Music Review: Beauty Will Rise
Posted November 09, 2009
By ChristianManifesto,
By C.E. Moore
GENRE: CCM
LABEL: SPARROW
RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 3, 2009
RATING: 5 OUT OF 5
I believe Steven Curtis Chapman’s newest album Beauty Will Rise is going to be absolutely review proof. For years I have argued that Speechless was his greatest work and the story behind it makes that hard to argue with. Those songs came from such a deeply contemplative place, nothing could replace that. However, with the recent tragedy that befell the Chapman family, I don’t think Steven could have written a more beautiful, questioning, tear-jerking album if he tried. Years ago, Chapman wrote a song titled “Rubber Meets The Road,” that talks about faith being tested by the fires of life—that faith meeting real life will reveal its mettle. Well, this album is a testament to the fact that Chapman’s faith, despite the longing and questioning and confusion, is a deep and abiding one. Though from a place of intense sorrow and loss, Beauty Will Rise offers a sense of hope amidst the questions that plague us when bad things happen to good people.
“Heaven is the Face” is the album’s opening track and the one you have likely been hearing played at AC radio. You could say that the song is the first of many prayers that Chapman prays throughout the project, beginning with hard questions and ending with expectant peace.
Title track “Beauty Will Rise” follows with a nice pairing of piano and cello, creating a dark and ominous intro before Chapman’s light acoustic strumming and vocals rise to the fore. Chapman sings, “Out of these ashes beauty will rise…” and you can almost envision the artist sitting like Job, covered in sackcloth and ashes, declaring God’s goodness through unimaginable bereavement.
I’m trying to wrap my mind around Chapman’s ability to pen a song like “Our God Is In Control” after everything he and his family have gone, through. But, write it he does. And sing it he does, with the resolute conviction of a man tried by the fires of life. He sings, “This is not where we planned to be/When we started this journey/But this is where we are/And our God is in control/Though this first taste is bitter/There will be sweetness forever/When we finally taste and see/That our God is in control.” How? How can a man sing those words when chaos moves in and takes everything that a person finds precious, leaving them breathless and impoverished? I’m not going to even posit an answer to that question.
If you do not get chocked up over “February 20th,” then I question if you have a heart. I could hardly listen without getting misty eyed. It recounts the story of Chapman’s daughter, Maria Sue wondering if God’s house has lots of rooms and how badly she wants to go there to see Him. All I could ask was, “Would I be able to call God ‘faithful’ if I lost my daughter like Chapman lost his?”
These are but a sampling of the sad and hopeful songs that characterize Steven Curtis Chapman’s newest record. I have not even spoken of the depth of such songs as “God Is It True (Trust Me),” “Jesus Will Meet Me There,” or the magnificent “Spring Is Coming.”
This is easily the saddest album I have ever listened to by a Christian artist. But, it gives language to those thoughts and heartaches that defy description. For anyone who has experienced loss—and that is all of us—Chapman offers not just one song touching on the topic, but an entire album. Both Jesus and Chapman’s little girl seemed to have reached out of heaven and touched each track, leaving their fingerprints.
Beauty Will Rise is a gorgeous tapestry—woven together with threads of indescribable pain, unspeakable joy, deep sorrow, unfathomable anticipation, profound loss, and stunning hope. This is Steven Curtis Chapman’s finest work. There is no returning to the shallow end for the artist. Like hymnist Horatio Spafford penning “It Is Well With My Soul” upon hearing that his four daughters had perished and only his wife had survived, Chapman has looked into the chasm of death, looked up into Heaven’s Face and still declared, “You are faithful.” Beauty Will Rise is a modern day “It Is Well.”
This review has been reprinted on NRT with permission from The Christian Manifesto. Click here to visit TheChristianManifesto.com today! View All Music And Book Reviews By ChristianManifesto | View ChristianManifesto's Profile
|
