One Of the Best Of 2019
Posted May 17, 2019
By KevinMcNeese_NRT, Staff Reviewer
What You Need To Know
Formed in 2007 as a mainstream pop band, today Stars Go Dim is the moniker for Christian pop artist and songwriter Chris Cleveland. Chris has spent years at the helm of an acclaimed independent secular band and more than a decade leading worship at Tulsa's Asbury United Methodist Church so he's certainly not new to music. After a long build up the past year with digital singles and EPs, his full-length album, Better, is comprised of twelve pop songs that continue his desire to leave listeners "a little better than they were before listening."
What It Sounds Like
Better is absolutely overflowing with pop songs that sound instantly familiar and comfortable yet never the same, something rarely met in today's radio single driven landscape that continues to force artists to chase similar sounds. Credit Chris' incredible vocal range that easily navigates through the opening urban tinted track featuring Social Club Misfits, "I Look To You," to the powerful ballads "Better," "You Know Me Better," "Invisible" and "I Believe" to the straight up, ear candy perfection of tracks like "Heaven On Earth" and "It's Gonna Get Better." Chris is Christian Music's answer to OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder and Adam Levine of Maroon 5. Better sounds, well, better, the more you listen.
Spiritual Highlights
Chris recently said of these new collections of songs, "we all want our tomorrows to be better than our todays. These songs are a glimpse at the journey that I've been on to make that a reality for my family and I." After listening, it's easy to hear the transformative power of Christ in Chris' life. Song after song speaks of God colliding into our messy, self-absorbed and sometimes hurt and beat up lives and leaving us better. The album ends with a joyous celebration of a life made new in Christ with "Autobiography" where Chris sings "I found life, I found truth, I found joy, when I found you. I found me, when I found you."
Best Song on the Record
It's hard not to gravitate towards the singles "Heaven On Earth," "It's Gonna Get Better" and "I Look To You," all of which have been out for a while now, but for those looking for something new from SGD, check out the final track, "Autobiography" which will have you grinning one minute and sixteen seconds into this audible celebration.
For Fans Of:
Citizen Way, Unspoken, MercyMe, OneRepublic
Final Word:
Chris Cleveland of Stars Go Dim has crafted twelve new songs that border on pop perfection. Packed with infectious tracks that overflow with strong Biblical truths that speak of the grace, love, and redemption that only God can bring, Better positions Chris as one of the leading songwriters and vocalists in Christian music today. I dare you to skip one track on one of the best albums of 2019 to date!
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