David Crowder Band:

Church Music

 

My #6 Album

in 2011

Released

in 2009

on Six Steps Records

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This page was first posted July 1, 2012

CHURCH MUSIC: DAVID CROWDER BAND’S 7th FULL LENGTH STUDIO ALBUM


This is my fourth David Crowder Band album (the first was a remix album, so it's in a little different category).  The previous two original studio albums I liked enough that they made my Annual Music Awards lists -- A Collision was my #8 album of 2005, and Remedy was my #10 album of 2009. The album Church Music was different from the previous two albums, and when I first got it, I didn't like it quite as well as the previous two.  One reason was that the songs didn't vary in style as much as they did in previous albums; they all have a similar sound on Church Music.  The other reason was that the vocals seemed to be buried so much under the music that I didn't get quite the church-worship experience that I had with the previous two albums (ironic for an album called Church Music, huh?).


But soon I realized my first impressions about the album were all wrong.  Now, I say unequivocally that Church Music is the BEST of the David Crowder albums I have!  And I wonder, how could I have been so wrong?  This album is gorgeous, enchanting, a delightful worship experience.


Church Music has 17 songs, for a total playing time of 77 minutes…a full CD's worth.  And there's not a weak song in the bunch.  As for my initial reaction to the songs all sounding the same, I don't know what I was thinking.  The sound they have is a sound I love, rich in heavy guitars, with electronic accoutrements.  Electronic [keyboard] music is my preferred instrumentation, with electric guitars coming in second, especially heavy guitars with power chords and a wall of sound.  On previous David Crowder Band albums, there was little use of electronic sounds, particularly how the sounds are used here.  And on previous David Crowder Band albums, while electric guitars were used, they were not as heavy as the guitars used here.  This sound is more my style!  So it's a good thing that the songs have a similar sound.  Furthermore, on previous albums, many times when listening I would tend to skip the songs that were not as heavy or as fast.  So now I got a whole album of heavy, fast songs -- this is great!  What's with my initial reaction??  As for the lyrics seeming to be buried when I first got it, that, too, seems an odd reaction to me, because I like the guitars to be powerful and surround the vocals, rather than the vocals dominating (as long as I can understand the words).  I guess at first I had trouble catching some of the words, but after listening a few times they began to come through.  Besides, there IS a lyric booklet included with the CD, which seems to be increasingly rare even with Christian albums, where the words are more important than ever, so I could use that, though mostly I listen to music in the car or while doing other things.

DAVID CROWDER BAND LINKS


DCB’s Official Church Music Page:

http://www.davidcrowderband.com/churchmusic/


DCB’s Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/davidcrowderband


DCB’s YouTube page:

http://www.youtube.com/davidcrowderband


DCB’s MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/davidcrowderband

There are songs from Church Music that you can listen to here.


Christianity Today interview with David Crowder about Church Music:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/septemberweb-only/davidcrowder-sep09-mini.html


CBN interview with David Crowder about the making of Church Music:

http://www.cbn.com/cbnmusic/interviews/jej_davidcrowderband1009.aspx


Review of Church Music at Jesus Freak Hideout:

http://jesusfreakhideout.com/cdreviews/ChurchMusic.asp


Review of Church Music at Today’s Christian Music

http://www.todayschristianmusic.com/artists/david-crowder-band/albums/church-music/

<<- Click the Play button  to hear “The Veil”

Note: This page is best viewed in Safari or Chrome.

David Crowder Band consists of 6 members:


  1. Bullet David Crowder

  2. Bullet Jack Parker

  3. Bullet Mike Dodson

  4. Bullet Mike Hogan

  5. Bullet Jeremy Bush

  6. Bullet Mark Waldrop


The band was formed in 1995 when David Crowder realized that half of the students at Baylor University, a Christian college, were not attending church.

David Crowder & Chris Seay formed a new church to address this, and Crowder became the worship pastor.  Even after the band began to tour nationally, they tried to be sure to home on Sundays to lead worship at the church.*

*Information from Wikipedia

     This is my favorite band that is led by a worship leader.   No other worship band I’ve heard is nearly as creative.

So, I went from being not so sure how much I liked the album when I first got it, to it now being my favorite David Crowder Band album by far.   From the first note to the last, it is a rich, delightful worship experience.  The heavy guitars and electronic touches are given further mysterious beauty with the occasional ethereal female vocals, something never heard before on a David Crowder Band album (not to my knowledge, anyway).  The songs all flow from one to the next, making it 77 minutes of one fluid worship experience, as opposed to an album of songs.  It's like you can put this album and slip into a world of wonder and awe of God that goes on for 77 minutes.


