Earlier this year when Christian hip-hop royalty Lecrae Moore announced he would be releasing his seventh studio album named Anomaly, it sent social media into a spin and showed many (including myself) how difficult the title is to spell. Then when single Nuthin dropped, there was some surprise about Lecrae’s blast on the music industry, stating that most songs are little more than meaningless.

With Nuthin and another few leaked singles massaging my eardrums over the last few months, I was wondering whether Anomaly would indeed rise to the self-imposed challenge of talking about something. Fortunately, listening to this record, it’s clear that Lecrae is not only willing to be meaningful, but also completely transparent in the process.

Anomaly is an album of real, intentional, tightly-produced music focussed on identity. Who are we as believers? How do we fit into this world? Will we ever fit into this world? And what defines us? These questions are all in the spotlight as Lecrae spills his heart, his hurts, his struggles and his life into music. To be as raw as he is on this album takes a whole lot of guts but challenges us to stand out in a world filled with brokenness.

Anomaly opens with cinematic bombast on Outsiders. It talks about who we are as Christians. We are bound to have struggles with identity because really, we aren’t at home on this earth. It reminded me of 1 Peter 2:11-12:

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Welcome to America contains a threatening beat with world music influences. Lecrae talks about his past and his issues with the nation he (temporarily) calls home, over great piano movement. Say I Won’t (feat. Andy Mineo) continues the outsiders idea with a grunty sound but a hopeful message. It speaks about not fitting into a mould and goes to the next level of a call to action. And Lecrae confesses he smuggles mineral water into the movies, which is pretty wild.

Lead single Nuthin boasts a great beat with grimy 80s bass. Lecrae admits he’s keen to be real: ‘Imma talk about it!’

It’s followed by title track/interlude Anomaly, which is packed with jazzy punch and a smooth bass line. It seems to be a summary of the tracks heard so far on the album, and praises God for the new identity we are given in Christ: ‘Thank God my kingdom was overthrown by the soul redeemer.’

Our use of time is questioned on Timepiece and Lecrae challenges himself on his desire for material possessions: ‘Fame, money success are competing for my investments but I can’t take them with me when it’s time for me to exit.’ Dirty Water contains a menacing grind and confronts about our  intentions behind good deeds, and slavery to materialism.

Wish is full of dreamy, poppy production and speaks about regrets and struggles with sin. It appeals to our universal desire to change the past, when we should trust control to God: ‘Maybe I can turn it around?’

Runners is a pretty honest track about lust, in a similar vein to Swoope’s LSD from earlier this year. ‘I was on the trail of another female.’ Lecrae spits out the verses and warns himself and us with a repeated ‘Don’t do it!’ It’s short but direct, and memorable.

Single All I Need is You is one of the biggest, bounciest songs on the album, and slots in thematically after Runners. It’s a love song from Lecrae to his wife and contains one of the best grinds on the album.

Give In (feat. Crystal Nicole) is probably the first loaded pop track on the album. The backing track is great but Lecrae’s singing falls a little flat.

With only a few tracks to go, Lecrae raises the bar on Good, Bad, Ugly. It continues talking about the struggle of sin with extremely transparent lyrics. As Lecrae shared on the Bad Christian podcast, this is an honest reflection on an abortion that Lecrae went through with his girlfriend more than a decade ago and the burden he carried that is now taken away by Jesus. The song is dark but opens up into light when he talks of his Saviour: ‘The future looks bright, I see the light on’.

Some special guests are saved for the closing moments on Anomaly. Broken (feat. Kari Jobe) is all about the brokenness of humanity and it gets real. ‘We all need grace in the face of each other.’ Through clever wordplay Lecrae takes the nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty and brings some truth to the tale:

‘Fell off the wall of purity doing the Humpty dance.

Forget the kings horses, forget the king’s men,

the King is coming to put us back together again.’

It’s about asking God to restore us from our brokenness and to make us whole again, and is incredibly positive and hopeful. The album closes with Messengers (feat. for KING & COUNTRY) and it seems like a natural sequel to Lecrae’s 2012 hit Tell the World. It’s an anthemic pop track to close the album and is filled with the pounding drums you’d expect from for KING & COUNTRY.

