Needtobreathe

Apologies for the recent trend in post content. Seems like it's been nothing but unoriginal content and rants lately. I was in the process of writing another one when I realized I'd left behind the reason I started this blog in the first place: good old biased reviews of albums I like!

It's hard to sum up the latest release by South Carolinian Christian rock band Needtobreathe, except that the album has soul. Just calling them "Christian rock" doesn't do their unique, folksy style justice and risks lumping them with a whole slew of excellent, reverent, but not terribly innovative bands. Besides the standard instrumentation, this album contains harmonica, banjo, ragtime piano, and plenty of good ol' hand clapping and foot stomping. Vocalist Bear Rinehart has a distinctive wail that is an instrument in its own right. The songs are diverse and uniformly enjoyable--try as I may, my words can't do them justice. But rest assured that they are fantastic, and after a few listens you'll start feeling attached to them. Especially memorable are pretty much the entirety of the title track and "Something Beautiful", the stark atmosphere and spacey drumbeats in "Through Smoke", stomping and clapping a-plenty in "Lay 'Em Down", the awesome a capella bridge in "Hurricane", the ragtime (I think), stylings of "Prisoner", and anthemic album closer "Let Us Love". Just listen to some previews or Youtube clips and the musical charm of this album will become evident.

The lyrics of The Outsiders are similarly interesting, and beautiful. Rather than take the more direct praise-and-worship angle so heavily trod by Christian bands, Needtobreathe goes abstract. God and Jesus are hardly mentioned, but their inspiration shines through the album's overall message of hope and longing for redemption. Christians will be thrilled to listen to music that presents such an original angle on the gospel and is more musically interesting than 90% of the Christian contemporary scene, and non-Christians will find a beautiful album with lines like "When the daylight breaks through the buildings of Chicago/I will stand alone in the valley of tomorrow". This is a beautiful, inspirational album that gets better with each listen, and I highly recommend it for everyone.