The lyrical themes on the album are the majesty and holiness of God, the way that he loves us, and his mysterious beauty.  There are two cover songs that I recognize on the album -- Flyleaf's "All Around Me," and the popular song by John Mark McMillan, "Oh How He Loves Us."  When it comes to cover songs, I think an artist should only cover someone else's song if the artist can do it better, or give it a completely different interpretation.  As for the Flyleaf song, here it was given a different interpretation.  Flyleaf's version utilizes their heavy guitar sound, but David Crowder Band's version uses only piano and turns it into a softer song.  As for "How He Loves," I don't know much about the original, but I am glad that DCB changed one line in the song from "sloppy wet kiss" to "unforeseen kiss."  I think of God as perfection, and giving a sloppy, slobbery kiss is not my idea of the art of kissing.  Actually, the whole idea of God kissing me is a little difficult as a male -- this is something females can picture easier -- but even if I were female, I think I'd picture God giving a kiss of artful perfection rather than a slobbery one.  So I like DCB's word change there.  I wish they would have also change "violently" to "wildly" in the line, "…and my heart turns violently inside my chest," because I associate violence as a purely negative thing; I think the word "wildly" gives much more of the romantic anticipation that is consistent with the character of this song.


But enough of the cover versions…how about the David Crowder Band originals, the other 15 songs on the album?  All of them are better -- well, except for the song "Church Music - Dance" which I don't care for…that retro disco sound mixed with rock music just doesn't go over well with me. There are so many good songs on here it's hard to pick favorites; each one provokes different emotions in some way.  The first song I latched onto on this album is "Eastern Hymn," whose chorus goes, "Glory, glory, glory, God is near to each one of us."  This song is a perfect mix of the glory of God's majesty and his love for us.  The chorus is grand and uplifting.  A couple songs later is a faster song of celebration, "The Veil," with the chorus, "Hallelujah, we rejoice, what a Savior, what a King!"  It's followed by another fast song of celebration, "We Are Loved."  Another song I particularly like is "Oh Happiness," which declares very brightly that "there is grace enough for us and the whole human race."


The album begins with a kind of prelude in minor key, setting the tone for the rich sounds to be heard throughout the album.  Faster tempos dominate the album, with occasional pauses of ethereal praise.  When a slow song does arrive, it is definitely fitting.  What I mean to say is, on previous albums, slow songs were something I'd have to wade through (or skip); they were tolerated (typical for me on most albums).  But on this album, they are as beautiful and engaging as the faster songs, and they are not something I'm inclined to skip.  The fact that there are few of them helps, but it's also the perfect sequencing and pacing that does it. 


The second to last song is the heaviest of all, which starts heavy enough as it is, but ends with a concert grand finale kind of feel.  The song begins with vocals in low register slowly ascending, singing, "Glory and honor, wisdom and power, grace and fury, splendor and might."  The song ends fast and heavy with the words, "None compares to You, there is no one like You, no one greater, no one higher."


After the killer ending to this song, the first time I heard the album, I thought it was the end of the song, but it goes on.  The last song recaptures the mood of the opening track, in beautiful minor key, slow and mysterious.  The final words in this song are, "Our bodies die, but our souls will rise; we were made to live forever."


Then what's really cool is that the final keyboard riff is identical to the opening track, highlighting the whole continuity already experienced throughout the album.  If you put the album on repeat, when it started over, it would seem like you were just going on, not starting over.


I am positive that I will be listening to this album much longer through the years than I did the previous two albums.  The ethereal beauty, strong and heavy celebrations, delightful music and enveloping words of worship make it an album that I will keep coming back to for communion with God.

Note: David Crowder Band announced in May 2011 that they were disbanding!  How sad!  This is the only worship band I have liked in recent years.  Unlike other bands that stick to the same formulas, these guys have always pushed for new directions, expanding worship music into areas no one else has gone…as is evident on this album Church Music!  They have released one more album, in 2012, their final, a 2-CD set called Give Us Rest, which is a requiem mass.  I have already purchased that album, another ambitious work from David Crowder Band.

David Crowder Band, from their Church Music website. On their page, hover over figures in the picture for links.

 
 

A video from the album Church Music.  Not my one of my preferred songs on the album, but a very well done video.