Thematically Lecrae hits the nail on the head on this album. Anomaly is perhaps his most honest record to date and proves that he is willing to talk about something real, something true, and something he cares about. In a world that wants us to be shaped by it, material wealth, or past regrets, we’re reminded that our identity comes from Christ and Christ alone. I’m giving Anomaly 5ive out of five stars.

For the quality of artist that Alex Faith is, he is still relatively unknown in the music scene. Let me clarify. In Christian Hip Hop, he is well known and enjoyed by many who are involved in the genre. But to those who aren’t frequent listeners of CHH or don’t listen to it at all, he is relatively unknown.

Alex Faith first entered the scene several years ago with an appearance on Sho Baraka’s mixtape Barakology. Last year Alex signed to Collision Records and put out a mixtape Honest 2 God. Already this year, he has been a part of the Collision Records collective album WLAK. ATLast will be Alex’s first solo album as an artist. So far in 2013, Collision Records has had a very successful year with the success of WLAK and Dre Murray’s album Gold Rush: Maybe One Day. That being said, does ATLast build on that success or does it fall short of the bar set by Collision Records this year. Let’s see where ATLast falls as Alex’s debut album releases.

Production

If we have learned anything from the two Collision albums this year, it is that the production is top of the game. This trend proves to be no different on ATLast. There is a wide variety of producers which equates to a variety of sound throughout the album. But it isn’t too different that it sounds crazy. The beats flow well from song to song while still changing things up for the better. Label mates Wit and Swoope produce a good portion of the songs on the album as expected. Other producers include Cardec Drums, J.R., Dirty Rice, and Wes Pendleton which guarantees some solid production on the album. I believe production is not the most important part of the album, but it can take a lot away from the feel of the album. The production on ATLast is never lacking and adds to the quality of the album.

Concept

One thing that impressed me about Alex Faith throughout the album is his ability to share his story while including where he is at now. On songs like Bloodlines, Letting Me Go, and ATLast; Alex shares his past while showing how things are different. He stresses why he does it now, and that is for Jesus. As hinted in the album title, he definitely still puts on for Atlanta. But now it isn’t about being well known or running the city, but leading it towards God. The idea of ATLast is brought to a close in the song by the title track at the end of the album. He shares his story, the story of Jesus, and then the future. “Brought you this far, just a little while you’ll hear me say, I know it’s a struggle but I love you and you made it at last” shows what God will one day say to us. The concept is brought together nicely and makes the album complete.

Lyrics

Although the previous two are important, without the lyrics album would be useless. You can’t portray a message without saying the words. Again, Collision has built a reputation for being very lyrical. Faith definitely increases this reputation on the album. He starts the album on ATFirst with “Does anybody really care bout the things that Imma say? Yall don’t really want to hear about my problems anyway.” He then starts talking about Atlanta and some of the struggles growing up in City Of Nightmares (feat. Tragic Hero). “Chase big money, drive big cars, maybe in the gutter but I’m lookin at the stars. And I’m drinking in the vanity, boy it’s all that we know. I show you how to do this here, look at how hard we go.” Odd Thomas joins the album for Refuge (Interlude) where he talks about the importance of God’s Word and its ability to be our one true refuge. Bloodlines (feat. J.R.) and Letting Me Go are really where Alex Faith shares his testimony. “Started from the bottom that’s real life, I made it here that’s a real fight. Rise to the top and forget where I’m from nope never do that don’t feel right” and “Fast forward 5 years, Your boy married now. I love the Lord and I love my wife and He still shows me how, to serve Him well and tell the world around me all He’s done for me. The moment that I least deserved it He gave up His Son for me.” Refuge (feat. Dre Murray & JGivens) builds on the idea of Refuge (Interlude). They talk about their struggles growing up and the fact that God is the only true refuge in those situations.

