Britt Nicole:
The Lost Get Found
My #2 Album
in 2012
Released
in 2009
on Sparrow Records
This page was first created on July 1, 2012
It was first published on March 30, 2014
This is Britt Nicole’s second full-length studio album, and my first album of hers. She began singing at age 3 and was active in singing at church and school through out her growing up years. She recorded her first album,
Say It, in 2006, which was released the following year.
I purchased this album in 2011, listened to it now and then, but it didn’t grab me at the time. Part of it is probably because the same year I got two other strong pop albums -- Miss Angie’s Time And Space (my #1 album of 2011) and Charmaine’s Love Reality (my #3 album of 2011), so they probably soaked up all the space in my brain available for pop music.
But the other reason is that Britt Nicole’s lyrics didn’t resonate with me. Miss Angie’s songs have always so deeply resonated with me that I never get tired of listening to her albums. Charmaine’s lyrics on Love Reality are more subtle, like the lyrics are on this Britt Nicole album, but the production on the Charmaine album was so far superior that it won out in that regard. And, despite Charmaine’s lyrics being subtle, they still aren’t as subtle as the lyrics on this Britt Nicole release.
So it was the lyrics that caused me to take a long time to get into this album. I always liked most of the music; I just had difficulty finding the lyrical connection. The songs seemed shallow to me. For example, track #2, “How We Roll” has this chorus:
Turn it up, make it loud on your radio
We are gonna dance everywhere we go
Everybody knows that’s how we roll
And that’s about it for the song -- nothing more spiritual than that. Or in the song “Headphones,” I was turned off by the last line of the song, saying that everything will be all right “if you can just smile.” Really? That’s all I need? That song is followed by “Welcome To The Show”:
Hands high like a roller coaster
This love is taking over
Take us higher, here we go
Welcome to the show
We’re gravity defying
‘Cause we were made for flying
We’re about to lose control
Welcome to the show
Again, that pretty much sums up the depth of the lyrics in the song. Some other songs were like this too. With lyrics like these, this album couldn’t compete with Miss Angie or Charmaine.
The first surprise connection I remember was in the fall of 2011. I was at an individual prayer retreat at a retreat center which had a prayer labyrinth. The first time I walked through it, I contemplated the twists and turns of life, and how it seems you can’t go directly where you want to. It was a long, twisting path, symbolizing many struggles in life, and at last I arrived in the center, which I was feeling was symbolic of the arrival to heaven after the treacherous journey of life.
The next day, I went through the prayer labyrinth again. This time I felt inspired to take it faster, and instead of seeing the twists and turns as the setbacks in life, I felt inspired to see these unpredictable aspects of life, where God takes you places you were not expecting, as a thrill ride, the thrill of the surprises of God. Suddenly, Britt Nicole’s song “Welcome To The Show” came to mind, and instantly I made a connection of meaning to the song.
That surprise connection was a turning point in my relationship with this album. Little by little, I began to find meaning to more of the songs.
One of the next songs that I had previously disparaged but turned into a fan of was “Headphones.” I began to accept that this was an album of subtle lyrics, so just take what little is in them and run with it, and that’s what I did with “Headphones.” The most direct that this song gets about reaching out to God and feeling his response is, “Love is coming through your headphones.” Before, I was kind of annoyed by that, but after I began to connect with this album, it didn’t bother me how subtle the lyrics were -- I knew how I was using the meaning, and that was now working for me.
I remember one of the most intense moments of feeling God’s love while listening to this song was on four-hour flight across the USA in early 2012, and being on a flight, obviously I was listening via headphones. I was already in communion with God by the time this song started, and something about it at that moment intensified the feeling, such that I really felt his love coming through. That was my first strongly worshipful experience with the song. I would have more such experiences as the year went on.
On that same flight, another song that had never resonated with me suddenly hit me powerfully. It was “Like A Star.” It was night, and I looked out the airplane window into the starry sky while these words came through my headphones:
I see you like a star in the sky
And I love it
Yeah, the light in your eyes
And I wonder
When you’re looking in mine
Do you see them
Like a star in the sky
This was another surprise connection with God through the album. I had heard this song a number of times but didn’t relate to the lyrics, but this time, when I was already in communion with God, suddenly the words lit up with new depth of meaning to me that had never been there before.
That airplane ride was the second turning point for me with this album. From then on, I “got” the album. From then on, every song except “How We Roll” had meaning to me. From then on, I started listening to the album like crazy and having great spiritual experiences with it.
Not all the songs were that inaccessible originally; it’s just that the ones that were accessible were slow songs, and I’m not much of a fan of slow songs (unless I’m listening to ambient music or something like that).
The first slow song, track #3, “Safe,” reminds me of the words from one of the C.S. Lewis stories that included Aslan the Lion. Someone asked, “Is he safe?” The reply was, “No, but he’s good.” This song says, “You’re not safe,” with the tone that if I’m going to go with you, I can’t expect a safe, predictable journey where I won’t be stretched. So often we’re afraid to dive in with God because we don’t know what to expect, and we’re afraid of where he may take us. But we miss out on a lot in the process. “I’m so tired of turning and running away when love just isn’t safe...You’re not safe -- and that’s okay.”
A song with a similar theme is track #7, another slow song, “Walk On The Water.” As you might imagine from the title, this follows the theme of not being safe and being like Peter and stepping out of the boat to walk on the water, by faith, to Jesus.
You look around and staring back at you
Another wave of doubt
Will it pull you under
You wonder
What if I’m overtaken
What if I never make it
...I know you’re not sure
So you play it safe, you try to run away
If you take that first step into the unknown
He won’t let you go
So what are you waiting for?
The bridge adds a little intensity to the challenge:
Step out, even when it’s storming
Step out, even when you’re broken
Step out, even when your heart is telling you to give up
Step out, when your hope is stolen
Step out, you can’t see where you’re going
You don’t have to be afraid
So what are you waiting for?
I frequently felt the Holy Spirit tugging at my heart when listening to this song.
The album closes with a song that seems to foreshadow her following album, Gold, with its expression of tears and pain, something largely absent from this album, other than in this closing track, “Have Your Way.”
Feels like I’ve been here forever
Why can’t You just intervene
Do you see the tears keep falling
And I’m falling apart at the seams
But you never said the road would be easy
But you said that you would never leave
And you never promised this life wasn’t hard
But you promised you’d take care of me
The music video for “Headphones,” which I wrote about above.
A prayer labyrinth
^ Click the play button to hear “Hanging On,” my favorite song on this album.
I haven’t yet mentioned the song “Hanging On.” This was the first song I attached to on this album, and it remains my favorite (although “LIke A Star” is a close second). I love the intimacy of communion with God expressed in this song... “Hanging on to every word you speak, ‘cause it’s all that I need....” You can hear it by clicking the play button to the left.
So, this was an album that took me awhile to latch onto, but once I did, it became my second-favorite album of 2012. Like Britt Nicole’s other album I played like crazy in 2012 (Gold), I had many deeply meaningful spiritual moments while listening to this. Both musically and lyrically, the subsequent Gold is much better than this album, yet something about this album kept me coming back to it almost as much.
BRITT NICOLE LINKS
Britt Nicole’s Website:
Britt Nicole’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/brittnicole
Britt Nicole’s Twitter:
@ItsBrittNicole
BRITT NICOLE LINKS
Britt Nicole’s Instagram:
http://instagram.com/itsbrittnicole
Britt Nicole’s VEVO channel on YouTube:
