gives hope with the line “I gotta learn to love right where I'm at,” showing a way out of the pattern of discouragement.
The album wraps up with "Seasons," which was balm to my soul as I readjusted to a different Covenant that still felt like home. The seasons change, the sand shifts, and the storms pass. But, if we can come alongside each other as the body of Christ, the family of orphans adopted in spite of our pasts, then we can weather these changes together.
And I think this album, with its rousing cries and its honest laments, can help fill us with contentment even in the midst of sorrow, reminding us to long for our eternal home with our unchanging Lord, while doing His work down here in His strength.
Plus, the music is pretty good, too.