Another thing about Alex Faith that is impressive is his level of transparency. Like a line off Letting Me Go which says, “My pastor so bold he came and told me to my face, that I was livin’ a double life and being a disgrace, to the Lord, and the church, and His Word, and the Spirit” and then on Runaway (feat. Andy Mineo) “It’s hard on us being gone for a minute, though we struggle now we see the blessing in it, lookin for it but I can’t see the finish, and everybody thinks that your boy stay winnin’.” It makes the album way more relatable if the artist shows that they aren’t perfect and face some of the same things we do.

The album ends with ATLast. This song brings the album to completion beautifully. It is my favorite song on the album. The 1st Verse describes a person struggling through life. In the 2nd verse, Alex shares his story and the greatest gift He has ever received – Jesus. In the 3rd Verse, he outlines what life looks like now and talks about the future with Jesus. All of this surrounds a very soothing hook from Christon Gray with words God will one day say to His beloved children. This song cannot be done justice by a few excerpts or my diagnosis. This is a song you need to listen to yourself and worship God for what He has done in your life.

Conclusion

I am admittedly a prisoner of the moment. But I have been listening to ATLast for several weeks and it hasn’t gotten old. In fact, it has been just as good if not better each listen.  I honestly have no nitpicks at ATLast. The production, concept, lyrical content, and feature all met my expectations and then drastically exceeded them. Alex Faith shares his story and makes it about Jesus at the same time. When that is accomplished, it is a powerful thing. ATLast has had and will continue to have a LASTing impact in my life and I can almost guarantee it will in yours too, just as Alex Faith intended.

Initial Thought

First time listening to the album, the thought that coming into my mind was that this album is different with most of the songs in Christian industry. Especially when I first listen the first two tracks of the album, Sweep the Leg and BZRK. The sound of the distortion combined with electronic dance sound really pump me a lot. It feels like the band ask me to jump around.

Overall, the first impression that i got after listening the whole album is "Wow this album is fun!". With a total of 15 songs, Family Force 5 has put their best effort to offer something entirely new in Christian music industry.

A combination between K-Pop music in BZRK or XRAY, and One Direction style in Walk On Water has shown their musicality. A musical taste that kept ask us not to just sit but dance together with them.

Behind the Lyrics

Time Stands Still is separated into two different type of songs. The first type coming with fun, weird, party kind of lyrics. While the other one coming with more meaningful, inspiring, worship tracks.

Worship Moment

The second part of the album that coming with more meaningful lyrics can actually be included in any worship songs if only Family Force 5 put it in a slower tempo (most of the songs are in fast tempo). Let It Be Love is one of the few songs that can be counted as a worship song. Speaking about dark way that can be lighten with love. It's heavily talk about love and can be used as a worship song (but still in Family Force 5 style).

The other songs are Never Say Never. The song is all about motivation, about how you can't never give up since the impossible is possible because His love is unstoppable and God always holds us forever.

Notion About Music

I simply love the music. I think their creativity is in another level. To be able to produce this kind of music while actually being a rock band has shown enough evidence of their creativity.

Sweep The Leg opens the album with their true identity as a rock band. In this song however, the band slips some clue about how the entire album will sounds like. Next track, BZRK shows an entire different feeling, from a rock distortion to a electronic music and from a scream to a rap music. It continues to change into a more pop song in Show Love, then change again in Time Stands Still with back to electronic pop and continued afterwards with my favorite songs in this album Walk On Water.

The distortion are back with Glow in the Dark and combined with dance feeling, it will easily be a favorite song to every young people that still have tons of energy within. Raised by Wolves is an Alter Bridge kind of song, with a heavy distortion and lead drum beats, this is a truly heavy rock song.

The beats were turning down a bit with Jet Pack Kicks and XRAY until finally it finished with This is My Year as the closing song. This time, they used Bee Gees style with falsetto singers and rather oldies dance song. Overall, this album really satisfies me both as a listener and Christian music's lover.

Favorite Tracks

Raised by Wolves and Walk On Water are two most my favorite tracks in this album.

Conclusion

I simply don't have enough compliment words to say how much I love Family Force 5's work. Through this album I sincerely hope that they will be advancing even more with their creativity and keep creating a great music.